Month: May 2012

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Authentic Leadership – Dare to Be Yourself

An office team leader standing and posing to a camera

Andreas Dudàs has a recently published book, “Do You Dare to Be Yourself?” He touches on many of the ideas explored in this blog – vision, values, passion, and purpose. See what stirs as you explore your authentic self and leadership. Enjoy some of his writing here.

Embark on a rewarding journey

Authentic leaders who are able to move the others’ hearts are in great demand. Living authentically is the be-all-and-end-all for finding inner peace, gaining more self-confidence and following your true calling, which all in turn helps to make this planet a better place. We all were once fully connected to our souls when we were born. However, while we grow up we lose the connection to our true self. Fear rules our lives, we are worried that we might never amount to anything, that others wouldn’t accept us the way we really are. Coupled with that fear is the constant uncertainty. We often agree to anything and everything, trying to guess and satisfy the unspoken needs of others.

Why do we act this way? The answer is simple. We always receive a reward for such a behavior. For a fleeting moment, we feel needed and acknowledged. We value praise and respect much more than listening to the heart. But remember, nobody else but you alone can award honest love, praise and recognition to your unique self.

Authenticity can neither be acquired nor learned. Authenticity can just be regained, for it has always been lying on our heart. It requires that you love yourself for all the good that you see and accept your flaws and the fact that you are imperfect. Becoming an authentic leader asks for reclaiming your authenticity through embarking on an intense and sometimes long journey, starting first with getting acquainted with your true self and then following an inch-by-inch process.

Develop self-respect and fall in love with yourself:

Self-respect has nothing to do with selfishness, as many people argue. Nowadays, we are all well connected electronically, but very often disconnected from our own hearts and souls. Many individuals do not honor their real values lying inside them. Instead, they are consistently seeking recognition in the outer world and are playing roles so as to receive praise. Living authentically requires spending a lot of time on getting to know one’s strengths and values, but also weaknesses, feelings and what one really wants to get out of life. Know that only by first following your heart and by respecting yourself you‘ll be able to touch other people’s hearts. Be therefore proud of your true self. Celebrate your little successes on a daily basis and jot them down in a separate journal you are always carrying with you. One of the key distinguishing characteristics of authentic leaders is that they are anchored by their own deep sense of self.

Live your passion:

Do the work you love or love the work you do! Anything else leads to depression, burn-out and loss of self-confidence. Ideally you choose a job which is one hundred percent consistent with your authentic calling. You will learn and acquire some leadership skills in the course of your career. However, I am convinced that leadership is not a role you are playing, or a profession you learn. It is a true calling. In this sense, authentic leaders are first “born” with innate leadership qualities and only later “made” through the acquisition of certain skills. By blending your courage of being true to yourself, with choosing leadership as your authentic calling, you develop a “deadly” combination moving people’s hearts.

Find your life purpose:

Purpose is your inner compass, fueling deeper meaning both in your life and work. Purpose is also a fundamental aim of your organizations’ existence. Your purpose is about creating and not fixing things. To find it, ask yourself what would you choose to do if you had unlimited time and resources? What would you do if money did not matter? What activities do you consider of greatest value?

Live by your values:

Living authentically means that you stand by your values and beliefs that you hold most dear. Values provide important guidance when you are looking for a new job, get a promotion or chose a new working environment. Identify your values by asking yourself: When am I happiest? When do I forget time and live completely in the “here and now”? What activities do I enjoy most and why?

Align your “true self” with your company’s soul:

Ask yourself, does the company’s soul that is reflected in the corporate vision, mission and values coincide with your true self? Does your current working and living environment allow you to live up to your unique values and life purpose? This is a crucial acid test and it requires you to be brutally true to yourself so as to authentically answer the above questions. If your personal values and life purpose clash with those of your company, you will never be able to ignite the fire inside your employees.

