Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education All rights reserved No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 3-1 Chapter Skills for Developing Yourself as a Leader 3-2 Introduction • Your First 90 Days as a Leader • Learning From Experience • Building Technical Competence • Building Effective Relationships with Superiors • Building Effective Relationships with Peers • Development Planning 3-3 Your First 90 Days as a Leader Figure 3.1: New Leader Onboarding Road Map 3-4 Before You Start: Do Your Homework • Candidates should gather as much information about their potential company as they can • Some good sources of information include Web sites, annual reports, press releases, and marketing literature • Use Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and other social networking sites to set up informational interviews with people inside the organization 3-5 The First Day: You Get Only One Chance to Make a First Impression • New leaders have two critical tasks to accomplish the first day on the job: meeting their new boss and meeting their new team • The first meeting with the boss should happen in the boss’s office and be about an hour long Key topics to discuss include: – Identifying the team’s key objectives, metrics, and important projects – Understanding the boss’s view of team strengths and weaknesses – Working through meeting schedules and communication styles – Sharing plans for the day and the next several weeks 3-6 The First Two Weeks: Lay the Foundation • The first two weeks should be filled with meeting with many people both inside and outside the team • The key objectives for these meetings are: – Learning as much as possible – Developing relationships – Determining future allies 3-7 The First Two Weeks: Lay the Foundation (continued) • One-on-one meetings with key team members should provide the leader with answers to critical questions – What is the team member working on? – What are the team member’s objectives? – Who are the “stars” a level or two down in the organization? – What are the people issues on the team? – What can the team better? – What advice team members have for the new leader, and what can the new leader to help team members? 3-8 The First Two Weeks: Lay the Foundation (continued) • New leaders should schedule one-on-one meetings with all their peers to build rapport • During these meetings, the new leader should discuss the following: – Their peers’ objectives, challenges, team structure, etc – Their perspectives on what the new leader’s team does well and could better – Their perspectives on the new leader’s team members – How to best communicate with the boss – How issues get raised and decisions made on their boss’s team 3-9 The First Two Months: Strategy, Structure, and Staffing • During this time period, the leader is gathering more information, determining the direction, and finalizing the appropriate structure and staffing for the team Tasks to be performed include: – Gathering benchmarking information from other organizations – Meeting with key external customers and suppliers – Meeting with the former team leader, if appropriate 3-10 The Third Month: Communicate and Drive Change • The two major events for the third month are to: – Meet with the entire team – Meet off-site with direct reports (if the team is large) • The new leader should have developed a vision of the future Things to now include: – Articulating how the team will win – Identifying the what, why, and how of any needed changes – Defining a clear set of expectations for team members 3-11 Learning From Experience • Leadership practitioners can enhance the learning value of experiences by: – Creating opportunities to get feedback – Taking a “10 percent stretch” – Learning from others – Keeping a journal of daily leadership events – Having a developmental plan 3-12 Building Technical Competence • Technical competence concerns the knowledge and repertoire of behaviors one can utilize to complete a task successfully • Followers with technical competence earn greater rewards, exert influence in their groups, and have greater say in decisions • For leaders, technical competence is related to improved managerial promotion rates, better training skills, lower rates of group conflict, and higher motivation levels among followers 3-13 Building Technical Competence (continued) • Both leaders and followers can improve technical competence by: – Determining how the job contributes to the overall mission and success of the organization – Becoming an expert in the job through education, training, observation, and teaching – Seeking opportunities to broaden experiences by working on team projects and visiting other parts of the organization 3-14 Building Effective Relationships with Superiors • Building an effective relationship with superiors involves understanding the superior’s world by: – Learning the superior’s personal and organizational objectives – Realizing that superiors not have all the answers and have both strengths and weaknesses – Keeping the superior informed about various activities in the work group or new developments or opportunities in the field 3-15 Building Effective Relationships with Superiors (continued) • Building an effective relationship with superiors requires followers to adapt to the superior’s style by: – Clarifying expectations about their role on the team, committee, or work group – Listing major responsibilities and use them to guide discussions with the superior about other ways to accomplish the task and relative priorities of the tasks – Being honest and dependable 3-16 Building Effective Relationships with Peers • Research suggests that a key requirement of leadership effectiveness is the ability to build strong alliances with others, such as peers • Building effective relationships with peers involves: – Recognizing common interests and goals – Understanding peers’ tasks, problems, and rewards – Practicing a Theory Y attitude 3-17 Development Planning • Developmental planning is the systematic process of building knowledge and experience or changing behavior Peterson and Hicks claim that there are interrelated phases to developmental planning: – Identifying development needs – Analyzing data to identify and prioritize development needs – Using prioritized development needs to create a focused and achievable development plan – Periodically reviewing the plan, reflecting on learning, and modifying or updating the plan as appropriate – Transferring learning to new environments 3-18 Conducting a GAPS Analysis • The first phase in the development planning process is to conduct a GAPS (goals, abilities, perceptions, standards) analysis which involves the following steps: Identifying your career objectives Identifying your strengths and development needs related to your career objectives Determining how your abilities, skills, and behaviors are perceived by others based on 360-feedback or performance reviews Determining the expectations your boss or organization has for your career objectives 3-19 Identifying and Prioritizing Development Needs: Gaps of GAPS 3-20 Bridging the Gaps: Building a Development Plan • There are steps to developing a high impact development plan: Step 1: Career and development objectives Step 2: Criteria for success Step 3: Action steps Step 4: Whom to involve and reassess dates Step 5: Stretch assignments Step 6: Resources Step 7: Reflect with a partner 3-21 ... critical tasks to accomplish the first day on the job: meeting their new boss and meeting their new team • The first meeting with the boss should happen in the boss’s office and be about an hour... for the day and the next several weeks 3-6 The First Two Weeks: Lay the Foundation • The first two weeks should be filled with meeting with many people both inside and outside the team • The. .. the people issues on the team? – What can the team better? – What advice team members have for the new leader, and what can the new leader to help team members? 3-8 The First Two Weeks: Lay the