How Effective Are You As A Leader?

How well do you think you are doing as a leader? How do you know how well you are doing and what you need to be doing more or less of. The best feedback you can get is from the people you lead, but how many of us ever think to ask them?

These questions provide a great tool for leaders to "check into" the true experience of their employees. If you are honest with yourself, you’ll recognize areas that you can improve on.

1. I understand the mission/vision of my organization. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

2. I know what I am accountable for. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

3. I know how to measure my progress. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

4. I have the tools, knowledge and support I need to do my job well.
Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

5. At work I have the opportunity to succeed daily. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

6. I receive regular constructive communication from my supervisor. Yes or No
Please explain answer. ___________________________________

7. I feel my supervisor cares about me as a person, not just as an employee.
Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

8. I am encouraged to continually develop my skills. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

9. My opinions are valued by my supervisor. Yes or No

Please explain answer. ___________________________________

10. I would encourage anyone who is qualified to work for my organization
and for my supervisor. Yes or No


Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor, director of http://www.coachuk.ltd.uk and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment.

Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com

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Do modern day problems impact on your team’s performance?

These days we all have so much to live up to. We try to be perfect parents, perfect partners, have the perfect social life! Something has got to give or stress starts to creep in.

Do you take the time to listen to your staff member’s problems or issues? Do you show them that you understand, show you care? You may think that it is not your place to care, that they should leave personal issues at home and not let it affect their work. However, it is not always that easy for people to compartmentalise their lives in this way and personal problems often interfere with work performance. Their negative behaviour and moods can impact on the rest of the team. They either bring everyone else down with them creating an awful atmosphere, or they alienate themselves, making them feel even more depressed. As a manager, you have a duty to yourself, your boss and your team to deal with these issues in a compassionate manner.

Take the time to help your employee with their personal problems. Coach them to look for solutions and they will feel closer to you. In turn, they will perform better because you showed them you care. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

Continually offer them positive feedback whenever possible. From this point on you will notice that employees will go out of their way to do a great job, because you took the time to include them, empower them, to thank them and to show them that you care.

Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor, director of http://www.coachuk.ltd.uk and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment.

Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com










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I am so exited, Alex is on his way!

I just had to share this with everybody! We are all celebrating today in the Bleakley household. Alex, my eldest son, has been counting down the days, hours and minutes to get his results. We were up at midnight to find out his results online for his STEP exams (these are extra exams he needed to get his place at Queens college, Cambridge). Phew, he passed. Then we were up at 6.30 this morning to log onto the university site to confirm he has his place! He has just been into school to find his A Level result – 5 A’s and 1 B!

WOW, I am so proud, I keep crying.

Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor, director of http://www.coachuk.ltd.uk and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment.

Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com

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Discover How to Use Deadlines and Improve Your

The deadline is the most underappreciated part of delegation. Too many leaders give people tasks without asking what else they have on their “to do” list. This is a motivation killer. Not only is it disrespectful to the recipient, it is disrespectful to anyone who is depending on the person you just delegated to. Most people are trained to never say “no.” They have been wired to say “yes,” even when they know they already have too much on their plate. Often, the delegator already knows this, but chooses to take the position of “not my problem,” which in the long run destroys trust and respect for the delegator and decreases employee morale, organizational productivity, and profitability.

When you delegate a task, you must sit with the person you are delegating to and make sure that realistic deadlines are being created. It is your job as the delegator to help your people be successful and not set them up for failure. If you are delegating to someone who has a history of over-committing, it is important to help reconcile commitments to make sure that the most important things get done first.

Delegation Assignment

· Identify the key points of the project or dates when you want feedback about progress. This is the critical path that provides you with the feedback you need without causing you to micromanage your direct report or team. You need assurance that the delegated task or project is on track. You also need the opportunity to influence the project's direction and the team or individual's decisions.

· Identify the measurements or the outcome you will use to determine that the project was successfully completed. (This will make performance development planning more measurable and less subjective, too.)

· Explain how a task fits into the overall organizational picture, describe the measurable results you are looking for, and let them know how you will rate their performance. It is essential to let the person know how they are doing and whether they did a good job. In the end, as the leader, you should take the blame for failure and pass on the credit for success.

· Lastly, make sure that the team member knows that you want to know if any problems occur, and that you are available for any questions or guidance needed as the work progresses.

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How to Be a Motivational Leader

Management and leadership is all about motivation. There have been many books written about how good leaders are born and are down to personality traits. In my experience, once you learn the secret to motivating others, then it really doesn't matter what your personality type is. Yes, motivation can be learned.

So what is motivation? Motivation is certainly more than a motivational speaker who holds a seminar, hypes people up and then moves onto the next event while the delegates go back to their lives and roles in the work-place and quickly forget what it was that hyped them up. They are back to square one!

Without motivation, talent is nothing more than wasted potential. To be an effective motivator you need to offer on going support, follow up and accountability but you also need to be able to empower your team and raise their confidence within themselves. This is when you go from just being a mere manager to becoming an effective and inspirational leader.

So, how do we distinguish between a manager and a leader? Let's take a look:-

Managers

Provide clarity in short term objectives

Perpetuate historic control structures

Solve immediate problems personally

Maintain or improve the status quo

Plan, organise and control

Power comes from position

Authority comes from the organisation


Leaders


Establish the long-term vision

Create a climate of trust

Help their team to solve problems

Challenge and change the status quo

Coach and develop people

Power comes from influence

Authority comes from trust and respect

You cannot motivate another person to do anything. You can only provide the means and the atmosphere in which others motivate themselves. You are the leader and you must set the example by demonstrating appropriate behaviours. Take the time to define the appropriate behaviours you want to see in your employees, and then start demonstrating them. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.


Yvonne Bleakley is the manager's mentor, director of http://www.coachuk.ltd.uk and creator of The Silent Motivator System, the proven step-by-step programme to maximise staff and gain true respect and commitment.

Download your free e-book "How to Maximise your Staff and Gain Respect" at http://www.silentmotivator.com

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