Introduction

• Definition of leadership
• Leadership
  • Leadership and effectiveness
  • Leadership qualities
  • Leadership functions

Characteristics

• Introduction
  • Identifying the leader
  • Trust
  • Integrity
  • Respect
  • Foresight
  • Mutual attraction
  • Relationships
  • Support
  • Empowerment
  • Credibility
  • Winner mentality
  • Leadership expansion
• Influence
  • Introduction
  • Position
  • Leadership styles for learning
  • Who?
  • How?
  • Personal traits
  • Selling
• Confidence
  • Introduction
  • Development part 1
  • Development part 2
• Personality traits
  • Personality - general
  • Personality - action
  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator
  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator uses
  • FIRO B
  • OPQ
  • Pathology
  • Style spider
  • Style spider - choices
  • Leadership styles - adverse behaviour
• Motivation
  • Introduction
  • Douglas McGregor X and Y theory
  • Abraham Maslow
  • Frederick Herzberg
  • Key problems
  • People part 1
  • People part 2
• Be positive
  • Issues and action
  • Be clever
  • When in trouble
  • Project management
  • Change management
  • Communication
  • Self discipline
  • Change
  • Attitude

Strategy

• Long term
  • Long term investment
  • Direction and vision
  • Communication
• Strategy
  • Introduction
  • Selecting
  • Recording
  • Developing
  • The schedule plan
  • Overview
  • Part of leadership
• The vision
  • Introduction
  • Preparing
  • Personalities
  • General
  • Practicality
  • Stakeholders
• Change
  • Progress
  • Problems of change
  • Freeze to freedom

Personal development

• Introduction
  • Proactivity
  • Proactive behaviour
  • Personal direction
  • Personal direction - generating ideas
  • Skill development
  • Delegation
  • Values
• Time management
  • Prioritise
  • Prioritise - basics
  • Timing
• Problem solving
  • SWOT analysis
  • Forces
  • The problem
  • Insight
  • Insight development
  • Problem solving basics part 1
  • Problem solving basics part 2
• The three C's
  • Introduction
  • Action focus part 1
  • Action focus part 2
• The emerging leader
  • Emerging leaders
  • The boss
• Training
  • Introduction
  • Selection
  • Opportunity
  • Follow the leader
  • Follow the leader - adverse behaviour
  • Chess the middle game
  • Standards

General

• Communication
  • Open questions
  • Meetings
  • Agenda
• At the top
  • Letting go
  • Continuity
  • Top of the ladder
  • Loneliness at the top part 1
  • Loneliness at the top part 2
  • The Top team
• Structure
• Life transitions
• Balance
• Open questions
• Business
  • CEO
  • Chairman
  • Mergers and acquisitions
• Leaders and managers

Be positive - when in trouble

Key areas

Elsewhere [see Chess the middle game] we have discussed the problems of reaching a middle management phase in your career which we compare to ‘the middle game’ of chess.
This is a particularly challenging time in your career for all sorts of reasons and to get through it you will need a very positive attitude.

It’s easy to be positive and up beat when all is going well but that positive attitude is most highly valued when there is the inevitable trouble.

There are key areas where leadership skills require you to remain positive.

• During a crisis
• Project management
• Change management
• Networking

Let’s look at them in turn.

During a crisis

There is nothing worse than a negative mindset when the chips are down. It’s bad enough when things are going well, focussing too much on hurdles instead of that ‘can do’ mentality, but if things are bad it can be a final nail in the coffin.

It is difficult to define a crisis. One man’s crisis is another man’s minor inconvenience. Problems can be labelled as issues, risks, concerns, conflicts.
It is a good idea to get a feel of the differences.

Dictionary definitions of these are:

An important subject requiring a decision.

The possibility of incurring misfortune or loss.

Something that affects or is of importance to a person, affair or business.

Struggle or clash between opposing forces.

An unstable period, especially one of extreme trouble or danger.

Dealing with all of these is really just dealing with a ‘problem’.

Any thing that is difficult to deal with, solve or overcome.

