Colin's Blog

What makes a great leader? Is it possible to be a leader at a young age? A leader is a person who is offering him or herself to others through inspiration and motivation. Youth leadership, on the other hand, is about developing today’s youth for the challenges of the future. There is no age requirement for a young person to start developing their leadership skills.

In leadership development, team coaching is needed for support. With both a support coach and training, productivity increases as the teens learn about what it means to be a leader. Developing young people allows them to gain new skills and knowledge that will build their confidence and natural abilities. Whether it is in sports or a group, teens can influence their peers and the general public with positive messages that will inspire others to do the same. Youth training also helps teens develop better decision making skills to use in settings such as civic engagement and community organisation.

By building self-confidence, the ability to achieve goals, and team building youths will transcend their age and maturity. Leadership training prepares youth to manage time, work as a team, set goals, start conversations, facilitate meetings, and make effective presentations. Promoting youth leadership development is a great way to promote positive life skills learning.

Becoming a leader requires that a young adult become involved with community activities. Volunteering and being involved in school with sports and student council are great places to start. This will help the teen become an innovative thinker, build strong integrity, and be comfortable with diversity. In order to accomplish this feat, teens must understand their emotions and how they affect their performance as a leader. There are five important skills for Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. With the help of a leadership coach and positive training, teens will strengthen their emotional weaknesses and understand how to use them to create positive influence.

Every leader can recall a starting point where the little boy sat down, and the man stood up. Leaders need to be called into action. That’s what youth development is calling teenagers to do—to stand up and lead.

Being involved makes a difference for the youth of today. With leadership training, these young adults will have better understanding of what it means to be a leader through self-understanding as well as relating to their peers and influencing others. A leadership mentor enhances the training to ensure the youth receive positive support to fully understand their unlimited potential to have a positive impact towards others. Today’s youth will become the leaders of tomorrow using their innovative ideas to change the world, one teen at a time.

The Holbrow Group does not offer youth leadership training but we recognize its importance in shaping the leaders of tomorrow. We recommend http://www.ylcc.com/. They offer summer youth camps for kids from around the globe. Many Fortune 500 companies send their children to YLCC for the best youth training available.

We are our own worst critic. Typically, we are highly critical of our perceived imperfections and overlook our inner beauty and wisdom. This video illustrates how we see ourselves in contrast to what others see and what lies within us.

We invite you to watch this video and pass along to others that will also understand its underlying message.

Note: This video was kindly forwarded by one of our valued readers. It has been created by Dove with a powerful message we all need to hear. This is not an endorsement of Dove’s consumer products.

Effective organisational coaching requires positive psychology. Positive psychology focuses on people prospering by building strong relationships and character strength, creating a meaningful and purpose filled work environment as well as developing optimism, gratitude, and altruism. Coaches help by motivating and developing the personal strengths of each member of the team.

There are three foundations of positive psychology: Positive Emotions, Positive Personal Traits, and Positive Institutions. Each of these works together to organise the team.

Positive emotions define contentment with previous performance, happiness with current performance, and aspirations for future performance. To move forward begins with the point of origin, the current direction of travel, and the final destination. Improving the organisation begins with assessing past achievements of the organisation. If the current organisational direction is positive, assessing the trend and identifying what is working will continue to produce positive outcomes.

Positive personal traits define individual strengths, capacities, creativity, discipline, honesty, durability, persistence, empathy, compassion, and wisdom. Each person on the team is different and unique. A coach’s job is to assess and help improve each team member in areas that will make a positive impression to the entire team. A coach must replace any negative thoughts with positive traits that will benefit the team and the organisation.

Team building skills such as communication, leadership, ethics, community building, member mentoring and development, and justice and civility make a business or organisation stronger. Bringing a team together requires positive psychology to ensure the team has a leader who will move them forward to their goals.

You’re busy throughout your work week, and the  solitary moments you have are very precious to you.

You probably treat your downtime as gospel, learning to unwind, relax, and enjoy the finer things in life that matter most to you… as you very much should.  Downtime from your busy work schedule is also an opportunity for you to grow and develop as a stronger, better, and more effective leader. 

