Posts

developing leadership capabilities

4 Principles for Becoming a More Resilient Leader

in /by

4 Principles for Becoming a More Resilient Leader

Resilience is the ability to cope with and successfully adapt in the face of adversity, uncertainty, or high levels of change. Think of it as a “bounce-back” factor that enables individuals and organizations to recover quickly from difficulties, setbacks, or challenging circumstances. Resilience is not necessarily an innate trait; instead, it is a skill that is developed and strengthened with practice.

Leaders have encountered struggles they never anticipated and had to take hard decisions while facing continuous transformation. To remain competitive, they must be able to adapt quickly, be proactive, and most of all possess resilience in abundance. Ultimately, you cannot develop a workforce that is resilient without resilient leadership.

Develop Psychological Safety

Resilience and psychological safety are essential components of successful leadership. Psychological safety is essential for employees to take risks and participate fully in a team. It creates an environment where individuals can tackle difficult tasks without worrying about experiencing criticism or punishment if the outcome isn’t perfect. Without it, collaboration is severely inhibited and efficiency stunted. Leaders who foster psychological safety create an environment where everyone feels comfortable speaking up, voicing their opinions and sharing their ideas.

Resilient leaders also understand that their own resilience is crucial for fostering a resilient team. When senior leaders model resilience, it sends a powerful message to team members that they are supported. It encourages them to take risks and innovate in the face of difficulty. Resilient leaders have a clear understanding of the purpose of their organisation and can remain focused and motivated despite setbacks or uncertainty. They take an active role in creating a culture that builds psychological safety, communicates effectively with team members, and gives feedback regularly.

Learn more about our Leadership Excellence Program

Seek Support

Resilient leaders realise that they cannot be strong all the time. They actively seek out and surround themselves with supportive people, such as mentors or coaches, who can provide advice and guidance during difficult times. Leaders should also create a network of trusted peers with whom they can share experiences and receive feedback. This will enable them to develop an objective mindset and gain insight into different perspectives.

Executive coaching is a powerful tool for developing leadership skills and resilience. Coaches provide an objective, non-judgmental space to help leaders recognize their strengths and weaknesses and work through any challenges they may be facing. Executive coaching can help leaders become better listeners, develop communication skills, gain clarity on their goals, and enhance their overall emotional intelligence. Coaches also help leaders identify their own resilience weaknesses, so they can create actionable plans to address them. Working with an executive coach offers leaders the guidance and support they need to build resilient leadership skills and lead organisations through difficult times.

“Resilient leaders take a purpose-driven approach to their work to maintain focus and stay motivated when things get tough.”

Focus on the Big Picture

Resilient leaders take a purpose-driven approach to their work to maintain focus and stay motivated when things get tough. They understand the “big picture” – where their organisation is going and how they are helping it get there. By having this clarity, resilient leaders can make informed decisions and prioritize tasks according to their organisation’s objectives. They are also better equipped to navigate difficult scenarios, as they have a clear understanding of the goal they are aiming for.

Senior leadership training can help leaders develop these purpose-driven strategies and maintain resilience during times of uncertainty. A senior leadership program can equip leaders with critical skills to manage teams effectively, respond to changing environments, and create a purpose-driven culture. Through senior leadership training, leaders can develop the knowledge and skills needed to become more resilient in their role as a senior leader.

Reflect and Assess

Resilient leadership development requires leaders to take time to reflect and assess their own performance. Resilient leaders are committed to learning from their mistakes and developing strategies for improvement. They regularly evaluate their own performance against the organisation’s objectives, identify areas of weakness, and create actionable plans for growth. This enables them to better prepare for any challenges that may arise.

An executive coaching program can play a significant role in an effective leader’s professional development. It provides structure and dedicated space for them to reflect, something that can be difficult to make time for. Including executive coaching as part of senior leadership training, can provide leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to become better prepared for any situation.

Resilient leadership requires personal and professional development, but with the right guidance and support, it is possible to become a more resilient leader. Executive coaching, senior leadership training programs, and personal relationships can all provide key resources for cultivating strong personal resilience. By taking the time to reflect on personal performance, seek out supportive people, focus on the big picture, and develop new strategies for communicating with team members, leaders can become more resilient and better equipped to lead organisations through difficult times.

Book a Consultation

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

4 Principles for Becoming a More Resilient Leader

high performance team

Relationship Building (the Foundation of a High Performing Team)

in /by

Relationship Building (the Foundation of a High Performing Team)

Relationship building is an essential part of creating a high performing team. It is the foundation that successful teams are built upon, as it allows for better communication, understanding and collaboration to occur within the team. Relationship building involves getting to know each other on a more personal level, spending time together outside of work, and working together to solve problems. Working on activities such as team building exercises, group outings and social gatherings are all great ways to help build relationships between team members. Establishing clear lines of communication between team members will also go a long way in fostering strong relationships within the team.

Develop Emotional Intelligence

Building strong relationships are integral to high performing teams, and emotional intelligence is the key factor in this regard. Emotional intelligence is an important tool for understanding, managing, and evaluating emotions of oneself and others. It helps to build trust among team members by recognizing emotions, reacting appropriately to them, and showing empathy and self awareness.

Having high emotional intelligence can help create a positive work environment, foster meaningful conversations, and bring out the best in team members. It encourages an open dialogue which allows opinions to be heard without judgement and creates an atmosphere of mutual respect. This can lead to more creative thinking, collaboration, and innovation as team members are more comfortable sharing ideas and giving constructive feedback. High performing teams are able to communicate more effectively and respond quickly to changing external environments, making them well equipped to overcome unexpected challenges.

Learn more about our High Performance Teams program

Highlight Collective Achievements

It is important to recognize the importance of individual team members as well as collective accomplishments. Celebrating each other’s successes and recognizing hard work will lead to a more collaborative atmosphere with increased motivation and engagement. It can also help build good relationships between team members, fostering greater trust and understanding. Acknowledging the efforts of team members is an easy way for senior leadership to show appreciation and build camaraderie within a team.

When senior leaders provide their teams with shared objectives and targets, it encourages collaboration and fosters a sense of unity among the group. With collective goal setting, all members have ownership in the goals and can work together to achieve them, which leads to greater engagement and motivation. Celebrating collective achievements can create a sense of pride within the team, as well as increased commitment to working together towards future goals.

“Celebrating collective achievements can create a sense of pride within the team, as well as increased commitment to working together towards future goals.”

Provide  Clear and Meaningful Feedback

High performing teams must also have effective feedback channels in place. Clear and meaningful feedback is essential for team members to understand what they are doing right, as well as areas of improvement. This can help build trust within the team, as it helps them to become more confident in their abilities. Regular constructive feedback from senior leaders can help team members stay motivated, engaged and on track to achieving the set goals.

When teams are set up for success, adaptive leadership is needed to help them achieve goals. Leaders should be adaptive and responsive to the needs of their team, encouraging them to take initiative while providing guidance. Adaptive leadership focuses on providing the right amount of structure while allowing for creativity and exploration in problem solving. It involves creating an environment where team members are empowered to make decisions, supported by strong relationships and open communication.

