new manager – Dutra Associates

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

Core Leadership Skills

Fundamentally, there are a collection of key skills that prepare someone to step into a leadership role. These include things like the ability to:

communicate effectively,
influence others,
be adaptable and flexible,
drive for results,
build cohesive teams,
delegate and empower,
make decisions and problem-solve,
think strategically and
develop talent.

While every leader should have the opportunity to learn and build skill in these areas, skill-building alone is not enough to create leadership mastery. Have you ever noticed that regardless of your skill level, there are some days you’re “on” and some days you aren’t? There are some days you are filled with confidence and others where you question your ability? Some days where you crank out the results you want and others where you’re distracted and have difficulty staying focused on a project or goal?

What is Leadership Mastery?

All of the challenges that you face as a leader, no matter how skilled, come down to one thing. The one thing that changes everything is the understanding of, implications for, and ability to control the energy of performance. You know as well as I do that your competency level doesn’t shift from day to day. Your energy, however, is fluctuating all the time. Your energy is what determines how well your skills and competencies are expressed in any situation and what your outcomes will be. Leadership mastery, then, is about:

understanding the nature of the energy of performance,
utilizing that knowledge to create the conditions for optimal performance, and
making any necessary tweaks as any specific situation unfolds.

The energy that a leader presents in any situation is influenced by a number of different elements.

Mental ability that allows for clarity and focus
Emotions that are experienced throughout each day
Social factors that relate to your interactions with others
Environmental factors that relate to the conditions in which you are performing
Physical factors related to your level of health and wellbeing
Spiritual factors that speak to the connection you have with a sense of purpose, meaning and motivation.

When your energy is out of alignment and you’re feeling a bit “off”, you might experience anxiety, fear, worry, lack of confidence, or lack of motivation to name a few. How often do you actually get the outcomes or results that you want when this is going on? Likely, not very often. So how do you turn this around and have your energy work for you rather than against you?

Your Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

There are 5 key components to unleash your full leadership potential. Whether you run your own small business or you are leading a large organization, the foundation of your performance is built on these components. These 5 components make up COR.E Leadership Dynamics.

Component 1: Creating Your Plan
Self-awareness, a clear vision and specific goals are the essence of this component. Having a complete picture of the performance you want to create is critical.

Component 2: Establishing Your Energy and Performance Foundation
Energy fluctuations create inconsistent results. To sustain consistency and performance excellence, you must learn to manage your energy. Explore leadership mastery, understand the energy of performance, and identify and address blocks that stand in the way of your potential.

Component 3: Finding and Harnessing Your Performance Influencers
Earlier, I mentioned the 6 elements that influence your performance in any moment. Recognizing and understanding the impact of those influencers in the moment allows you to make immediate adjustments that keep you firing on all cylinders or get you back on track if things are going awry.

Component 4: Mastering the 10 COR.E Disciplines
Successful leaders have developed a personal approach or philosophy that keeps them motivated, resilient and aware of opportunities that present themselves. This component helps you to develop your own philosophy, built on the foundation of the 10 COR.E Disciplines, that will tap into your true leadership potential and performance.

Component 5: Optimizing and Sustaining Your Leadership Success Formula
An important element of this component is to embrace the need to evolve your approach over time. The world is a rapidly changing place and developing the capacity to be flexible and adaptable in the face of uncertainty is key to success.

My Invitation to You

If you would like to learn more about how COR.E Leadership Dynamics can help you to maximize your energy and optimize your performance to be the best leader you can be, please click here.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Are you a new manager or know someone who is? The transition to a first time management role can be exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Soon, you often realize that the strengths and skills that made you successful in your previous role are not what will spell success as a manager. To help you navigate this transition, here are five key tips to keep in mind.

Keep learning and growing: The functional and/or technical skills that allowed you to excel at an individual level are still important. Yet, they are not sufficient to lead a team successfully. Take advantage of leadership courses, tools and resources that your company or local continuing education program provides. Then, look for opportunities every day to apply those skills as you lead your team. The more you practice, the more you will seamlessly integrate the new skills.
Inspire and empower: Get to know the people on your team. Learn what they are passionate about. Paint a vivid and compelling vision of the future and ask for input and feedback. Align individual skills, strengths and passion with the vision and objectives for the team as a whole. Create a clear line-of-sight between each person’s contribution and the overarching desired result.
Set clear expectations: It really is true – you do get what you expect. Establish yourself as a positive role model who exemplifies the behavior you would like to see in others. Expect that others will work well both individually and within the team and deliver high performance. Don’t assume that team members will intuitively know what you want them to do. Establish clear expectations, provide support and hold people accountable for results. You’ll be amazed at how motivating it can be to your team to know that someone believes in them.
Develop your people: Change can be challenging and sometimes we hold onto the work that we most enjoyed because it feels comfortable. It’s time to take the leap and delegate key responsibilities to your team members. This frees you up to focus more of your time on your new role and develops the skills of your team. Make sure that you provide a level of decision-making authority and support that is appropriate to the skill level of the team member and the complexity of the task. When in doubt, err on the side of less authority and more support. You can always give more authority over time but you never want to have to take it back.
Establish credibility as a manager: If you’ve been promoted within your current organization, you may now be supervising former peers. This can lead to an uncomfortable situation for both you and your colleagues unless you address the shift directly and quickly. Give up on the idea of being liked by everyone and staying best buddies with your former peers. It’s hard to be viewed as being fair and objective if you are continuing to socialize after work and have lunch every day with your close friend who now works for you. While it’s not an easy conversation to have, it is an important one. You might start off with something like, “Our friendship is important to me. As a manager now, I must ensure that the team feels that I’m being fair and unbiased. In order to do that our work relationship needs to be different.” You and your former peer will be glad you discussed your new dynamic.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Management and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

A Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

5 Key Tips for New Manager Success