Work911 Ezine - Focus on Leadership, Communication, Planning & Learning Via Audiobooks
Robert Bacal
Our Communication and Strategic Planning Resource Centers
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In This Issue:
We're pleased to announce the opening of our Leadership Development
Resource Center, so to celebrate that, leadership is our main topic
for this issue of our newsletter.
1) What's New - The Leadership Development Resource Center
2)Reminders -Our Planning and Strategic Planning Resource Centers
3)Article 1 - Understanding Informal Leaders In An Organization By
Robert Bacal
4)Audiobooks For Learning
5) Article 2 - Leaders Born or Made? By Robert Bacal
6)Our Sites
1) What's New?
A few months ago I was approached with an opportunity to write a book
on leadership (we're still negotiating), and since I was already
working on another related book project, I decided to create the
Leadership Development Resource Center at http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/index.html
.
It made sense to share the resources I'm using to research the topic.
We're still actively building it but here's a list of the current
features and direct links.
First is the Leadership Library which currently contains hundreds of
free online article links to almost everything related to leadership.
You should consider that leadership doesn't just apply to those with
formal leadership jobs, like CEO's or managers, but is an important
element in many of the things all of us do in real life. Here, you'll
find stimulating ideas, hints, and leadership ideas you can use
everywhere. http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/index.html .
Second we're developing a Frequently Asked Questions About Leadership,
where you'll find shorter material addressing common (and not so
common) leadership questions. We cover leadership terms, models and
philosophies, definitions and handling problem leadership challenges.
http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/faq/index.htm .
Third, there's a Leadership Articles section for longer pieces about
leadership, written by me or other contributors, at
http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/articles/index.htm
Fourth, there's the Leadership Audio Section at
http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/audio/index.htm .
Here you will find some phenomenal audiobook material on leadership
that is both exceedingly cost effective and saves huge amounts of time
if you are interested in learning more about leadership (at this
writing a few of the pages are being revised to fix a technical
problem, but they are available)..
More is coming. Whether you are a "leader" or not, you'll find some
amazing resources on the site. Come visit.
2) Communication and Strategic Planning Resource Centers Reminders
Just a reminder that we've also go help on communication topics and
problems at our Communication Improvement Center. We cover the
waterfront, from giving speeches, communicating with boss and co-
workers and tons more. It's at: http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm
.
Our Strategic Planning Resource Center at http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm
has been a huge success traffic wise. Don't be mislead by the title.
Not only does it cover strategic planning but it's full of help with
things like financial planning, disaster and succession planning, and
even career planning.
3) Our Theme - Leadership
We don't think about it much but a lot of leadership is undertaken by
people who don't have a formal leadership role or position. All of us
can lead from within. Here's an article by Robert Bacal (also
available on the web at
http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/articles/informalleadersunderstanding.htm
Understanding Informal Leaders In An Organization By Robert Bacal
Managers, supervisors, executives or any others with formal power and
title within an organization can reap huge benefits from cultivating
and developing existing informal leaders in their work units. Or,
informal leaders can work against the formal leaders in the
organization.
When informal leaders are working towards achieving the same vision
and goals as the formal leaders (and the organization itself), they
can take a tremendous burden from the backs of managers and formal
leaders. Some of the leadership functions, and many management
functions can actually be carried out informally by those without
actual authority. This frees those with formal management
responsibility to focus on what they, themselves can uniquely do.
Informal leaders have some capabilities that more formal leaders do
not, simply because they do NOT hold a position of designated
authority. They can say things, for example, to other team members
that could not be said by a person in an official management role, and
their ability to influence is slightly different, since informal
leaders are often perceived differently than formal leaders.
Think about a team -- let's say a sports team, where informal leaders
are often talked about and lauded. Imagine (and you might want to
think about George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees
Baseball Team) that a senior person (owner) goes down to the locker
room and rudely and aggressively criticizes specific players and the
team in general for not playing well, and not trying, and threatens
the team members. How might that be perceived by the players? By the
media? While we can't predict whether the rant would be successful in
terms of results, we can predict that the players' reactions may range
from positive to negative depending on their history with the owner,
AND that their reactions would almost certainly be different than if a
respected informal leader did a similar thing in the clubhouse.
The informal leader who might take on this task is respected, perhaps
trusted, based on his performance and relationships with the other
players, while the owner is more likely to be in a leadership role due
to his formal authority and power, and ability to instill fear in the
players (note this is a generalization, since not all formal leaders
are respected, or use fear to motivate).
In any event, the informal leader influences in different ways, and so
is perceived differently. Of course, this influence doesn't only occur
when the informal leader is criticizing or "kicking butt", but also
happens as a result of other players seeing the commitment, level of
intensity, integrity, and performance levels of an informal leader.
For many "players" (and this applies within sports and without), who
is more inspiring; the rich powerful owner of the team who has never
played the sport, or the talented, respected, super competent and hard
working teammate? Or even the less talented teammate who gives 110
percent? In many cases the informal peer leader holds more influence.
