Leadership Training Presentation

For those of you participating in The Alberta Leadership Training Day for church leaders, here is an edited version of my PowerPoint slides.

Better leaders are better listeners

In a recent conversation I became keenly aware of what it was to not be heard, and to talk with someone who didn’t listen (or was is couldn’t or wouldn’t listen). They say that confession is good for the soul, so here it goes… I confess that my listening skills need an bit of work too.

Jim Collins underlines this talking listening tension when he tells the story of a mentor of his who stung him with the remark "it occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting, Why don't you invest more time being interested?"

Being interested, or listening, is an important skill in life and an essential skill in leadership. But the sad truth is that most make little effort to develop our ability to really listen. We will practice endlessly our verbal and written skills. We want to talk, we want to say what we think, we like the sound of our own voices, words and ideas more than we are interested in true communication – something that requires really good listening.

I believe we can all practice the art of listening and develop it into a skill. The best communicators I know are also the best listeners. Below are some tips for developing better listening skills.

steps to improve your listening

1. Attention and focus Give your full attention to the speaker. When you are on the phone, just listen (don’t catch up on email). Focus on the speaker and what he or she is saying. Do not plan what you will say next. By planning what you’ll say next, you’re not listening.
2. Let other person finish. Do not begin talking until the other person is finished. It’s okay to ask them if they are done.
3. Pause. Don’t start talking immediately. Digest what other person has just said and then think about what you want to say. You don’t need to fill the silence.
4. Summarize important points. Review the important points of the speaker. Make sure you heard them correctly. This also gives them the chance to clarify and even change what they want you to understand.
5. Ask questions. People love to have others ask them questions. Questions value and validate a person. Questions assume that someone has something to contribute.
6. Give feedback. Let the other person know what you think about their comments and ideas. Feedback can be focused on the content (words) of the persons communication or about the messages and meaning (this requires more careful listening and more artful summarizing)
7. Other centered. Focus on others. What are their strengths? What can they contribute? And how can I allow them to be the center of the conversation?
   

Much more can be learned about listening. I strongly encourage leaders to become students of the art of listening. It makes a world of difference

Work is part of life, isn’t it?

Work/life balance is an odd and variously employed idea. I bet you think you know what it means. I certainly do. One problem - I bet you and I have different ideas about "work/life balance" maybe even opposite ideas.

Placing the words, "work" "life" and "balance" in the same phrase assumes that there is the potential for these two things to be out of whack, even in opposition to one another. Isn't work a part of life? or are you only alive after hours? We live in a dualistic world and the notion of work/life balance is one contemporary manifestation of this either/or way of living.

So time for a wake up call: If your life only begins when work ends you have a problem. Work is an essential part of life - expressing our creativity, our generativity, our productivity is part of the Creator's intent for us. We are not designed to for a chez lounge life. We are designed for a fulfilling life with work and integral part of what we do and who we are. This may be more a theological concept (stewardship) as it is a management/leadership concept.

So the next time I hear about work/life balance I think I am going to puke. Yes, I think we need balance, but balance is not an end in itself, it is a means. We need to ask 'what larger ends require us to balance?' Let me suggest setting priorities and boundaries. These of course require that we practice our ability to balance. But they are ends worth a real conversation.

Servant Leadership

Robert Greenleaf is the leader that many others have built their work upon. He gives credit to Jesus for originating the practice of servant leadership, but it is Greenleaf that has unpacked the meaning of servant leadership for us today.

After carefully considering Greenleaf's original writings, Larry Spears, CEO of the Greenleaf Center has identified a set of 10 characteristics that he views as being critical to the development of servant-leaders. These 10 are by no means exhaustive. However, they serve to communicate the power and promise that this concept offers:

1. Listening - Traditionally, leaders have been valued for their communication and decision making skills. Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to listening intently to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being and said (and not said). Listening also encompasses getting in touch with one's inner voice, and seeking to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.
2. Empathy - Servant-leaders strive to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirit. One must assume the good intentions of coworkers and not reject them as people, even when forced to reject their behavior or performance.
3. Healing- Learning to heal is a powerful force for transformation and integration. One of the great strengths of servant-leadership is the potential for healing one's self and others. In "The Servant as Leader", Greenleaf writes, "There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if, implicit in the compact between the servant-leader and led is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something that they have."
4. Awareness - General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader. Making a commitment to foster awareness can be scary--one never knows what one may discover! As Greenleaf observed, "Awareness is not a giver of solace - it's just the opposite. It disturbed. They are not seekers of solace. They have their own inner security."
5. Persuasion - Servant-leaders rely on persuasion, rather than positional authority in making decisions. Servant-leaders seek to convince others, rather than coerce compliance. This particular element offers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of servant-leadership. The servant-leader is effective at building consensus within groups.
6. Conceptualization - Servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to "dream great dreams." The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. Servant-leaders must seek a delicate balance between conceptualization and day-to-day focus.
7. Foresight - Foresight is a characteristic that enables servant-leaders to understand lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision in the future. It is deeply rooted in the intuitive mind.
8. Stewardship - Robert Greenleaf's view of all institutions was one in which CEO's, staff, directors, and trustees all play significant roles in holding their institutions in trust for the greater good of society.
9. Commitment to the Growth of People - Servant-leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, Servant-leaders are deeply committed to a personal, professional, and spiritual growth of each and every individual within the organization.
10. Building Community - Servant-leaders are aware that the shift from local communities to large institutions as the primary shaper of human lives has changed our perceptions and caused a sense of loss. Servant-leaders seek to identify a means for building community among those who work within a given institution.

For a couple of short articles that unpack this further check out the links below.

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/index.jsp?what=publicationD&publicationId=200
http://leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/fall2004/spears.html
http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/EN/sub_section_main_1121.htm