There are schools of management, theories of management, leadership institutes and good old best practices which often come from the school of hard knocks. But we have recently been discussing leadership styles and more specifically what are the styles we most appreciate.
We are a learning organization and one of the things we want to learn about is how to bring newer recruits up to speed as quickly as possible and, correspondingly, how to we help them avoid the mistakes we all made along the way.
One way we have decided upon is to probe deeply into this thing we call style. Style can be like opinions where everyone thinks theirs is the right one. But that’s not where we want to go. We’re going in two directions.
First, we are asking ourselves 2 questions:
1 Who are the leaders we learn from?
2 What are their styles? And we are trying to be very specific, concrete here.
We are not inexperienced nor are we unaccomplished. But we all know there is more to do and more to learn. So from what leaders do we not only get direction but education or learning? How do they teach us? Some of this is their willingness to share information; some the way they do it. For some it’s the perspective they bring; for others the respect they show.
Secondly, we are approaching those people we each admire (and they may very well be different for each of us) to ask them to describe their style. What do they think makes them so effective? What is it they think makes others effectively learn from them?
So, what do you think? Please respond to this entry with the specific characteristics of the styles from which you best learn. Think about your personal guru and what is it about her/him that works for you …. And let us know.
We don’t expect this will be a fast exercise. It will take time, concentration and discussion. We will report back from time on our progress. So stay tuned.
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Shift Happenings with George Suess
Welcome to Delarc's blog. Here you will find insights relating to our proactive philosophy and positive approach. CEO, George Suess, keeps you up to date on our most recent lessons learned and our consulting and training experiences. Check back regularly for updates. Comments and questions are encouraged. |
1 comment:
After a long life of varied experiences, most in the communications field for large organizations, I have worked for a wide range of "leaders", mostly "bosses". I have found that that those few that most inspired me, stretched me to excell,had similar characteristics and a sense of style about them. Starting back in college during my fraternity days, I was guided by an upper classman/fraternity brother whose skills in speaking/motivating, leading by example, and honesty-- taught me the value of these traits.
After college, I learned during my first couple of career moves and from those that supervised/guided me, that hard work, team spirit, recognizing the worth of others, a vivid imagination, a passion for those things you believe in, and excellence of communications skills was critical to be successful. Those with these skills and style seemed to motivate me beyond what might have been expected of me.
As I moved on and up in life, both my wife and subsequently my daughter, both taught me the merit and importance of being honest in your opinions and feelings---sometimes to a fault---honesty can be a painful lesson for those on the telling and receiving end.
As my experiences broadened, I valued the sense of innovation that exists today...out of simple ideas come great innovations and change. Delarc is a perfect example of simplicity---our philosophy is based on very simple principles: caring, positivity, being pro-active/not reactive, visualizing each person's worth as a human being---pretty basic stuff, a little tricky to create the formula that makes it all work together in a nice neat way. The key to the formula is people, the right kind, of course.
What's cool is that our leaders are not just "at the top", but have these attributes and "style" at all levels in the agency. It's this reason that the formula, a bit tricky as it might be, works so well. We look for this "style" or set of attributes when we recruit, we further develop this style as we train and nurture each person while at Delarc. The style becomes second nature to all here and is the foundation that supports all the successes we create each day.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on the issue of style and leadership. We're lucky to have found each other and that we can take these skills and eagerly share them between ourselves and on behalf of the children and adults we support. Steve Finkel
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