After 30 years of experience in custom training development, we believe that the short answer is, “It depends.” Ask any number of L&D professionals to define what custom learning means to them or their organization and you will hear various iterations. Custom means different things to different people and the possibilities can be overwhelming if you don’t have a clear understanding of your options or what to expect.
Getting buy-in from key stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges when implementing a leadership development program—especially if it’s a new program. If you don’t have full buy-in, your training won’t be a success (if it even gets off the ground, that is). Getting buy-in from executives will contribute significantly to the ROI of your […]
The Covid-19 pandemic is emerging as many things, not the least of which is a crucible for leaders. Warren G. Bennis has said that such experiences shape a leader and, “Great leaders are not born but made—often by tough, bitter experience.” How do we lead effectively and in the moment at a time when everything […]
The economic uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting businesses of every size in every industry. Budgets are under extra scrutiny even in organizations that have escaped major fallout. Managers just like you are putting their plans on pause, and training programs are often among the first line items cut. Why? Some organizations view […]
If you are a manager … does that automatically make you a leader? And is it possible for you to be a leader … without being a manager? These questions (and probably about 500 more) have motivated countless articles over the years trying to differentiate leadership from management … and vice-versa. So, here it is! The last thing you will ever have to endure on the topic! Ready? Good! Now, first things first, commit these two definitions to memory: Leadership is influence. Management is working with and through others to achieve organizational objectives. […]
Agile and resilient leaders have never been more in demand. In 2019, organizations spent approximately $3.53 billion to train employees how to be effective leaders. Leadership training is an essential investment, so how can organizations ensure that their leaders retain and apply what they learn back on the job? In a recently released white paper, […]
Hands down, the Achilles heel of every learning and training professional is determining how to help the people we sent to training—or trained ourselves!—to change. To grow! To use newly minted tools, techniques, strategies and behaviors to become the leaders we believe they could become—if only they would develop new habits from what they learned! […]
One of the most valuable takeaways from the Situational Leadership®: Building Leaders course is learning with statistical certainty your primary leadership style. Participants always want to learn more about their personalized list of likeliest mismatches and discover next steps and strategies that can increase their adaptability and accuracy. Our best trainer tips are in such […]
Referent power is defined by trust. By its very nature, it is not something the leader can command of others, but rather something the leader earns on a case-by-case basis over time. It is, without question, the most important source of influence potential a leader can have—and the most volatile. Centuries ago, Niccolò Machiavelli suggested […]
Legitimate power in an organization is best defined by relative position. To whom do you report? Who reports to you? Who are your peers? What are the parameters, expectations and limits of your formal decision-making authority? Legitimate power really boils down to your ability to: Drive Accountability: Are you in a position to hold others […]
Consider Expert power as the relative extent to which you have “been there … and done that!” Think normal distribution curve. If the area under the curve is populated by all the people that do the same thing you do, your position on that curve is dictated by your comparative knowledge and documented skill (as […]
Situational Leadership® is a common-sense, contingency-based leadership model that consists of four common leadership styles. Two points of clarification in that regard: Unfortunately, “common sense” is anything but “common practice.” “Contingency-based” basically means the correct answer to the question: “What is the best leadership style?” Answer: It depends!
