There is nothing more gratifying as a facilitator of a soft-skills workshop than the moment “the light bulbs turn on” for your learners. If you have been there and done that, you know exactly of what I speak! It’s like a cascading “a-ha” moment.
In the case of training Situational Leadership®, that moment usually occurs when learners reflect on their leadership-related successes and setbacks and realize (probably for the first time) that employing the same leadership approach in two drastically different situations doesn’t make leadership sense. The “a-ha switch” flips when someone in the room says something like, “The most inconsistent thing you can do as a leader is to treat everyone the same.”
Boom!
Similar illuminating effects are evident in training DiSC® as learners come to grips with being “Fast-Paced or Outspoken” and “Questioning and Skeptical” or “Accepting and Warm.” Almost in real time, learners come to grips with:
- Their DiSC® profile
- Why “connecting” with some people has been so easy
- Why “connecting” with others has been anything but
And, as cool as lights beginning to shine on a case-by-case basis is, it is exponentially cooler when you can put one “a-ha” moment together with another. Stated a different way:
- Do you know what you get when you have Situational Leadership® and DiSC® “lights going off” in the same learner’s head?
- A proverbial soft-skills light show that dramatically increases the probability of both successful and effective leadership interventions on a far more consistent basis
Here’s how we see that coming together:
Effectively integrating core, common and critical models like Situational Leadership® and DiSC® orchestrate moments in time for learners to distinguish successfully influencing others as a product of thoughtful consideration and intentionally applied strategy, as opposed to a mysterious and utterly random event.
APPLICATION CHALLENGE
Identify an individual you need to influence and follow the four steps identified above.