Category: Leadership Development

I was going through my old email account one day and happened upon this gem of advice from my late mentor, Dr. Jim Cashman:

Date: February 28, 2006 at 6:04:09 PM CST

Mary Ila: Remember the last meeting of MGT 300. I went over the test and then played a segment of the Wizard of Oz, stressing the importance of leaving the university with a brain (scarecrow), the courage to present and defend your ideas (lion), and to be loved by getting involved in your community (tin man/it is not how much you love, but how much you are loved by others). Finally, you remember that I said we had to do better than Dorothy and not think of Kansas the ideal. Rather be like Aladdin and take a Magic Carpet Ride. I hope you remember that from the last day of my part of the MGT 300 class. I love doing it.

You have done all of the first three (Brainy, Courageous, and Greatly Loved) , now I want you to get on the carpet and let yourself feel that it is A WHOLE NEW WORLD, AND IT HAS A MAGICAL POINT OF VIEW.

You are the best.

Love,

Dr. C

First, man I miss this man. Second, he was hopelessly optimistic and mind-numbingly encouraging (case in point him saying I was already brainy, courageous and greatly loved- I still have a long way to go with all of these), but what stuck out the most to me, was to question whether or not have I would have made this man proud by getting on the “magic carpet”? In other words, have I taken risks and thought outside of the box?

I’m not sure that I can answer that question for myself fully, but it has led me to consider these few points to aid in striving for a “whole new world” and my recent viewing of Aladdin with my four year old has helped with this:

1. Living in fear serves no purpose.

2. Surrounding yourself with people who challenge you and make you better is key.

3. You define what your whole new world is, don’t let anyone else do it for you.

4. Comparison is the enemy of discovering a whole new world.

5. The whole new world is only important if it creates a whole new world of opportunities for others. The whole new world isn’t selfish.

Thank you, Dr. C. for challenging countless students to get on the magic carpet (not the one sung about in the song, yes, I know what that whole magic carpet was about). If we all take the challenge, we can truly create a whole new world. Even better, we can act as leaders to help others learn these truths and create a multiplying whole new world.

What is keeping you from discovering a whole new world or from challenging someone else to discover one for his/herself today?

Leaders make more leaders. You aren’t a leader if you don’t. But how do you go about making more leaders? By acting as a career agent, you can successfully combat disengagement and serve the role that a leader is meant to serve- growing others.

But how do you play the role of career agent? Here are three easy steps:

1. ASK & ASSESS: Asking simply involves deploying the question, “What do you want out of your career?” in individual meetings with your subordinates. You may want to break this down into what they want 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years from now. This is a simple but powerful question that begins to frame how you can begin to act as a career agent by knowing first hand what outcomes a person is seeking.

Once you have asked this question, you need to assess where people are in their path to the outcomes they want. This includes an honest assessment on your part and on their part about their strengths and areas for development. You can do this in a casual way through one-on-one conversations, or deploy self-assessment and/or 360° evaluation tools.

2. GAME PLAN: The direction a person seeks and the results of the assessment phase then give you the opportunity to develop a game plan for maximizing that person towards their goals with the organization’s needs in mind. This game plan should accomplish three things:

• Address areas of strength and weakness in assessment phase
• Lead to more engagement from the employee
• Meet business needs

The game plan should include both:

• WORK ASSIGNMENTS: These assignments should contribute directly to what the organization needs and should be opportunities for growth for the person. For example, you may have a pressing business need to map out all of your organization’s processes to streamline and create efficiency. Utilizing someone on your team who has this strength OR has never done something like this before (depending on the situation is who you would assign) can help the organization meet the need and help the person grow a strength or develop in an uncharted area.
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES: These activities are things that the person should take responsibility for accomplishing on their own time through their own initiative and effort. For example, it may be attending an accounting class, reading articles on certain topics, or taking on or pursuing a mentoring relationship.

3. EXPOSURE: The final step of the process actually involves following through on your end of the deal as a leader when the person follows through on their gameplan. As we described in a previous article on this topic in Alabama HR Magazine, beginning on page 14, make people aware of opportunities that arise, even if they are outside your organization.

This may mean letting them go to another organization. If you’re having career agent conversations with people, they are going to be more productive and you probably don’t want to loose this type of employee.

This may seem counter intuitive to an employee retention strategy, however, making employees aware of outside opportunities that are a fit for their career plans, and helping facilitate those opportunities even if they are outside your organization, is a good move in the long run.

