Jennifer McClure`

Helping Leaders Leverage Influence & Create Maximum Impact.

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4 Traits of Teachable Leaders – And How You Can Demonstrate Them

The role of a Leader can be a tough gig – one that’s made even harder by some who feel that they’ve reached a point in their career where they no longer need to submit themselves to learning and leadership development opportunities.

As Leaders, it’s easy to think that we got to where we are because we’re the most capable – and as a result should be teaching those on our teams how it’s done based upon our experience having done it all before. But every living thing needs to be fed in order to survive and thrive – and as a Leader, you do too!

So how can we be more teachable as Leaders in an effort to learn and foster growth? It’s starts by putting ourselves in the frame of mind that we can (and must) learn more.  Best-selling author and leadership expert John Maxwell calls this a “teachable attitude”:

Teachability is not so much about competence and mental capacity as it is about attitude. It is the desire to listen, learn, and apply. It is the hunger to discover and grow. It is the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I love the way legendary basketball coach John Wooden states it: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

When I teach and mentor leaders, I remind them that if they stop learning, they stop leading. But if they remain teachable and keep learning, they will be able to keep making an impact as leaders. Whatever your talent happens to be – whether it’s leadership, craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, or something else – you will expand it if you keep expecting and striving to learn.

Assuming that you’ve got the orientation of a Teachable Leader, here are four traits to focus on:

Trait #1: Teachable Leaders are consistent and continuous Seekers. 

To avoid stagnation as a Leader, seek out opportunities to listen, learn and apply knowledge not only from like-minded, similarly situated colleagues, but also from those who can offer different perspectives and even contrary points of view. Read books, blogs and news from authors and websites that are both similar and opposite to your way of thinking. Effective Leaders need to be able to think through and justify their own decision-making to many different stakeholders, so actively seeking out alternative perspectives in advance is a great way to solidify – and improve – your ideas and plans.

Trait #2: Teachable Leaders are willing to be Receivers.

As someone who has worked with and coached many senior level executives, I can confirm that it’s rare for Leaders to get honest and direct feedback from those on their teams and in their organizations – positive, negative or constructive. Why? There’s still also an unwritten rule within much of the business world – “The Boss is always right”, but an even bigger reason is that it’s actually rare for a Leader to ask – and be willing to receive feedback other than agreement with their approach or idea. If the people on your teams aren’t willing to or used to providing you with feedback, teach them how. And most importantly, act upon the feedback that you’re given. Show your team that you have a hunger and desire to grow and improve as a Leader, and that they’re an important part of that journey!

Trait #3: Teachable Leaders understand the importance of being good Followers.

We often assign mentors to young professionals at work, to help them gain insights and encouragement from someone that they can model and learn from. Regardless of your longevity in your career or within your organization, as a Leader you need mentors and role-models too. Do you have someone in your network that you can go to for advice and counsel? Maybe that’s another CEO, a colleague from a professional networking group or an outside coach, but make sure that you have someone whom you admire and respect to offer you a safe place to work through problems and opportunities – and be willing to submit to their leadership. We get better by learning from others who have been there/done that – and got the t-shirt.

Trait #4: Teachable Leaders grow stronger when the are Producers. 

A great way to grow in character and competence as a Leader is to build into other Leaders. Are you mentoring others? Are you actively sharing what you’re learning as a Seeker, Receiver and Follower? Don’t keep all of the goodness to yourself. Invest in others to multiply the results of your continuous improvement efforts!

Question: What did I miss? What are some additional traits that you feel Teachable Leaders have? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of leadership development, executive communication skills and talent strategy. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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Effective Presentation & Communications Skills for Business Leaders [slideshare]

Today, I’m sharing the slide deck from two recently completed workshops delivered for groups of senior executives who work for one of my corporate clients – Effective Presentation & Communications Skills for Business Leaders.

Why is there a need for this type of program?

Effective communication and presentation skills are must-haves for Top Business Leaders and Executives in order to establish executive presence, build influence, gain buy-in and help their businesses to grow.

The good news is that these skills can be learned!

I always enjoy working with Leaders who want to develop and improve – and I hope you find some helpful tips to facilitate your own growth and development as a Leader in your organization.

What communication/presentation tips and tricks can you recommend? Share them as a Comment!

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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The Conference Board’s 2011 Future Leaders Conference (Discount Code)

If you’ve taken a look at my Speaking & Conference schedule for the next few months, you’ll see that I’ll be attending and/or speaking at several really great events. I’m excited about them all for a variety of reasons and each will provide its share of takeaways, new relationships and opportunities!

One upcoming event I’d like to highlight for you (and offer you a discount code) is the 2011 Future Leaders Conference in Chicago, Illinois September 14 – 15, 2011. The theme for the conference is – “Rethinking How We Attract, Identify, & Develop High Potential & Next Generation Leadership Talent” and this conference is put on by the good folks at The Conference Board.

