Leadership styles
Embracing diversity - too often this is limited to ethic or minority groups. This is really old hat. Great leaders past, now and in the future look past the obvious differences and focus their energies on understanding the individual differences that each person brings to the team. A friend of mine coined this as a specific inventory of each person's strengths, qualities, preferences and experience. With this inventory in place it is easier to establish respect amongst the team members, reinforce the value each brings and set up complementary working groups to solve problems and learn from each other.
Every organisation is forced to confront change, implement competitive strategy, make a profit, develop leaders, attract and retain talent, and create value for shareholders. Leaders are confronted with the need to stay on the cutting edge, be innovative, articulate vision, nurture social capital, and effectively manage intangibles. Using the Competing Values Framework ® Leaders can help identify tactics the enable teamwork and create environments that embrace diverse styles and gaurd against "group-think" which is the death knell of innovation. (CVF images)
An alternative and equally useful tool is the Strengths Deployment Inventory which unqiuely allows maangers to understand what happens to them understress and how that is diferent from their non-stressed norm.
The SDI® (Strength Deployment Inventory®) is a proven, memorable tool for improving team effectiveness and reducing the costs of conflict. It is the flagship learning resource of a suite of development tools based on Relationship Awareness — a learning model for effectively and accurately understanding the motive behind behaviour. When people discover the unique motivation of themselves and others, they greatly enhance their ability to communicate more effectively and handle personal and interpersonal conflict more productively.
