by Bill Thomas

Leadership Training Will Develop Your Pattern Skills
By: Bill Thomas

Who is the better leader, Sarah or Jim? Both are managers of their respective departments, they’ve taken similar leadership training courses and they have the same number of team members. According to their bosses, they are well-respected supervisors and they seem to be equally as effective as the other.

However, when surveyed, Sarah’s people rank her leadership as being superior to Jim’s style. In particular, Sarah was seen as caring, committed, casual and highly competent. On the other hand, Jim’s teams felt his leadership style lacked compassion, a clear focus, empathy and control over most circumstances. What could account for these glaring differences?

Most leadership training courses fail to prepare leaders for the realities confronting them and their people – that we operate in and need to manage the whirlwinds of our complex lives. People are physical beings, we think and calculate, aspire towards ideals and feel emotions, we have family, household, social and community responsibilities.

Somehow, leaders have to understand and manage the challenges of the human condition. Short of becoming a master sociologist, psychologist or cultural anthropologist, successful leaders like Sarah have learned to handle those challenges by employing a variety of work patterns.

Sarah’s Success Pattern One – Show Them You Care, In-Time!

While she doesn’t spend hours of her time doing so, Sarah does make it a priority to inquire about, linger around and delve into the personal lives of her people every single day. Of course, she asks them how their day is going but she puts even more effort and emotion into concentrating on a family problem or relationship situation of her one or two people.

For instance, Sarah made some time to ask Helen about her son’s weekly football game and found out he was slightly injured – Sarah heard Helen’s concerns for her son’s safety so Sarah decided to give Helen information about parental support groups and the next day she shared a few sports injury website locations with Helen too.

What Sarah really gave Helen was her time and attention – Helen was shown appreciation and concern for being a mother, caregiver and homemaker. Sarah’s total investment in time was a mere 20 minutes, the return on her investment was Helen’s loyalty, trust and commitment to helping the department succeed.

Sarah’s Success Pattern Two – Bridging The Gaps, In-Knowledge!

Jim believes leading is commanding, however, Sarah views leading as an exercise in learning. A few times each week, Jim gets unpleasant surprises and once or twice a month, he receives a disturbing shock.

Sarah actively assumes she has gaps, shortfalls and errors in her knowledge – so she methodically and persistently looks for ways to gather as much information as possible. She relies on the different perspectives, the answers to open-ended questions and the ‘possibility-thinking’ of others to strengthen her base of knowledge.

Being a “student” of human nature, the workings of Nature and the dilemmas of the human condition, gives Sarah’s leadership competence many opportunities to blossom.

Sarah’s Success Pattern Three – Provide Superior Service, In-Deed!

Jesus Christ taught, “The greatest among you, will be servant of all.” History proves the wisdom His words – the most successful, enduring leaders have left legacies of great service for those whom they led – just ask the people of India (Gandhi), Israel ( Moses), USA (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, etc.), African- Americans (Lincoln %26 King), South Africa (Mandela %26 Tutu), or Great Britain (Churchill).

Sarah’s leadership style involves asking about, listening for and clarifying the needs, desires or experiences of her associates. She successfully serves the ideals of her team’s mission by:

=> Accepting the risks and uncertainty inherent in all decisions,

=> Realizing how humilityand meekness leads to wise deliberations

=> Avoiding the unethical, immoral behaviors which result in failed ventures

Using conversations with her followers and the counsel of other accomplished leaders, Sarah treasures their wisdom, she discovers new ways to be of service and she makes more on-target decisions.

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“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” – Douglas Adams

As we seen in Sarah’s examples, leadership invokes the acts of looking, learning and loving. Sarah also inspired us to adopt open-minded, possibility-oriented, self-regulating attitudes.

Effective leaders employ patterns of behaviors, priorities and styles to study, serve and support their people, their missions and their knowledge. Leadership skills training courses which include the subject of work patterns provide leaders with reliable foundations for success.

“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.” – Saint Thomas Aquinas

Brotherly love, faith, inquisitiveness, service and creativity are willful acts – when you intend on being like, acting like or becoming like those actions, you will achieve them. Wise leaders use pre-determined patterns of actions, resource usage and mental controls to energize their visions and transform the ordinary into the extraordinary reality.

Copyright %A9 2006, Mustard Seed Investments, Inc., All rights reserved.

Bill Thomas publishes “The Leadership Toolkit” – an in-depth, result-oriented training program designed to improve your leadership skills, energize creativity and transform you into a persuasive, empowering, effective leader. Inspire Confidence, Be Innovative, Strengthen Your Influence
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