Our passion is helping executives increase their leadership effectiveness to achieve their goals in less time, with greater satisfaction and a positive impact on the bottom line.
  
     
 

 
 

March, 2005
U.S. Library of Congress ISSN 1549-893X

Welcome to Leadership Hand™, a free, monthly e-newsletter
for increasing your leadership effectiveness
more quickly and enjoyably.

To ensure receipt of each issue, please add our e-mail address "Info@" plus our domain name to your address book. This tells your software Leadership Hand™ is e-mail you want!

1. Leadership: Defining Moments

One of the extraordinary things about language is our ability to make distinctions--distinctions that define and clarify. We recognize the value in using language to define our organization's mission, to create a vision, yet the concept of "leadership" rarely gets addressed in the same way. By taking the time to define leadership, you make explicit your values, actions, and outcomes. You create a personal performance benchmark--one that you can use to increase your leadership skills and improve your performance.

Suppose you articulate your definition of leadership. Would your board of directors, shareholders, customers, or employees say that you live by your definition? Would you say that you live by your definition? Here's an exercise I use with my coaching clients.

  1. What is your definition of leadership? Be sure to write this because you will be coming back to it and likely making changes.

  2. How would you and someone observing you know you were leading consistent with your definition? These are the performance measures described behaviorally where, at the end of the day, you can say "yes, I did that," or "no, I did not," those behaviors that someone observing you could say "yes, she did that," or "no, she did not."

  3. At the end of each week for a month (or daily if you choose), where have you led consistent with your definition? Where inconsistently? Use your definition as a personal benchmark to increase your leadership effectiveness.

I have watched clients tap into a wellspring of strength doing this exercise-deeply held values get revealed: values that nourish, sustain, and energize. Also, sometimes, painful lessons are revealed where one's stated values about leadership are inconsistent with one's actual leadership behaviors.

For example, I worked with an executive in the aerospace industry who wanted more clarity around what was deeply important to her as a leader. While she espoused certain values, her behavior was not always consistent with them. Over the next six months, we wove in discussions on how she was doing relative to this personal benchmark--her definition of leadership--with the more immediate challenges of her job. Where there was inconsistency, I helped her assess whether it was due to a need for skill development or a hidden, unrecognized value. This would determine whether we focused on skill development, or accepting or making changes to address the once hidden value.

As the executive brought those values and behaviors into alignment, she had a new-found energy and clarity in decision-making. People perceived her as more purposeful and, consequently, more powerful.

Sound like a lot of work? It can be as much or as little as you'd like. However, reflecting over time seems to provide the right balance between those urgentdaily demands and insight that allows for more satisfying results.

How about you? How do you define your personal benchmark?

Here's to Defining Moments,

Beth Hand

© Copyright 2007, Beth Hand. Beth Hand, MBA helps leaders increase their effectiveness and satisfaction, now and for the future. She can be reached at (+1) 703.820.8074 or via her website www.leadershiphand.com.

2. Executives in Career Transition

Mark Spring (just around the corner) on your calendar when we restart our monthly meetings to help you speed the career transition process. Hand Associates is the host for Execunet executive networking meetings in alliance with DBM (formerly Drake Beam Morin), a global provider of strategic HR solutions. If you are living in or traveling to Richmond, Virginia, check our web site for details www.leadershiphand.com/resources.

3. Reprint Permission

This is a copyrighted publication. You are welcome to reprint an issue on a non-exclusive basis provided you:

4. Subscribe • Privacy

Click here to subscribe. To unsubscribe click on the link below. We value your privacy. We never redistribute, rent or sell your information to anyone or any entity.

We invite you to forward this issue to your colleagues!

 
 

© Copyright 2005, Hand Associates and Beth Hand • All Rights Reserved

Hand Associates, LLC
P.O. Box 16376
Alexandria, Va. 22302 USA
703.820.8074 | Tel Eastern
703.820.8018 | Fax

Leadership Coaching & Development
www.leadershiphand.com