They become walking and talking recruitment ads for you and your organization, which is hard to come by for free. It leads to a bigger picture recruitment and retention strategy. And who knows, their career path may lead them back to your organization more valuable than when they left.”

The leaders as career agent process can be one that replaces your performance evaluation/appraisal system if done correctly. Consider it as a new paradigm in how you evaluate, develop and grow people within your organization.

Help Leaders become Career Agents with a helpful tool found here.

Want to teach people to be career agents? Check out our Leaders as Career Agents course outline.

Are you currently thriving in a position and considering transitioning into a leadership role? If you’re not sure, consider the following:

Are you praised for displaying company values and known for always delivering?

Are you a good communicator?

Do others come to you with problems or to get your advice?

Do you enjoy the role of leading/encouraging your co-workers?

If you answered “yes” to the above question, you should definitely consider a role in leadership. So how do you transition from being a “doer” to a “leader”? Tips to Ensure a Smooth Transition into a Leadership Role suggests the following:

• To start, be sure you know exactly what your supervisor expects from you in terms of performance and as a leader.
• Once you know what success means in your new role, get to work on becoming a good leader.
• It will likely be helpful to start by meeting with each of your direct reports individually and it may be a good idea to take the meeting off-site.
• Finally, remember, to earn respect, you need to be respectful. Don’t show favoritism to any employee, don’t participate in office gossip, and follow through on the things you say you’ll do.

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Sheryl Sandberg

If leadership opportunities are not available with your current employer and you are considering a move, how do you market your transferrable skills? According to The Top Transferrable Skills Every Manager Should Have, communication and empathy are two key skills for leaders. Update your resume to include your transferrable skills. For more about transferrable skills, read How to Identify Your Transferrable Skills. If you happen to be in an administrative role, read this month’s career spotlight: Front Line Leaders of Administrative Personnel.

Are you ready to be a leader? Check out 10 Books Leaders Need to Be Reading for more insight.

Leaders take control of their personal and professional development in order to continuously grow and maximize their contribution. As a leader do you have a professional development game plan? If you do, here are some good ideas to consider, and if not, here are some ideas to get you started:

        1. Read- Commit to reading a sampling of the following:

• A book about leadership a month. For recommendations on books to start with, see our Top 10 Leadership book recommendations. Downloading the app Good Reads and selecting the “Business” category can help you select some good titles. Once you begin rating books you’ve read, it will recommend other titles for you.
• A great business publication once a month. FastCompany is my go-to for this, but others prefer something a little less edgy and more news oriented like The Economist or The Wall Street Journal
• An industry specific publication once a month. My go-to for HR related topics is Workforce Magazine (their online content is great too) and HR Magazine published by SHRM and for Career Development it is NCDA’sCareer Convergence that is online content once a month and Career Developments Magazine which is in print.
• Something outside your industry once a month (Oftentimes reading a great business publication will cover this. For example, I’ve been enjoying reading about the fashion and ecommerce industry in the last severalFastCompany
• Leadership blogs and blogs related to your industry. Subscribe to ones that are of interest to you and/or get a content mining and archiving app like Flipboard to find, organize and catalogue your info. Make sure you don’t miss out on the Leadership Carnival the first Monday of every month that features a compilation of posts from a variety of key leadership bloggers. Blogs I love in the HR/Career industry are Fistful of Talent,The HR Capitalist and UpStartHR
• Take your reading a step further and write about leadership. Set a goal to get something published once a year and then quarter. Where should you start to try to get published? Start with the publications you are currently reading.

        2. Engage and Listen. To other experts in your field and those who are learning with you.

• Attend conferences to hear from the best and network with your colleagues. Record your insights and connections while you are there. You can also do this through webinars and podcasts.
• Find a thought leader in your field and schedule a time to meet with them regularly (at least quarterly) to discuss ideas, leadership challenges and insights in your field.
• Volunteer with an organization in which you are passionate about and learn from those around you and from your experience.
• Request a regular, standing time to meet with your boss (at least one a month) to discuss business challenges and opportunities and plans of action.

3. Practice and Apply. The reading and the engaging and listening really doesn’t matter if you don’t apply any of it to your work and life. As you read and listen, make notes of things you can apply on the job and set a game plan to do so. A goal setting worksheet may help with this. Take the time to discuss this with your boss in the regularly scheduled meeting you have hopefully established and ask for assignments that help you apply your knowledge, practice what you’re learning and that aid the business in pursuit of success.

What is your personal career and leadership development game plan?