Managing Conflict

A critical skill needed for leadership excellence in high performing teams is understanding how to effectively manage conflict. Conflict within any relationship can arise from different perspectives, values, or goals and it can be highly disruptive to team performance if not managed appropriately. It’s essential for team leaders to use their emotional intelligence to recognize and manage conflicts in order to ensure a productive work environment.

Leaders should be prepared to address conflicts as soon as they surface, encouraging team members to work together and find solutions. Team leaders can create a safe environment for these conversations by listening to all perspectives without judgement, helping the team reach an agreement that works for everyone.

Effective leadership is essential for high performing teams. By recognizing individual and collective accomplishments, providing clear and meaningful feedback, setting shared objectives, managing conflicts appropriately, and encouraging continuous learning among team members; leaders can foster an environment of trust that leads to collaboration and innovation. With these leadership skills in place, a team will be well-equipped to handle unexpected challenges while achieving success together.

Book a Consultation

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Relationship Building (the Foundation of a High Performing Team)

lifestyle inventory assessment

Getting the Most from Leadership Assessments

in /by

Getting the Most from Leadership Assessments

Before embarking on a leadership development journey, you need to understand what the changes you want to make are and why it is important to make them. We can not get to ‘point B’ if we do not know where we are at ‘point A.’ Completing a leadership assessment survey provides us with clarity about our current capabilities. We can identify areas for improvement and create a pathway to help us achieve our goals. Reviewing our competencies will allow us to track our progress in real time and make ongoing, valuable change that make us better leaders.

As an Individual

A leadership assessment can reveal insightful nuances about an individual person’s behaviour and way of thinking. When developing leadership excellence it can be helpful to understand these nuances so that training programs can be tailored to suit the individual’s thinking preferences and so, be more effective. Leadership assessment tools like the HBDI® and Everything DiSC® look at leadership through a personality based lens. The decisions we make are intrinsically biased by the ways in which we prefer to operate. Knowing what our unconscious biases are allows us to mitigate their impact, or leverage them at times they can be most effective. Knowing which traits we avoid is also useful in providing us with a place to start our learning. Effective training programs will be able to frame these limitations in ways within the scope of the individual’s preferred leadership and learning style. This makes the skills they are still developing more accessible when approached from a place of familiarity.

As a Team

The importance of leadership assessment at an individual level should extend to benefit the teams being led. There is a great value in assessing the leadership capabilities of an entire team. It is of course important that the members of a team get along and work well together. But there is also a risk that a lack of diverse perspectives will lead to stagnating performance. The benefits of leadership assessment for teams is that it discloses areas where there are gaps in skills and ways of thinking. Understanding each other’s thinking preferences makes us better communicators and effective problem solvers.  Building balanced, well-rounded teams provides more opportunities for collective growth.

Showing Up

It is not enough to simply fill out a survey about your skills and be done with it. You have either chosen, or have been asked, to complete a leadership assessment because you want to know yourself better. This includes accepting the areas in which you lack strength, and being willing to put in the effort to improve those skills. The best leadership assessment tools can, and should, surprise you in some way. Recalling why it is important for you to undertake this assessment holds you more accountable to yourself, your team, and helps you ‘show up’ in your leadership as someone open to opportunities for growth.

Assessing leadership excellence creates a space for individuals and teams to deepen their understanding of themselves and how they show up to face challenges. It allows us to form stronger relationships and improve performance through harnessing the differences in where our strengths lay.

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and  high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Getting the Most from Leadership Assessments

individual values assessment

5 Benefits of Leadership Self-Assessment

in /by

5 Benefits of Leadership Self-Assessment

Conducting a leadership assessment can give you an objective idea of your capabilities and talents as a business leader. Having a strong understanding of your competencies allows you to capitalise on your strengths and mitigate the impact of potential skills gaps. The benefits of leadership self-assessments reach far beyond the individual to improve interpersonal relationships and organisational performance. 

Increase Self-Awareness

Learning more about yourself and the way you lead has a direct impact on your leadership effectiveness. An honest assessment of your leadership capabilities will reveal ways you can build upon your strengths and help you to confront weaknesses. This is not only key for your personal development, it will also increase your team’s trust in you and boost your credibility. It can be difficult for direct reports to offer candid feedback to leaders, so increasing your own self-awareness will have a greater impact on developing and sustaining leadership excellence. 


Create Goals

No matter what stage of your career you are in, a leadership self-assessment can provide insight into your abilities as a leader. There are a variety of tools that will help you to understand your strengths and performance in different areas. In developing this understanding, you will also discover the areas in which you need to focus future learning to be able to take on new challenges. For those with aspirations of becoming senior leaders, this can provide clarity and specificity on the experience and leadership training required to reach their career goals.

Progress Tracking

A lifetime career in leadership means that you should regularly be reassessing your own leadership skills. As the business landscape changes, so too should our approach to leadership. It is beneficial to both you and your teams that you stay ahead of current strategies and teachings. Undertaking leadership assessments at different stages throughout your career ensures your development remains aligned with your goals, and may even open up new opportunities that weren’t previously possible.

Clarify Development Plans

Leadership assessment tools play a critical role in the progression of organisational success when utilised as part of a leadership development plan. Assessing leadership excellence across all levels of the organisation helps executives to identify gaps within the talent pool, as well as those with the potential for senior leadership development. Opportunities for development can be prioritised to have the greatest chance of success. Leadership assessment allows individuals to gain a better sense of the part they play in the success of the organisation, and how they might expand their scope in the future.


Improve Working Relationships

Gaining clarity on your own styles of leadership and performance makes it easier to recognise in others. You can meet them where they are to develop personal connections and trust. More effectively influence their behaviours by adapting your approach. Understanding your own ‘life story’ and how to use it as a touchstone for leadership allows you to form meaningful relationships with your team and improve overall performance.

While it is important for current and aspiring leaders to gain insights into their leadership capabilities to excel in their career, they should also be aware of their impact on team performance as well. The best tools for assessing leadership excellence will have benefits that stretch beyond the individual. Role-modelling a desire to improve both personally and professionally, leads to increased levels of trust and productivity throughout organisations.

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

5 Benefits of Leadership Self-Assessment

GROW Model

What is the GROW Model?

in /by

What is the GROW Model?

The GROW coaching model was developed by coaching pioneer Sir John Whitmore and has been used for over forty years. It is a structure within which executive coaching may be conducted to aid leadership development. The coach is an objective facilitator whose role is to assist their client in identifying the best options available to them that will serve their goals, without offering specific advice or direction. It is up to the client to discern what is best for themselves. The use of the GROW model as a tool for leadership excellence within teams differs slightly from this because as leader, you will have some expertise that allows you to guide your team through options to avoid ones that could bring harm. The GROW coaching model is a four-step lens through which options are analysed and decisions can be made; Goal, Reality, Options, Will.

Goal 

The purpose of many coaching relationships is for the coach to help their client get clear on their goals, and identify strategies to help them reach them.  The focus of the Goal stage is on the solution and what the coachee wants to achieve, rather than the problem being addressed. Often, leaders will have a broad idea of what this looks like, though they may have difficulty articulating what needs to be done in order to succeed. An executive coaching program  provides leaders with the opportunity to explore their goals thoroughly and help them to establish specific targets they are then able to work towards.

