The Spoon

Title: Leading Talent in Challenging Times

Overview: It's imperative to know how to energize talent to give their best at a time when their confidence and commitment is wavering. With shrinking budgets and economic constraints, organizations who survive to outlive the economic downturn will be those who focus, invest and commit to developing their talent. As a leader of today's and tomorrow's talent, are you equipped with the skills to meet the challenges in this new economy? Can you help your organization turn the corner and win in the future? This webcast will provide strategies for managing and developing leaders who can help their companies stay in the game. Any leader trying to meet the challenges of these uncertain economic times won't want to miss these timely insights.

Don't miss these webcast take always:

Understand the types of challenges that will require different leadership

Engage your talent to passionately pursue the organization's goals

Identify obstacles, advantages and the change needed in this new economy

When: multiple times March 4-6, 2009

Presented by: Dolores Wilverding, Principle and Executive Consultant, The LEAP Group, Inc.

Price: FREE

Register: http://www.hci.org/hci/events_webcast.guid?_trainingID=2370#overview

Title: Leading Effectively: What is Your Global Management Style?

Overview: Remote teams, telecommuting, and office "hoteling" have become familiar terms over the past decade or so. Today, almost a quarter of the U.S. workforce "telecommutes" at least some of the time. More and more, teams or entire workforces can be located in different parts of the country or the world and still collaborate effectively. This learning track explores the opportunities and challenges of leading virtual employees. We examine new ideas and trends, and delve into what works in remote workforce management.

When: Wed, Feb 25 2009 / 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET

Presented by: Eileen Rogers, Managing Director, Leadership Sigma

Register: http://www.hci.org/hci/tracks_virtual_global_workforce.guid

Talent will only take you so far -- the higher you go the greater your need for development. So why is it that supervisors are the first to tell their subordinates to attend a training class, but the last to sign up for one themselves?

To be effective we need continuous learning and development. The good news is that we have a wide range of opportunities to develop and increase our leadership capability. We learn in many ways:

• We read books and digest the information. Real leaders take it a step further -- they apply the material to their daily lives.

• We learn by stepping out of Management Land. We step outside of our comfort zones to more positively impact our lives and the lives of others. We step outside of Management Land to attend a training class with our peers and subordinates.

• We learn from others. Leaders learn from others. We learn from discussions and feedback we receive from relationships with other leaders.

• We learn from experience. Leaders learn by taking time to reflect and learn from life experiences. Our experience shapes us and if we learn from our life experience, we grow and develop.

Transparency. It's all the hype in business today, with taxpayers crying out for banks to shape up after big bailouts, and employees demanding to know about the future of their position before it's published in the newspapers.

But what does it really mean? Let's figure it out.

• For you boomers out there, the word probably takes you back to high school: a transparent object, especially a photographic slide that is viewed by shining light through it.
• Gen X-ers are skeptical of closed-door proceedings, and they value open, two-way communication.
• Gen Y, I bet you're thinking: Organizational transparency helps create trust among stakeholders, encourages more informed decision-making, and supports greater participation.

OK, great. Now we know what each others' perceptions of the word are, but why do I care? It's just corporate jargon! Right? WRONG. Here's why it's important to today's leaders:

Leaders want people to follow them. In today's multi-generational workforce, transparency sets the right tone to secure buy-in and commitment from diverse groups and perspectives. To be transparent, you must know this:

1. Be clear in your own mind on what it is you need your team to accomplish. If you aren't clear about the goal and how you're measuring success, how can you expect others' to achieve your vision?
2. It's a matter of trust. Candor. Leaders want their people to trust them. But it's a two-way street, folks! Leaders need to trust their people enough to tell them just where they stand.
3. Communicate! The great thing about communication is that, much to many people's surprise, it's a two-way street. In truly transparent organizations, communication is a dialogue. There is conversation where leaders talk AND listen. But there is also non-verbal communication. Leaders watch their employees, peers and customers. They watch to understand, then take appropriate action to leverage the good and correct the under-performing.
   

Keep an eye on the "Upcoming Training Opportunities" widget in the right column for in-house and online courses for improving your business skills.