Competent Leadership Manual By Sherri Franklin There are ten projects in the Competent Leadership Manual. The details of these projects are discussed below. Project 1, Listening Listening is an important leadership skill that enables you to acquire information, identify and clarify issues, make decisions and resolve conflict. Listening skills also play a major role in team building. You can learn to be a better listener by following a few simple suggestions. How to Listen: 1. Keep an open mind. Avoid making assumptions and judgments before the speaker finishes. 2. Maintain eye contact. Give the speaker your full attention. 3. Watch your body language. Relax. Uncross your arms and legs, and refrain from tapping your fingers or making other nervous gestures. Instead, lean toward the speaker and nod and smile when appropriate. 4. Listen for key ideas and full understanding. Seek out and remember the speaker s main idea and points. For example, if the speaker is relaying the reasons why a major project is being delayed, listen carefully for each specific reason. 5. Rephrase what the speaker is saying. Show the speaker you understand what he is saying and allow him to clarify if you are missing the point. 6. Ask questions. Confirm your understanding and get more information Why, How? 7. Evaluate. When the speaker is finished, think carefully about what he said before you respond. To complete this goal, you must do 3 of 4 of the following meeting roles: Ah-Counter, Speech Evaluator, Grammarian, and Table Topics Speaker. Remember: When team members believe you are listening to them, they feel important and respected. In turn, they trust and respect you and perform to the best of their abilities. Project 2, Critical Thinking A leader gathers information then analyzes, interprets, and understands it before acting. Critical thinkers question what the read and hear. Then they determine the quality of a piece of
information and use logical reasoning to reach conclusions. Critical thinkers make better decisions. Critical thinkers question what they read and hear. They determine the quality, merits and faults of an idea and can distinguish between fact and opinions. They consider information in several ways: 1. They interpret the meaning of experiences, situations, data and judgments. 2. They identify and analyze relationships between events, statements, concepts and situations. 3. They assess credibility by determining the logical strength of a statement, description or interpretation and judging if the evidence supports the conclusion being drawn. 4. They infer by forming hypotheses and deducing the consequences of data or events. How to think critically: 1. Be informed. Collect information from numerous sources. 2. Refrain from making decisions too early. Get the facts. Quick decisions may lead to regrets. 3. Keep an open mind. 4. Ask questions. Don t assume. Why? How? 5. Be honest about yourself. Don t let biases influence you. 6. Weigh opinions against facts. 7. Be persistent. Don t give up because of difficulties. 8. Be organized. 9. Consider and analyze all options. Most important! To complete this goal, you must do 2 of 3 of the following meeting roles: Speech Evaluator, Grammarian, and General Evaluator. Remember: Critical thinkers make better decisions. They determine the quality of a piece of information and use logical reasoning to reach conclusions. Project 3, Giving Feedback Team members need to know what they are doing well, what they are not doing well, and how they can improve. Giving performance feedback is a necessary leadership function. When done properly, feedback can relieve stress, improve interpersonal relationships and promote trust and respect for leaders and team members. To be most helpful, feedback should be given immediately after the behavior occurs in a respectful, calm, encouraging way that is tailored to the individual team member. Take the following steps to offer feedback effectively: 1. Describe the specific behavior that needs correction. 2. Explain the behaviors effect. 3. Listen. Acknowledge explanations but stay focused on the problematic behavior.
4. Ask for a change in behavior. 5. Reaffirm the person s ability to make the change. 6. End on a positive note. 7. Follow up. Be tactful. Don t criticize. Feedback can be a positive experience. It can be an opportunity for the receivers to recognize what they are doing well and to learn what they can do better. Feedback also involves recognizing those who perform well. When you give positive feedback, remember these tips: 1. Be specific. State what the team member did to deserve praise. 2. Express your appreciation. Explain why their effort was effective and how it contributed to success. 3. Encourage more of the same. To complete this goal, you must do 3 of 3 of the following meeting roles: Speech Evaluator, Grammarian, and General Evaluator. Project 4, Time Management Time management helps leaders make the most of the time available to them. You can budget your time and accomplish projects and tasks efficiently by following the steps we are about to discuss. To meet the challenge of time management, you must be able to do the following: 1. Understand what you can realistically achieve with your time. 2. Make the best use of the time available. 3. Plan enough time for things you absolutely must do 4. Allow some time to handle the unexpected. 5. Minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment to yourself and others. Working faster and longer does not necessarily get more done. Often, this results in more problems because of more mistakes due to tiredness and diminished judgment. Procrastination adds stress on yourself thus risking more mistakes or poor quality of work. The following practices can help you budget your time and accomplish projects and tasks efficiently. 1. Identify long and short-term goals. 2. Make a daily to do list. 3. Prioritize that list.