Examples of Goal questions a coach might ask are:

  • Where are you going?
  • How long will it take to get there?
  • What are the benefits of achieving your goal?
  • How will you measure progress?

Reality

The Reality stage is used to frame the identified goals within the context of the coachee’s current situation. The executive coach helps their coachee to understand the problem they are trying to solve, and how doing so will impact themselves and those around them. It is an opportunity for the leader to  view the situation from alternative perspectives. The solution to certain problems can begin to emerge as a result of speaking aloud about them. Developing this style of thinking through senior leadership training will have considerable benefits for team problem solving once the new strategies are implemented.

Some useful Reality questions are:

  • What is happening now?
  • Who else is affected?
  • What steps have already been taken towards reaching your goal?
  • What may be preventing you from reaching your goal?

Options

Once goals have been set and the current reality has been examined, we can then begin the process of exploring what options are available. It is particularly important in this stage of the executive training  program, that the coachee leads the discussion. The coach must of course be able to provide clarity and guidance, but they can not make the final decision. The objective here is  for the coachee to come up with as many possible solutions that could help them succeed.

Questions asked during the Options stage should be open ended in order to drive discussion:

  • What are the options?
  • Who could help you with this, and how?
  • Where can you find more information?
  • What else could be done?

Will

By the time the Will stage is reached, the coachee should have a clearer idea how their goal can be achieved. It is here that specific actions must be committed to, that will make achievement possible.  The coach’s role now, is to help the coachee determine which of the options discussed should be taken up. Typically, the coachee will already have made the decision for themselves but will still benefit from assistance in building and committing to a measurable and actionable strategy. If the coach senses a hesitancy to commit, revisiting the Options is necessary for clearing roadblocks and finding the best way forward.

Examples of Will questions are:

  • What action are you going to take?
  • How are you going to do that?
  • What will keep you motivated?
  • What could prevent you from taking action? How will you overcome this?

The GROW model is an important part of building a coaching culture within teams and organisations. It helps groups and individuals to identify strategies for reaching their goals, including how to overcome obstacles they may face. A leadership excellence program that teaches the GROW model encourages meaningful conversation as a part of the problem solving process. It should also be noted that the model is not meant to be followed as a rigid structure. The GROW model is a framework that aims to prompt discussion that leads to effective solutions. While Goals and Reality will typically be explored first, coaching conversations can move between all four elements.

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and  high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

What is the GROW Model?

Building Good Habits

The Importance of Building Good Habits

in /by

The Importance of Building Good Habits

We often set ourselves aspirational goals when we are feeling highly motivated and energised, only to find later on that we do not possess the tools needed to reach those targets. This can lead to feelings of self-doubt, or perceived inadequacy in our own capabilities. In turn, we lose motivation to act in pursuit of our goals and we stop making progress. Reducing the scope of our goal setting however, is not the solution. After all, developing leadership excellence requires clear and ambitious goals. To achieve those goals, we need to give ourselves the advantage of having the right tools in place that allow us to succeed.

Turn Goals into Habits

An issue that often arises when setting goals is that we want – or even expect – that we will be able to achieve them in a short timeframe. Even when we understand that logically, lasting change takes time and effort to accomplish. The number one way you will reach your goals is to create habits around them and build them into regular actions. It is about transforming the idea of what we want to achieve into actionable behaviours that contribute to greater, long lasting changes. 

The formation of entirely new habits makes them inherently difficult to stay consistent with because we are not used to performing that behaviour. In order to affect change, the best course of action is to anchor the habit you want to create to a specific time, location, or both. Using this method, the time and location become a trigger for you to implement the new habit you are forming. The Actionable Habit Builder calls this the New Habit Formula:

When (trigger) happens, instead of (current behaviour), I will (new habit).

When building new habits, specificity is important for establishing a metric by which we can measure our progress. The Actionable Habit Builder is a useful tool for senior leadership training because it encourages us to create specific habits that lead to effective behavioural changes.

Amplify Motivation

Our motivation to complete tasks is one of the most unpredictable factors in reaching the formation of new habits, even ones we want to initiate. When we experience high levels of motivation, it is more likely that we will enthusiastically commit to immediate action. However, if we are constantly waiting to be in the ‘right’ frame of mind before we take action, we simply don’t; and our behaviours do not change. It becomes a question of how we overcome feeling demotivated in order to make positive changes.

One of the benefits of executive coaching is that it is an opportunity for participants to explore their goals with someone who understands their underlying motivations. Working with an executive coach reveals the deeper thought processes that go into decision making and habit formation. In coaching leadership excellence, you are given a deeper understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. The relationship you form with your coach allows them to identify key factors that may be getting in the way of consistent habit practices. They can then assist you in creating strategies that overcome those roadblocks. Through regular coaching sessions, you and your coach work together to implement those strategies and hold you to account. Forming new habits takes time and effort to succeed. There will be times when your self-motivation depletes. When this happens you need to understand why that is happening and what you can do to overcome it so that you are still able to make progress.

Making lasting changes in our behaviour can be a daunting and difficult undertaking without the right support in place. Habit building tools and executive coaching programs provide support by allowing us to dig into what it is we want to change and why it is important that we do so. They hold us accountable so that we can see for ourselves the progress we are making. Forming good habits has many positive benefits on our behaviours and when tied to larger goals, helps us take regular action to achieve them sooner.

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

The Importance of Building Good Habits

management coaching program

5 Steps to Improving Performance Management

in /by

5 Steps to Improving Performance Management

The prime objective of performance management is to work towards the improvement of performance at the overall organisational level. To achieve this, efforts must be made to develop the skills of all employees.  Without support and regular communication with leaders, you can not hope to see improvements in effective performance management. Small changes can have a significant impact on both performance and productivity.

Frequent Feedback

Performance management differs from performance reviews that are usually only an annual reflection of past behaviours. In comparison, performance management involves providing regular feedback that allows for improvements to be made when they will have the most benefit. It is better to take preventative measures to identify potential skills gaps and correct them immediately, rather than address them after the fact. By engaging in frequent feedback conversations, you increase employee engagement and productivity in high performance teams. 


Establish Expectations

One of the most successful ways to ensure high performance is to have a clearly defined set of expectations for your team to adhere to. Engaging in a high performance training program and useful in establishing roles and goals beyond the job description alone while providing participants with the skills to achieve them. Getting clear on expectations reduces confusion on the part of both employees and leaders that would otherwise lead to miscommunication and potential errors. 

Provide Support

To achieve successful performance management, your teams must have the support of executive level leaders. Not only through verbal communication, but in their actions and the culture of the organisation. Developing leadership excellence should be a priority of executives who wish to cultivate a culture of high performance. When leaders participate in the same performance management processes as their direct reports, they project the importance of developing skills in order to reach new levels of success. 

