Paper Planes, Inc. provides awareness of the problems in compartmentalized work and just how effective a team can become. The simulation helps participants experience the powerful effects of systems reengineering and process improvement.

Get certified now to use this powerful business simulation. Certification for product use will be required in 2012. Benefits of certification include: listing on DLI website, access to experienced simulation user group, receiving DLI referrals.

February 16, 2012
431 Spring Garden St, Greensboro, NC 27401

Register Now

Register online, by calling 336-272-9530, or by emailing smetzger@discoverylearning.com.

Cost

$350 pr $300 if registered before January 6

Agenda

• 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM – Breakfast
• 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Abbreviated Simulation Run
• 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Working Lunch
• 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM – Classroom Facilitation

The full title “What men can learn from women about leadership in the 21st century” (by Carol Kinsey Goman in the Washington Post) caught my eye when I was perusing the American Association of University Women’s LinkedIn group site. I posted it to the Friends of Avolead LinkedIn group, and Charles Eakes asked if I’d post it here as well.

It’s a fascinating recognition of male and female stereotypes reflected in the language of leadership and a call for the adoption of new ways of evaluating and talking about leadership. “These new business realities usher in the need for a new leadership model, one that replaces command and control with transparency and inclusion. This will increasingly highlight the value of a more feminine approach. Where in the past communal behaviors naturally favored by women may have been obstacles to leadership success, in a collaborative future they may well become an edge.” The author mentions several research findings showing specific traits typically associated with females that are often lacking in males. These include their participatory style, their reaction to stress in the form of increased empathy rather than decreased in males, their tendency to be interactive, and their sensitivity to body language.

This is the author’s compelling conclusion:

The most successful leaders of the future will take the time and effort necessary to make people feel safe and valued. They’ll emphasize team cohesiveness while encouraging candid and constructive conflict, they’ll set clear expectations while recognizing what each team member contributes, they’ll share the credit and the rewards. And, most of all, they’ll foster true networked collaboration through a leadership style that projects openness, inclusiveness and respect.

Any leader can do that. Female leaders just already do it more naturally.

Note: The author of this article, Carol Kinsey Goman, is an executive coach and the author of The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help or Hurt How You Lead.

I want to thank Rich Grenhart who sent me an interesting article by Dr. Brett L. Simmons called, “Leadership Traits and Behaviors: Four Evidence Based Suggestions.” It summarizes a meta-analysis of 79 previously published studies all aimed at trying to answer the question of whether leader traits or leader behaviors are the best predictors of leadership effectiveness. The original study is over 40 pages long [1. Derue, D.S. et al. (2011). Trait and behavioral theories of leadership: An integration and meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Personnel Psychology, 64: 7-52.], but Simmons offers four suggestions based on the study’s conclusions and discusses their significance. The bottom line is that evidence points to behavior being the more important predictor of leadership effectiveness, though the traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness often improve performance of groups being led. Transformational leadership is consistently predictive of effectiveness, and “Effective leaders must plan and schedule work, support and help their followers, and encourage and facilitate change (p. 41).”

As one commenter to the article suggested, the conclusions boil down to two things our grandparents taught us:

• Lead by example
• Don’t tell me, show me

Besides confirming these common sense conclusions, Dr. Simmons feels that the analysis offers this take-away: “Because the evidence shows that behaviors are the strongest predictors of leader effectiveness, we can and should train folks to be more effective leaders. Hire the most conscientious people you can find, but when you get ready to promote people into positions of leadership, make sure they have a proven record of mastering tasks, relating well with others, and responding to mandates for change.”

Do you find this holds true in your organization? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

April 21 • 1:00-2:30pm • Live Webinar

additional dial-in information will be distributed 1 week prior to webinar

REGISTER NOW

by calling 336.272.9530 or email smetzger@discoverylearning.com

Discovery Learning, Inc. announces the introduction of a new assessment tool, the Influence Style Indicator™. Designed by Chris Musselwhite, president and CEO of Discovery Learning, Inc. and Tammie Plouffe, managing partner of Innovative Pathways, the Influence Style Indicator measures an individual’s dominant, secondary and underutilized influence styles.

Get certified now to use this new innovative assessment by attending the April 21st online certification workshop.

*Certification or qualification is required for product use. Benefits of certification include: listing on DLI website, access to experienced survey user group, receiving DLI referrals.

Invite a fellow consultant and discover a new tool for your kit at Discovery Learning®

Additional Training in Toronto June 21 — check Discovery Learning website for updates

Also find Discovery Learning, Inc. on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

But learn to use it effectively!

Perry Buffet’s very interesting article “Using Influence to Get Things Done” in the February 22, 2011 issue of strategy + business highlights a dilemma often faced by senior management: the need to advocate tough-sell positions in typically collegial small groups such as councils, boards, or committees, where critical decisions are often made informally. Decisions made at this level, even when they have to be passed up the line for approval, can be critical to an organization’s success. “Thus,” concludes Buffet,  “an executive’s ability to influence peers and superiors as they undertake a broad range of crucial decisions involving such issues as strategy, budgets, brand positioning and pricing, and capital investments is a valuable skill — a skill that could be called influential competence.”

Recognizing the critical value of influence competence to the ability of their executive clients to achieve maximum effectiveness, AvoLead professionals trained recently at Discovery Learning, Inc. in Greensboro, NC, to become Influence Style Indicator™ Assessment Consultants by learning to administer and analyze the exciting new Influence Style Indicator™ assessment tool.

The assessment tool helps the client understand the three primary influence orientations and the five main influencing styles, and it identifies his or her own predominant style. Even more important, it offers specific and implementable techniques and suggestions for interacting effectively with others whose predominant influence styles might be different.

Could you benefit from learning how to engage more effectively with your peers to get things done and add more value to your group or organization? Besides individual assessment, the Influence Style Indicator tool can be administered within a group or team to help members understand themselves and how they can work more strategically with their co-workers to accomplish established goals. Call AvoLead for more information.

When has influence competence been important to your career? Leave comments below.