A Management and Leadership Training Primer; The Truth about Leadership and Understanding Your Real Role in Your Company
by Brian NorrisDon't be fooled by jargon and consultant speak.
A quick search on the web for terms like leader's and leadership training and leading, returns pages of dangerous babble that wrap the whole process of leadership in a thick layer of inapplicable jargon. A quick trip to the bookstore produces the same thing.
Leadership is not a religion.
So why couch it or its practitioners in holy reverence and sacred pronouncements? The last thing you need is leadership training replete with fancy charts and pretty sounding terms that seek to describe the process of leadership as if it were a delicate sculpture located in the secret chamber of the leader's temple.
Furthermore, leadership training is NOT the sole domain of academics, theorists and consultants or lecturers who love the sound of their own voices. I've observed too many educators tripping over their own credentials and dissertations to reliably show adult learners how to be an effective leader.
It usually goes like this.
You ask a question and the leadership instructor or trainer gives you a mini speech that dances around the question. Instead of practical leadership and management step-by-steps, they give you some funky formula or case-study (because they don't have a real answer, or know how to share it in everyday language).
That's a bunch of malarkey and extremely frustrating!
Even worse, much of what these talking heads and leadership gurus espouse can be dangerous.
Take the concept of the vision statement.
How much time and money has been spent writing pretty-sounding statements that serve no practical value other than having something to recite on demand or print on the back of a business card? The only relevant vision statement is something like this:
"Our mission is to provide meaningful jobs that pay a living wage to employees (part-time, full-time, contracted and otherwise) who are trained to do a consistently great job. We do this so that we can grow financially without compromising our quality, our need to produce revenue, or losing sight of what we do really well.”
Use this statement as your driver. Share it with your employees, vendors, buyers and management team. Let this statement define everything you do from who you hire, to how you market, to where you spend your time and assets, and I guarantee your organization will succeed. At the minimum, I've just saved your company millions of dollars.
It's not rocket science.
As illustrated above, what you need is leadership training that gives you access to an entire tool shed stocked with real-world, practical, this-is-how-to-make-it-happen strategies. Equally important, they have to be tools that any human being charged with leading a bunch of people can use instantly.
Any person who really wants to lead must have access to and mastery of:
- Leadership training that teaches you to communicate with your team clearly, confidently and passionately.
- Training tools that help you to earn and retain respect and trust.
- Leadership training that helps you to understand and get the most out of the different styles of people who report to you.
- Leadership strategies to neutralize the occasionally bad egg or negative superior who make it impossible to your job well.
- Leadership approaches that get results from average employees (who may see work as a means to an end that's easily replaceable with another job).
Think about this…what are you really?
Are you a manager or executive in name only? Are you (or the people you're supposed to be getting results from) a person with a pretty title but no real authority to hire, promote, discipline, and coach or terminate? Titles like leader, manager, team lead, and directors are often clever disguises for more appropriate terms like:
Babysitter (when the people on your team or staff or entire organization are in actuality a bunch of babies who have to be constantly coddled because they've never been trained to act like adults. Consequently, you spend your day making sure they the “kids” play nice together, actually do what they were hired to do and end up cleaning after them or staying late to finish the project yourself.)
Firefighter (when you spend the day reacting to new emergencies. Priorities change so quickly and agendas swerve in so many directions that you're forced to react instead of develop your people or plan far enough ahead to avoid future fire.)
Master gluer (when the place is essentially broken and you've been charged with keeping the pieces together with short-term solutions. Your only tool is glue [in the form of favors, brute force, threats, begging sessions] and you spend lots of time praying that the fractured alliances, agreements and supply-chains you've glued together don't break apart at the same time.)
Dummy (when the ventriloquists or puppeteers lack the courage to do the dirty work or implement unpopular mandates themselves. Consequently, someone else pulls the strings and creates the words. You just move your mouth and move your arms up and down in the most dramatic way you know how, as you stand on a makeshift soap box to either rally the troops or announce another round of cost-cutting moves.)
If you've ever felt like any of these titles were more appropriate for what you do, you're not alone. I've been in that position before too. Isn't it draining to be given the task of doing things or following platitudes that make no sense?
It's even worse when you're given a ridiculous box of jargon and double speak or silly leadership hype dreamed up by consultants who can't lead their own pets not to pee indoors. These boxes of platitudes and silly catch phrases prevent you from making real decisions that impact the company or its workforce in a positive way.
So again I ask you, what are you really?
If you're a babysitter, do you have the tools to be the best sitter possible? Tools that let the children take care of themselves sometimes? Our on-site training for leaders and managers gives you tools that help you to develop systems that even a 10-year old can understand and ways to reward, coach and discipline when the situation requires it.
If you are a firefighter, do you have the tools to put out the fires, to respond quickly to save those in real need, to keep the organization safe and to be a hero? Our leadership training gives you those tools too.
And if you're constantly putting pieces together, we help you to use the best "adhesives" possible. Our on-site leadership training shows you how to build trust and respect even in highly fractured, overly obstinate work environments.
Even if you sometime feel like a well-paid dummy, my customized leadership training shows you how to get buy-in without kissing up or selling out. Every leadership training programs is packed with answers to get participants outside of their personal boxes.
They learn to use innovation to grow sales, increase morale and lead people who want to follow you. You learn to increase productivity and get your staff to work together without having to bribe them.
Why not give me a call?
You deserve to get tangible strategies from someone who will tell it like it is and protect you from the avalanche of trite tongue wagging.
Zero bull.
Since 1995, I've helped 1,000s of companies via training. This is my passion, so the learning is fun, timely and applicable. And, participants get to practice the skills the same day. Best of all, you get immediate improvement to take already good practices to a higher level. More benefits of on-site leadership and management training.
Here's are links to some of my most popular on-site leadership training programs:
The Executive's Toolbox: Leadership Tools for the 21st Century
How to Create and Sustain a Positive Workplace—A Leader's Guide
The Problem-Solving Workshop for Managers and Executives
How to Motivate, Manage and Lead a Team
Remember, I customize each leadership training program to match your needs. Plus, I come to you so that all of your managers and executives can attend the training.
I guarantee your absolute satisfaction.
Call 414-688-8252. Or email info@briannorris.com
Brian Norris presents the world's most dynamic leadership training, coaching and motivation strategies to organizations across the United States. No portion of this site or its contents may be reprinted without written consent. All rights reserved. ©2000-2011