Latest News
An article about LCP's research into senior leader development will be published in December's edition of South East Business.
The magazine covers business news in London, Surrey, Kent, East/West Sussex and you can find out more information here
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New LCP Discussion Papers
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We will be writing new discussion papers to publish on our website and if you have topics you would like to see covered please let us know by sending us an email
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Greetings!
In this issue we focus on the 'softer' side of effective leadership. Today's environment is particularly challenging for many and leaders not only need to make tough business decisions about their future direction but they also need to lead and manage others through these turbulent times. We believe that two aspects which can help leaders to do this more effectively are emotional intellingence and trust. |
Emotional intelligence - why is it so important in this fast shifting economic environment?
 We often say that change is the only
constant. What gets tougher for leaders
and employees alike is the pace at which we are expected to change - the
pressure from competition is greater than ever as organisations try to be fitter
and faster. Technology evolves in nano-seconds and the economy has been
shifting in ways that could never have been anticipated even a few months ago.
Retaining and developing talent is key to success
and everyone from the MD down, needs to be stress-tolerant, adaptable,
self-motivated and innovative.
With this backdrop, it is more crucial
than ever to ensure that employees have the necessary skills and attitude to
perform their jobs well. Traditional
learning and training interventions that focus on technical skills and
experience are still important cornerstones for developing high performance. But so too is Emotional
Intelligence - it is what distinguishes superior performance from run-of-the-mill
performance both in individuals and in teams.
Emotional Intelligence is
made up of two parts:
Intrapersonal
Intelligence- being intelligent in picking up what is going on inside us
(Self Awareness) and doing what needs to be done about it (Self
Management).
Interpersonal
Intelligence - being intelligent in picking up what is going on in other
people and between people (Other Awareness) and doing what we need to do
about that (Relationship Management).
Indeed, we define Emotional Intelligence as not so much the
ability to do something (it's no use having the ability if you don't put it to
use) as "the practice of integrating thinking and feeling, of using
thinking about feeling (and feeling about thinking) to guide behaviour".
Most
of us have the necessary capacity to do this to a significant extent, but often
we don't, because of underlying beliefs we have, or of fears of doing so, or of
habits of behaving in ways which ignore feeling.
Using a structured and systematic approach to understanding
our personal preferences can help us identify barriers that we may not be aware
of, and afford opportunities for different ways of thinking and considering our
emotions, thereby leading to different choices, actions and potentially
consequences.
Developing this skill set
starts with ourselves - once we have a healthy outlook (so a positive self-regard
and regard for others), we can start to more consciously focus on our
interactions and create positive outcomes.
Our consultant Debbie is certified to use the Individual Effectiveness questionnaire which measures 16 scales
ranging from underpinning attitudes, such as self-regard, to
relationship skills such as conflict handling. If you would like to learn more about how focusing on emotional intelligence can help your teams deal with turbulent times please contact us.
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The importance of trust
"The rules for work are changing. We're being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other."
This is Daniel Goleman's opening statement in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence .
Today as leaders are striving to attract and engage employees, influence clients and suppliers and work collaboratively on joint ventures with third parties, the need for highly developed interpersonal skills and trust is more important than ever.
In his book The Speed of Trust Covey states that successful organisations are reliant on the level of trust they develop and that in the new global economy the ability to establish, grow, extend and restore trust is a critical leadership competency.
He argues that effective leaders ensure their organisational structures and systems are aligned to the core organisational beliefs, values and behaviours. He also believes that those who build trust with their internal stakeholders will benefit from accelerated growth, enhanced innovation, improved colloboration and stronger partnerships.
He discusses the 5 waves of trust:
Self - trust - our own trust worthiness and personal credibility (intergrity, intent, capabilities and results).
Relationship trust - the ability to build trust accounts with others. We make deposits by building trust and withdrawals by destroying trust and the amount of trust we have in a relationship is the balance left.
Organisational trust - how leaders create trust in their organisations.
Market trust - the level of trust in the organisation's reputation and brand which will influnce whether people will buy from you, invest in you or recommend you to others.
Societal trust - creating value for society and being a good citizen in the community.
A survey by Mercer Consulting found that more than 60% of employees don't believe their senior managers always communicate honestly. The results also showed that the more accessible and visible leaders were they more likely they were to be trusted.
So the question is - how important is trust within your organisation and does every leader know it?
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Learning Consultancy Partnership provides bespoke coaching and development solutions to meet the specific needs across all levels of an organisation.
To find out more, please visit our website at http://www.lcp.org.uk.
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