Using Downtime Doesn’t Mean Giving Up Your Life

There are a number of ways that you can find and convert a portion of your downtime into powerful leadership developing opportunities. Here are three things you can do right away:

1.         On your way to work in the morning, do you listen to the radio? Most people listen to talk radio, but a great deal of it today is nothing but negativity and repetitive news covering politics, the financial crises, crime and more.

Get rid of it. Shake off that morning negative energy and instead use that time to improve yourself positively. Pick up a few leadership building audio programs and listen to them while you’re making your way to work. Make your morning drive time your “mobile university”.

Transform your morning commute into a positive experience and you will simultaneously be developing and strengthening your leadership skills.

2.         Start your day at the office with positive reinforcement. Many of us have a particular routine that we go through once we reach the office. We either check email, make a few calls, or go through the calendar to see what’s going on for the day.

From now on, spend five minutes (or more) each morning working on one new leadership skill. Think about the skill and how you can apply it on the day ahead of you. This sets the tone for the rest of your workday and no matter what is going on, as long as you make sure to practice that skill at least once, you will become a stronger leader.

3.         At least once a week, spend lunch with a team member. You may work through your lunch breaks or spend a few minutes of that precious time alone, relaxing, but imagine what you could do if you took a team member to lunch instead.

You would still get that important meal, be able to sit down away from the office, but you’ll also be able to mentor your team member, forging a bond that will return dividends in time. It will also provide you with essential practice in dealing with people in a leadership capacity, rather than merely a managerial one.

By converting the downtime that surrounds you every day (which most of us don’t realize is essentially wasted time) into leadership building opportunities, you will improve your leadership skills, transform your days into positive experiences, and develop a rapport with your team members that increases its value exponentially through the years ahead.

If you have other ways of leveraging downtime during your day, share it with others by commenting below.

Colin & Associates

The Holbrow Group

Leadership - there are as many definitions as there are stars in our galaxy. This short video captures challenges that past and current leaders have faced as well as give insightful definitions of the distinction between leadership and management.

How do these examples meet your definition of leadership?

What steps are you taking to make a difference as a leader in your world?

Enjoy and pass along to your colleagues, boss and friends!

The success of every organization is dependent upon having capable managers in leadership roles. Every team and group within the enterprise requires a management team that can effectively lead them in performing the tasks they have been assigned.

When management across the enterprise is professional and effective, then the enterprise values are upheld and the organization’s missions are successfully executed. The result is a strong organizational return on all targeted goals that translates into sustainability and profitability.

One of the most critical skills for leaders to posses is the ability to deliver actionable feedback. Feedback in an enterprise can be required at various times and can be directed vertically and horizontally within the organizational structure.

Vertical and Horizontal Feedback

Vertical feedback is that which is delivered to one’s subordinates below or bosses above. This can be a review with a team member who is performing a given task, or feedback the boss requested on the new printer vendor. Horizontal feedback is typically delivered to peers operating at the same managerial level. This typically takes the form of interdepartmental discussions about various aspects of an ongoing mission.

Formal and Informal Feedback

Feedback most often is delivered during employee review sessions, but can also be delivered after an employee has experienced a major victory or major set back. Feedback can be formal, as in the case of the employee evaluation, or it can be informal, as in the case of an accolade.

In any case, feedback must be delivered clearly and without room for misunderstanding in order for it to be effective and beneficial.

C.E.D.A.R

One popular management development tool is the CEDAR method for delivering quality feedback.

Clarify the performance expected by management

Explain management’s perception of the actual performance

Discuss the reasons for the difference be expected and actual performance

Agree on steps required to correct the problem

Review the results of solutions implemented

Feedback within an organization that follows the CEDAR structure effectively lets team members and management know what is expected. It allows management to view existing performance while fostering discussion that identifies problems, and provides consensus and agreement on solutions. In summary, it will provide a system of auditing progress while ensuring corrective measures are in place and potentiual problems are being corrected.

Effective delivery of actionable feedback is a critical skill for all levels of management development.

John Merger had been working his way up through middle management for just over ten years. He had solid managerial skills and almost always delivered good results, and always on time. John was recently transferred to a new department and Sally Spire took over his position.

Within just a few months, it was clear that under Sally’s new leadership, productivity more than doubled and the CEO wanted to know why. They began to study her work methods and ethics.

After an exhaustive audit of Sally’s methods compared to John’s, they learned that many of the employees under Sally’s leadership were performing specific assignments. It turned out that Sally took the time to understand each employee and, what their strengths were and built a team around those strengths.

