Management Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Smart Coaching and Training | Business Support, Consultancy, Mentoring

01/11/2024 By David Rigby

Demonstrating confidence at events

Change Days Barcelona, Valencia Digital Summit, Professional Speakers Association – Grow Convention Barcelona

Last week I attended Change Days Barcelona and Valencia Digital Summit(VDS), back to back .
Change Days was attended by 40 people VDS by several thousand. Next week at Professional Speakers Association Grow Convention Barcelona.

Presentation Skills

I have learnt that less is more. As a member of the Professional Speakers Association we learn that it’s better to use no slides, but if you must, use slides with very little content especially words. But at VDS these are techies . Every slide a wiring diagram, no time to read given by the presenter, or the presenter read it to you. – and you are supposed to know all the acronyms . No facilities for slides at Change Days. Each presenter drew you in by the force of their personality.

Levels of participation

In both cases, at certain times, there were 6 events going on at once. A stark contrast was, at Change Days everyone was totally committed to fully attend each offering, phones off, no laptops . In the auditoria at VDS– whether a panel was exchanging views or a single speaker was presenting almost 80% of the mainly male audience was not only browsing their phones but actively using their laptops. Hard to believe that hardly anyone found a compelling presentation given the great choice. I admit to not being enthralled about “How many microchips there are in the world” or “how I rescued a failing e-bike business” but those are personal views. However at Change Days learning about KungFu Breathing and How to Marry Yourself was totally engaging.

*Smart Coaching & Training at Change Days :*
*Sheona Della Fort, David Rigby,*
*Caroline Dream, Jessica Breitenfeld*

At VDS the most interesting person I met – placing females into the Techie industry – knew many of the people at change days. At Change Days there were four Smart Coaching & Training associates, all of whom presented , Jessica Breitenfeld, Caroline Dream, and Sheona Della Fort , and several other people I already knew. I this safe environment the best thing to do was to develop connections with people I didn’t know and we will be great friends next time!

Professional Speakers Association (Spain) – Grow Convention Barcelona 9 November 2024

The next weekend it will be my third Professional Speakers Association Convention. I am pleased to presenting on Diversity along with fellow Smart Coaching & Associate Ricardo Cabete and 15 other speakers. It will be like a combination of the two previous events.

It’s worthwhile to have invested the time in the past to know these experts and to be fully confident in their presence. Why not come along on November 9th and improve your confidence? https://psa-spain.com/convention/

*Professional Speakers Association –Grow Convention*

Smart Coaching & Training works with 28 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

Speaking

Many of our associates learned how to speak via Toastmasters and Professional Speakers Association Read more

03/10/2024 By David Rigby

Can you give us a course on Leadership Development?

“Do you want to develop a leader or do you want a course?”

“Can you give us a course on Leadership Development ?”
“What kind of people need the training? “– “Various, different experiences and locations”.
“How many people will there be?” – “We will tell you an hour before the training.”
We have been asked to provide courses and trainers. It’s useful to know about the background of the trainees and, indeed, how many there are. You see the responses. These recent conversations were guaranteed to make the course generic, the trainer’s life difficult and the trainees’ experience potentially irrelevant.

Who Needs Leadership?

Organizations whether private or government bodies or countries need to have leadership. To do this they need leaders who are not just positional power leaders (placed there by their buddies in government). They have past leaders, current leaders, and to ensure the long term, they need future leaders. “If you always do what you always did, then you always get what you always got.” Keeping a steady hand is useful but is it as useful as preparing the organisation for its future in an ever-changing global world? So you need to develop leaders who can cope with the future.

Leaders are at different stages of development

Developing leaders is not just a case of attending a standard 5-day content training course and then you are an expert. Leaders will be at different stages of development in their life and have had different backgrounds and experiences. The leadership journey is never ending and you can never know it all. Leaders need to know different things, at different times, for different situations and types of evolution. Education needs to be forward looking, inspiring and visionary.

Leading starts with leading yourself

Some of Leadership learning is about acquiring skills but a lot of leadership learning is about developing your self understanding and your personality.. To be a leader you need to have followers and the first person you need to lead is yourself, hence the importance of “Know thyself” and your psychological makeup.

*Smart Coaching & Training Leadership training in Dubai*

*Pari, Martin, Malcolm and Clair – four leadership experts*

The stereotype of a leader

A leader does not need to be an old white privileged dominant male though many of those are brought up to think they ought to be and follow the command and control style. Leadership style should depend on who you are , where you are and who you are trying to lead. Organisations have their cultures which often clash with country cultures. And remember that 75% of people do not follow their country stereotype in the way they think or behave.