4. Make a schedule, or agenda. 5. Delegate when possible. 6. Leave time for emergencies. 7. Manage interruptions. 8. Also have a list for important but not urgent or wishful thinking. These can be handled when you are ahead of schedule. 9. Take breaks to stay alert and focused. Keep your schedule realistic. If it causes you stress, or if you are not finishing your lists, rethink and adjust your schedule. To complete this goal, you must perform the duties of Timer and do 1 of 4 of the following meeting roles: Toastmaster, Speaker, Grammarian, and Topics Master. Project 5, Planning and Implementation A Plan provides direction for the leader and the team. The planning process involves setting goals and objectives, and preparing plans and schedules to accomplish them. The process forces leaders to look beyond their everyday activities and think about what they want to happen in the future. Involving team members in the process encourages commitment. Planning is the thinking that precedes the work and yields the following positive results: 1. Planning makes leaders future-oriented. 2. Planning enables leaders to coordinate decisions. 3. Planning reinforces goals. If planning and implementation are so awesome, how do I do it you may ask? The planning and implementation process can be broken down into five steps. 1. Determine goals. A goal should be clearly written and specifically outline the what and when, not the why and how. 2. Establish strategies. List the specific steps or tasks to achieve the goal. 3. Set a timetable. Priorities and scheduling are critical. Prioritize the list you just made and establish deadlines for each step. 4. Assign responsibilities. Delegate! Be clear (specific) about what each person is to do. Take into consideration each person s skills assign tasks accordingly. 5. Anticipate obstacles. Leaders anticipate problems and turn them into possibilities. Often, obstacles motivate the team to think more creatively.
Strive to develop commitment in your team members. People tend to commit to a goal when they have been involved in its creation. Involvement makes them feel important and needed, and it gives them a sense of responsibility for the results. Your responsibility as a leader is to communicate the goal to team members in a manner that motivates and excites them. For the team to be successful, everyone must understand the goal and embrace it. Explain how what they do contributes and how they can benefit from doing it. Ask for their ideas and comments. To complete this goal, you must perform the 3 of 4 of the following meeting roles: Toastmaster, Speaker, General Evaluator, and Topics Master. Project 6, Organization and Delegation Leaders must ensure the team is organized enough to accomplish its goals and objectives, and provide the structure in which the team operates. Delegation plays a major role. A good leader performs functions that only he has the knowledge and authority to perform, delegating all other tasks to team members. People can t work effectively in chaos. One of your responsibilities as a leader is to provide structure and organization so that the team functions effectively and efficiently. 1. Divide work into logical groups to avoid overlapping and gaps. 2. Provide the resources the team needs. 3. Determine lines of responsibility and authority. Who reports to whom? 4. Establish a communication network for coordinating efforts and providing feedback. Delegate minor decisions. Don t micro-manage. Delegate tasks that you are least suited for. Delegate work that helps others gain experience. Delegate tasks that others either can do or can learn to do. A personal note on delegation: In order to be respected by your team, you must be willing to do even the lowest chore to fill in in an emergency or to teach. No job should be beneath you or impossible for you to do. 1. Choose the right person. Utilize team members skills and experience. 2. Make expectations clear. Be clear about the task, the expected results and the timetable in which you expect the task to be accomplished. 3. Establish how and when you want progress reports. Daily? Weekly? Verbal? E-mail? 4. Give appropriate authority. You cannot hold a person responsible for something they have no control over. 5. Get agreement. Ideally, the person on the team should willingly commit to the assignment.
