Move Up, Move Over, Move On…

Traits

Those characteristics of behavior, attitudes, and personality features that assist leaders in being effective.

Skills

Methods and proficiencies that should improve both individual and organizational performance through tangible actions.

Using Time Management as an example, what traits are needed to be an effective time manager? What skills?

Perspective - Ability to See and Influence Systems

Courage - The Confidence to Make a Difference

Faith and Agility - Comfort with Complexity and Change

Passion and Timing Connection - Self Awareness and Personal Mastery

As described in The Five Insights of Enduring Leaders by Jim Morris

To learn a skill requires:

Cognitive understanding Repetition Checking against a defined result A more direct association with a specific set of events

To learn a trait requires: Theoretical understanding Practice in a variety of situations Application in a less well-defined environment Checking against results that may be delayed Feedback from others on the impact of the behavior/attitude/personality on

them

Break It Down to Base Skills

Self Awareness

Paying attention to NOWAble to identify sensationsAble to identify emotionsAble to identify choicesNotice impact on othersNotice impact on selfCause and effect over timeConnections between sensations,

emotions, and choices

Personal Mastery

PatienceAbility to “disidentify”Modulate tone of voiceModulate body languageMake choices about wordsAbility to withhold words or

emotions approriatelyImpulse controlAbility to pause

Pick small parts of the whole trait Choose high leverage parts first Develop an exercise that:

Takes little time Is easy to fit into daily activities Is relevant lets them discover not just practice

Build in feedback

Journaling Sensations in body when….. Cues from others in xyz situation What happened just before …

Take 10Set your watch alarm to go off at the same time each day for the next week. For the 10 minutes after the alarm goes off, practice staying present to what you are doing, whatever that might be. When you catch yourself thinking about something that happened in the past or anticipating something in the future simply bring yourself back to the present.

StopStopping something that doesn’t serve you is very simple but not at all easy. Identify one thing you do that doesn’t serve you well, like interrupting or over explaining. Then when you catch yourself doing it, or about to do it, simply stop. It sometimes helps to insert another more helpful behavior such as asking a question of the other person, but simply stopping is enough.

One Thing…

Do one good thing for someone else each day for a week. Do not let anyone else know that you are doing it.

Look around

Spend a week finding out what inspires the people around you. Have conversations with them about what matters to them. Encourage them to find ways to act on the things that matter.

If you haven’t already, spend some time looking at your life events and find the patterns of what inspires you. Match up what inspires you to how you spend your time.

Connect the Dots

Find a newpaper article, an online blog, a movie, and a current event at work. They should be as different as you can make them.

Go through them and find the connections between them. See how they are related. It is especially fun to do this with a small group of people.

Life Line

Make a timeline and put the major events of your life during each decade on it. Go back and look carefully at the changes that occurred around you. Identify the difference between the ones that happened out of your control versus the ones you created. Think or journal about your experience of those changes. Notice how you handled each one. Look for the strengths you developed and used to negotiate each change. Notice how you still use those during uncertain times.

Leadership is a Practice You can create relevant, doable

activities that help leaders discover good practices

Breaking traits down to small elements and practicing those is useful

Feedback is essential to the development of traits