The marginalised leader

Some of those who are being lead may belong to marginalised groups, such as LGBT+, Neuro, generational, women, the poor, the working class, colour, living in a different country from where they were born, different religions. Some may be intersectional. And of course the leader may themselves belong to many marginalised groups.

It depends on the roles of those you are leading

Leading a country is different from leading a football team (maybe). Leading when you have authority (i.e. do what I say) is different from where you don’t. Try leading volunteers! Try being a consultant in an advisory role! Try being a nurse leading your patient on they way to recovery. Try running a committee where you (and indeed they) don’t have the authority to decide anything. Try dealing with a child. They all require leadership skills, the power of ‘follow me’ and persuasion skills, and getting someone to follow ‘your vision’.

Leading is different from Management

Comparison can be made with Projects and Programmes. A manager’s task is about delivering a set of objectives, to perhaps a set budget in a set time in order to achieve the key performance indicators (KPI’s). They manage people to achieve this. They may also be interested in ensuring that they will have people who can deliver in the future, or they might not care. A leader is measured by the benefit they deliver and not what they did . Leaders determine the way and encourage and inspire others to follow. New leaders often start with a lot of management focus and a little leadership knowledge, but gradually become leaders.

*from Professor Peter Hawkins* *– leadership is not just about leaders*

Western Wisdom

Western Leadership teaching is often not appropriate for the location of the trainees. And whether they are in their country of birth or elsewhere. Leading diverse cultures is not easy when one where the staff never have had to take responsibility and others where the staff challenge authority .

There are many cases where Delegates have ‘learnt’ leadership from Western trainers and have said “this is great but culturally we cannot apply any of it in our home country.” The Westerners may think their method is better but is that just arrogance. In may ways it’s like saying women never invented anything.

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

Leadership Development

We work with you to build a plan to deliver your Leadership development. This can involve courses and workshops and one-to-one coaching. It can be a continuous process. The facilitators who mainly do this are :

They, like many other associates have experience of Leadership in many countries.

Conventional Leadership Training

SCT offers conventional leadership training in courses such as the ones below

Leadership and Team Management: Creating and developing teams and leading them *
Diversity, Interculturality and Cultural Intelligence for Remote Leaders Be successful with many diverse groups at the same time. Understand the many strands of diversity and what it takes to take advantage of it
Manager to Leader: Change your personality to that of a leader .
Manager as Coach: Learn how to coach and develop the attitudes that enable you to coach well
Building your Personal Brand: Develop your personal brand based on your Behavioural Profile, strengths and wishes,
Achieving personal success with international teams. Building and running international teams to demonstrate leadership competence
Transformation using Psycho-social Vertical Adult Development and Spiral Dynamics – for experienced leaders

See them all here

We also have many short courses to develop specific skills

11/09/2021 By David Rigby

Would you rather improve your competence or transform your mindset?

Do you focus on task or focus on people?

Corporations that help their executives and leadership teams examine their personal world views can reap rich rewards in terms of effective cultural transformation and engaging the younger generation. Organisational Managers have two broad options in how to use their authority to serve the organisation at any given time. They can perceive themselves to be in a managerial mode delivering today’s outcomes within the relative ‘certainty’ of the system as it currently exists and operates or else by stepping back into an uncertain big picture mode of leadership of the future. Their daily performance necessarily combines both operational management of today’s needs along with a more strategic leadership role focused on tomorrow’s needs.

The voyage from Manager to Leader

The voyage of development ‘from manager to leader’ is not an easy one; some people change little during their lifetimes while others substantially.

*Spiral Dynamics and Vertical Development*

Those willing to work at developing themselves and becoming more self-aware can almost certainly evolve over time into truly transformational leaders. .

Are you on a ‘Heroes Journey’?

For the future world emerging, the higher stages of consciousness are being called forth dramatically, with the younger generation coming in at levels far higher than their bosses, creating new tensions in the corporate cultures. Note consciousness is very different from intelligence. Few current leaders are desiring to change the world for the worlds sake however many want to progress on their ‘Heroes Journey’.

We advise and sell many preference profiling tools such as DISC and C-me to help you improve your competence.

Spiral Dynamics

With Psychosocial Adult Development approaches such as Leadership Development Framework and Spiral Dynamics adults start at level one and can progress through a number of levels. The closer you are to the higher levels of consciousness the more able you will be to effect and deliver on change, be an effective director and manage internationally.
.

https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/what_we_offer/signature-corporate-training-longer-courses-and-retreatsPsychosocial Adult Development Training

Each stage can be regarded as a level of awareness or consciousness and forms the psychological basis for a critical perception of why we act in a certain way. We can help leaders become better leaders by helping them transform from one level to the next.

