Have you ever stopped to consider what ineffective team captains might be costing you and your team?

Because effective leadership is so important, many in the business world are now quantifying the cost of ineffective leadership. For example, DDI, a leading researcher in the corporate world, has created a Cost of Poor Leadership Calculator. http://www.ddiworld.com/imex/greatleadervalue.asp

According to their calculations, one poor leader costs a company more than $126,000.00 over the course of a year due to low productivity, turnover, and dissension. Ouch!!!

With this in mind, have you ever wondered what poor leadership on behalf of your captains might be costing you during a season?

While we can't easily or exactly put a monetary price on the cost of poor leadership, consider the following questions:

 How many close games have you lost because your leaders didn't maintain your team's focus, confidence, and poise under pressure? 

How many of your seasons have been short-circuited because your leaders failed to establish and enforce the kind of high-level work ethic in practices, weights, and conditioning necessary for success? 

How many conflicts, chemistry problems, and major dramas could have been prevented on your team if you had a leader who was willing to address or alert you to the issues? 

How many black eyes and other embarrassing situations could have been averted if you had a leader step up, speak out, and do the right thing rather than succumb to peer pressure? 

Leadership Factor = Plus/Minus 33%

While it is difficult to measure, my best estimate is that leadership is a plus or minus 33% factor in the sports world. (The above-mentioned DDI uses an even higher figure of 40% in the business world.)

What I mean by this is that poor leadership could cost your team to lose up to 1/3 more of your games than with average leadership. And, your team could win 1/3 more games with effective leadership.

Put practically, a team with average talent and average leadership may end up 15-15 in a 30 game season. That same team with average talent but poor leadership could end up with a 10-20 record. And finally, that same team with average talent but great leadership could end up 20-10.

Ask any NCAA basketball team if they would rather be 10-20, 15-15, or 20-10 heading into Selection Sunday in March.

Ask any NCAA football team what kind of bowl game they would go to with a record of 4-8, 6-6, or 8-4.

(Monetarily, this difference is significant and measurable as the 4-8 team has no bowl revenue and difficulty selling tickets next year coming off a losing season. The 6-6 team will be in a bowl game with a roughly $1 million dollar payout. And the 8-4 team will be in a reputable bowl game with a $3 million dollar payout.)

Ask any coach at any level what his/her job satisfaction or security would be like with 1/3 more or less wins...

Further, the Leadership Factor of plus or minus 33% just pertains to a team's record - which is only part of the equation.

 Think about how the quality of your athletes' leadership affects your team's and school's reputation...

What are a school's chances of having someone get hurt because of underage drinking or drunk driving due to a lack of responsible leaders? 

How many incidents of hazing and dangerous initiation rituals could be prevented if leaders stood up and said, "No, that's not right!" 

How many cases of academic ineligibility/dishonesty, drug problems, steroid use, unintended pregnancy, etc. could be minimized each year if a caring peer leader was willing to confront and redirect a teammate earlier?

When it comes to leadership, it's not just games and trophies that are at stake here but team, school, and community reputations, coaches' and athletic administrators' careers, and young people's futures and lives!

As you can see, there is an often overlooked but important emotional, financial, and human COST with poor leadership.

And numerous, over-arching, long-term BENEFITS with effective leadership.

What is the Leadership Factor on your team? -33%... 0%... or +33%

What is poor leadership costing you?

Because leadership is such an important intangible, be sure to invest in your leaders - not only because it will help you win more, but more so because it is the right thing to do.

Assess your listening skills

Good listeners are made, not born. Your skills will improve with practice and, with effort, you can become an exceptional listener. To assess your listening skills, ask yourself these five questions:

• Am I listening for long enough?
• Am I giving the speaker my full attention?
• Am I making appropriate eye contact and expressing interest through my body language?
• Am I showing interest and empathy?
• Am I asking questions to learn more and improve my understanding of what's said?

Benefits of listening effectively

Once you have a sense of your current listening skills, you need to understand what stops you from listening – your roadblocks. Typical roadblocks include

• distractions – Distractions are internal or external stimuli that take your attention away from the speaker.
• emotions – Emotions can get in your way when you're supposed to be listening. You start listening to confirm your own feelings and you get sidetracked by your inner dialog.
• certain types of speech – Certain types of speech also put listening at risk. Saying the wrong thing can shut people down, hurt their feelings, or make them defensive.