It is really the severity or type of problem that gives it a degree of importance.
All problems have the potential to stop a project depending on whether they are dealt with quickly or allowed to fester and get out of control.

Conflict

If people choose to avoid one problem area it is usually conflict. This sort of problem arises many times when there are limited resource, either personnel, financial, physical etc. It may arise in other ways in terms of personnel problems with a strong difference of opinion.

Don’t avoid conflict if you want to develop your leadership skills. It is unlikely to go away.
People will expect a leader to resolve conflict not exacerbate it.
Keep calm and don’t make the exercise personal.
Focus on the issues and not individuals. Even if you are hopping mad inside create a mask of maturity.
This is a good time to think how one of your favourite leaders might handle a similar situation.

We have all been in situations where, at a later date, we have regretted our actions.
If you recognise that a conflict will definitely occur it becomes easier to prepare for it.

If the handling of a conflict goes badly wrong this is likely to reflect badly on your leadership reputation.

One problem is that conflict raises fears in us. Other events can raise apprehension and we perhaps see conflict where it doesn’t exist.
This fear and apprehension can then fuel anger which destroys the detachment that you need for conflict resolution.
It then becomes easy to verbally strike out, deny logic and listen poorly to any reason.
Even if you finally resolve the conflict the presence of anger will leave you feeling uncomfortable at best.

Before fear and anger can set in you must train yourself to step back emotionally and see the problem from the point of view of the individual concerned.

Like many problems it pays to spend time identifying exactly what it is.
This may take a little more investigation on your part as the individual may see a problem where none actually exists if you search a little more deeply.
Make sure that you establish the facts and don’t base your discussion on hearsay and assumptions.

You then need to discuss and agree the way forward.
This is not as easy as it sounds. If you work on the principle of ‘the monkey on the your back’ you will ask one person for their solution and they will give it.
You will ask the next person and they will give their solution. The problem here is obvious the solutions will be rather biased.
Even if only one person is involved the solution will be biased.

The point of conflict is that usually more than one person is involved.
You will need to discuss options and rank these in terms of some priority.
Agreement is nice but you or a higher authority may need to make a final decision.

Crisis

A true crisis will have a significant impact on the project or on you as an individual.

It is during a crisis that tempers can explode and stress can rocket often ending with a person giving up completely.
The difference between success and failure can be a fine line with the balance being tipped with a little more effort, just one more push.

Even failure at this stage can be seen as gaining experience but the loss of your job into your 40s and 50s is not easy to get over.
It is useful if you can gain knowledge of dealing with a crisis at an early stage even if it means being thrown in at the deep end.
You may find it easier to learn from this as, being less experienced, you might be expected to make mistakes.

It helps a great deal if you can leave your work behind when you go home otherwise stresses can begin to mount.
An active life outside of work whether it is sports or other interests will help.

Risk assessment

Risk is often a very grey area. It rather depends on your perspective. One man’s risk is another man’s opportunity.
Risk management is covered in much greater detail in ‘The Complete Project management package’.

A project can not be run as a mathematical formula where every decision is based upon a calculated absolute value.
If you always try to take the option of zero risk then the project will stagnate. If you take too much the project will be compromised.

Taking risk allows you to develop as a leader and not to stand still.
The presence of risk creates a fear of failure which make some apprehensive. As in many aspects of leadership a positive attitude is essential.
There has to be a no blame culture otherwise no risk will be taken however small.
What is worse, people will hide mistakes until a really big problem builds up.
In soccer you can’t score unless you shoot at goal.

In projects managers will manage processes with a view to minimising the numbers of tasks required to achieve their goal, on time, within a budget and to the correct standard or quality. This will require the management of risks by identifying particular pitfalls and making contingency plans.

Many companies meet high risk with potential high rewards the pharmaceutical industry is one.

When anyone plans to take a risk they should consider the potential rewards both for the company and themselves in terms of reputation and career development.
The key to risk is recognising the implications and planning for any negative aspects wisely.

In a project management sense ‘risk’ and ‘issue’ are often confused and could be better defined as.