Intentional Leadership Practice
The Intentional Leadership Practice is a Learning and Development process that maximises the quality of your people, management and leadership skills.
We help businesses design and develop educational programs with a specific business outcome in mind. Having a specific goal for the L&D training is an essential ingredient of any L&D process.
We combine Technical (Hard) Skills and the People Related (Soft) Skills so the participants can apply WHAT they have learned, WHY it’s important and HOW they can impact the performance of the business.
SIX CHALLENGES MANAGERS AND LEADERS FACE
1. Purposeful Program Design
What we would ask you to do is to think about this – What is the business outcome and improvement that you are looking to achieve? There is NO POINT in training and teaching skills that are nice to have, and simply tick a box.
We will sit with you and work together to design the best possible program to make sure you get your value. We look at your Human Resource Systems to see if they are a help or a hindrance. It does not help you one bit if you invest in a program that doesn’t deliver.
The options are Technical and/or People related skills, depending on your needs.
2. Time Management
Time Management basics. Although this says basic, it’s anything but. Here we introduce some fundamental concepts that can be used by everyone to create a ‘common language’ around how time is used and respected amongst the group.
Prioritising. Included as a part of the Time Management family, we look at a number of prioritising models including the MoScoW, Kano, RICE, Eisenhower Matrix. There are more but these are the main ones.
Calendar Management. We touch on this only if the business is without a common platform like Google Business or Microsoft Teams. We do touch on how to manage meetings and tasks in your calendar versus old school paper and pad. There are Pros and Cons of each.
Effective Meetings. Probably the most vexed task on every Managers agenda. Here we discuss how to avoid meetings, if you must have a meeting, how to run them effectively; and the action steps and follow up process to make sure it’s not just a talk fest.
Managing Expectations. This applies to all aspects of the business. Intra- departmental, Inter-departmental, customers, suppliers. It covers them all. The principle we use is old school. Under Promise and Over Deliver. In today’s age of immediate response, we promise a result knowing we can’t deliver. This module alone is worth the price of admission. Get this one right and you’re off to the races.
Managing Distractions (Saying NO). If you get distracted five times a day, and let’s assume you lose a minute each time refocusing on the task, that’s 5 minutes a day, 25 minutes a week, or 1,250 minutes for the year – 20 hours. That’s nearly 3 days.
We coach you on how to stay focussed and say no to distractions. The more time you have, the more in control you become.
Dealing with Procrastination. It’s not so much how to stop procrastinating, and more about being organised and working on what you can control and not worrying about what you can’t control. We like to use a buddy system for keeping people accountable. The funny thing is you’re sort of ok to let yourself down, but it’s harder to let a buddy down.
3. People Management
How to get value from a Job Description. The maligned JD. Worthless, doesn’t do anything, “I don’t need one, I’ve been doing my job fine for years”, “It’s not in my JD, so I’m not doing it.” Sound familiar? We show you how if you construct a JD with the purpose to help the person do their job better, then it becomes a living breathing tool that is valuable.
Accountability and Responsibility. What’s the difference? At the core of this is being very clear on what you do and what you delegate. If you’re accountable it’s your problem and you own it, even though you may have delegated it to someone else. We deep dive into your processes so you and your team have no misunderstanding who is doing what and when.
Using the Job Description for Recruiting. The JD can help a Manager with the management of their staff. Making sure that new hires fit the culture of the organisation is important and the JD gives the Manager the tool to specify what and who they want. If the HR Department drafts the JD without the Manager’s input, then they’ll get what they get.
Making sure you give the HR Recruiting team the key inputs so they are clear on what’s needed, you’ll have a significantly better chance of recruiting the right person.
Skills Gap Analysis – What skills are needed and what have you got? By analysing the tasks each position performs over the course of a year will give you an important insight into what skills are needed. These could be strategic and tactical. An analysis of these gaps feeds nicely into the planning of the L&D program.
Succession Planning – What’s your next Job look like and what have you got to do to get it? There is not much point in looking at the next job or opportunity unless you know who’s there to replace you? Mentoring and working with a protege and getting them ready to do your job guarantees you will be able to move onto the next opportunity. Succession planning is all about finding your replacement before you need them.
4. People Supervision
Coaching Methodology. Mentoring / Coaching / Teaching / Consulting / Training and knowing the difference and when to use it? The art of Managing and Leading is knowing when to do each to get the result you want. The best Leaders have two ears and one mouth and use them in that proportion. The Coaching Methodology is another very powerful tool, and once mastered is a game changer.
Delegate for leverage. Closely aligned to Succession Planning and Accountability, being an effective delegator leverages your time and builds capacity within the team. Done poorly and you place undue pressure on the team, done well and you build momentum.
The Daily Huddle. Also known as the daily briefing or the toolbox meeting, it all depends on which industry you are in. Doing this consistently and correctly will bring so much efficiency into your and your staff’s day. Don’t underestimate the power of a 10-minute huddle to get everyone fired up and ready to tackle the day. You can also kill off any enthusiasm if it becomes a talk fest or a ‘beat you up’ session.
Performance Management and Staff Appraisals. We are a great fan of providing feedback to your staff on as frequent a basis as possible. Performance Management sometimes is a euphemism for ‘you’re on your way out, I just need to document it’.
What if you took an alternative approach and nipped poor performance in the bud. We take you through a very simple process of really understanding where each of your staff are in the skills, capacity and attitude matrix.
Encouraging Discipline. We have borrowed the teachings of Jonathan Raymond (Good Authority fame) and use the accountability dial. Mention, Invitation, Conversation, Boundary and Limit. Using this method, your sole purpose is to help your staff improve. Closely aligned to Performance Management this method, when woven into your standard discussions with staff removes 90% of the disciplinary problems.
5. People Development
Your Personal Development Plan. Just as the business needs a plan, so do the employees. This is a deep dive into the personal goals, visions, values, and how you want to live your life.
Behavioural Awareness. Emotional Intelligence has been used in management principles for over 20 years. Rather than a specific subject, this is intertwined in all of the modules. If you’re not emotionally aware your behaviour will show up, but probably not the way you were hoping. This is about acceptance
Context – Content. Our version of being on the same page. This model has saved many a business relationship as it shows how to align your Context and gives meaning to the Content. One of those aha moments for sure.
Emotional Phases and Behaviour. Another powerful model explaining how your behaviour and emotions varies at various stages of a business; a relationship and your career; all are affected by emotions and these can have a massive impact on how you perform. Another aha moment when you realise why you behave the way you do at certain times.
6. Strategy & Planning
Strategic Thinking – when is it needed? There are times to be strategic and times to be tactical. This topic is related to how we help facilitate the strategic planning process, rather than showing you how to strategize.
You’ve already done that well, but if you’d like a second opinion we can review what you’ve done and be your sounding board. You know your business and market best, so we wouldn’t presume to tell you how to run your strategy, but we can be there to help.
Business Planning and Implementation. This is valuable for your staff who may not have been through a formal business planning process. We usually make this a part of the business outcome attached to the training. You’ll remember we asked you to think about the outcome you wanted from the training. This is one of them that can be used as an important part of the daily processes.