Roadblocks make it hard to be attentive and supportive, and to convey genuine interest. Once you know how to avoid roadblocks, you'll reap the benefits of listening effectively. Benefits include:

• less misunderstanding – When you listen well – without being distracted, reacting emotionally, or saying the wrong thing – you have a better chance of hearing what's being said.
• conveying a nonjudgmental attitude – If you listen effectively, you'll be perceived as nonjudgmental. This creates a safe space in which others feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.
• internal opinions not getting in the way – When you listen effectively, your internal opinions and communication won't keep you from hearing what's really being said.
• more easily reading speakers' emotions – Listening effectively enables you to reach a deeper understanding of what the speaker is saying and why they are saying it.

Identifying distraction types

All types of distractions, depending on their source, can be categorized as

• internal – Distractions arise within your mind and body. Emotions can distract you. For example, if it's your first day at work, your anxiety and excitement may prevent you from hearing what people are telling you. Similarly, pain and discomfort can make it hard to concentrate. Fatigue, worry, personal issues, and other thoughts, feelings, and internal states can easily distract you.
• external – External distractions, such as loud noises and continuous interruptions, arise from your surroundings and from other people. Anything that attracts your gaze can divert your attention. You may also be distracted by the speaker's mannerisms or speech patterns.

Identifying distraction sources and costs

List your distractions and their triggers. Once you know what distracts you, you can assess the impact and cost of these distractions on your ability to listen. Some distractions are uncommon or affect you only slightly. Some may occur more frequently or affect you more significantly.

You now need to examine the negative impact and cost of each type of distraction. It's helpful to remember what happened when you were distracted in the past and identify what some of the consequences were. You may be surprised at how far-reaching these are.

Once you've reviewed your past mistakes, it's helpful to rank your distractions according to how common they are and which have the greatest impact.

Plans to avoid distractions

It isn't feasible to eliminate all potential distractions because it's impossible to exercise full control over your environment. However, you can plan to overcome internal and external distractions, and to minimize their impact.

Internal distractions – listening actively

The best approach for overcoming internal distractions is to listen actively. Many internal distractions arise because people process information about four times faster than they speak. Their minds have extra time to fill when they listen and they may wander.

To listen actively, use this extra time to engage with what is being said. Review information and try to obtain an in-depth understanding of what is being communicated. Also, remind yourself to keep listening whenever your mind wanders.

Many people find it helpful to take notes. Asking questions and summarizing what you hear is also helpful.

External distractions – planning where and when

You won't be able to plan for or control certain types of external distractions. However, you can plan where and when to listen to someone and switch off or distance yourself from external distractions that you can't control.

Some external distractions are predictable, and it's possible to prevent or minimize their impact. If you can't prevent external distractions, try to control your responses to them. Ignore them and focus on listening proactively.

Many strategies can help you to focus on listening. Engage with the content and how it's relevant to you without getting too involved in your own opinions and feelings. Use the extra time that listening affords you to review, interpret, and memorize what you're hearing. And finally, use notes, summaries, and questions to capture information accurately.

Before you begin improving your listening skills, assess how well you listen now, noting your strengths and weaknesses.

You can learn to be a good listener by controlling the roadblocks to effective listening. By doing this, you'll better understand what people are saying and how they feel. You'll convey a nonjudgmental attitude and be more objective.

A key roadblock to listening is distractions, which can be either internal or external. To minimize and control distractions, you need to identify them, assess the negative impact and cost of each one, and plan how to overcome them.

You overcome distractions by being proactive. Plan to remove predictable distractions, and minimize the effect of unpredictable or internal distractions by actively engaging with what you hear and keeping your emotions in check.

As a good listener, you should listen at least twice as much as you talk. However, what you have to say is also important. It can help you to listen well, or it can act as a roadblock to better listening.

Three particular types of speech act as roadblocks to effective listening:

• speech in which you seem to be attacking your conversation partner
• "you" messages that appear to blame your conversation partner, and
• speech that demonstrates power over your conversation partner

Attacking

When speakers believe you're attacking them, their emotions are heightened, and this blocks effective listening. Ways that you might attack your conversation partners include

• interrogation
• criticism, and
• blaming and shaming

Interrogation

Asking a volley of questions pressurizes your conversation partners. It indicates that you don't trust them, you intend to criticize them, or you're searching for ways to blame them for something. This limits what they'll say to you or can result in full-scale arguments.

Imagine you were asked these questions in quick succession – "What have you done so far? Have you remembered to include the latest figures? How quickly will you be finished?" It's likely you'd feel pressured and under attack as a result – and unlikely that you'd have a productive interaction after this.

Criticism

When you criticize your conversation partners, you put them on edge and on the defensive. They may not tell you everything you need to hear and they're likely to become angry or upset.