Adaptive Goals

One hindrance to achieving high performance is in setting non-negotiable goals. Specificity and deadlines are necessary for goal completion, but failing to account for changes in market conditions or other circumstances beyond a person’s control will only have a negative impact on performance. Making goals that are adaptable reduces pressure felt to deliver results when conditions may prevent it. Regularly reviewing goals ensures that both leaders and employees feel there is a balanced workload and identifies opportunities to set stretch goals.


Leader Coaching

There is a direct relationship between effective coaching and managing high performance teams. Leaders who invest the time to coach and develop their employees are more likely to see an increase in performance. Building leadership excellence allows leaders to become coaches capable of positively influencing the progress of others. Ongoing development conversations between leaders and their direct reports support better outcomes and have a positive impact on individual performance.

Leadership development training for both leaders and employees makes it possible to build effective performance management processes across the entire organisation. Engaging in conversations that address the goals and expectations of an individual’s role help to foster a workplace culture that values development and filling skills gaps. Providing role clarity, opportunities for growth, and regular feedback are simple ways to improve performance management that can make a significant impact on your business.

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

5 Steps to Improving Performance Management

leadership excellence meaning

Measuring Leadership Excellence

in /by

Measuring Leadership Excellence

Understanding leadership excellence is important for leaders at every stage of their development journey. It establishes a clear measurement of where they have started, how far they have come, and where they still hope to go. Such measurements can be calculated through the implementation of leadership assessment and development tools. Receiving these assessments regularly are a valuable part of any leadership development journey.

When assessing leadership excellence, the two facets most often associated with strong leaders are their character and influence. In particular, it is how a person’s character contributes to their influence that indicates their level of leadership excellence. 

Character

A person’s character is the driving factor behind their ability to influence and lead their team or organisation. Those with a strong character tend to be viewed by others as being trustworthy, responsible, and fair in their decision making. It is these skills that make them appealing and incite positive responses from other people.

It can be difficult to assess for a quantifiable measurement of these aspects of character, but it is possible to gauge these characteristics by interpreting how a person’s peers and employees perceive them. The 360º Feedback Report is designed around this model of assessment. Both the individual and a select group of those they work with are asked to complete a survey that, when compared, provides a complete picture of the leader’s character. 


Influence

Influence is one of the biggest measurements of leadership excellence. Being able to inspire and motivate others into reaching their fullest potential is a critical aspect of your role as a leader. By making use of leadership tools for individuals as well as groups, you begin to form a clearer impression of the impact that the individual’s leadership skills have on the performance of their team.

An individual’s ability to influence the behaviours of those around them stems from their existing interpersonal relationships. Having good character and establishing trust between yourself and others, allows you to build effective interpersonal relationships. The benefits of leadership assessment tools like the Trust Inside Assessments include in-depth measurements of a person’s ability to build trust at both the individual and team level. 

Character and influence are two of the defining aspects of leadership excellence. The higher a person’s character is perceived to be, the greater the amount of influence they are able to impart onto others. To gain a full understanding of an individual’s measurement of leadership excellence, the best leadership assessment tools should be administered at both the individual and group level. 

What characteristics are most important for you as a leader?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Measuring Leadership Excellence

leadership excellence meaning

5 Ways to Develop Leadership Excellence

in /by

5 Ways to Develop Leadership Excellence

Developing leadership excellence should be a top priority for leaders at every level of an organisation. Making leadership assessment tools accessible provides current and future leaders with the opportunity to begin their development journey. Investing in the further education of your organisation’s leaders, ensures that you remain at the forefront of innovation within the industry.

Complete a Leadership Circle Profile™

Developing leadership excellence begins with identifying key areas and opportunities for improvement. Completing a Leadership Circle Profile™ provides a holistic measurement of an individual’s competencies and, more importantly, why they are the way they are. This can have a greater impact than just completing a 360º Feedback Report that only evaluates competencies. Understanding the reasons behind your past behaviours is imperative to being able to take the necessary action to lift your leadership to a higher level. 

Integrate Learning

Forward-thinking organisations understand the critical importance of developing high potential talent, though are concerned about the challenge of maintaining day-to-day operations while training occurs. Actionable Habit Builder is a leadership development tool that allows participants to incorporate their training into everyday practices in a way that creates meaningful and noticeable change. It empowers individuals to take control of their learning by identifying the habits they want to build, and encourages regular reflection to track progress. By integrating your learning, you establish lasting habits that lead to continued success.

Build Team Alignment

Trust and clarity are the two most important factors in building team alignment. Identifying where the lack of alignment lies can help you to re-establish your team’s commitment to achieving goals. Though an unconventional tool for measuring leadership excellence, the Team Alignment Survey will reveal the specific areas that are blocking the team from communicating effectively and what needs to be done to remove those barriers. Collaborative teams are more efficient, will generate better ideas, and share in the responsibility of decision making.

Develop Your Emotional Intelligence

It is widely understood that to be successful in business requires intelligence and expertise in your industry. But to be a successful business leader requires much more than a practical knowledge of the products or services you offer. Long term success in performance also requires having a strong emotional intelligence, or EI. Emotional intelligence is a measurement of your own self awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation. All of which contribute to the way we form relationships with co-workers and clients. Developing a strong EI and relationships with your team will have a direct impact on improving your leadership excellence. 


Leadership Impact

Leadership excellence is often thought of in terms of the level of influence an executive has over the behaviours and resulting performance of others. Effective leadership assessment tools will be able to determine whether an individual’s influence is prescriptive or restrictive. Do they guide others towards goals, or do they create limitations? The Leadership Impact Survey is designed specifically for senior managers and CEOs to evaluate their current effectiveness against their desired impact. When developing leadership excellence, you can not ignore the significance of the influence you have on those around you. 

The best tools for assessing leadership excellence are those that provide valuable insight into an individual’s current behaviours. More importantly, discovering your subconscious or forgotten reasoning for certain actions establishes a starting point for reinforcing strengths, and unravelling weaknesses. For a complete understanding of your impact as a leader, it is helpful to assess your leadership at the individual, team, and organisational levels. 

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

5 Ways to Develop Leadership Excellence

what is leadership excellence

The Advantages of Leadership Excellence

in /by

The Advantages of Leadership Excellence

In developing leadership excellence we cultivate a workplace environment that encourages constant growth and improvement. Through leadership excellence programs, participants gain the confidence and capability to lead teams effectively. They are role models of behaviours that become standard practice and inspire others to perform beyond expectations. 

Leaves Room for Improvement

Often when we talk about leadership development, people confuse excellence with perfection. It is impossible to achieve perfection, attempting to do so limits creativity and results in more failures due to added pressure. Striving to achieve leadership excellence, allows space for mistakes to be made and performance to be improved with each iteration. Executive leadership training emphasises the importance of reducing workplace stress that frequently accompanies organisation with a totalitarian approach to achieving goals.

For teams to become consistently high performing, it is necessary to both develop and sustain leadership excellence. Sustainability means that there is always the goal of producing the best quality product or service, while also striving to be better in the future. Processes, technologies, and industries progress all the time. Believing that your organisation already has the ‘perfect’ version does not leave room for innovation or improvement. Ignoring the value of creativity will leave you stagnant and struggling to catch up to more open-minded companies. 