At this conference, attendees will:

  • Explore best-in-class approaches to attract, identify, assess, and develop emerging leaders
  • Discuss leadership development strategies, methodologies, and tools used to meet the needs of high potential talent
  • Learn about unique challenges of next generation leadership development in emerging markets
  • Network with innovative leaders and discover new ideas to drive leadership development

Over the last couple of years, I’ve attended several Conference Board events and I can say with no hesitation that they are some of the highest quality, most well-run events around. Each of their conferences include great speakers (the majority of whom are practitioners) from leading companies sharing best practices and their experiences. The Future Leaders Conference will be no exception. Check out the lineup of some of the scheduled speakers:

Padma Thiruvengadam, former Vice President, Asia Pacific/Canada Operations – Oncology, Pfizer Inc.
Kirsten Aranda, Director – Talent Management, Boeing
Marc Wenzel, Vice President of Sales and Partnerships,ThinkWise Inc.
Melanie Tinto, Senior Director, Global Talent Management, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Maureen A Gillan-Myer, SVP Human Resources – Regional Head of Resourcing & Talent, HSBC North America
Bonnie Fetch, Director, People and Organizational Development, Human Services Division, Caterpillar Inc.
Tim Toterhi, Senior Director, Global Learning & Development, Quintiles
Brian Fishel, SVP Enterprise Leadership Development, Bank of America
Gary Ranker, Ph.D., The Global Senior Executive Coach
Donny Huang, Managing Partner, 4stones Cross Cultural Consulting Group
Susan B. Greer, Director, Leadership, Education and Delivery Services, IRS Human Capital Office
Sandy Mobley, Owner, The Learning Advantage
Carolon Donnally, Management and Program Analyst, Leadership, Education and Delivery Services, IRS Human Capital Office
Susan Rusconi, Head of Leadership Development, Adobe Systems, Inc.
Ronald J. Alsop, Editor, Workforce Management
John Seely-Brown, Independent Co-chair, Deloitte Center for the Edge, and Visiting scholar and advisor to the Provost, University of Southern California

This conference is a “must attend” for Human Resources Leaders, Leadership Development Professionals, Talent Management Professionals and Senior Business Leaders interested in developing high potential talent, as well as those responsible for global human resources and diversity, talent acquisition, learning and employee development, and succession planning.

For more information, or if you’d like to register and join me at The Future Leaders Conference in Chicago September 14th – 15th, visit The Conference Board’s website – www.conferenceboard.org/futureleaders  or call (212) 339-0345.

BONUS: Enter the discount code JM1 to receive $500 off of the conference registration price.

 

Note: I’ll be attending the Future Leaders Conference as a guest of The Conference Board in order to share with my network and clients some of my learnings from the event. But I’m not asked to say/write anything other than my personal insights. Just wanted you to know.

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Is Stinkin’ Thinkin’ Keeping You From Getting What You Want?

While flipping through radio channels on a road trip recently, I came across a call-in show where the topic of the day was How to Attract Your Ideal Man.

The host of the show was an author of one of the many books on “Law of Attraction” and although I’m not much of a believer in that stuff, I decided to listen in anyway. (Not at all because I’m single – I prefer to call it research.)

The first caller to the show – a single mom in her late 30’s – explained how she’d given up on finding a “good man”, as she had a history of attracting only Losers. To help her out, the host asked the caller to describe exactly what she was looking for in her ideal man. She rattled off a few things, such as:

  • I don’t want someone who can’t appreciate what it takes to be a single parent.
  • I don’t want someone who isn’t kind and considerate.
  • I don’t want someone who does not want to be in a committed relationship.

After a few minutes, the host stopped the caller and asked if she recognized that she was creating a list of everything she did not want versus what she did want in an ideal mate. Surprisingly, she hadn’t noticed.

He explained his theory that her negative thinking was a huge part of the reason why she hasn’t been successful in finding the “right” man.

The host then suggested that she take some time to write down all of the things that she doesn’t want, then go back and change the wording in each sentence to instead reflect what she does want. By doing this, she would be changing her negative thinking to positive, which would allow her to actually attract her ideal man – who would ride up on a white horse and take her away to live in a castle far, far away where they would live happily ever after. (Ok, so I may have embellished a wee bit with the last part…)

According to the Law of Attraction, thinking about what you don’t want applies energy and focus in that direction and actually brings those things into your life, while applying positive thinking and intentionally focusing on what you do want sends “positive vibrations” out to the universe and attracts those things to you.

I don’t buy the universal positive vibrations mumbo-jumbo, but I do notice when people position things negatively in terms of their businesses and careers and recognize how often that limits their thinking (and mine) to potential possibilities and opportunities.

