The Leader’s Guide to Influence

How to use soft skills to get hard results by Mike Brent & Fiona Elsa Dent

This book is on CMI’s Book of Year Short List announced in October 2011 and the winner will be announced on 6th February 2012.  Here’s an extract to whet your appetite:-

Create powerful working relationship and become a more influential leader

Creative effective working relationships is one of the most powerful ways to get things done at work.  People skills are often described as “soft skills”, but there’s nothing soft about the impact they can have on your business performance.  As a manager or leader, using your influence positively, working others and getting things done through other people is critical to delivering your business objectives.  This book shows you how to step up your people skills to get the results you want.

The Leader’s Guide to Influence will help you to understand the most critical aspects of managing your relationships at work, including influence, communication, engagement and trust.  It will give you the tools and techniques to use this understanding confidently and effectively to get things done.

Through a combination of ground rules, self-evaluation, practical exercises, case studies and no-nonsense advice, The Leader’s Guide to Influence shows you how to:

• Increase your impact and crate the right impression on others
• Gain greater awareness of your own communication style and approach
• Tailor your management style to work effectively with different types of people
• Communicate more effectively in a wide range of situations
• Build high quality networks
• Understand your colleagues and direct reports better
• Put things right if relationships go off track
• Listen and question effectively
• Give better feedback
• Develop rapport and empathy
• Bring honesty, integrity and authenticity to your relationships.

Leading at a Higher Level

by Ken Blanchard et al

“Lead your people to greatness as you create high performing organizations that make life better for everyone.  This book will guide you, inspire you, provoke you, and be your touchstone.

Ken Blanchard and his colleagues have spent 30 years helping good leaders and organizations become great … and stay great.  This edition delivers brand new guidance on using coaching to build individual and organizational performance, plus a full chapter on how to create an organizational culture that brings out the best in people.

Discover how to:

• Go beyond the short term and zero in on the right target and vision
• Deliver legendary, maniacal customer service and earn raving fans
• Truly empower your people and unleash their incredible potential
• Ground your leadership in humility and focus on the greater good”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone involved with managing / leading / coaching / mentoring.  It would be a particularly useful read for anyone studying a management qualification.

A Manager’s Guide to Self Development

by Mike Pedlar, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell

“A Manager’s Guide to Self Development has become the indispensable guide for building management skills.  Now in its fifth edition, with a strong ‘how to’ approach, this practical self-development book helps new and experienced managers improve their managerial performance.

It provides:

• A complete picture of the skills and competencies required of a manager from change management to coaching.
• A flexible, self-development programme to do alone, with a colleague, or in a group.

Part one introduces a framework of 11 key managerial qualities.  Diagnostic activities help you to discover your strengths and weaknesses, and identify your own goals for self-development.

Part two features more than 50 practical activities to help you develop your skills and abilities.  These include:

• Networking
• Finding a Mentor
• Handling Conflict
• Managing Upwards
• Getting to a Yes
• Collaborative Working
• Planning Change
• Being a Coach
• Using Communication Tools

Our framework of ‘The 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager’  is based on a research project [which] identified the qualities that were found more often in successful managers than in those judged to be less successful.  These 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager form the basis for the self-development programme provided in this book:

1. command of basic facts
2. relevant professional knowledge
3. continuing sensitiity to events
4. analytical, problem-solving and decision/judgement-making skills
5. social skills and abilities
6. emotional resilience
7. proactivity – inclination to respond purposefully to events
8. creativity
9. mental agility
10. balanced learning habits and skills
11. self-knowledge”

Part one contains a questionnaire to enable you to assess yourself against The 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager and prompts you to set goals / target dates to help you to develop in any of the 11 areas.  To assist with this process there are 53 learning activities aimed to help with each of the 11 Qualities.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in their own self-development or in the self-development of their own team.

24 Carat BOLD

24 Carat BOLD – The Standard for REAL Thought Leaders

by Mindy Gibbins-Klein

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Are you a thought leader?  How do you know?  In the past, it has been hard to identify the qualities that distinguish true innovators from the rest of the pack.  In this incisive and challenging book, leading executive marketing strategist Mindy Gibbins-Klein presents an exciting, systematic approach to becoming a ‘REAL Thought Leader’ and gaining recognition and credibility.”

R – E – A – L

R = Reach

E = Engagement

A = Authority

L = Longevity

 

Chapter 1 – Why we need Thought Leaders more than ever

Chapter 2 – Thought Leadership is a Choice

Chapter 3 – REAL Thought Leadership

Chapter 4 – Reach for the BOLD

Chapter 5 – Good Engagement is BOLD

Chapter 6 – Be a Shining Authority

Chapter 7 – Longevity Wins in the Long Run

Chapter 8 – How to write a book the REAL way

Chapter 9 – What really stops most people from Going for BOLD

Chapter 10 – REAL Wealth

 

” Cream naturally rises to the top of the milk and REAL thought leaders rise to the top in our communities, businesses, politics and consciousness.”

“THOUGHT LEADER: A futurist or person who is recognised among their peers, mentors and market for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote and share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.”

“The pressure of time encourages the busy executive to find more and more creative ways of getting more and more done.  They get better at delegating; they get faster at decision-making.”