Executive coaching programs provide leaders with a means of developing innovative thinking that opens the doors for input from a diverse range of sources. Coaching for leadership excellence requires an established, trusting relationship between coach and client. The right coach will be able to challenge you to expand your capabilities and become more receptive to new ideas. 

Become a Role Model of Leadership Excellence

Leadership excellence programs aim to teach participants ways to coach, grow and develop the people they work with. The most effective way leaders can do this is to set the example of influence they are hoping to impart. It is the actions we perform that others will watch and critique. Your team will notice if you are not living your values. If you are expecting excellence, you must also become excellent. 

It is much easier to influence the behaviour of others and unlock their potential by being the model that you wish to see. Senior leadership training doesn’t only benefit participants, but everyone they work with from then on. What is learnt in such programs impacts the way you lead and develop others. Being the standard and role model of excellence, you not only realise your own potential but the potential of those around you as well. 

Learning how to harness and model leadership excellence can have a number of advantages on individuals at every level of the organisation. While it is important that our leaders provide a clear example of behaviours to be followed, they should also set the expectation that perfection is not the ultimate goal. Leaders who engage in executive coaching programs to develop their ability to influence their teams, will see an increase in overall performance throughout their organisation.

How do you demonstrate excellence in your workplace?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

The Advantages of Leadership Excellence

building a high performance culture

5 Ways Leaders Influence Performance

in /by

5 Ways Leaders Influence Performance

It is necessary to make use of leadership excellence to drive performance and success over the long term. Many high performance teams are capable of operating independently of direct leadership. Though to truly reach their highest potential, there must be a guiding presence who can assist them in accomplishing greater feats. It is the responsibility of team leaders to inspire and motivate others to outperform expectations by delivering critical business imperatives. 

Encourage Collaboration

A defining characteristic of the best high performance teams is their ability to work collaboratively in service of common goals. Leaders who foster an environment that encourages and relies on collaborative processes, will see consistently successful results in the work their team produces. High performance training programs help teams to establish stronger trusting relationships and to provide clarification on team purpose. This establishes a basis on which strategies and processes can be built. 


Avoid Shortcuts

As companies grow, most executive leaders look for ways to streamline processes without sacrificing quality or performance. Efficiency in productivity can be extremely beneficial, though it can sometimes lead to the creation of shortcuts that do little for maintaining high performance. To combat this phenomenon, leaders must establish clear expectations that can not easily be misunderstood. Leading high performance teams requires exceptional communication so that each individual understands where they are heading and how to get there. 

Be Exceptional Decision Makers

The self-sufficiency of high performance teams is often seen as one of their many beneficial qualities. The role of leaders of high performance teams is that of guide, ensuring that their path to success remains clear. Often this means that they are there to provide answers and make decisions when the team is unable to do so. In developing leadership excellence, individuals are taught to recognise and solve important challenges. Being able to make the right choices for their team is a key marker of the best high performance team leaders.

Show Commitment

Leaders who do not openly display their commitment to their teams, should not expect others to commit to them or their vision. If you are not willing to dedicate your own efforts towards achieving the very goals that you set out, how can you expect your team to do the same? High performance team leaders provide much needed support to those they are asking to realise their vision. In doing so, they create a culture of belonging within their team. Establishing personal connections can have a positive impact on the team’s emotional well-being, productivity, and performance.


Nurture Growth

One of the best, and most direct, ways for leaders to improve performance is to actively advocate for the growth of their team’s skills. Developing high performance teams fosters a sense of loyalty that employees often will reciprocate by making a greater effort in their performance. The quality of work is much higher in teams who share a mutual appreciation with their leaders, than in teams led through fear or intimidation. 

The influence of positive leadership actions can not be understated. Inspiring leaders who understand the complexities of their team and how they operate as a unit will be able to see a greater increase in performance and productivity. By demonstrating their commitment to the growth of their team and being clear communicators, they foster a culture of collaboration and success. 

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

5 Ways Leaders Influence Performance

skills for excellence

Defining Leadership Excellence

in /by

Defining Leadership Excellence

It is easy to recognise leadership excellence when we see it, but when asked to define what that looks like many people struggle to identify specific characteristics. The truth is that leadership excellence looks different to everyone. However there are two key areas which, if intentionally cultivated, help to bring us closer to defining leadership excellence. Training programs that focus on these two aspects of excellence should form the basis of your executive leadership development.

Practical Excellence

There is no escaping the necessity for leaders to see to the practical day-to-day operations of running a team or organisation. Ensuring that tasks are completed on time and are of high quality is an important aspect of successful leadership. Demanding excellence from your team is not enough to guarantee that their resulting work will meet high performance standards. It is the role of a great leader to set, and then help them to achieve goals for your team that will push them beyond their perceived limitations. 

To do this, you must be clear with your team about what these goals are and why they are important. Providing them with motivation to reach their goals will result in more success and stronger performance overall. Developing leadership excellence in a practical manner does require that your team has access to the resources they need to achieve the goals you set out for them. This demonstrates to them your own dedication reaching those same goals with excellent results. 

Interpersonal Excellence

Establishing strong interpersonal relationships with the individuals you work with is pivotal to building a high performing team. Developing senior leaders must understand this and strive to create these connections early in the formation of their teams. 

Leadership development programs like Dare to Lead™, teach participants how to form these deeper connections within their workplace in order to build trusting and honest relationships. Gaining a personal understanding of the individuals on your team can have lasting mutual benefits. Learning the personal values and goals of your team allows you to offer support and opportunities for them to develop their skills while they are contributing to a greater vision.

Training for leadership excellence should include a focus on both practical and interpersonal excellence. Individuals who have strong personal connections with their leaders are far more likely to be motivated to perform at a higher standard and aim to reach their goals. Executive leadership programs that teach participants to establish and sustain trusting relationships are the foundation to developing leadership excellence. 

What is the most important aspect of leadership excellence for you?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Defining Leadership Excellence

effective leadership outcomes

Building Effective Leaders

in /by

Building Effective Leaders

The process of  identifying those capable of taking on senior leadership positions is an ever evolving challenge for most organisations. Potential candidates whether they be internal or external, must be assessed on both their existing skills as leaders, and their ability to develop the necessary competencies for more senior roles in the future

One tactic for building effective leaders has been to engage prospective candidates in simulation-based learning. It allows individuals to develop the specific skills needed while giving them practical experience in applying them. From here, the challenge becomes how do we assess the outcomes of this learning? How does this feedback contribute to the creation of a focused, development plan?

Assessing Potential Leaders

When developing high potential leaders, simulation-based learning can be used by senior executives to get an idea of the candidate’s strengths and provide them with opportunities to improve. The feedback that candidates receive is integral to their development as future leaders. Leadership assessment tools such as the Hogan 360º Report help in building a leadership profile for candidates that outlines the competencies in which they are skilled as well as those that they are developing. Executives who hope to support the career goals of their employees can also use these assessments to build focused development plans for those individuals. This may include leadership training programs or providing them with an executive coach who will work closely with them to achieve their goals.