Many other attributes such as communication, fairness, compassion, having a big vision, or the capability to set clear goals, account also for critical traits of great leaders. But believe me, they are either a natural outcome from living up to all of the above principles or can be easily acquired. Forget about the bewildering array of theories about effective leadership. The only key is to reclaim your true self, live authentically and follow leadership as your true calling. Then the rest of the world will follow you!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Andreas Dudàs has more than 20 years leadership experience gained in top executive positions in over 25 countries. Visionary entrepreneur, mentor, motivational speaker & expert on authentic (life) leadership, he is the author of Do You Dare To Be Yourself? Learn more at http://www.andreasdudas.com/

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Get to the Start of the Slippery Slope

Tired male entrepreneur staring out through the window

What’s at the heart of many of today’s scandals? Legal and even innocent behavior that creates a toxic culture.

Take the recent GSA scandal for example. As quoted today in Forbes:

David Gebler, a whistleblowing expert, lawyer, and author of The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance, says good intentions can lead to bad outcomes in business, and the GSA scandal provides an apt example of this.

“With all the rampant spending at the GSA, one has to ask if employees were afraid to speak up, lest they upset their coworkers,” he said. “Or perhaps they had become complacent in an upbeat, backslapping culture that rewarded everyone early, often, and extravagantly. Time will tell. In the case of the GSA, the good intention of employees—being a team player—led to a very bad result. But it’s poor leadership that created that toxic culture and allowed it to drag good employees down.”

David Gebler is the President of Skout Group, LLC and the author of The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance (2012 Wiley)

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Tempting Cultural Training–It’s Good For You

An English -teacher-in-foreign-country

Remember seeing those ads while in college, “Teach English in a foreign country?” They sounded so tempting. However, they became less tempting as time went on. But you did notice that it seemed the neat thing to do at the time.

And it was. When you’re 25.

No amount of preparation is going to help unless you are 25 and have no fear of the world.When I was in my mid-thirties (and I consider myself pretty fearless), I was offered a job by a Japanese company that sold Western Culture to the big companies. For the younger employees you might say they taught English, but everyone was learning English in school then. So as a corporate employee went up the ladder so did I, his level of assistance was more appropriate owing to his station in life.What this company was offering was native speakers to help employees smooth out their dealings with native speakers of the same language.

Here was my bright idea. I’d do this for a time–all the while researching via dialogue doing business in Japan. I would write a book, or at least a long article. Instead, I found myself culture shocked and couldn’t wait to get to the comfort of my own culture.

This memory was sparked by seeing a critically acclaimed film, Lost in Translation. Of course the film’s morass was deeper than my own, but when it happens to you, it couldn’t be much worse. I had studied the culture for nine months, and when I got to the airport, I struggled to use the telephone to call my boss.

Think of this every time you have a foreign student or trainee. The older you get, the harder it hits you. Try to incorporate some of their culture if you can do so unobtrusively. Lost in Translation has special meaning to me now. Don’t get so angry at older people who don’t adapt so easily. That could be you some day. I never did write the book, but I did learn something valuable. We are more adventurous when we are young. You can call it reckless, but it’s really a form of courage.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

My book, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, has some interesting ideas you may totally disagree with today but not tomorrow. I’m told it is a different take on the world of training and development. For a piddling investment, you could have a few extra ideas.

My novel, IN MAKR’S SHADOW–another creative side of me speaks–will be available this year. You’ve heard of Steve Martin’s film, “The Man with Two Brains?” I may be the man with two right brains…if you agree with that theory. MAKR is all about what happens when people stop talking to each other and let their devices control what the world becomes based on facts, proven and tested. By the way, the world is doomed. At first a fantasy, then doomed? That’s a “visceral” question if I ever heard one. Better check it out, too, before it is too late.

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Productivity: Are You Doing What Really Matters?

Two office colleagues di'scussing on new production plans

Do you every feel you’re spinning your wheels? Is there so much to do that when one project gets done there’s at least 10 more waiting for your attention?