John never took the time to learn much about his team members; he simply handed out tasks and expected results on time. On the other hand, Sally utilized others’ leadership traits and this was the one keystone that turned the department around.

Where the Magic Happens

Everyone has their own unique skill set. It’s easy to assume that every employee in an office building should be proficient in Word or Excel for example, as it would be to assume that every construction worker would be adept at setting a foundation, framing walls, and adding the finishing touches.

In the real world, however, people have specific skills that, when utilized properly, can maximize productivity.

Do You Know What Your Employees’ Strengths Are?

If you can’t name one specific task that each of your employees are highly skilled at (more so than other tasks they carry out, or more specifically, those in which they excel), then it’s time you began to look at them more closely.
Some people type faster than others. Some are more skilled at report writing. Certain individuals have advanced skills in computing, for example, while others understand the basics but would spend twice as long as others to accomplish the same assignments.

A Revolution in Thinking

No matter what industry you operate in, no matter how many people you have reporting to you, there will be specific tasks that can be done with greater efficiency, when assigned to the right people with the right level of direction and support.

That’s the first step toward maximizing productivity.

A manager sets deadlines and pressures employees into hitting that mark. A leader inspires people and draws upon their strengths, rather than trying to intimidate their weaknesses.

If you want to boost productivity … no, if you want to maximize positivity and productivity, then take the time to learn more about and connect with your team members. Focus on their strengths, know their passion and future goals, understand their weaknesses, and shift assignments around to capitalize on the best of what you have.

Get everyone on your team bus driving in the same direction!

Colin & Associates of The Holbrow Group

Most people have heard of Steve Jobs. Like him or not, there is no denying the fundamental and impressive impact his inspired creations have made on the way we operate and communicate today.

We invite you to watch (and share this video clip) and listen for the one or more secret that will help you achieve success.

This year, you might have promised yourself to lose weight, exercise more, or have more patience. Those are all well and good, but how about making changes that will inspire, motivate, and achieve lasting results? How about developing your Leadership skills?

This year, focus on becoming a better leader.

When you build your leadership skills, many aspects of your personal and professional life begin to change.

People will treat you differently. They’ll show you more respect, work harder for you and the goals you set, and you’ll find that you actually accomplish more when you are an effective leader.

Take the following steps this year to become a better leader. Take your time with them; when you try to make all the changes at once, you can become frustrated and revert back to comfortable behavioral patterns.

Encourage creativity

Encourage creativity in those around you. Have a meeting with your team and ask them to come up with ideas that they believe will help you achieve your goals. No idea is ‘wrong’ and all ideas are welcome.

Learn to Communicate

You know how to communicate, but are your communicative efforts effective? Do the people around you understand where you’re coming from? Do you listen to what others are saying or do you tend to negate their comments because you already ‘know?’

Communication is a two-way street, but the most important path is the ability to listen. Anyone can talk and tell others what to do, but strong leaders know how to listen well.

Motivate

Look to the best sports teams in the world and you will find one common denominator: a person (be it a coach, player, or owner) who knows how to motivate those around him or her.

When you inspire those around you to become involved, they work harder, invest more, and care about the end results.

This doesn’t mean that you need to gather everyone in a small auditorium and preach from the pulpit. Motivation is about being passionate about the ideas of your team. It’s about asking their opinions, letting them know that they matter, that their contributions make a significant difference in achieving goals.

Be Flexible

Just because something has worked for you for twenty years doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way of doing it today. When you begin to listen to your team, new ways of doing things will come to light.

At first these ideas may challenge the way you’ve always operated, but if you are flexible and willing to try different things (as long as those things are supported by reason and data), you may just find a more streamlined approach to achieving better results.

More importantly, your team will become inspired to help create better processes and efficiencies for everyone to benefit from.

So, as you move through the new year, take this opportunity to work your leadership skills and on becoming a better leader to make this year the best one so far.

Colin Holbrow

P.S. Also watch this YouTube video: The #1 Skill Required To Become a Great Leader

Words are important in our day-to-day communication with one another. They frame what we are experiencing and thinking. Watch this video clip to observe the power of changing a few words and the impact this has on one individual’s audience. Take a moment to think about what words you express today to deliver your message.