Developing Potential Leaders

Whether one, the other, or a combination of both, the candidate should also be accessing leadership assessment and development tools regularly in order to keep track of their progress and success. By building regular assessments into their development plan, potential leaders are able monitor their growth using measurable data. When the time comes that they are being considered for an elevated position within the company, executives can look at the various assessments that have been made through their development and determine whether they have achieved the necessary competencies for the role.

Assessment is a vital component of leadership development, though it is not one that many individuals regularly take advantage of. Building effective leaders can only begin once a profile of the competencies has been completed. Leadership assessment tools should be prioritised as a primary resource for executives and potential talent for ensuring that individuals are receiving the training that will have the greatest benefit for them and the organisation as a whole. Leaders who develop a tangible awareness of their abilities become more effective in leading their teams because they understand their limitations. This establishes a culture where the most important thing is not to have all the answers, but to collaborate in order to find the solution.

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and  high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Building Effective Leaders

leadership assessment tools

7 Reasons to Consider a Leadership Assessment

in /by

7 Reasons to Consider a Leadership Assessment

Leadership strategies and methodologies get much attention particularly during times of uncertainty and change. It can be difficult to determine where individual and organisational leadership capabilities rank amongst industry peers, or what is the best method to understand this. That is why a leadership assessment tool can be a useful way to evaluate your current performance and help understand what leadership development activities will be most suitable for your organisation. The benefits of using leadership assessment tools extend far beyond the individual level. The feedback you gain from such assessments can impact on the development of high performing teams and with the culture of your organisation.

Establish Leadership Profiles

One of the benefits of leadership profiling is that it allows you to form a complete picture of an individual’s capabilities as well as their potential for development. Effective leaders are aware of both their strengths and actively seek to improve in areas they may not be as successful. Establishing leadership profiles allows executives access to a resource that informs them about those high potential employees who are just beginning their development.

Develop High Potential Employees

When we are looking to fill leadership positions internally, the most obvious choice may not be the right one. Using a data based approach, we are able to assess potential leaders in order to determine the best fit. Completing leadership assessment tools for individuals gives current leaders an unbiased look into the capabilities of high potential employees. Even those who may not be right for leadership roles just yet, may have development plans created in order to support their advancement and career goals.

Filling Skills Gaps

Before embarking on a development program, participants and executives should be aware of what gaps exist within their skillset or organisation. Leadership assessment tools provide insight into exactly this. An executive coaching survey will outline an individual’s particular strengths as well as areas for improvement. Completing a leadership assessment prior to any training programs allows both the individual and the organisation to reap the highest benefits.

Remain Competitive with Industry Standards

For those who have been in positions of executive leadership for several years, it can be easy to believe that you don’t need as much feedback as you did earlier in your career. This is simply not true in industries that are constantly innovating and expanding. The best leadership assessment tools will help you to understand how your skills match up against the current industry standards. You may be surprised to discover that there are some competencies you need to build upon so that you and your organisation can stay ahead of the competition. 

Track Development Progress

Many leadership assessment and development tools are used simply to track an individual’s development processes. The Hogan 360º Report can be re-done at regular intervals to get an external perspective. Actionable Habit Builder is a fantastic tool for self-reflective assessment of progress towards specific goals. No matter how it is done, individuals looking to develop their leadership skills should utilise assessment tools to track their progress in a tangible way. This demonstrates a commitment to the role and the organisation that executives will look at when considering prospective leaders.

Motivate Performance

Continually assessing a team or individual’s skills development allows them to not only track their progress, but the improvements in their overall performance as well. Being able to look back on past performance instils a sense of accomplishment that motivates further improvement. By assessing performance as goals are achieved, you can look for methods that worked well and identify ones that hindered success. In doing so, you have a ready made benchmark from which to set new goals and further optimise performance.

Improve Company Culture

Leaders who participate in assessments set an example of commitment to growth within an organisation. A willingness to have your own leadership assessed demonstrates what is expected and supported across all levels. It promotes a culture of growth, education, and development. Organisations with a culture that places value in these areas foster a positive workplace environment where morale and performance flourish. Leadership assessments encourage frequent communication that establishes deeper levels of trust between leaders and their teams. 

The development of those who participate in a leadership training program is predominantly determined by their own willingness to grow. Undertaking a leadership assessment prior to a training course helps to set the basis of their learning. The best tools for leadership development will reveal both the strengths and shortcomings of potential leaders, giving them a measurable starting point from which they can begin their leadership journey. Building an organisational culture of growth and development can have a significant and positive impact on performance both now and in the future.

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

7 Reasons to Consider a Leadership Assessment

executive coaching

Developing a Coaching Culture

in /by

Developing a Coaching Culture

When it comes to coaching in support of professional development, a coaching culture is one that takes what has been taught in development programs and continues to prioritise learning outside of a formal setting.  In building a coaching culture, it is important to remember the impact that emotion and mental health play in performance. Leaders who coach, as opposed to manage, their team will see a greater improvement in performance and success. 

Coaching vs. Managing

Many management styles of leadership tend to focus on task delegation and optimising work practices in order to achieve as much as possible. While this is great for the bottom line, it is not always so great for our employees. The pressure to reach certain targets can often lead to poorer performance and unsatisfactory results. When individuals fail to meet expectations, a manager may reassign them to another project, leaving the cause of the issue unresolved. 

A coach will instead take the time to work through mistakes with individuals to give them a better understanding of what has gone wrong. This allows them the opportunity to develop the skills needed to perform their task correctly while remedying their mistake. It addresses the issue directly without punishing the individual. One of the positive effects of executive coaching on culture is that it establishes an environment that builds high performers by allowing them to gain valuable experience. 

Coaching to Lead

When leaders develop a coaching strategy, team performance improves due to increased engagement and personal relationships. Using leadership and coaching tools for cultural change is the most effective way to increase team performance. Leadership coaching uses a combination of formal feedback reporting and honest communication to establish trusting relationships between leaders and their teams. By developing their own coaching skills, leaders establish a precedent of continual development and education. 

Executive coaching helps leaders understand their strengths and work towards achieving their personal and professional goals. By employing these same techniques in their leadership practices, a culture of coaching naturally develops. To make skills development a sustainable component of an organisation, establishing leaders as coach rather than manager is necessary. When leaders become educators, the autonomy and productivity of teams improves. 

Establishing a coaching culture can have a significant impact on how your organisation approaches skills development. It shifts the role of leaders from being directive and task oriented, to being much more of a mentorship. Teaching your leaders how coach skills build teams that are more independent and collaborative. Coaching reduces the fear of failure and builds confidence in individuals that allows them to take more risks and become more innovative. 

What coaching strategies do you employ to promote skills development?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Developing a Coaching Culture

executive coaching services

5 Coaching Skills all Leaders Need

in /by

5 Coaching Skills all Leaders Need

Many of the best leaders also act in the role of coach for their teams and company. It is a critical position that requires the implication of both assertive and passive management techniques. Leaders who have worked with executive coaches themselves, understand that individuals do not always need direct instruction in order to perform well. There are a number of coaching skills that leaders who wish to develop and inspire their teams in achieving their goals, may learn to include in their own management practices.

