Taking Charge

Question 1

Work of Leadership

Answer 1

Enabling those you are leading to arrive at the intended destination. This includes focusing people on a compelling objective, enhancing and deploying their talent, igniting and coordinating their efforts, and developing myself to be able to do the work.

Question 2

Leadership start point

Answer 2

Clarity and purpose in every situation about what we are setting out to accomplish with our actions and how I want others to experience my leadership.

Question 3

Roles of Leader

Answer 3

Fostering mutual learning; engaging people interpersonally; encouraging collaboration to get technical tasks done; helping diverse groups maximize their productivity.

Question 4

Identity as a leader

Answer 4

Less about your individual accomplishments, and more about the accomplishment of the group. You have to derive satisfaction from others accomplishing tasks rather than accomplishing them yourself.

Question 5

Leadership Tools

Answer 5

Direction, relationships, design, process, and self.

DR. DPS

Question 6

Direction

Answer 6

Providing people with a vivid and engaging vision of the destination where the team is headed along with a clear sense of purpose.

Question 7

Relationships

Answer 7

Meeting people, establishing connections, and opening lines of communication/exchange. This will allow me to remove obstacles and gather resources so my team can complete its work.

Question 8

Design

Answer 8

Establishing the systems, structures, and practices that will enable units/teams to function well.

Question 9

Process

Answer 9

Setting expectations of how people interact to get their work done: how I run meetings; how information is shared; how to walk people through plans and feedback.

Question 10

Self

Answer 10

Using myself as an instrument for mobilizing my team and developing them to get things done.

Question 11

Compliance vs. Commitment

Answer 11

Leadership is less about compliance, and more about commitment.

Question 12

Compliance

Answer 12

Ensuring people do what they are told

Question 13

Commitment

Answer 13

People develop their own internal desire to do the work and do it well.

Question 14

Leadership stumbling blocks

Answer 14

The urge to do the work of an individual contributor

The urge to focus on compliance vs. commitment.

Question 15

Why is self awareness imperative in leadership contexts?

Answer 15

You need to see yourself as a leader and grasp that your role is more to mobilize others to action.
You need to be thoughtful of the experience you want others to have of your leadership.

Question 16

Why is growth and learning a key tenet of leadership?

Answer 16

You will likely encounter situations as a leader that require you to learn and grow at the very moment others expect you to be an authority.
You will inevitably make mistakes in the introduction to leadership, don’t be embarrassed. Do what it takes to learn the role.

Question 17

Leadership learning matrix

Answer 17

Top: wrong thing and right thing
Left: Well and poorly

If you do the right thing well, great. As you step into new situations, you’re going to execute. You may do the wrong thing well, the right thing poorly, or the wrong thing poorly. When you do the wrong thing or the right thing poorly, you will feel discomfort and need psychological support. When you have this, you’ll be able to learn from your mistakes through instrumental guidance from peers, subordinates, and supervisors. As a leader, you will also ask others to follow this path, and as such, you need to understand your role in establishing a culture of psychological support and instrumental guidance.

Question 18

Psychological Support

Answer 18

Patience, tolerance for mistakes, encouragement of risk taking, and willingness to share experiences.

Question 19

Instrumental Guidance

Answer 19

Helpful, instructional input on how to do things better.

Question 20

What are ways to enhance self awareness?

Answer 20

Adopt a learning orientation to enable yourself to understand who you are and how others perceive you.

Question 21

How do you build your credibility as a leader?

Answer 21

Take time to understand what you’ve inherited.
Balance your diagnosis of the context with the reality of where the people in the organization are.
Identify, build, and draw upon key relationships and sources of support.

Question 22

Understanding what you’ve inherited

Answer 22

What context are you stepping into?
What is the culture of the organization/team?
How does the culture influence the way work gets done?

Question 23

Balancing personal diagnosis with context

Answer 23

Ask questions and listen to appreciate the situation. You have to understand the experience of those you’re working with and combine it with your diagnosis to round out your perspective.

Question 24

Emotional intelligence

Answer 24

the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions effectively in ourselves and others.

Question 25

Four major facets of emotional intelligence

Answer 25

Self-awareness; social awareness; self-management; relationship management

Question 26

Self-awareness

Answer 26

Ability to understand personal emotions, drives, strengths, and weaknesses. It enables you to sustain your emotionally and socially intelligent behavior over time, despite setbacks.

Question 27

Social awareness

Answer 27

Contains competencies of empathy (your ability to sense others’ feelings and perspectives) and organizational awareness (your ability to understand the power relationships in your organization).

Question 28

Self-management

Answer 28

Includes four competencies referred to as the “fire and brakes:” achievement orientation, positive outlook (the fire) - the drive motivation and provide momentum; emotional self-control and adaptability (the brakes) hold back destructive or counterproductive responses to change or pressure.

Question 29

Relationship management

Answer 29

Five competencies: coach and mentor, conflict management, influence, inspirational leadership, and teamwork. Relationship management is how you take awareness of yourself and others and channel it into how you interact with others.

Question 30

What are two key levers in relationship management

Answer 30

Social awareness and self-management because to be effective with others, you need to have a handle on your emotions and be able to channel them in an effective way.

Question 31

Topics for Taking Charge

Answer 31

Stepping into a new leadership role; the work of leadership is different; the necessary change; building self-awareness