In coaching supervisors and managers on work productivity, I advocate a doing a priority audit. That means taking time to assess a project, which can be as small that takes an hour or two or as big as something that takes a few weeks or months, before diving in. Either way, it’s important to ask the following questions to make sure you’re doing work that matters.

1. Why are I or we doing this?
Ever find yourself working on something but you don’t know why? Someone just told you to do this or that? It’s pretty common I think. It’s important to ask yourself (and others): What is this for? Who benefits? How does this help achieve our team, department,or organization goals? Knowing the purpose, the rationale or the “why” will help you be better focused.

2. What problem am I solving?
What’s the real problem? What’s happening that is not suppose to happen or what’s not happening that is suppose to happen? Who owns the problem – is it me, my team, my department or someone else? Sometimes you’ll find that you’re working on on what someone else thinks is crucial but is it really? That’s when it’s time to stop and reevaluate what you’re doing.

3. Is this actually useful?
Are we making something useful or are we just making something? It’s easy to confuse enthusiasm with usefulness. Sometimes it’s fine to play a bit and build something that’s cool, but it’s worth asking yourself if it’s useful too. Cool wears off, useful never does.

4. Are we adding value?
Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is what I’m working on actually making the product or service more valuable for our customers? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and just adding more features that few people want.

5. Is there an easier way?
There are lots of ways to do things, but for simplicity’s sake let’s say there are two primary ways: The easier way and the harder way. The easier way takes 1 unit of time. The harder way takes 10 units of time. Whenever you’re working on the harder way you should ask yourself is there an easier way? You’ll often find that the easier way is more than good enough for now.

Supervision Success Tip:

This is the big question: Is it really worth it? This one should come up all the time. Is what we’re doing really worth it? Is this meeting worth pulling 6 people off their work for an hour? Is it worth pulling an all-nighter tonight or could we just finish it up tomorrow? Is it worth getting all stressed out over a press release from a competitor?

Now it’s your turn to fill in the blank. Is it really worth__________________________?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Tips for First-Time Managers, From First-Time Managers

A successful ''office manager standing in front a camera

By Jennifer King, Guest Blogger

Congratulations! You’ve finally been promoted to “manager.” While the bump in salary and new job title are nice, you now have heaps of responsibility you didn’t have before. As a manager, part of your new job is being responsible for the growth and well-being of an entire team.

You may be crying for help at this point. I spoke with a few recently-appointed managers and an executive coach to get their tips for first-time managers:

1. Get to know your people and what they want. Take as much time as possible in the beginning of your transition to get to know your direct reports. Talk to them about their career goals, what they want out of their current position, and how you can best support them.

According to Deirdre Walsh, senior social media manager for Jive Software, “If you start by understanding the career goals and plans for each person, that will help you make better decisions that will benefit the company and the individual.”

2. Learn to see your work through others. As a manager, you’ll likely be spending most of your time in meetings, discussions with senior management, and one-on-one conversations with your team, which will leave you less time to work on your own projects. You’ll eventually begin to see your work shine through your team as you give direction and offer guidance.

“At first you may feel like you’re not getting tons of tangible things done,” explained Andria Elliott, Senior International Marketing Communications Specialist at National Instruments. “All your work now shows through a team of people instead of your individual self,” she notes.

3. Listen. The ability to listen to your team and give guidance without assuming you immediately know the right answer will be critical as you spend more one-on-one time with your employees.

That’s Mike Lee’s biggest piece of advice for first-time managers. As an assistant branch manager for Randstad, Lee says new managers should “strive to truly listen during discussions rather than prepare in your mind what you will say next.”

“If you’re not a listener or a patient person, then you’ll constantly be asserting your will on people. That approach is antiquated,” says Lee.

4. Develop your own style. While it may feel easy or natural to mimic the management tactics of your previous boss, those same tactics might not work for you. Instead, think about what they did and how you can learn from them to develop your own style.

According to Houston Neal, marketing director for Software Advice, as a new manager “you have to be true to yourself and develop your own style. Otherwise, your management will seem forced or ineffective as a result.”

