These methods are not easy to replicate across all businesses, but it is possible. One advantage of such teams is that one member will always have a strong financial background, as they will be from finance, accounting or the risk management department. Such members either hold a minimum standard of financial qualification (e.g. chartered accountancy or management accounting), or they’re knowledgeable about the financial markets. I believe that having such a staff member is important, because as more and more companies become public – the emphasis is return on equity – how much profit are you providing to shareholders. This metric has a huge effect on what we think is profitable and what isn’t. Capital intensive projects suddenly look less appealing, due to the level of working capital and investment required upfront. Ideas which are easy, cheap and quick to implement can often surface as the winner even with modest profits.

So this raises the question: In organisations where cross departmental teams cannot be formed – should managers receives some form of financial training? I’m not asking them to recite how to invest in commodities but it would be useful if they understanding the fundementals behind accounting and reporting, and the basics of finance to do their job. What do you think? Should a manager just be good at their job? Or would a broader education including shares, commodities, and other elements provide a useful background for any management discipline?

Should Managers Be Financially Educated? is a post from: Ultimate Team Leader

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Introducing Yourself Tip 1: Spend more time asking about your team, than talking about yourself

When presented with a large group, many team leaders often fill the new group in on their background. When kept extremely brief, this can be a helpful conversation starter. Don’t let this run for more than a couple of minutes however, as simply reiterating your CV won’t necessarily win you many friends. What will win friends is if you communicate a deep interest in your team; who they are, where they’re from, what they’ve done and what they like to do at the weekend. All these tiny pieces of information will help break  the ice, and also get you up to speed on the specialities and strengths of all your team members.

Most people crave attention, and receiving it from a new ‘boss’ or team member will go a long way to building up a working relationship with plenty of goodwill and flexibility. For some, to receive attention in front of a group is a little awkward and removes them from their comfort zone. If you detect this is the case, simply redirect questions to other team members, but ensure that you continue to maintain good eye contact with the individual so as not to exclude them from the discussions. Make a mental note to have a nice chat with the person in a more private setting where the employee will feel more comfortable to ‘open up’ and break the ice.

Introducing Yourself Tip 2: Refrain from ‘boasting’ about past achievements

This is linked to my first point. The reason why I ask team leaders not to talk at length about their prior experience or achievements, is that this has the effect of ‘boasting’ about ones experiences. In teams where some members are older than the team leader, this can quickly lead to resentment. At the introduction stage, the team leader has not ‘won’ the respect or trust of their colleagues, and as such, tales of spectacular feats may only be met with jealousy and competition. Many team leaders like to talk about their achievements to justify their leadership role, and effectively say to their team ‘I am a qualified leader, it is sensible to follow me’. What I would recommend contrary to this, is to hold back these boastful comments, such as ‘I graduated from Yale’, ‘I was offered several jobs but took this one’, and let your performance and behaviour tell the same story in the following weeks. You can let these facts slip later on, when people aren’t likely to form a negative judgement based on your past success.

One simple way to think about it, is that each team member is a worker, but also an individual with an element of pride and ego. When you make an introduction, try to bypass that pride and ego completely, by not directly competing at all with your colleagues. Leave qualifications, sales wins, and even the car you drive, out of the equation for as long as possible to ensure a smooth entry to a team.

Introducing Yourself Tip 3: Allow a degree of autonomy as a default upon arriving.

Whether you’ve experienced this in work or merely seen it on TV, there exists a striking cliche of a new manager with an autocratic leadership style coming into your team, and laying down a whole new set of rules with an iron fist. ‘I’ve been brought in to improve this team, these are my rules, they have worked before, you will obey them.’ is the message behind this behaviour. This is an amateur mistake when moving into a new team with staff you’ve never met before. We all appreciate that each team is different, so ensure you’ve observed your team in action before introducing a new way of doing things. As Stephen Warrilow the change management strategy expert would say, don’t just do ‘organisational process change’ well, you must also handle the change on an individual level.

These tips are just suggested practise, and will not be appropriate in all situations. It is important that as a forward-looking manager, you analyse your own team situation before acting upon this advice. Leave a comment below to tell me how have learnt to introduce yourself to teams!

How to Introduce Yourself to a New Team is a post from: Ultimate Team Leader

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Capello’s success lauded by management experts, including leadership experts at www.leadership-expert.co.uk, who have been quick to highlight an insight article produced by the Chartered Management Institute in response to the uneasy victory landed by the lions at the close of the match in South Africa today.

Team Leaders Aspire to be Capello! is a post from: Ultimate Team Leader

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This is a real danger for a leader. When we allow this process to occur naturally without challenge we will enter into a space where we will force a solution onto a problem that simply does not fit. Alternatively we may use a problem solving method that just will not work for the issue in question. The danger is we will not necessarily even know that what we are doing is wrong.

How can we combat this tendency?

There are several methods to fight it.

• Mental Model busting
• Learn always and everywhere
• Feedback
• Think through a different construct.

Mental Models

We all have them, we just are not aware of most of them. Our social conditioning provides us with a stable environment in which only a portion of the stimuli around us actually enter our brain. These filters are both a sanity saver and risky filter at the same time. Coupled with our minds filtering ability is its judgment processes or mental models. We have a tendency to reject data that does not support an assumption we have made to a point where we are not aware of the input. (for instance we only see Toyota Prius’s and not any other car) We may go even further where we consider a small amount of the sensory input make up our mind then cop an attitude about the situation complete with negative emotions and closed off perspective.

We need to discover what our internal assumptions are. What are these things that hold us back, make us emotionally stunted for periods of time. Once we identify them we can challenge them and eventually change them. Look for negative emotions that inhibit your ability to embrace certain situations and ask why I am feeling acting this way. I have successfully identified and eliminated several negative mental models this way.

Learn

The beauty of learning is that you must first unlearn what you think you know. This process of deconstruction continually amazes me. So often I become aware of the limitations of my own thought processes through the threat of learning. You see my brain does not want to learn. It wants to stay static. I see my brain as any other muscle in my body (only with far greater importance) so I exercise it regularly. I believe that learning exercises the brain and definitely breaks down the negative mental models that exist there.

Feedback

Feedback is the best external gut check on how realistic your actions and by extension thoughts are. There is something remarkably powerful about the honest feedback of a trusted friend. When we allow ourselves to consider the validity of an external perspective we create openings. Openings where we can begin to see ourselves from a different point of view.

Constructs

When I get that old sensation that once again I am analyzing a challenging situation from a leadership lens, I often ask myself how else could you look a this challenge. Could this be a systems challenge, a management challenge, a learning challenge, or a communication breakdown. Any other construct that could explain the challenge will do as long as it gets you looking at it from a different point of view.

So that is it, four ways to challenge your mental models and hopefully identify new ways of looking at an old problem. Embracing new ways will allow a leader to begin to adapt to new situations and achieve greater success.

Guest Author:

Ron is a leader of 15 years, a leadership coach and trainer. He holds a Master of Science in Leadership and Management, a bachelor of Engineering and will soon complete an MBA. His passion is to share his knowledge and experiences of leadership with others. http://www.developaleader.com

A Leader’s Perspective: Seeing the World Through Mental Models is a post from: Ultimate Team Leader

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