Offer Support

For leadership development programs to be successful, participants should be placed in an environment that provides support and encourages honesty and vulnerability. Being equally as vulnerable with participants, demonstrates a leader’s commitment to developing a coaching culture that reduces power imbalances which may make individuals hesitant to share their personal experiences. When adopting a coaching style of leadership, a mutual level of trust must be established to allow the person who is being coached to feel confident in making significant decisions.

Provide Guidance

The best leadership coaches understand that their primary role is to guide others through the decision making process without imposing their own agenda. Executive coaching programs are most effective when a collaborative relationship is established. The coached individual should be given the permission to dictate the focus of the coaching session. Let them decide which goals to work on and even methods for improving. Experienced coaches will of course be able to provide knowledgeable advice on a number of topics, but for the participant to get the most benefit, they must be afforded the opportunity to make the ultimate decision for themselves. 

Encourage Reflection

For most people, personal and professional growth occurs when they are able to reflect on their past experiences and are open to learning from them. By analysing what has worked well and what has not, leaders and potential leaders develop a deeper understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. Assessment tools like the Hogan 360º Report are often used prior to beginning executive coaching programs to provide a clear indication of which areas the participant most needs to improve. Regular reflection should be a component of the ongoing coaching sessions as a means of tracking the individual’s progress. Using tools like the Actionable Habit Builder provides further support to help the person who is being coached to reflect in their own time privately, and this tool also allows the coach to post comment, challenge and encourage along the way.

Growth Culture

In a culmination of the above three skills, establishing a culture of growth within your organisation can result in a more open and collaborative team. What we have so far discussed can be focused on singular instances where decisions need to be made or mistakes have occurred. By coaching the individual through a mistake rather than punishing them, you provide them with an opportunity for growth. When you conduct leadership coaching for cultural change, you create an environment that reduces fear of failure and encourages experiential learning. 

Adaptive Communication

One important and effective coaching strategy that leaders should engage with is that of adaptive communication. This means knowing when to be active or direct in your approach, and when to back off and let the coachee take the lead. Communication is the most versatile coaching and leadership skills at your disposal. Passive communication like listening and asking questions, help coaches to understand concerns and receive information. Active communication is used to move processes forward and to deliver feedback. 

 

Incorporating coaching skills into other leadership styles can have a greatly positive impact on individuals within a company. Using coaching skills to develop high performers and potential leaders creates a workplace culture that demonstrates a value in gaining experience as a means of education. The organisation becomes an environment where learning and development is built into day-to-day practices, and mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth.

 

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

5 Coaching Skills all Leaders Need

team assessment tools

Leadership Assessment and Development Tools Explained

in /by

Leadership Assessment and Development Tools Explained

Senior leaders know that leadership capability and good leadership is not about inherent ability alone. They also recognise that the days of a senior title commanding respect have gone, and instead each leader at every level of an organisation is being assessed based on their ability to lead and how supportive they are of their teams and others across the business. But why do some leaders make it look so easy and others find it a constant struggle? One of the reasons for this is because the most effective and influential leaders understand the necessity of continually improving their own leadership skills. It isn’t just about inspiring teams, it’s about knowing yourself first. The best leadership assessment tools provide valuable insight into how leaders perform and, in some cases, why they favour particular behaviours. However, when you dip into assessing leadership and assessment profiling tools it can be quite confusing as to which one to use.

DiSC

The DiSC profile is designed to help participants build more effective relationships through engaging with a deeper understanding of themselves and others. It is a leadership assessment tool that offers insight into engaging individuals, tackling workplace conflict, and teaching leadership skills to managers. Your DiSC assessment will fall into one of four profile types that indicate whether a person is more task or people oriented. Some may criticise this as being a generalisation of personality type, or somewhat of a “labelling” exercise, but knowing your DiSC profile can be helpful in understanding how you approach certain challenges.

Hogan 360º Report

The 360º Degree Feedback tool is one of the top ways to profile leaders to help them understand their leadership style. It involves collecting feedback from colleagues and team members about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. From this, they are able to gain insight into how they are perceived in terms of their attitude, behaviour, and performance. As this assessment can be answered anonymously, honest feedback is invited though there is a possibility of also receiving unconstructive comments due to personal bias. To get the most out of the Hogan 360º Report, it is best to get as many responses as possible to better identify any recurring trends. 

Human Synergistics

The Human Synersistics Circumplex measures constructive, passive, and aggressive behaviours. It is used in both the Life Styles Inventory and Group Styles Inventory assessments. The LSI is a leadership assessment tool for individuals that helps them clarify their personal understanding of their own behaviour and the thinking behind their actions. The GSI can be used for teams to assess behaviours during team decision-making processes. It provides insight into how the group functions as a whole, allowing them to clearly identify what helps or hinders their performance. Leadership assessment tools for teams serve as a means of demonstrating where improvements can be made in order to build successful high performing teams. 

Regularly reflecting on past behaviours and performance is key to strengthening weaknesses and improving existing strengths. There are numerous tools available that leaders and teams can participate in to identify their leadership style. We have spoken about a small number of them here, and to discuss them all could become overwhelming. Each person or organisation will have different reasons for choosing to use tools like these. Selecting the leadership assessment and development tool, or tools, that best suit your needs is vital to achieving your desired outcome goals.

How do you incorporate reflection and development in your leadership practices?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance, and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Leadership Assessment and Development Tools Explained

herrmann brain dominance model

6 benefits of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

in /by

6 Benefits of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

What is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument®?

The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® is based on the Whole Brain Thinking® framework and is an assessment tool that evaluates an individual’s thinking process and how it reflects in certain aspects of their work-life. This assessment is typically used to raise people’s awareness of their strengths in ways that they can capitalise on to make better decisions, become more creative problem solvers, and improve overall performance. 

Four styles of thinking for the HBDI assessment

There are four styles of thinking, or quadrants, that the HBDI assessment accounts for:

The A Quadrant – Analytical: analysis of facts, numbers processing, logical thinking

The B Quadrant – Practical: organising facts, detailed review, planning approach

The C Quadrant – Relational: interpersonal, expressive, intuitive

The D Quadrant – Experimental: big-picture thinking, imaginative, conceptual thinking

Breakthrough Thinking

Understanding the HBDI profile for individuals can mean the difference between making a right decision, and making the best decision. Leaders today must be able to adapt to rapidly changing situations that requires them to shift their thinking in ways that enable them to come up with the best solutions. No two challenges are the same, and a great leader needs to be armed with the tools to overcome them. This type of psychometric assessment provides insight into the patterns that determine which of the four quadrants they fall into when problem solving. It is important too, that an understanding of each quadrant is developed so that you have a more complete arsenal of approaches from which to draw.

Creates Well Rounded Teams

By utilising the HBDI profile for teams, leaders can adapt their communication and coaching to support their specific needs rather than applying a singular, one-size-fits-all approach. Teams can be built to consist of people with diverse thinking processes. When they learn to account for their HBDI, they are able to recognise when a challenge they face will require a particular style of problem solving. Calling on the skills of a ‘D’ quadrant, imaginative thinker for example can be useful when navigating cultural change. Their ability to conceptualise ideas in a larger context is helpful when projects are starting out to provide clarity about the end vision. Each style of thinking identified by each quadrant, provides an invaluable resource to productivity and performance.