Here are a few bullet points to help you understand the power informal
leaders have in any organization.
* Not all informal leaders have intentionally gone out of their ways
to become informal leaders. Sometiimes they "emerge" simply because
others in the organization have great respect for them.
* While informal leaders can be important or even essential to the
success of an organization, they can also be huge impediments if they
start pulling in directions that are in opposition to the direction
the formal leaders value.
* For the reason above, formal leaders may want to take steps to
develop their informal leaders more completely, and keep lines of
communication open with them.
* While it may seem that promoting informal leaders to formal
positions of power makes sense, it's also the case that some informal
leaders may become ineffective if given formal authority (while some
may be very successful). This is because formal authority may alter
the relationships of the new formal leader with his or her formal
peers.
* Care needs to be taken when trying to harness the power of informal
leadership. An informal leader's power and influence often derives
from the perception that he or she has integrity, and stands up for
what he or she believes, because their behavior has demonstrated that.
When formal leaders try to co-opt, or manipulate informal leaders, the
risk is that the informal leaders will rebel, or "stand against" the
formal leader. Attempting to bribe, coerce or otherwise pressure an
informal leader to toe the line may end up backfiring.
---
4) Audiobooks as Learning Tools
I know I'm addicted to audiobooks for both learning and entertainment,
but if you haven't experimented with them, you may want to give them a
try, particularly since the costs have dropped significantly if you
order and download online. Here's the thing. Time and convenience. I
don't know about you but I don't have the time to set aside to read a
lot of long books, but I do have a lot of downtime and deadtime in my
routine. A lot of the tasks I have to do don't take a lot of
attention, and can be boring. Commuting for example.Doing housework or
chores. Audiobooks allow me to fill in that boring downtime with
either entertainment (listening to mystery novels for example), or
learning (listening to important books on leadership, for example).
They're great while you exercise too, at the gym, or even on walks.
One useful source of audiobooks on compact disk is your local library.
Many offer the service free of charge, but if you want a bigger
selection, then you have two other options. Buy them retail (they can
be very expensive per title), or get them online and download them
(for extraordinary savings).
Which brings me to audible, the company. You can buy and download
audiobooks from them, choosing from tens of thousands of titles. If
you want, you can buy one at a time, or subscribe to one of their
monthly plans. Usually there's some special deal going on, and there's
a current one that offers you a free audiobook to try at
http://www.jdoqocy.com/email-386745-1644783 .
So, check it out. I don't usually like to endorse third parties, but
I've ordered from them, and their selection and prices are amazing
compared to equivalent prices for buying CD's at the store. And yes,
we do receive a small commision if you order from them using the link
above. So you can learn, or be entertained, and fight boredom while
showing your support for our newsletter and our sites.
5) Article Two: Leaders are Born, Leaders are Made - Two Leadership
Myths
Here's a selection from our leadership frequently asked questions
section which is on the web at
http://www.work911.com/leadership-development/faq/mythborn.htm
False Dichotomy Makes For A Confusing Myth About Leaders By Robert
Bacal
If you've look at any literature on leadership, you'll certainly have
come across the statement -- Leaders are made. You have almost
certainly come across the term "born leader" as used in common speech.
Both are equally wrong and misleading in ways that have practical
implications, particularly for leadership development.
In Western society we have a tendency to want to dichotomize things.
Something is one thing, or the opposite. Leaders are born. Leaders are
made. Like the nature-nuture controversies in Psychology, though, the
truth lies somewhere within the two poles.
First, it is certainly true that some personality traits and
characteristics (which may in fact be somewhat (but not entirely
genetically determined) can make it easier or, for that matter, harder
to be successful in leadership roles. Or, that very early experience
in childhood may predispose some people to be better in the leadership
role. So, there is a contribution of things "born", or things that
operate in early life.
Second, there's also no question that people develop as leaders over
time, and they are "made", supported by others, and improved by their
own effort. That does NOT mean that everyone is equally able to
function in a leading role, or equally able to develop into successful
leaders.
When you understand that effective leadership involves things that are
learned, but also related to a person's ability to learn those skills
(and personality approaches, beliefs formed early in life, etc), then
it changes how one goes about developing leaders. Obviously the best
allocation of resources to develop leaders within an organization will
take into account potential (including "born" components), and skill
building (the "made" component).
---
6) Our Sites:
Just a quick summary of our sites that have information on the
following topics:
Conflict (both workplace and family) http://conflict911.com
Business, Strategic and Personal Planning: http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/index.html
Performance Management & Appraisal: http://performance-appraisals.org
Customer Service: http://customerservicezone.com
Our Main Site: http://www.work911.com
Multi-Purpose Articles Database: http://www.articles911.com
That's it for now. Have a safe and happy holiday season.
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contains other work related resources, and updates about our sites,
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