ESG Seminar – Leadership Strategy – How to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills

The Executive Study Group (ESG) seminar 2017 – Leadership Strategy named “How to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills as a Success Habit” was held by the ESG, Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp (HKSTPC) on 24 Aug 2017.  I would like to summarize the seminar for sharing below.  

In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee briefed some background of ESG and their recently research result and activities. He explained their learning method was "Connect and Develop" as he always quoted Steve Jobs' statement that "Creativity is just connecting things." Then he briefed the contents included "Person-to-Person Influence", "Lack of Sense of Leadership", "3-Pillar Framework", "Your Current Status Assessment" and "5 Strategies to apply the framework.". 

Firstly, Dr. Mark Lee quoted Prof. Peter Drucker that “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.” And then he mentioned the key tasks of managers were to influence others through mainly person-to-person interactions up to 70% to 90% of working time.  However, many unending parade of mostly small events spent your time. 

Then Dr. Mark Lee said many leaders/managers lack of sense on leadership because they always get coping with the chaos.  However, some effective managers could treat chaos as opportunities.  Therefore, Harvard researched their behaviors and found 3-pillar framework against chaos towards promotion.

Three Critical Pillars to sharpen leadership skills were showed as follows.

Pillar 1: Managing Yourself (How you relate to others as a boss)

-          Formal Authority

-          Human Relationship

-          Trust by Others

-          Ethical Influence

Pillar 2: Managing Your Network (Your own network and dances lightly over it – like a spider)

-          Candidate Identification

-          Operational Network

-          Strategic Network

-          Network for Resource

-          Network for Team

Pillar 3: Managing Your Team (More than the sum of the individuals involved)

-          Future for the Team

-          Real Team Not Group

-          Individual Attention

-          Daily Work Integration

Dr. Mark Lee said to become an effective manager should master 3 pillars in your promotion journey.

Then we perform self-assessment and shared with other participants.

Pillar 1: Assessment: Managing Yourself

Why people accepted your influence because of “Trust”.  There are two factors to form Trust.

a)      “Belief” in your competence (you know what to do and how to do it)

b)      “Belief” in your character (your motives are good and you want your people to do well)

Then we did the self-assessment based on the following questions.

1)      Use your Formal Authority Effectively

2)      Create Human, Caring, but Not Personal Relationships with Your People

3)      Trust You as a Manager by Others, especially Your Own People

4)      Exercise Your Authority and Influence Ethically

(It was found that formal authority (1) and trust (3) were opposite to each other.)

Pillar 2: Assessment: Managing Your Network

It needs internal lobbying and creates the “Conditions” for success from network.

5)      Identify those Who should be in Your Network Systematically

6)      Build and Maintain Your “Operational” Network Proactively

7)      Build and Maintain Your “Strategic” Network Proactively

8)      Use Your Networks to Provide the Protection and Resources

9)      Use Your Network to Accomplish Your Team’s Goals Proactively

Pillar 3: Assessment: Managing Your Team

Influence individual behavior through the group.  Dr. Lee said the team and the group was different that team had common goal and beliefs, the group was different people worked together.

10)      Define and Constantly Refine “The Future” You and Your Team are Trying to Create

11)      Clarify the Roles, Work Rules, Team Culture, and Feedback About Performance that Turn a “Group” of People into a Genuine “Team”. 

12)      Know and Manage Your People as Individuals as Well as Team Members

13)      Use Daily Activities, Events, and Problems to Pursue the 3 Pillars

Finally, Dr. Mark Lee briefed five strategies to apply the frame below.

i)                    Leverage on Your Strengthen to open door

ii)                  Align with Your Organization’s Goals and Strategies

iii)                Do you Know Your Fatal Shortcomings?

iv)                Are you Aware of Your Management Inclination?

v)                  Do you Know Your Blind Spots?

Lastly, Dr. Mark Lee used Dr. Deming PDCA cycle to conclude that a clear direction to sharpen leadership skills and creates the Habit of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA).

Reference:

HKSTP - www.hkstp.org

Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (亞太策略研究所有限公司) – www.apifs.org