Careful organization enables leaders to establish a climate that supports the team s effort to accomplish its goals and objectives. To complete this goal, you must perform 1 of the following tasks: Help organize a club speech contest, a club special event, a club membership campaign or contest, or a club public relations campaign. You can also meet this goal by helping produce a club newsletter or by helping the club Webmaster. Details on these can be found in the appendix of your competent leader handbook. Project 7, Facilitation A facilitator s primary job is to make the team s job easier. More specifically, a facilitator guides discussions among group members and manages and resolves conflicts. Conflicts are not unusual any time two or more people are required to work together and good facilitation skills can help the group reach a resolution. A facilitator manages the structure the team needs to function effectively, ensures the structure is working and removes obstacles impeding progress. For example, suppose your team missed a critical deadline and no one seems to know why. Your role as facilitator requires you to bring the team together to discuss the situation and reach a conclusion. You lead the discussion, allowing everyone to have input. Through your questions and moderation of the discussion you enable the team to discover the cause of the problem and resolve it. A facilitator empowers the team, encouraging the team to take control and assume responsibility for proceeding with its work. Here are some of the ways this is done: 1. Interpret information 2. Clarify tasks 3. Define team members roles, determining clear lines of responsibility and authority 4. Plan projects 5. Identify processes 6. Establish a communication network 7. Resolve conflicts Facilitators remain neutral. They focus on the processes and methods the team uses to do their work. The best way to enhance your facilitation skill is by practicing these tasks: 1. Observe how the team works together and be alert for problems that the team may not have noticed yet. 2. Listen to how team members talk to one another and to you. 3. Ask questions to enable the team to understand the real issue and how to resolve it. 4. Keep the team focused on their objectives.
Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Many consider reaching a consensus the best solution to conflict. A decision reached by consensus takes into consideration everyone s concerns and opinions. It may not be everyone s preferred choice, but it can be supported by everyone. Benefits of a consensus are: 1. Better decisions: Each group member s ideas are considered, meaning that decisions are of a higher quality. 2. Better teamwork: Participants must work together. 3. Better support: Since everyone s opinions were heard, it is more likely that they will accept and support the decision. Reaching a consensus takes more time than other decision-making processes and it requires a facilitator who listens, asks questions, clarifies and manages disagreements. Consider these guidelines for a discussion intended to reach a consensus. 1. Keep a respectful, empathetic, caring and neutral attitude toward everyone. 2. Be a good listener 3. Allow others to speak without interruptions. 4. Acknowledge what they say and repeat key points to prevent misunderstanding. 5. Ask questions if needed. 6. Prevent the discussion from including accusation, blame or debates over who is right or wrong. 7. Limit the discussion to the facts and the current situation. 8. Help the group focus on solutions once the issues have been identified. With these guidelines in mind, you can begin a conflict resolution discussion directed toward reaching a consensus. A successful discussion follows a specific order: 1. Present the issue. Explain how the conflict is affecting performance and preventing goal achievement. Allow questions about it. 2. Explain the process for arriving at a consensus. Set ground rule: no interrupting speakers, no raised voices, no name calling, etc. 3. Open the discussion to all parties. Allow each team member to present his opinions, ideas and suggestions. 4. Identify priorities. 5. Identify areas of agreement. 6. Identify areas of disagreement. Find the real problem
7. Identify possible solutions. Create a list. 8. Identify areas of agreement and disagreement for each solution. Repeat as needed. 9. Call for a consensus. At the end of the discussion, every group member should be able to make the following 3 statements: 1. I had the opportunity to voice my opinions. 2. I believe my teammates understood my opinions. 3. I can support the final decision. To complete this goal, you must perform the 2 of 4 of the following meeting roles: Toastmaster, General Evaluator, Topics Master or Befriend a guest as outlined in the appendix. Project 8, Motivation The ability to motivate is one of the most valuable skills a leader can have. A motivated team overcomes obstacles of all types to achieve its goals. A leader creates and maintains an environment where team members are likely to become motivated. Leaders uncover what motivates team members then they develop reward systems that match what team members value. They also look for ways to reward team members for doing the right things. Motivation is based on several principles: 1. People like to do meaningful work. 2. People must find their leader credible. 