Lessons
Lesson Info
Class Introduction
To get things started today, what I wanted to do is introduce the course, and I wanted to let you know that what's great about today's course is whether you're a new manager or you're a senior leader in a large organization, everything that we're gonna talk about totally applies. So that's the good news about today's course. And I thought to get things started, it's so important that we have a common understanding of what leadership is. Maybe what it isn't. And also what are some differences between what leadership is and what management is? And then also how is leadership changing today? So I wanna put it to you first, if you don't mind, which is what does leadership mean to you? What are some words that come to mind when we talk about leadership? Yeah? Inspiration. Inspiration. Influence. Influence. What else? Consistency. Consistency. Okay. Motivation. Motivation. Humility. Humility. Team building. Team building. Anything else? Courageous. Integrity. ...
Integrity. Courageous. Courageous. Initiative. Yeah, courage is a big word. Sorry? Oh, initiative. Initiative, yeah. So these are all a great understanding of what leadership is, and if you look at the etymology of the word leadership and you look at the etymology of the word management, the word manage is derived from the world, from the word manus, which means hand, right? And so what management is about, which is much more of a business skill, where leadership's more of a human skill, and when we think about management and we think about manus, it's about controlling, right? Managing. Where leadership, if you look at the etymology of the word leadership, it's letho, which means, which is about way or journey. So leadership really is about where are you taking people, where are you taking them, and really the objective is to take them to a better place, right? And as you were describing some of those words, for me in the work that I'm doing as an executive coach, some of the words that come to mind for me are around courage. So much of leadership is also about effort. And it's also a lot about innovation and creativity, right? The world is changing so rapidly. Those are three words that really come to mind when I think about leadership today. And as I mentioned, we're really gonna focus on the leadership side, which is much more of a human skill. It's much more about behavior, okay? So now that we have an understanding of what leadership is, I wanna talk to you about what are my intentions today? What do we wanna accomplish? First, I wanna help you to determine how you want others to experience your leadership. So one of the big questions I'm gonna ask you in a moment is what's your intention as a leader, okay? Next is I wanna help you and your team to achieve higher levels of self-awareness and performance, and so what I want you to think about is we all have great intentions. How do we have a greater impact in the work that we're doing? Next we're gonna talk about help you to develop and foster a mindset of continuous improvement. So this is about challenging you to constantly try to get better. And then finally, this is really important to me, which is to help you have a greater impact at work and also at home. One thing I've realized about leadership is so many leaders, managers, don't truly understand the scope of their impact. A lot of leaders and managers will say, well, it's my, the directee that works for me. And what you have to do is look behind the curtain, okay, and realize that those people have lives, okay? They may have families. They may have a significant other, a spouse. And in some ways, what I want you to think about as a leader is you're also responsible in some ways for how they show up at home. And I'm sure as you think about managers that you've had in the past, maybe you didn't show up every time when you open the door at home feeling your best, and I know I've had some situations and experiences for people that I've worked for, and I'd be playing a board game with my kid, and I'm there, but I'm not there. I'm thinking about how frustrated I was with a conversation that I had with my manager that day. So what I want you to think about is think about the, when we talk about impact, think about the scope of your impact and how much you really impact other people. 'Cause it's not just maybe the six people that work for you, but it could be 20 or 30 folks even around those folks, okay? So what are we gonna cover today? We're gonna be covering a lotta different topics today about trust and leadership, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, agility and adaptability. We're gonna be talking about time management and prioritization. Team alignment. We're gonna be talking about motivating and inspiring others. And one thing I wanna mention about this is leadership development is very much a process, and so part of what I wanna do for you today is give you action steps around how you can realize your leadership potential and to have this greater impact. And a centerpiece of what we're really gonna be talking about today is here in the self-awareness, agility, and adaptability category. So that's where we're really gonna be focusing quite a bit today. So how are we gonna do that? Through individual and team assignment, activities, and exercises, and what that's about is part of what I wanna teach you today is not so much what you can just do on your own, also how can you include your team in the processes that I'm talking about today? So really to help you scale your impact as a leader. We're gonna be, I'm gonna be providing practical tools and approaches, prescriptive processes. So again, helping you to scale your impact as a leader. I'm a pragmatist at heart, so I just try to think about what's really simple and easy to apply. I love this quote here by Jerry Sternin. This is part of the theme of what's gonna be happening today, right? Which is, "It's a lot easier to act your way to a new way of thinking "than to think your way into a new way of acting." And so part of what this is about is it's really about changing from the outside in. It's about acting, then reflecting, right? It's really about the doing part of leadership. And so part of this process that we're gonna be talking about today are things, really simple things that you can be doing to get better. And so part of what I wanna do now is I want you to think about another theme of what we're gonna be doing today, which his how many of you have been to a conference, right, and you've seen presenters, right? And my experience from seeing those presenters, and maybe for you, too, is this, right? A hundred will applaud and maybe one will apply, right? And so we all have the best of intentions, right? We get inspired to go to these conferences. We come home and what happens? We go back, we look at our schedule, and we're in back to back meetings the entire day, and about two or three days later, we forget about 99% of what we've learned, right? I understand this. And so part of what this course is about is saying, look, how do we change that? How do we go from 1% to maybe 50%? And really that's my goal today for you. And so there's really kind of two aspects to this. One is I really wanna motivate and encourage you to take action, right? And another, to act your way into being this better leader. And second, I wanna help you on this journey, as I mentioned, around these simple and practical approaches. So I'm gonna meet you halfway, and I need you to meet me the other half of the way by jumping in with both feet into this process. How does that sound? Okay.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
D'Ann Lapenias
I thought the class was very insightful and beneficial in helping each and every one of us discover and pinpoint our weaknesses. It was also helpful in making us reflect on what elements make up a good leader. Not only this, but it gave us tools to put the lessons into practice, not only in our workspace but also in our personal lives. Additionally, I hadn't realized how difficult it is to self assess your own strengths and weaknesses and the importance of asking others for feedback. Take this course!
D'Ann Lapenias
Taavo is incredibly inspiring and keeps it real. Everything that was discussed in the class is applicable at all levels of leadership. I enjoyed and learned alot!
Michal Levi
Did not expect to find this so relevant, but it was great. BRAVO! So glad I dropped in to this on air session during my lunch break. : ) Love what he is saying about getting feedback!!!!! Wish more leaders would do this!
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