To find out more check out our course “Transformational Leadership using Psychosocial Adult Development Strategy ” This is just one of our Signature Corporate Training courses. see then all here . Or simply just ask us at [email protected]

18/03/2021 By David Rigby & Martin Kubler

How COVID brought us closer together

Hello? Can you hear me? I’m sorry if I’m sounding a bit far away, but I’m currently hanging out with a group of hospitality professionals in Yorkshire while I’m in Dubai. Or was it Stockholm? Or possibly Accra?

There’s little doubt that COVID has wreaked havoc on our industry worldwide. Furloughs in the UK, lockdowns everywhere, limited (if any!) in-outlet dining, cancelled cruises – you name it. I’m not known for laughing challenging trading conditions in the face and shouting “Hey, but look at the bright side!”, but I readily admit that the pandemic has also brought certain positive changes to our industry – the most important one, in my opinion, being that we’ve come closer together.

It didn’t matter where you were

I’ve spend the last 16 years as an expat in various locations that didn’t have an Institute of Hospitality branch and I got used to looking at pictures of meetings, networking events, and celebrations that the Institute and their branches have put on over the years with varying degrees of envy. Then the pandemic hit, everything moved online and suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore where I was based – I could be anywhere.

The Institute of Hospitality’s virtual Thursday Coffee and Conversation mornings provided a first taste of our newfound freedom. Members joined from all over the world and exchanged updates or just engaged in light-hearted conversation to find a few minutes of distraction from the latest lockdown news.

People started to cooperate and collaborate… new platforms such as www.backtowork.support were born based on our conversations. New ways of presenting and distributing industry news and expertise like the fantastic Hospitality Recovery on LinkedIn Live were tested. If you fancied it and had the time (and, let’s face it, time was something most of us had in abundance during the various lockdowns), you could attend virtual branch meetings and networking events from the comfort of your armchair. One branch even put on a pub-style quiz.

Bringing people closer together

The pandemic has brought us closer together and that’s a good thing. The key, going forward, is to keep the momentum and not let things revert to silos again. The Institute and its members have an important role to play in the process, because we’ve been here, done that, and got the tea cup – in other words, we’ve successfully demonstrated how large international organisations can use technology to bring people closer together, ensure information and expertise flows freely, and collaborations between individual professionals create new opportunities, ventures, and projects

Remember Face to Face?

Don’t get me wrong, now that I’m based in Europe again, I do want to attend one of the Institute’s annual Fellows’ Dinners. It’ll be my first one and I’m sure will be very enjoyable. The goal isn’t to move everything online – there’s much to be said for face-to-face interactions and good old black-tie jollifications. The goal really should be to use technology in the way, I think, it is meant to be used… to bring people together and to make things more inclusive and, very often, faster.

*Cats are for baskets not Zoom calls ©* *David Rigby*

The latter is, in my opinion, a key point. Teams can now meet at the click of a button, regardless of where the various team-members are. You don’t need to take minutes anymore, because you can record things – great for people who aren’t totally fluent in English. Right now, I’m involved in a project that brings together professionals from Russia, the Middle East, and Europe. We communicate in English, but some of us find it very beneficial to be able to watch the recordings of our meetings again, just to make sure they understood everything correctly. You can’t rewind a face-to-face meeting, but you can rewind a Zoom meeting.

I hope some of what we’ve learned during the pandemic stays with us even in post-COVID times. The coffee mornings, for example, shouldn’t stop just because we’re all able to meet again IRL, in real life. How else could I find out how Robert’s hotel in Ghana is doing or what’s going on in the Scottish highlands and islands? Quite apart from being able to see the various members’ coffee and tea cups (someone used a massive Homer Simpson cup in today’s call!) and pets (last week I was in a Zoom meeting and a team-member’s cat blocked the screen for a good 5 minutes).
Walking into a face-to-face meeting later in 2021 or 2022 is bound to be like “Oh, I know, you’re the chap with the Homer Simpson cup!” or “What do you mean, you didn’t bring your cat?”.

A version of this article was first published by the Institute of Hospitality

11/04/2020 By Halina Jaroszewska

Becoming the leader you want to be

Expectations of leaders and aspiring leaders in business today have never been higher and the demands on them never been greater.

What are these expectations and demands and how can senior executives get the support they need?

First … there is the sheer volume of work: significant number of tasks to accomplish and vast swathes of information to filter. Emails, phone calls, meetings, travel, conferences, presentations, reports, 24-hour connectivity; it’s not surprising if senior executives become exhausted.

Second … the pace of change and the levels of uncertainty surrounding business decisions have never been higher. Executives who are used to striving for specific, measurable goals may not be so great at handling the ambiguity and fluidity that rapidly changing situations can bring.