3. People prefer reward to punishment. 4. Misused rewards discourage people. 5. People want you to act like a leader. There are a number of concepts that motivate most people: 1. Respect 2. Interesting work 3. Purpose 4. Praise 5. Public recognition 6. Challenge 7. More responsibility 8. Promotion 9. Skill development 10. Camaraderie 11. Money Whatever the reward may be, it is important that you offer it properly:
1. Recognize immediately 2. Be specific 3. Match the reward to the achievement 4. Reward only the desired behavior 5. Correct undesirable behavior 6. Eliminate discouraging factors. To inspire the team, a leader understands the differing needs of team members and tries to satisfy them. To complete this goal, you must perform the 2 of 3 roles and 1 of 2 tasks. Roles to choose from are Toastmaster, Speech Evaluator and General Evaluator. Tasks are to chair a club membership campaign or contest and to chair a club public relations campaign. Project 9, Mentoring A mentor recognizes an individual who has less experience, cultivates their potential and talents, and helps them succeed. Leaders are mentors. You can be a mentor by offering opportunities for skill development, pointing out areas needing improvement, providing helpful advice, being a role model, and encouraging the person to think for themselves. The benefits of mentoring include: 1. Turnover reduction. 2. Talent cultivation. 3. Leader development. Good mentors exhibit the following attributes: 1. Accessibility 2. Patience 3. Sensitivity 4. Respectfulness and Respect 5. Flexibility 6. Knowledge 7. Confidence 8. Attentiveness Mentors provide positive, nurturing environments that benefit the people they mentor. To create a positive, nurturing environment, do the following: 1. Offer opportunities for skill development 2. Point out areas that need improvement 3. Provide helpful advice 4. Be a role model 5. Encourage people to think for themselves
Effective leaders are mentors who recognize potential in less-experienced individuals and aid them in the development of their skills To complete this goal, you must perform the 1 of 3 tasks. Tasks are to mentor a new member with the first three projects of the CC manual, mentor an existing member with their next 3 speaking or leadership projects, and serve on the guidance committee of a High Performance Leadership project. Project 10, Team Building A team is a group of people who work together to accomplish a common goal. Teams offer great benefits. Team members have a variety of knowledge and skills, which results in more creativity and greater productivity. When a good team is in place, a leader has more time to devote to leadership issues. Team members must be carefully chosen, trained and encouraged to openly discuss issues. Leaders are judged by the work of their teams. Working with teams means the following things: 1. You, as the team leader, must focus less on what you can accomplish by yourself and more on how you can empower others. 2. Your success depends on your ability to help team members visualize the future and share your passion for it. 3. You must be able to share power with team members and allow them to direct their own work. 4. You will be more successful when you let everyone contribute as much as they can. 5. Your role is to inspire team members and allow them to assume more responsibility, authority and autonomy. How do you build a team? 1. Select team members. Ideally, team members should already have the skills and knowledge needed for the task at hand. You should try to select those who are competent and reliable. Look for motivated, enthusiastic, hardworking, intelligent people who work well with others. 2. Review goals. Describe general goals to the team and allow them to set its own more specific goals. 3. Establish parameters. Agree on rules, procedures and communication networks. 4. Develop a plan. You need a realistic plan of action. Assign roles and responsibilities. Team members need to understand how their responsibilities to one another and to the team goal. 5. Establish controls. Clarify the standards you expect your team to meet. Do you require reports or will you simply observe? Commit to providing feedback.
6. Build team trust. Team members must be able to speak openly with one another. Hold meetings and social activities so the team can interact and bond. To complete this goal, you must perform the 2 roles of Toastmaster and General Evaluator at separate meetings. Or you can perform 1 of 5 tasks. Tasks are Chair a club membership campaign or contest, Chair a club public relations campaign, Chair a club speech contest, Chair a club special event or serve as club newsletter editor or Webmaster.