Every day we deal with a variety of matters of urgent importance in our organizations. Seldom is leadership development on that urgent list. While perhaps not urgent, few things are of greater importance to the future of our organizations that the conscious and consistent development of our future leaders. Unfortunately, when we do put time and effort into leadership development, all too often those efforts fail.

In this article I will outline seven specific things you can do - as an individual wanting to improve your leadership skills or when thinking about leadership development across an organization. Implementing any one of these suggestions will prove a valuable supplement to what you are already doing. Implementing most or all of them will yield or more confident, competent and prepared leaders than your existing development efforts by themselves ever will.

The Seven Suggestions

Create opportunities for self discovery and to create desire.

Learning anything successfully requires a motivated and interested learner. This is especially true for leadership. Often leaders see themselves as technical experts. In many cases they have been promoted because they were good at their previous jobs - which may have had nothing to do with leading. Leaders need to understand how influential they are and know how they are doing, what the gaps are and have a desire to improve. 360 Feedback processes are one way to raise awareness and create a felt need for improvement. While they can be a powerful tool, the underlying purpose for their use is to create a clear desire for further development. However you accomplish this discovery and desire, it is critical to the development of greater leadership skills.

Set a goal / make a plan.

Leaders, either on their own or with assistance, need to set an improvement goal - they need to have a clear picture of the areas they would like to develop. With a goal set, a plan can be put in place to move towards it. While this will often happen during a training event, this goal needs to be in place before attending any training to maximize the value of that training.

Focus on strengths.

Too often leaders build a plan based solely on improving areas of weakness. While we certainly want to improve in those areas, an equal amount of effort should be focused on enhancing and further developing areas of greatest strength. While there are several reasons for this, none are more compelling than the fact that less effort is required to improve an area of strength or natural talent than to achieve similar levels of improvement in an area of weakness.

Find ways to learn.

Leaders can be challenged to look for a wide variety of learning resources - encourage them to look beyond the training workshops you might provide. Have them consider podcasts, websites, lectures, books, discussions with other leaders, finding mentors, working with a coach - the list goes on and on. Once people begin to look, they will see many ways they can learn.

Find ways to practice.

Learning the ideas and knowledge is one thing, but to become a more effective leader people must practice. Encourage leaders to integrate what they have learned into practice. Help them see that there are opportunities to practice everywhere - and not only at work. People will say they are busy - and they are. Challenge them to consider their leadership development as a integrated part of their work - among their most important tasks - rather than “one more thing to do”.

Get the leader’s leader involved.

Leaders can’t do it alone. Having the leader’s leader involved will help keep development as an important priority, but beyond that, the leader’s leader can provide coaching and help remove any obstacles that might be in the way. Most of all, the leader’s leader can provide support and encouragement - two things that are critical when we are learning (and practicing) new skills.

Build systems organizationally to support the other six suggestions.

We can do the six steps above as a motivated individual. But if we want to create a process for leadership development in our organization we have build ways to systematically provide people with the opportunities and options provided by the other six suggestions.

What is Missing?

Notice that the suggestions above don’t talk about a training workshop, seminar or event as the key to your efforts. While you want any training you provide to be as useful and effective as possible, training alone can only get you so far -which is why your current efforts are less effective than you’d like them to be. The seven suggestions above are meant to be an adjunct to your training efforts - to be a process to layer on top of your existing efforts.

Training alone won’t produce the leaders you need. It is one ingredient. The other seven suggestions in this article will, when added to a valuable, practical and effective training program, produce the leaders you desire - and your organization needs.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

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Just like artists who unleash their talent for being creative, you too can develop your own inspired creativity using the talents you have. Since your thoughts, attitudes, and expectations affect everything you do as a leader, you need to also look at your priorities as well as identify success factors for your company. Your critical goals and strategies to achieve these talents and successes are good places to begin. Experience new ways of thinking, not just about leadership, but about everything you do.

But business is business, and you want to get to the top and stay there. What do you do to make that happen? In paving your way toward becoming a better leader than you have been, the following tips are what I found for Developing an Extraordinary Mindset of Opportunities for those of you who want to become extraordinary leaders and those of you who are leaders and want to become even more
extraordinary leaders:

1. Develop Extraordinary Mindsets: Since your beliefs or the way you think produce the specific results you want, ask yourself, “Do I have a solid understanding of my game plan?” If so, begin to create attainable goals that will generate powerful results. If not, begin by writing down what you have already accomplished, and then add to that list what you want to accomplish as a business leader.

2. Develop Leadership Bench Strength: Be ready to strengthen your leadership capabilities. Tap into your natural strength areas of high performance management, articulating and implementing your vision, inspiring your people, having integrity, being accountable, as well as even more importantly, make things happen.

