Centerpoint for Leaders and The Points of Light Foundation's newest e-publication to give you relevant and concise information on leadership and organizational development.

The "Skills" of Leadership

While "definitions, lists, and outcomes" can be helpful in developing our leadership skills, in the end, it is a person's ability to move others toward the accomplishment of a goal that is leadership. And, maybe most important (and helping to distinguish leadership from management), today's leader needs to create an ambience, an atmosphere, an environment where people want to belong, work and "participate" in the outcomes.

In an effort to explain what I mean, unfortunately, I must use a list.

Being an effective leader today means

• interacting with others
• to create networks and systems in which people communicate and collaborate
• to effect positive change.

Do you agree? Think I'm full of beans? Let me know at info@centerpointforleaders.org.

Do:

• Ask clarifying questions.
• Ask for specifics, if not provided.
• Ask the person to give you alternatives to your behavior.
• Pay attention to your nonverbal responses.

Don't:

• Seek feedback from your fan club only.
• Become defensive or explain your behavior.
• Interrupt the other person.
• Ask the person to defend his or her opinion. Feedback is purely subjective perceptions and information. You can place your own value on it later..

Cited and used with permission from Center for Creative Leadership. To read the entire article, register and then click here.

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http://www.PointsofLight.org;
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If there is a topic on leadership or organizational development that you would like to share or see us address, please send us an e-mail at info@centerpointforleaders.org.

A few more of Tom Peters Irreducibles to whet your appetite: “The bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.” "No contention, no progress." “Gaspworthy. Yes." “Make it immortal.”

tompeters!company is Tom Peters’ management consulting and training firm founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1984, and now operating internationally from hubs in Boston, London, and Manchester, VT.

Cited and used with permission from Tom Peters.
To read all the Irreducibles, click here for the PDF format of the document.

by Dave Anderson

Napoleon. The Duke of Wellington said his rival Napoleon’s presence on the battlefield so positively affected his troops’ morale that it was the equivalent of 40,000 additional men. However, while Napoleon was quick to criticize his commanders he did not teach them his methods. In fact, his generals were so dependent upon him that in his absence they were immobilized. This proved his undoing at Waterloo as Napoleon’s General Grouchy stood idle with 34,000 men and 108 guns as the battle raged waiting for Napoleon’s order to engage that never got through.

Lesson: It’s not enough to tell people what to do; show them how to do it. Followers would rather see a sermon than hear one. Teach your people to take some shots and to shoot again even if they miss. In this manner, you’ll develop a team that understands the adage: “It is better to be told to wait than to wait to be told.”

Cited and used with permission from Learn To Lead. To read the entire article, click here.

Our special site this month is www.npgoodpractice.org, a project of the Philanthropic and Nonprofit Knowledge Management (PNKM) at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership. The PNKM initiative seeks to capture, organize, disseminate, and promote the use of knowledge in the nonprofit sector. The PNKM Initiative offers nonprofits the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of management, community service learning, and collaboration between grantors and grantees for the success of nonprofit organizations as a whole. It also focuses on raising funder effectiveness through education for grantmakers.

Click here to read the entire article.