Suppose a colleague is asking for help in a crunch and you say "You get too stressed about these things" or "You should have organized this better before." Your colleague will probably react defensively, you won't find out what the problem is or what needs to be done, and your colleague will trust you less.

Blaming and shaming

When you blame or shame your conversation partner, you aren't trying to solve a problem and you make the person feel demeaned and criticized. This shuts down communication and heightens emotion.

"You" and "I" messages

One common way of attacking a conversation partner is by using "you" messages instead of "I" messages. "You" messages typically criticize and blame the other person. They block effective listening when they are used to preach, blame, or give patronizing advice.

"You" messages

A "you" message hands over responsibility to your conversation partners – so it assigns blame to them and it's critical. These messages also tend to be generalized, which makes them inaccurate. For example, "You always come in late" or "You're not invested in this project" sound like accusations.

A "you" message can also assign blame to your conversation partner for how you are feeling. An example is "Your attitude is aggressive and makes me angry."

When you use this type of language, your conversation partners are likely to elicit a defensive reaction and will either stall or degenerate into arguments.

"I" messages

When you use "I" messages, you assert yourself without being aggressive. This way of speaking clarifies your perspective, specifies what your personal concerns are, and doesn't make assumptions about the other person's behavior, motivation, or intentions.

Simply using the word "I" at the start of a sentence is not enough. For example, if you say "I feel frustrated because you never hand in your reports on time," you're generalizing your conversation partner's behavior and blaming this person for your emotional state.

You can, however, name the emotions you're feeling as a way of expressing the impact of a particular problem, without assigning blame. For example, if you say "I feel frustrated when the reports are late. I depend on them in meetings with our contractor," you express the impact of a problem without judging or blaming the person you're addressing.

Showing power

Demonstrating power over another person is the third speech type that acts as a roadblock to effective listening. Showing power generally includes giving orders or commands, or even threatening someone.

Consider how you feel when someone orders you to do something rather than asking politely for it. It's likely you'll be angry, defensive, or resentful. These heightened emotions prevent you from listening well and generally result in defensive reactions. So, trying to exert power over someone is not an effective strategy for listening or communication.

Speaking in ways that attack, blame, or demean another person only serves to heighten emotions and generate defensiveness. When this happens, you're unable to listen effectively and nonjudgmentally to what the person has to say. So you lose the opportunity for understanding and better communication.

When you are communicating with someone, how you say something affects how effectively you and the person you're addressing listen. Roadblocks to effective listening include attacking, "you" messages, and showing power over your conversation partner.

These ways of speaking escalate emotions and generate defensive reactions, preventing effective listening.

References

Books

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To overcome distractions, you

• identify the types of distractions to which you're most susceptible
• determine the impact and cost of each type of distraction, as well as how often it typically affects your ability to listen well, and
• plan how to minimize or eliminate distractions

To control emotions, you

• identify your emotional responses and their triggers so that you can gain control over these
• determine your own purposes and those of the speaker in a given communication, and
• withhold judgment and instead cultivate an attitude of patience, tolerance, and empathy

To prevent speech roadblocks, you

• avoid attacking statements or volleys of questions that blame, criticize, or interrogate
• use "I" statements rather than "you" statements to communicate your feelings, and
• avoid unnecessary use of commands and instead phrase requests politely, giving the recipient room to respond

Becoming a successful manager is not an easy task. It is not only a matter of making the right decisions for your company, but you need to be a good leader. This means that you need to know how to encounter and handle various problems.

Knowledge is necessary but more important is a good vision on the future of your company and the ability to create a good working team. The most important qualities that a successful manager needs are:

*Planning

A manager wants to reach some goals. When he wants to succeed he needs a visualized plan for the short time, but this is more important for the long term. A plan consists of investments which can be useful for the long term. Maybe these investments will have a negative impact on the profit of the company the first years but will result in a higher profit and a rise in the turnover.

*A good teacher

A manager needs a good team. The manager knows which goals need to be reached. Communication with your team is important. Teach your employees what their tasks and responsibilities are and give them the chance to share their ideas to work on the most efficient way. Giving commands in a respectful way is the key to succeed.

*A good listener

Working with a team means that you need to understand the attitudes of your employees. Try to understand their motivations and in case of problems try to find solutions for their problems. A good listener is always someone who has an open mind for suggestions of employees of his team.

In the case one of more of your employees disagree your decision it is important you can listen to them and come to an acceptable compromise. Managers need to treat his or her employees equal no matter the race, religion, age, sex or any other factor.

*Delegation

A manager is the leader of the company and is responsible for all the work which will happen in the company. A manager needs to delegate some tasks to his employees but he can't give away the ultimate responsibility.