Third … where companies used to run on a simple top-down command and control basis, it is now widely recognised that the best businesses are those that harness creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. The most effective leaders are those that participate in, encourage and manage collaborative teams.

Fourth … leaders and aspiring leaders play a crucial role in engagement. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines engagement as “feeling positive about your job, as well as being prepared to go the extra mile and do the best of your ability.”

Not surprisingly, engagement is linked to a wide range of positive outcomes. Two important drivers are for people to have opportunities to feed their views upwards and to feel well informed about what is happening in their organization. But a key driver of engagement is for people to think their leaders – especially their manager or line manager – is committed to the organization and cares about them.

Fifth … a major study by Watson Wyatt:Connecting Organisational Communication to Financial Performance found that “a significant improvement in communication effectiveness is associated with a 29.5 per cent increase in market value.” Once again, it’s the leader who needs to be communicating.

So, leaders face a greater work load; a more challenging, fluid and ambiguous business environment than ever before; are key drivers in employee engagement, and their effective communication skills and their ability to harness the creativity and entrepreneurship of their teams is essential if the business is to succeed. It’s not surprising that some leaders and aspiring leaders lose focus or wonder if they are doing a good job.

It’s not surprising that some leaders and aspiring leaders lose focus or wonder if they are doing a good job. In Development Dimensions International’s Global Leadership Forecast 2011 only 38% of the 12,423 senior executives participating in the study reported the level of leadership in their organization as ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’

However, the positive news for leaders and aspiring leaders is that help is available and that companies want to invest in supporting their leaders and aspiring leaders.

The Value of Executive Coaching

A DMB study in connection with the Human Capital Institute on emerging practices in executive coaching suggests that organizations are planning to increase their investment in supporting leaders and aspiring leaders in several key areas. Specifically, by helping capable executives reach higher performance, and in supporting high potential executives. Similarly, coaching is seen as having the greatest impact when it is used to groom high potential executives and help high potential executives achieve higher performance, rather then for remedial purposes.

For those respondents who measured the financial impact of coaching, 77% estimated the ROI on coaching to be at least equal to the investment. Some respondents reported the ROI on coaching to be as high as 500%. An earlier study by the International Professional Management Association found that training plus coaching was four times more effective than training alone.

It will pay dividends for any leader or aspiring leader who wants to fulfill their potential and deliver real benefit to their business to make a solid case for the value of executive coaching. While you are making the case for your organization to invest in executive coaching to support you in challenging times, here are a few hints and tips to keep you on track

Think about what is most important to you. Not what you do but how you behave. In a tough business environment staying true to your values will give you a guiding star on which to base decisions and choose priorities.

Leadership is about values and behaviour – not about having all the solutions. Establish end goals and empower your team to come up with solutions – this will open up far more opportunities and motivate your team.

Keep communicating. Explain your thinking and keep up an ongoing narrative with your team about the progress towards your goals. Remember any good story has ups and downs, so don’t be afraid to admit to adversity.

Be consistent. If you set up new initiatives or new ways of doing things – especially if they relate to communication or team empowerment – then keep them going. Show real leadership qualities and stay steady regardless of set-backs.

Be decisive. Far more damage is done to businesses by delaying decisions than by taking wrong decisions. If you find yourself unable to take a decision ask what additional information you need to make the decision. If that information is not available then staying true to your values will help make a decision.

Remember 80% is good enough. Whatever the task, if its 80% good enough, sign it off and move on. Striving for perfection, or taking on too many tasks because only you can do them well enough is a recipe for bottlenecks, frustration, stress and lack of achievement.

Flip negative to positive. When facing a set-back, make a conscious effort to look at the opportunities that a challenging situation presents you with, rather than just the problems. The results may surprise you.

Focus on your team rather than yourself. If you focus on supporting your people and enabling them to improve their performance in tough times, you will find you are more likely to reach overall goals and less likely run into self- absorption and lack of focus.

Be open to learning. Setting out to learn something new, to expand your knowledge or skills is life-enhancing, confidence-boosting and can have a positive effect on other aspects of your performance. Don’t close down in reaction to adversity; open up.

And finally I have no hesitation in repeating point 1 because it is so important …

Think about what is most important to you. Not what you do but how you behave. In a tough business environment staying true to your values will give you a guiding star on which to base decisions and choose priorities.

Halina Jaroszewska is an Executive Coach, professionally certified by the International Coach Federation. Halina helps leaders and aspiring leaders to turn uncertainty into a powerful tool for change and growth. Her aim is to enable clients to take their success to the next level, switch surviving into thriving, and maximise their potential during challenging times