Ask a client to describe an ideal candidate for a position and they might say “We won’t consider someone who has worked in a very large company – they don’t fit with our entrepreneurial culture”.

Ask a candidate to describe their ideal opportunity and you might hear “I don’t want to be micro-managed or work in a company where there is a lot of bureaucracy”.

With each of these statements, I have to guard against going into a negative frame of mind, where I start subtracting from a mental list instead of adding to it. I’m also curious to find out more about the bad experience(s) in their past that are likely associated with their concerns, and as a result, we end up spending a lot of time focusing on what won’t or hasn’t worked instead of exploring what can.

Take a moment to consider how you’re describing to others what you’re looking for in terms of your career, your job search or your business. Ask yourself what your ideal opportunity looks like and then write down your thoughts without self-editing (just do a brain dump).

Or, go ahead and make a list of all of the things that you don’t want in your ideal opportunity, because those things may be more clear to you than what you do want at the moment. Once you’ve created your list, go back through it and change any negative words and statements into positive ones.

By doing this, when you’re asked about your ideal opportunity in the future, you’ll not only be prepared to positively describe it, you can also create an action plan to make it happen! You’ll find it much easier to create an action plan around what you want to accomplish versus what you don’t.

Do you have some examples of how focusing on the negative or what is not desired has affected you or others? Was there a change in thinking at some point followed by positive results? It’s definitely possible to get in your own way by being a Debbie Downer in terms of your business or career (or love life).

I don’t want that for you.

Scratch that. I want much better things for you!

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What Are the Best Interview Questions to Identify Leadership Potential?

Question In my role as a Consultant focused on recruiting, coaching and developing Leaders, I think I know a good Leader when I see (i.e. get to know) one. This super-power comes from a combination of my experiences – I’ve worked with several great Leaders and I’ve also had exposure to some pretty bad ones too – and the formal and informal training that I’ve received throughout my career.

However, sometimes for me – and I’ve certainly seen it with hiring managers and clients – it’s hard to guard against that “gut feel” you get when you just know that someone has what it takes to be a successful leader. In short, we’ve all fallen victim to the “I just like ’em” syndrome that almost never is a predictor of actual results.

Recently, Dan McCarthy shared Three Questions for Potential Managers to Ask Themselves over on his blog Great Leadership. While the three questions Dan posed are good ones an aspiring leader should ponder before pursuing a managerial role (“Why do I want to be a Manager?”, “Do I have what it takes to be successful?” and “What do I want to become?”), I found the listing he shared of predictors of leadership success to be of particular interest. Here’s a snippet from Dan’s post:

We know there are certain skills and attributes that can be demonstrated in a non-managerial role, that if done well, are predictors of managerial success. For example, Development Dimensions International (DDI) has developed a set of criteria that they say will accurately predict executive success, based on their own experience and research, and research by others.

According to DDI, the “right stuff” for future managerial success includes:

  1. Propensity to lead. They step up to leadership opportunities
  2. They bring out the best in others
  3. Authenticity. They have integrity, admit mistakes, and don’t let their egos get in their way
  4. Receptivity to feedback. They seek out and welcome feedback
  5. Learning agility
  6. Adaptability. Adaptability reflects a person’s skill at juggling competing demands and adjusting to new situations and people. A keyhere is maintaining an unswerving, “can do” attitude in the face ofchange
  7. Navigates ambiguity. This trait enables people to simplify complex issues and make decisions without having all the facts
  8. Conceptual thinking. Like great chess players and baseball managers,the best leaders always have the big picture in mind. Their ability to think two, three, or more moves ahead is what separates them from competitors
  9. Cultural fit
  10. Passion for results

Try assessing yourself against this list of criteria. Better yet, ask your manager and others to assess you. If you’re lacking in any key areas, that’s OK – most of these things can be improved with awareness, practice, and feedback. Other management skills are learned and mastered once in the role and with experience.

While I think most would agree that no checklist of characteristics will be a 100% predictor of future success as a Leader, I like using this approach as a starting point for both individual assessment and for developing some interview questions when selecting individuals for leadership roles. I can think of several ways to get at these qualities through the ever popular “Tell me about a time..” behavioral interviewing questions, but I’m not a big fan of interviews that rely solely upon those types of questions – especially with non-skilled interviewers.

I’m interested in your feedback and ideas in regards to the questions that you ask candidates, or have been asked as a candidate, to identify potential for success as a Leader. What questions would you suggest asking in an interview to assess the leadership qualities listed above?

Hit me in the Comments section with the best questions that either you are asking or have heard and let’s do some crowd-sourcing to come up with a great list. And it’s o.k. to share your best “Tell me about a time…” questions too – just be sure to use them wisely.

Question Mark uploaded by Marco Belluco

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