He will build a staff team with different responsibilities and these staff members need to care for the final result of their tasks. Communication is important and when the tasks are done there is need of conversation and discussion.

*Self confidence

Believe in yourself and your capacities. Don't become nervous when something fails and be optimistic for your next plans. Try to avoid stress and don't fear that you can't reach your goals.

*Motivation of your employees

A manager needs to show respect to his employees. They want that their work will be appreciated. Figure out a reward system to motivate your employees. A good idea is to determine what kind of rewards your employees respond to; maybe some bonuses if they reach goals or a kind of classification so that they can get more responsibility and receive more money.

*Flexibility and patience

A good manager needs to give commands about the necessary tasks but it is important that you are flexible with your team. Give your employees the possibility to give their opinion how the work will be executed.

Flexibility means that there is a possibility of making an agreement. Don't take an attitude that you are the boss and only you know the right decisions. Give your employees the necessary time for their work. Patience is the key to have success!

A successful manager is the motor of a company. He needs to work hard and to figure out where a good team work is possible. Honesty and teamwork where everyone has his positive input is the key to success. A successful manager works together with the team like the proverb said "there is no I in the team". Each member of the team is necessary to be successful and good managers realize the importance of teamwork.

When your career takes a turn towards a management track, you may begin to wonder what, exactly, makes a "good" manager.

The answer to this question is complex. It's not just one thing or one factor that will make you an effective manager. Rather, it is a combination of traits and behaviors. Some people are born with the innate talent of leadership, but anyone can learn how to succeed in a management career.

The following article, by guest author, David Shubert, begins to answer the question for you...

What Makes a "Good" Manager?

 
First of all, what is management? The dictionary defines management as "the act or art of managing: the conducting or supervising of something (as a business)." Sounds about right. But then, Atilla the Hun was a manager of sorts. Clearly, there is a big difference between being a manager and being a "good" manager who has earned the respect of the people.

It is interesting that the formal definition of management includes the word "art", because in some respects, it is an art as much as a science. Just about anyone can learn the basic mechanics of becoming a manager. However, there is a certain amount of mystery in defining that extra dimension of skills and traits that elevates certain people to a status of "good" manager. What is it?

Part of it is charisma. Charisma is a sort of magical quality of magnetic charm or appeal that makes people want to follow the person who has it. Strong interpersonal skills are certainly critical to the creation of charisma, but are by no means the only ingredient. The perception of charisma must be earned through accomplishment.

A strong leader gains the respect of his/her people by actions. Principal among those actions is the involvement of the organization in decision making. How many times have you heard someone say, "If I was running the show, I sure wouldn't do it that way!"?

It is important that the manager has the mechanisms in place that allow ideas to bubble up from all corners of the organization. No matter how smart we think we are as managers, we certainly don't know everything. Many of the very best ideas come from the people on the front line of the day to day business.

We have to have a way for people to express those ideas and get rewarded for their contributions if the idea pans out. Delegating many of the day to day tactical decisions in no way undermines the manager's authority or responsibility for the bigger picture. Remember this: If people have enthusiastic ownership of an idea, their idea, they WILL make it work, even if it is a BAD idea. If not, they can torpedo even a GOOD idea.

Recognizing people for their contributions is one of the surest ways to secure employee loyalty and to earn the perception that the manager is smart enough to understand that he/she doesn't know everything. Recognition and rewards are not necessarily monetary. In some cases, simple public recognition is all that is required. Recognition nurtures the ego and differientiates people from their peers. Recognition just makes a person feel good and stimulates the desire to have it happen again.

If a manager utilizes the people to help develop the organization's mission statement, then the people will follow. Having a solid and workable mission statement is critical to organizational success. It can serve as the basis for decision making. If you bounce an idea off the mission statement and it sticks, you might do it. Otherwise, forget it.

For example, if you are in the business of developing the world's best diagnostic software, you are not going to open a resturant to raise extra cash. That would be way outside the mission statement. See the point? All tactical decisions should fit within the mission statement.

Next, a "good" manager is a strategic thinker. The manager should have at least a five to ten year view of the future. Where does the organization want to be in five years and tactically, what needs to be done today, tomorrow, next week or next month to get there? Nothing can undermine a manager faster than having the organization perceive that the manager has no idea of direction.

Then, there is integrity. A manager has to be seen by his superiors and his employees as being honest and forthright and doesn't play silly political games. No one likes a sleazy character that cannot be trusted, especially if that person is in charge of the careers of people. Would you?

