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Author: Bill Thomas Article source: http://www.managernewz.com/. Used with author's permission.
I bet you can't tell me how leadership training and
strategic planning work together to boost business results
and energize performance improvements.
A recent survey of 1000 managers conducted by the UK-based
Chartered Management Institute, revealed that organizations
experienced, "improved business performance when [their
leadership] development [programs were] linked to [their]
business [strategic planning process]."
Why aren't the energies generated by corporate leaders being
used in developing, managing and adding value to strategic
plans?
Put another way, how can organizational managers train,
advise and encourage their people using the strategic plan
as a guideline for making performance improvements?
Usually we separate planning from training, however, wise
leaders see their plans as a blueprint for enriching,
growing and nurturing the skills, attitudes and maturity of
their people.
Guideline-1 - Enrich Their Experiences!
Inertia is defined as the tendency for things to remain the
same. When we get trapped by the draining energies of
inertia, our efforts begin to fail or our plans become stale
and lifeless pieces of paper.
If you hope to break out of inertia's grip and your feelings
of frustration or futility, you must turn your plans into
opportunities to develop and train your people to become
leaders.
Show your people why the plan has been created the way it
is. Tell them that the plan is a general indicator for
direction and level of achievement - let them know that they
will be responsible for making it successful.
Once your people begin implementing the plan, you can assess
their ability to meet the challenges of its activities and
objectives.
By supervising their performance on a biweekly basis, you
could help them develop plans for self-directed and
instructor-led learning exercises.
Self-directed learning could include reading, keeping a
journal and taking low cost self-paced courses.
Instructor-led training might take the form of courses at
your local or community college, web-based seminars, email
courses or training conducted by in-house personnel.
Enrich their experiences by increasing their confidence and
positive self-image!
Guideline-2 - Grow Their Domain!
We can use the planning process itself as an opportunity to
generate energy and distribute those energies throughout the
organization.
Those energies produced during the planning process should
be identified, evaluated, captured and directed towards the
refinement and execution of the plan.
When we speak of energy we mean a factor, force or influence
which may be classified or fitted into one of the following
categories or domains:
=> Creative - the acts of perceiving something new or of
looking at something in different or radically new ways;
=> Innovative - the acts of trying out something new or in
doing something in different ways;
=> Entrepreneurial - the acts of approaching or offering an
idea or object in new or different ways
=> Social - acts involving teamwork, collaborative efforts,
forming or arranging networks, partner ships/alliances;
=> Systems-related - where a system's design, analysis,
operation or support process facilitates advancement, etc.;
=> Educational - the acts of training, development, self-
directed learning, and leveraging human capital assets.
In a nutshell, you can transform your strategic planning
process and its improvement or implementation into a series
of leadership skills training and development exercises for
any of the above categories.
If you first grow the domains of your people you can hold
them accountable for refining and supervising the plan!
Guideline-3 - Nurture Their Maturity!
Leadership development is an essential ingredient in
nurturing or realizing a state of maturity and credibility.
You can never reach that stage of development without having
the ability to:
=> Take responsibility for your actions,
=> Commit to staying the course through good times and bad;
=> Accept the authority of others without rancor or back-
biting [when they act honestly, ethically and responsibly];
=> Admit a need for help, support or guidance;
=> Act in congruence with your values, ethics and morals.
Use the objectives of your strategic plans as your guideline
and blueprint for coaching, counseling, mentoring and
consulting your people.
Provide your people with a safety net by giving them
authority to implement the plan but be sure to nurture them
towards developing into mature, seasoned leaders.
------------------------------------------------------------
Over 90% of those executives surveyed by the Institute saw
the connection between strategic performance improvements
and their leadership development efforts - you can too!
Those managers agree that the "skills acquired at work are
held in higher esteem than natural [leadership] talent" -
they overwhelmingly believe "that on-the-job experience is
more valuable than natural [leadership] ability".
Using your strategic plans as the blueprint for your
leadership development efforts is a wise course of action
that's sure to deliver real performance improvements.
"Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is
no solution." - Stephen Sondheim, composer
Your plan expresses your vision, your leadership training
program energizes the execution of your plans.
Remember, enrich people, grow their domains and nurture them
into maturity - do those things and you'll have a successful
strategic plan.
Copyright © 2005, Mustard Seed Investments Inc.,
All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author:
Bill Thomas teaches leadership techniques using strategic,
innovative, evolutionary-focused concepts - his 2-Volume,
how-to Manual, "Strategic Organizational Leadership: Create
& Deliver Fail-Proof, Breakthrough Plans", uses an
energizing process of group development to produce value
empowered results! "See it, Plan it, Lead it, Improve it!"
http://www.leadership-toolkit.com/planning.html
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