Inspirational Leadership Training Course - Two Day

Introduction

All organisations require effective leadership

Effective leadership is the result of the continuous application of a series of definite skills.

Our task on this course is to identify the essential leadership skills, then practice these skills so that we can go back to the work place and apply them in practice.

Our ultimate aim is to use our inspirational leadership skills to get the best performance from ourselves and the whole team, and therefore to achieve our goals in the most efficient manner possible.

We need to develop a complete answer to this question:

How can I inspire the best performance from myself and others?

You can get the best performance by improving your abilities in six major areas of leadership.

1. Setting and communicating an inspirational “vision”
2. Communication skills: Clear, persuasive and inspirational leadership language
3. Planning: Strategic long-range planning AND tactical short-range planning
4. Resolving internal conflicts within the team. (A house divided, cannot stand)
5. Self-Mastery. (Self-control, self-confidence, self-motivation)
6. Inspire positive emotions in the minds of others

Self-scoring analysis of your strengths and relative weaknesses.

Goals are the starting point of all achievement

Goals are the starting point of all achievement

Remember that you are not the most important thing. Your VISION is the most important thing.

A leader’s primary purpose is to set up a vision of a compelling future. This vision will act as a motivator and a “Guiding light” that will be the basis of every subsequent action.

How to set valuable, specific and worthwhile Vision

The vision must be believable, realistic and yet optimistic and motivational

We will show you how to formulate your vision, and to distinguish a Vision from a Fantasy.

The difference between a leader and a manager

We will discuss the differences between the concept of leadership and a management.

What are the key attributes of leadership? How does leadership differ from management?

Ideally a leader should have management skills.

And a manager should have leadership skills.

The role of logic in leadership

Logic is the method of rational thought. If a leader is not logical, (becomes irrational), then that can spell disaster for the group.

Leaders need to understand the nature of logical thinking.

Logical thought is:

• Methodical
• Detailed
• Focused upon facts, (not guesses)
• Coherent, (self-consistent)

The moment the leadership violates the rational rules, then whole team is at risk.

If the leadership thinking becomes: too vague, based on guesses, incoherent, irrational, then the team’s results will suffer. (Check your history-books for examples).

A leader must be able to explain the reasons for the vision.

A leader must be able to explain a rational plan that will enable the team to achieve the vision.

Leaders tend to concern themselves with the
CAN-DO portion of the job

Focus on what can be done, (not on what cannot be done)

Every situation contains two elements: Things that you CAN influence: and things that you cannot.

• Leaders concern themselves with the CAN-DO portion of the job
• Non-leaders tend to concern themselves with the NO-CAN-DO portion of the job

You need to identify the members of your team who are too negative, in the sense that they concentrate their conversation onto the “NO-CAN-DO portion of the job “. You need to redirect their conversation away from what they cannot do, (or won’t do) and place it onto the CAN-DO portion of the job.

We will help you to do that.

Avoid negative commands: Give only positive commands

Leadership language make use of the following fact:

People think in pictures.

Your task as a leader is to speak in ways that trigger images in the mind that are consistent with what you DO want.

A common error is to give negative commands. A negative command is a form of suggestion that causes the other person to think of what it is you don’t want. And since action follows thought they may be more likely to do what you don’t want.

An example of a negative command is “Don’t panic”.

We will help you to reformulate any negative commands into positive commands.

The team is composed of various personalities, some of whom don’t get-on well

In addition, not everyone will agree with all your leadership decisions

So occasional conflict is inevitable

Your task as a leader is to identify and resolve the conflicts within the team as quickly as possible

We will teach you special methods that will help you to resolve conflicts, according to the principles of reason; (and keep them from degenerating into an emotional clash).

Here are the rules to remember:

• Never attack their personality.
  If you attack a person’s personality, then you will lose their loyalty. You want to keep the persons loyalty: So never attack their personality, or their motives.
• Only comment on behaviours, never personality.

Comment only on behaviours - what they did or said.
NOT on any derogatory opinions of their character.

Following on from the above: Comment only on their behaviour. What they did or said. NOT of any derogatory opinions of their character.

Agree on corrective actions

Once you have pinpointed the problem behaviour, then state the corrective action. How specifically do you want the other person to change? Be very objective and specific. Be very reasonable.

We will help you to do this.

Gain commitment to improving performance

Negotiate a reasonable solution with your colleague and gain their commitment to an improved performance.

(Don’t ask the person to admit they were wrong.)

Use praise and appreciation

Immediately positively reinforce any movement towards your preferred position.

Use appreciation and praise as your way of encouraging adaptive changes.

We will help you to apply the principle of positive reinforcement.

Summary and action plan.

All great leaders have the capacity to plan, prepare and make ready for the future.

Your task as a leader is to develop your team’s ability to make ready for the future by proper planning, prioritisation, preparation and delegation.

The difference between busy and productive work

Busy work is lower value short range activity.

Productive work is higher value, long range activity.

Your leadership task is to spend the lions-share of your time in the higher value, long-range activity. Your leadership task is to delegate the lower-value activity.

What is wrong with busy-work?

Busy-work keeps you occupied, but occupied with lower value, relatively trivial items.

Poor leaders get bogged down with trivia and, as a result, they take their eye off the ball.

We will help you to keep your eye on the ball.

How to improve your email management.

Emails can be a distraction. How to minimise the problem. We will look at how you can manage your messages.

How to make your team more productive, not just busier

How to make the team more productive, not just busier

Your organisation is more effective to the degree that every member uses the P-List skills.

The P list skills are: Planning, prioritising, preparation, prediction, problem solving, prevention of avoidable error and proper protocols.

We will help you apply the P list skills.

How to Work smarter not harder

Leaders apply two principle that allow them to work smarter

1. The pareto principle: 80/20 rule.
2. The law of diminishing returns.

Will help you apply 80/20 rule, so you get the most value from every situation.

Problem-solving and decision-making

The ultimate skill of leadership is the ability to make the right decision.

Leaders make the right decision.

1. Yes or No decision
2. Which one, what kind decision
3. One Problem, three causes, six solutions analyses
4. What is the right order of tasks

We will help you to become more decisive and to get to the right decision.

Inspiring the positive emotions

The essence of leadership is the ability to inspire a positive emotional response in the minds of others.

The essence of leadership is the ability to inspire a positive emotional response in the minds of others

How mental attitude can improve performance

A person will always be influenced by their mental attitude and feelings, (emotions). So, inspirational leaders should spend time figuring out how to positively influence the emotions of others.

Create and sustain positive attitude

The leadership must create and sustain a positive mental attitude in their own minds: Then use their own attitude to influence others.

Conversation control

Conversation control is about taking conscious control of the content of your conversation, and ensure that the lions share is optimistic, and goal orientated.

Continuous improvement

One way to keep people motivated is to embrace and apply the principle of continuous improvement.

Improvement by evolution, rather than revolution.

Evolutionary progressive change intended to improve the current situation.

Change management

In order to improve; change is necessary. Sadly, many people hate change.

Leaders need to instil an acceptance, of the need to change:

Or even better; inspire an avid desire to adapt, change and to improve upon the current levels of performance.

Personal performance planning:

How are you going to apply the important leadership lessons contained in this course?