If you feel that some of your skills need a helping hand, build on them. Leading a team or a department is different from managing a team or a department. With that in mind, having a foundation of leadership skills on which to build gives you the opportunity to strengthen those skills when you use them and to gain other skills in the process. By integrating your new skills with the skills you already have, you are able to perform your job more effectively. It is vital that you acquire new skills that will enable you to perform effectively. Do not ignore any weaknesses you find either - work on improving them.

3. Focus your Mind: Evaluate your skills, knowledge, and competencies. Start by writing down a list of the things you have accomplished that were so exceptional that they gave you better results than what you expected. Manage your time according to your priorities. Also, when you make a decision, make sure you have both short- and long-term goals in mind. (Your legacy is also on the line here).

4. Take Control of Your Creativity: Do not analyze the reasons that something did not work to the exclusion of improving the situation so that it will work the next time. That is a waste of energy and time. At times you may need to go beyond traditional thinking when you are met with a challenge. Thinking more creatively by first brainstorming about how to solve a problem or in implementing a policy might be what is needed. Having an exchange of ideas with others can trigger the beginning of what you are looking for regarding a solution to a problem or even a new product or service that your company is looking to produce.

5. Exceptional People Skills: Have you ever wondered how some people can walk into a room full of strangers and leave with new friends and business acquaintances? This is where your interpersonal skills come into play as they are related to all of your other competencies. Look at how your skills are compared to those of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence. (See Goleman’s book entitled: Working with Emotional Intelligence as there are just too many to list here.)

6. View Obstacles as Opportunities: Do not think of the downside of what is holding you back or of how this is going to stop you from getting to where you want to go. Instead, think of obstacles as stepping stones and think of ways to get over what is stopping you. Learn to develop new ways of thinking about opportunities. You will be amazed of your improved communication skills, team-work, commitment to your work, as well as your increased organizational performance.

7. Forward Thinking: Knowing what to lead and aligning your skills with confidence and practical ideas to challenge issues with practical and creative solutions encourages the leader to think beyond the confines of traditional leadership. Since it provides you with different perspectives, your insights become unique for solving the issues at hand.

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Burgis Successful Solutions, an executive coaching firm. Neal has 18 years of experience helping people with their goals and performance. He specializes in executive coaching on work balance issues of performance, leadership development, and improving skills, as well as being a sounding board. Dr. Burgis is a National Certified Psychologist, a Certified Executive Coach and a Certified Mediator. He is available to help with your coaching needs either in person or through telephone coach consultations at your convenience. For more information, you can visit his website at http://www.successful-solutions.com or contact Neal at 602-405-2540 or nburgis@successful-solutions.com.

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Let’s face facts. Anyone who wins at anything - whether it’s winning an Olympic gold medal, building a successful and profitable business or losing weight and keeping it off - must develop a winning routine.

So what’s it going to be? Do you have some goals you want to accomplish? Are you willing to develop a winning routine to accomplish them? If so, here are some guidelines for how to go about it.

The first step is to Make a Commitment. “Yes, I really want to do this and I’m willing to commit to go for the ‘gold’ 100%.” But, think about it first. Don’t just say you’re ready to commit, if you’re not.

Earl Nightingale said, “Successful people are those who are willing to do the things that failures don’t like to do - which are the same things that none of us like to do.” So, in order to get yourself to “do the things that none of us like to do,” accomplishing the goal must be important enough to you that you’re willing to establish some new behavior and winning routines.

Once you’re committed, Do Your Research. Don’t just rush into action randomly. Look at the goal rationally. Listen to what the experts say. Find out what’s worked for others. Whether you like the advice or not, if your commitment is strong enough you’ll be willing to do what it takes to accomplish your objective. But, first you have to find out what it takes.

Next Create a Strategic Plan. Any plan has to be clear and concise - “Do this, then this, then this.” However, it must also be flexible enough that, if it’s not working or you get some new information on how to achieve your desire, you can change your tactics in midstream.

After you make a commitment, do your research and make a plan, it’s time to Get into Action. As Woody Allen said, “90% of success is just showing up” (or taking action). But, random action is usually a big waste of time and energy. For best results, you should complete steps 1, 2 and 3 before taking action.

Lastly, Establish a Routine. For your actions to turn into a routine, you need to do them everyday, day after day. For example, brushing and flossing your teeth daily is a winning routine. So is balancing your check book, eating your vegetables, expressing appreciation to the people you care about, cleaning your bathroom, exercising every day, etc.
These are all simple winning routines that you may have already developed. If you think about it, you might realize that you don’t like to do them. But, because you like the results and benefits you get, you established these routines and, most of the time, you do them without even thinking about whether or not you like the routine.

You can follow this same process with any goal - no matter how difficult. By persistently focusing on your intention, you can discover how to develop a winning routine that will pay off in big dividends by eventually taking you directly to your target. That’s the way you or anyone wins “the gold.”

Katie Byrd will take you by the hand and teach you the skills she’s used to journey from a financially strapped, bad credit nightmare to debt free abundant living. To find out more visit: http://abundanceandwealth.bellaonline.com

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