5. Don’t expect to “get it” at first. One of the biggest misconceptions held by first-time managers is that they’ll be good at management from the get-go. In most cases, though, new managers need training and development just like any new hire within an organization.

Building a solid training plan with development goals and consistent performance evaluations with your supervisor is a great way to assess your progress during the first few months on the job.

What advice do you have for first-time managers? What unexpected challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

For more resources, see the Library topic Career Management.

Jennifer King is an HR Analyst for SoftwareAdvice.com, a web site that reviews and compares HR and performance review software. She reports on trends, technology, and best practices related to HR and career development.

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How Fertile Is The Fundraising Hiring “Field” For You?

I once was not even remotely considered as a candidate for a fundraising development job with a hospital. I came from another non-profit background, and no matter my credentials, I did not even get an interview.

The hospital’s “call for resumes” had an explicit condition that anyone applying for the job, “Must have at least five years experience in the medical sector.” Subsequently, when I was hired by The Cleveland Orchestra as its Development Director, I did not know one note of music from another. I had only been in the concert hall twice in my life. Twenty years later — when I left to go into consulting — as I was completing my last day at The Orchestra, I still did not know one note of music from another. Nothing to brag about, to be sure, but you get the idea.

I loved the art, but I did not need to be steeped in an artistic environment to appreciate it. I did not need a background in arts & culture to understand and believe in the Orchestra’s mission. More to the point of this little essay, the Orchestra management was far more enlightened than the hospital’s. It made no difference at all where I came from when it came to carrying out my duties and knowing the fundraising process, a process which is basically the same in any field.

Anyone having non-profit fundraising experience knows well that the only real difference affecting fundraising practices for social service, arts & culture, educational, religious, and health-related organizations is their financial support constituencies. We know that the concepts of fundraising can, and do, apply across the board for all of them. What is mostly different is where the money comes from.

Just look at listings of the thousands of books on fundraising, or note the countless presentations of fundraising workshops and seminars, and you will see they overwhelmingly appeal to the broad spectrum of non-profit organizations. And, where non-profit fundraising issues are addressed every day in Blogs and Internet discussion groups, far more often than not, the participants have no knowledge whatever regarding the types of organizations being discussed. They just want to know how to fund-raise.

Most any successful fundraising campaign for any type of organization is a straightforward, concise process of executing well-defined components arranged in a step-by-step progression. I know this to be so because I have seen it done over-and-over again. After twenty years in the arts, my first few consulting engagements were — in this order — a Vietnam Veterans memorial, a community hospital, a therapeutic riding center, a retirement/nursing home, etc.

Those examples are not meant as my ego-building bio, but more to demonstrate and prove that the fundraising process is basically the same for any cause, as I have seen that process work time and again.

Anyone seeking to work in development for an organization which has its leadership insisting the candidate must come from that same field to get the job, should politely work to point out that most all of the dollars raised for some non-profits come from people who directly avail themselves of its services, such as arts & culture patrons, grateful hospital patients, alumni, etc.

Where the clients/users of some non-profit’s service cannot give money, such as those who are homeless, hungry, etc., those having money in the community respond directly to support those organizations.

This is usually a much larger grouping of people who, while they do not avail themselves of a non-profit’s services, nevertheless indirectly benefit because of what the organization does for the community in which they live and do business, and have concerns and cares about.

While there are indeed unique elements to be found in the various types of organizations — even in similar organizations from one to another — the fundraising process is basically the same. Fundraising challenges and issues are in very close parallel to the process when seeking to raise money for a ballet company, for academic scholarships, for a hospital’s new MRI, for new church pews, etc.

No matter our particular cause across the entire spectrum of types of non-profits, we raise money from people who:

• Have it
• Can afford to give
• Are sold on the benefit of what we are doing
• Wouldn’t have given it to us unless we had asked
• Receive appreciation and respect for their gifts

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If you have a question or comment for Tony, he can be reached at Tony@raise-funds.com. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com

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