Communication

Strong communication is an integral element of any high performing team or organisation. The efficiency of how we distribute important information with clarity is what allows productivity to flourish. Whole Brain Thinking® introduces a common vocabulary that allows for ideas and information to be shared and more importantly, understood, by everyone without the chance of being misunderstood. By revealing the HBDI profile for individuals, we gain insight into the way that they understand information. So, when we need to communicate complex ideas we can do so more easily by phrasing it in words that align with their way of thinking. Knowing the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® profiles of others can also help us to understand the ideas they are sharing with us, as we more easily understand some of their background thinking. 

Download the HBDI® Sample Report

Builds a Culture of Support

Developing this deep level of understanding of each other’s ways of thinking and problem solving results in creating a more connected workplace culture. Strong communication and comprehension also builds a network of support. For example, a ‘C’ quadrant thinker might be asked for advice about keeping team morale high or, an ‘A’ quadrant thinker may assist in quantifying goals. Successful organisations have a culture that goes beyond accepting differences; they embrace and leverage those differences to push themselves further.

“Successful organisation have a culture that goes beyond accepting differences; they embrace and leverage those differences to push themselves further.”

Growth and Performance

Thought management tools such as the HBDI help us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our approach to learning. We may struggle to understand new methods, not because they are too complex, but because the information is being delivered in a way that is incompatible with how we prefer to learn. Not many people know what their preferred method is. A focus on how new ideas and skills are taught can be equally as important as learning them at all. Improvement in productivity occurs when we approach skills development in ways that make the most sense for the individual.

Sustainable Change

Creating on-going and sustainable change is difficult for many organisations to achieve, especially for those who have a ‘the way it’s always been done’ mentality. Embracing new ways of doing business allows organisations to make continuous improvements. They don’t become complacent  or reliant on outdated practices. Adopting a Whole Brain Thinking® approach to business practises, creates possibilities to implement more creative, innovative ideas that offer a competitive edge.

There is inherent value in exploring the strengths and weaknesses that affect how we process new information and solve problems. It takes a concerted effort to learn to approach challenges from a variety of angles. Discovering your individual or team Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® profile can play a pivotal role in decision making, performance, and success. Embracing it is important to avoid becoming too reliant on old patterns that prevent us from reaching our highest potential. 

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Book a consultation

For more information about The Leadership Sphere and how we can help you unlock performance through leadership, by supporting your leaders at every level of the organisation with leadership development, executive coaching and high performance team programs please visit our website or call us on 1300 100 857.

6 benefits of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

the leader as coach

The Leader as a Coach

in /by

The Leader as a Coach

Many industries today exist as part of a rapidly growing and constantly changing environment. As such, leadership models of the past that succeeded with command-and-control practices simply cannot provide the functionality they once did. To deal with the new challenges faced by leaders today, a different approach is needed. One that moves us away from a reliance on rigid management and towards providing support and guidance through constantly changing environments. Rather than the instructor, employees will engage with their leader as a coach and in some cases as both a coach and a mentor

Effects of Coaching on Culture

When we think of executive coaching, we often view it as the exclusive domain of C-level and other high-ranking personnel. In this new culture of the leader as a coach, we can see how coaching and leadership skills prove to be beneficial to employees at all levels. The best leaders understand that asking the right questions can spark insight in another person that leads to innovation and a deeper understanding of problem-solving. This can have an incredible impact on performance and one might say that coaching is a skill set that every senior manager and leader must have in their toolkit!

Executive coaching, when accessible by employees across all areas of a business, can remarkably impact its culture and environment. As coaching involves so much collaboration between the coach and the individual, it encourages creativity in ways that unlock hidden potential. The positive effects of executive coaching on culture reach far beyond improved performance. It is capable of affecting the confidence of individuals to work without specific instructions and instills in them the sense that they are trusted to continue to be productive. This is why we find such a high percentage of the best employers have structured coaching and mentoring programs as a way of doing business.

A Tool for Change

Leadership coaching is more than just a personal skill that managers must excel in. It is also a valuable source of cultural strength. By moving away from the top-down command style of leadership used in the past, you open the door to more high-performing individuals to become a part of the decision-making process. You teach them how to interact with each other as well as with clients more thoughtfully. Not only does this impact the culture of your business, making it a more positive place for those who work there, but it becomes a more positive place for those you work with. 

Companies that do not upgrade their business model to include leadership and coaching tools for cultural change, may find that their growth and progress become stagnated. Companies that embrace this new approach by encouraging and supporting skills development in all of their employees increases the possibilities for innovation and growth. Change starts at the top. When leaders demonstrate their willingness to own up to their own information gaps and ask their team for assistance, a community is fostered that is based on trust and interpersonal relationships. By modelling this behaviour themselves, leaders are showing their teams that it is important and valuable to seek the knowledge you wish to gain that you don’t already possess.

As industries continue to change, so must the culture and leadership practices within them. It is impossible to rely on any singular, outdated model of management. Executive leadership programs provide the valuable tools required to improve upon practices that can lead to exponential growth in high-performing teams. What is needed now are leaders who are willing to affect positive change in support of their teams in ways that encourage learning and creativity. 

As a leader, how do you use coaching and mentoring in your day-to-day conversations?

Book a Consultation

About the Author: The Leadership Sphere

The Leadership Sphere helps small and medium businesses and larger organisations in Australia, in creating value through leadership. The Leadership Sphere provides a humanistic approach to the way it delivers leadership, performance and coaching services. We work with leaders and senior teams who need to gain increased clarity, build capability and ensure contribution at every level in the organisation, and enable a safe, inclusive and  high trust organisation.

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

The Leader as a Coach

Christmas 2018.

Tis the season for reflection

in /by

Tis the Season for Reflection

Dare to lead in 2019

As we race towards the end of 2018, it is timely to reflect on the year. We have seen many challenges and change here and around the world.

During times of change, whether large scale or in our own life, it’s important to connect with what is core. This principle is equally true for organisations and ourselves in our own life.

In organisations, people are core to any business, so growing and nurturing them to be their best is critical. In 2019, we will be launching a new way to bridge the gap between classroom learning and individual online platforms. It will highlight and support the idea that leadership development is more like a quest than a one-off sugar-hit. We will continue to work with organisations and people in ‘daring them to lead’. We are excited by the possibilities.

people are core to any business, so growing and nurturing them to be their best is critical

In our personal lives, Christmas and the promise of a new year is an opportunity to get back to our own core. It is a time for reflection and renewal. It is about spending time with family and friends. It is also about being grateful for what we already have, rather than longing for what we don’t.

It is important to remember that all of us – including work colleagues, family and friends – are good at showing the world ‘our best face’.  So I invite you to take the time to check-in with all the people in your life – personally and in a work context – to find out how they are really doing beyond ‘I’m fine’. Showing another human being compassion and care is a relatively simple act, yet can make a huge difference.

We wish you and your family all the very best for Christmas and the New Year and look forward to connecting with you in 2019.

Phil and the team

Let us help you find what you’re looking for!

TOP STORIES

Tis the season for reflection