The "good" manager fights for his/her people and they know it. Everyone knows that outstanding performers are amply rewarded and substandard performers are penalized or eliminated. People know that the decisions made by the manager well thought out and are in the best interest of the organization.

An employee may not like the fact that the manager had to cut their pet project out of the budget. But if the employee is in tune with the organization, he/she will understand why it had to be done.

A "good" manager is highly selective when building the "culture" the organization. People hired should "fit" the collective personality of the organization. Loners and hotheads should not be merged into an organization of people who genuinely like each other and work well together. Think about the best sports teams. The very best ones are those where the members are more like family than team mates.

Finally, the "good" manager will spend the extra time to collect the information necessary to show how valuable the organization is to the company. This can take any number of forms such as cost savings, cost avoidance, improved process, improved productivity, and so on. Then the manager makes sure everyone knows about it, from top to bottom. It is vital that the people feel they are important and are making a contribution to the overall success of the company.

There is no magic formula for becoming a "good" manager and the points mentioned above are certainly not an exhaustive list. Some of it is instinct, but it mostly stems from the gut-level understanding that the most important thing in an organization is its people. Treat people with respect and dignity and you will get that back in spades.

Read More at: http://www.career-coaching-central.com

• Academy of Management
• American Management Association
• Harvard Business School
• International Institute for Management Development

It's a myth that managers have more freedom to achieve results as they wish. In fact, organizational interdependencies limit the freedom managers have to make decisions and take action independently.

Instead, managers must work to achieve results within the context of their organization and the broader business environment. The implications of this interdependence are generally understood as demands and constraints on what a manager is free to do.

Being a successful manager will require you to find ways to work successfully within the constraints of your job and in response to its demands.

Demands

As a manager, you'll face demands on a daily basis. Exploring the types of demands you'll face as a manager will prepare you to successfully deal with them when you need to.

In addition to the demands you place on yourself, you'll typically have demands imposed on you by your boss, your direct reports, other managers, the system within which you work, and various external forces.

Your boss will make demands of you. Typically, these demands will be related to the goals set for your team or the organization. For example, your boss may require you to produce weekly progress reports on projects you're involved with, or expect you to raise productivity by the end of the next quarter or hire new team members.

Your direct reports will certainly make demands of you. First and foremost, they'll expect you to provide them with what they need to do their jobs. Typical demands will include training, advice, support, resources, and equipment. For instance, suppose you ask your team members what you can do to help them perform better. You may find out your team wants improvements to make an antiquated procedure more efficient, comprehensive training on new procedures, and new computers. Other managers are also likely to place demands on you.

Essentially, you can expect other managers to make demands of you that will support them in their efforts to achieve their own goals.

Your organization will also have its own set of systems that will place demands on you. System demands include budgets, reports, and meetings.

Finally, external forces will place demands on you. Your customers, suppliers, stakeholders, legal regulations, and members of special interest groups may require information, attention, or action from you.

Constraints

Part of your role as a manager is learning to work successfully within the constraints that limit what you can do.

How you do your job will be limited by some specific constraints:

• expectations
• resources
• technology
• location
• policies and procedures

Everyone you work with, both internally and externally, will have expectations that will constrain how you'll be able to act. Of course, you'll have your own expectations to work with. But you'll also have the expectations of superiors, peers, direct reports, and perhaps suppliers or customers to consider. For example, your direct reports will expect you to support them in their efforts to do their work. You'll need to meet these expectations or risk losing credibility and respect. And your own supervisor may expect you to make tradeoffs and manage risks, as well as to motivate direct reports to support company goals.

As a manager you'll quickly learn that nearly all resources are limited in some way. This will, of course, constrain or limit how you do your job. You'll need to make the best use of the resources you do have. This may include negotiating and trading resources with other managers to get the resources needed to accomplish goals.

You may find that both the quality and type of technology available to you will constrain what you can do. For instance, suppose you've been tasked with implementing new security measures. Although you'd like to use facial recognition software, your company doesn't have the technology to support this. Instead, you'll have to make use of available technology.

Location may also present constraints on how you do your job. Often, you'll work with departments, suppliers, and customers from various locations. You may also find yourself managing teams from various geographic locations or individuals working from their homes.

Finally, policies and procedures will constrain how you do your job. When your organization's policies and procedures limit what you can do, you'll have to work within these constraints to complete your work and achieve your goals.

Constraints may limit your ability to perform certain tasks as a manager. Demands are things you must do because people, systems, or legislation require it. Typically, demands will come from your boss, your direct reports, other managers, the system, and external forces. Constraints are things that limit how you do your job. Constraints include things like expectations, resources, technology, location, and policies and procedures.