“Thought leaders influence others’ thinking, which leads to action”

Higher Apprenticeship in Management

Chartered Management Institute (CMI) offer the Higher Apprenticeship in Management (Level 5)

“Apprenticeships are structured training programmes undertaken within a working environment. They use the skills and knowledge gained through work to provide learners with recognised qualifications. Apprenticeships can be undertaken by anyone over sixteen and provide a great way of gaining a qualification whilst continuing to earn a wage.

There is no fixed time frame for the completion of an apprenticeship, but each apprenticeship typically takes between one and four years, depending on its size and level of difficulty.

There are currently over 4 million people employed in Management positions in the UK, with a real need to encourage the new generation of young people to progress through the management qualifications to address the future skills needs of organisations in the UK. The Apprenticeship should go some way to addressing those skill needs, providing excellent progression routes through a variety of work based and off the job training, and with an abundance of further and higher education options, such as foundation degrees and degree courses.

Learn with CMI and receive more value for your investment with qualifications standards that are second to none.”

Competence Qualification
CMI Level 5 NVQ Diploma in Management (QCF)

Knowledge Qualification
CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership (QCF)

Employee Rights and Responsibilities (ERR) Workbook

Functional Skills

Level 2 Functional Skill in English/Communication

Level 2 Functional Skill in Mathematics

Level 2 Functional Skill in ICT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS)

Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) are generic skills that are essential to life, learning and work. PLTS have a significant impact on a person’s ability to make a confident contribution, both within and outside of their working environment.

The PLTS Framework comprises six groups:

• Independent enquirers
• Creative thinkers
• Reflective learners
• Team workers
• Self-managers
• Effective participants

Some of the PLTS requirements are embedded within the mandatory units of the apprenticeship competence and knowledge qualifications.

CMI are conducting a further mapping exercise to map the remaining PLTS to the CMI Knowledge Qualification, details will be available shortly.

Guided Learning Hours (GLH)

The total on- and off-the-job GLH for the framework is 606 hours.

The total off-the-job GLH is 197 hours (33% of the total GLH).”

Management Apprenticeships

“Management & Leadership skills have a major impact on the development, productivity and performance of organisations of all sizes and across all sectors of the economy. Many British leaders and managers are innovative, creative, visionary and inspirational and are heavily relied upon to sustain the UK as one of the world’s leading economies. In today’s fast-moving competitive environment there is a need to continue to drive up the performance of the best and to address weaknesses in Management & Leadership that are holding back productivity and performance. The average amount of spend per manager per year for development in the UK is far lower than other European countries, particularly within small to medium sized businesses, where fewer staff have management qualifications than in equivalent sized European countries.”

“The existing workforce needs to be up skilled and new people attracted into these jobs to meet the increasing demand for new management practices and a range of skills, including:

• leadership skills, including self management, relationship building, negotiation and
• influencing skills
• communication and decision making skills
• information technology skills
• knowledge and project management skills
• coaching and mentoring skills
• skills to win and maintain customer loyalty
• change management skills such as the ability to manage the challenges of globalisation
• partnership working and the ability to implement innovative solutions to a range of problems.”

“The Management Apprenticeship programmes have seen a steady increase in learners since their initial development and the Apprenticeship is in the top twenty frameworks. The Apprenticeship programme has been designed to provide flexible and portable qualifications, units and skills sets which meet the current and future needs of employers of all sizes and across all sectors.”

“The Team Leading Intermediate Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as team leaders, section leaders, floor managers, help desk managers, trainee supervisors, team co-ordinators and those working in a range of other team leader positions.”

“The Management Advanced Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as first line managers, section managers, assistant managers, trainee managers, senior supervisors, junior non-commissioned officers (armed forces) and those working in a range of other management positions.”

“The Leadership & Management Higher Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as managers, senior managers, heads of department, directors and those working in a range of other senior management positions.”

The Apprenticeship Framework is available for download via the CfA’s website: http://www.cfa.uk.com/apprenticeships/sasew-frameworks.html

My initial reaction to the launch of “Management Apprenticeships” (especially for Level 5) is whether this will be fully funded and, if so, it’s an ideal opportunity for managers and leaders to obtain an accredited qualification.

Unit 5001 Personal Development as a Manager or Leader

I have recently completed my Assignment for Unit 5001 “Personal Development as a Manager or Leader” as part of my Level 5 Diploma in Management Coaching and Mentoring (via CMI) and have thoroughly enjoyed the process, especially as this was the final Assignment.    I’ve now completed the whole Diploma.

Unit 5001 covers the following:-

Be able to assess and plan for personal professional development

• Explain the importance of continual self-development in achieving organisational objectives
• Assess current skills and competencies against defined role requirements and organisational objectives
• Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs
• Construct a personal development plan with achievable but challenging goals

Be able to plan for the resources required for personal professional development

• Identify the resources required to support the personal development plan

Be able to implement and evaluate the personal development plan

• Discuss the processes required to implement the personal development plan
• Evaluate the impact of the personal development plan on the achievement of defined role requirements and organisational objectives
• Review and update the personal development plan

Be able to support and promote staff welfare

• Discuss the relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives
• Explain the process for assessing staff welfare
• Identify the actions to be taken by the manager dealing with a staff welfare issue
• Describe how to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to the team
• Discuss records that may be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported

Amongst the many and varied resources I used, I found the following books to be particularly relevant and useful:-