Engage Staff to Survive.

Consultants PWC state that involvement is essential in managing change successfully. They identified that nine out of ten barriers to change relate to people.

LeaderShape’s Managing Director, Greg Young, agrees: “Engaged people are up to 40% more productive, developing solutions to improve productivity that no top-down approach can ever identify. They bring innovation to the way they and their organisations work. It is leadership, at all levels, that determines the level of engagement in an organisation, its productivity, its agility and therefore its long term sustainability of performance.”

Staff engagement is seen as one of the biggest keys to success.  A new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit identifies more than 80% of top company executives across Europe and the Middle East airing this concern.  Yet almost half (43%) admit that issues like motivation, identification with company goals or willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ – are only ‘occasionally’, ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ discussed at board level. Moreover, almost 90% say their organisations fail to take action to tackle continually low staff engagement.

Emotional Intelligence or Behavioural Control?

Successfully managing a difficult member of your team is a challenge. Assuming they generally behave reasonably, it could be stress overload rather than their character. 

Neuroscience is beginning to understand how our brains evolved from basic survival mechanisms through to complex “Emotional Intelligence.” Internationally known psychologist, Daniel Goleman, explains the scientific background to a common workplace concern.

Learning is ALL Around

Learning opportunities are going on around us all the time and we don’t necessarily recognise them until we really absorb what is going on.  And Leadership has common themes, which hold true in the most unlikely of places.

The Leadership Academy World Café Workshop

A World Café and Action Learning for Sustainable Leadership session will be facilitated by the University of Greenwich, the University of Surrey and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

The event will bring together business leaders, leadership practitioners, academics and business advisors. The focus for this innovative event will be provided by World Café discussion groups on the question of ‘Trust and Leadership in the Downturn’. Groups will consider the issues of trust in the context of business and public sector leadership and the organisational and personal challenges that all have faced in the context of a global economic downturn.

Leadership Academy partners will facilitate a group discussion process through which all participants at the event will provide input and insight into solving these challenges.
What you will gain from this Workshop?

• Discuss and debate leadership themes
• Network with new prospective partners and collaborators
• Meet and get to know business advisors who help businesses with their leadership development needs
• Have the opportunity (subject to eligibility) to sign up to a
• Sustainability Syndicate (action learning set)
• Gain insights into how to lead in difficult times
• Develop strategies for effective leadership in your organisation
• Access resources for gaining help
• Learn new ways of dealing with resistance to change that derives from uncertainty in the downturn

For more information and to register for this event on 27 November, please download the brochure and then contact: Bethany James, Project Officer for the Leadership Academy, on 01483 683495.

Who will get the Empathy Vote?

It’s Party conference season.  The Lib Dems kicked it off, followed by Labour and now it’s the Conservatives turn in the spotlight.  These occasions are now aimed less at the party faithful themselves and more a showcase for the wider audience.  This is especially so this year with a General Election not that far away. 

So it has become a bit of a beauty parade for the leaders; Nick Clegg seeking to establish credibility that the Lib Dems are not a wasted vote, Gordon Brown focusing on policy substance and this week David Cameron will want to appear as PM in waiting.

In order to be successful, all three leaders will have to connect with ordinary people, demonstrate that they really do understand their issues in a way that isn’t politically patronising but authentic and heartfelt.  In short they need to demonstrate empathy in bucket loads.  Easier said than done, especially for Gordon Brown who has been living in the Government bubble for over a decade, and perhaps David Cameron with his privileged background shared with a number of colleagues in the Shadow Cabinet.

Empathy is an essential ingredient of excellent leadership and anyone in any walk of life politics aside, will not gain followers without this attribute.  See the four key ways you can develop your own empathy by visiting http://www.leadershape.biz/empathy.aspx