How do we think about leadership?

Your leaders may not yet be managers … and sadly, some of your managers don’t yet lead … Does this sound familiar?

The way an organisation develops its leaders and managers directly affects its success.

Some split the concepts of leader and manager, as though they were two completely different ideas. But I believe in seeing those skills as a spectrum, a toolkit of different styles for different people and situations that the leader/manager can go to whenever they need to.

There’s a common misconception that ‘leadership skills are natural and inborn – you either have them or you don’t … ‘

Then there’s the ‘let’s promote, and because they were good at their old job they should be naturally good at leading others’ mindset …

And how about the ‘you have a go and we’ll see where you went wrong, that’s the best way to learn’ … approach? Great way to set up a vicious learning cycle.

So many organisations promote people into a new role without training them first – or at all.

It’s vital to remember that we’re learning beings – as long as our health allows we learn all our lives, and we can learn, practice and develop leadership skills. To achieve that skillset, training’s vital, and it’s just as important to be able to practice, discuss and share essential feedback in the workplace to embed that learning.

So what barriers and blocks get in the way?

In public, private and third sectors alike, doing more with less is a constant challenge. Organisations are battling a lack of resources and the perceived cost of training can put it firmly in the ‘nice but not essential’ file.

Downsizing is a fact of life now, and there just aren’t the number of people there used to be in many organisations. Letting those people move away from business as usual, to sit in a classroom and not contribute to the bottom line, can be a battle.

And there’s the often-voiced fear ‘What if we develop them – and they leave?’

Well, what if you don’t – and they stay?

Where’s the evidence?

In Spring 2015 CIPD’s People Management magazine surveyed 300 HR and L&D professionals to find out what they really think about line management and leadership in their organisations

• 66% reported a failure to recognise employee achievement.
• 69% reported that managers and leaders were simply too busy to support employees.
• 74% reported that managers and leaders were not developing their teams.

Those keywords recognise …. support … develop … show that British organisations are failing to address the way they train their leaders from the start. And if they can’t do that, how can their leaders even begin to support and develop their most essential assets – their people?

What happens if you don’t develop your leaders?

Key problem areas can escalate:

Habits of not engaging, listening or communicating, evading the difficult conversation and shying away from the challenging message mean the message just doesn’t get across.

Dated ‘tell not sell’, ‘do as I say not as I do’ attitudes promote a lack of credibility.

Hyper-critical negative behaviour, catching people doing wrong rather than praising doing right and micro-managing without developing means that people just don’t feel trusted or appreciated.

A culture of resentment and fear, not understanding why things need to change or be done a certain way, can then mean that skills fade, people stagnate and the best people leave for better prospects.

Mistakes repeat, poor performance continues and the organisation falls behind competition.

Reputation and image suffer and the organisation can’t attract great new people.

This is a clear message – all organisations need a firm grasp of how to develop their people, and that starts with their leaders.

What are those skillset essentials?

My own training as a manager with the UK Border Agency, and the leadership development programme I delivered for the Financial Ombudsman Service proved to me the vital importance of leadership training:

• Understanding the vision, the mission, the goals
• Being seen and heard to live the values
• Having a clear grasp of the business plan, the bottom line
• Being able to set SMART objectives
• Building training, coaching and public speaking skills
• Developing the confidence to delegate
• Growing the ability to hold confident 1-1s and the difficult conversation and to give honest, respectful and constructive feedback

Are just a few vital leadership skills – and these and more can be trained.

Who benefits from leadership training – and how?

First, your aspiring, new and established leaders themselves. Time to sharpen the saw with personal continuing professional development as they develop that practical toolkit of real skills for the real world.

Your teams and their people benefit as they feel invested in and supported.

The public and the customer benefit from great customer service from staff with a clear confident vision of what they need to do to do their jobs well.

The organisation benefits – people clearly communicate and understand its visions and goals, follow the business plan and create the culture you want, so press and public image improve.

The legacy of great leadership training takes us into the future, as the people you develop start to develop others, succession planning for the next generation when we’re gone.

How do we put it into practice?

Is it time for your business to be proactive, seeking out and nurturing that spark of talent in advance?

I champion Leadership training – it’s vital for any business to flourish. I deliver a great leadership development programme of practical classroom workshops and masterclasses, action learning sets, on the job coaching, mentoring and peer group networks – a real learning blend.

Then it’s up to the organisation to start putting that new knowledge, those new skills and attitudes into practice in their day to day work before they’re even given a team, proving themselves and creating their new professional brand in advance so they’re ready to step up when you need them.

Related article: Three great leadership traits

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Philippa Hammond

All my Confident Public Speaking courses begin by asking delegates how they think and feel about standing up to speak in front of an audience. And time after time I hear variations on the same themes. You’re not alone – these are some of the most common responses, plus a few words of advice:

“Dread .. scary … pressure .. am I ready … “

Public Speaking for Business
with
Philippa Hammond
@TalkingSpeaking
www.speakingwellinpublic.co.uk

Nerves are the number one public speaking worry.

Speaking well in public’s a leadership essential and a key skill for promoting your brand, business and career. Pitching to clients, team briefings and speeches are a daily reality for many professionals, yet so many find nerves a challenge.

Angelina Jolie and Harrison Ford have confessed their fear of public speaking, so if you’re a nervous speaker, you’re not alone. No-one’s born with the ability to speak well, and you can learn practical skills to control those nerves and deliver a memorable message. Realising that the feelings we label ‘nerves’ and ‘excitement’ are the same thing, and that you can change your perception, are the first steps in dealing with your fears.

Your audience wants to hear what you have to say, so if you can answer their ‘what’s in it for me?’ question in plain English, you’ll capture and keep their attention. Using note-cards with keywords will help you look and sound better than if you try to memorise, improvise or read aloud word for word.

Rehearse out loud and on your feet, so it all feels familiar, then get in early and practice to get the feel and the sound of the room. At social events, stick to water until your speech is over. You may think you’ll speak better after a drink, but that’s an illusion.

When the moment arrives, stand up comfortably straight, relax your shoulders and connect with friendly eye contact and a smile. Breathing slowly and deeply from your diaphragm helps you feel calmer and sound better as you say your first few well-practised words.

Yes, your heart will still be racing. It’s pumping the energy you need to power your speech, and you’ll feel better once you get going.

Enjoy speaking well in public

The ability to speak well in public is a key professional skill, yet so many are affected by nerves and don’t always make the most of the opportunity.

In my previous Public Speaking article, for the young professional, I discussed why we get nervous and what nerves do to us, and gave some essential advice on how to prepare to speak in public.

As a more established professional, you have a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience, gravitas and authority – but we all develop habits of thinking, speaking and behaving that could be limiting further potential growth. You may have always wanted to build your public speaking skill yet never got round to it, or perhaps let nerves stop you doing something about it. We never stop developing personally or professionally and it’s never too late to start.

Whether you’re talking to an audience about your organisation and your work, in conversation with a client, or speaking in court, take a tip from the ancient Greeks. They knew that any audience needs three things from you:

Ethos – They need to trust you. Establishing your credibility and a sense of authority from the beginning, plus facts, figures and an evident mastery of your field will reassure them.

Pathos – They need to like you. Attention to appearance and body language, a well-rehearsed first few words, emotional intelligence, empathy, courtesy and listening skills will all engage them.

Logos – They need to understand you. So Plain English, short conversational sentences and a clear message, giving them an answer to their unspoken ‘what’s in it for me?’ question will keep their attention.

Prepare for success

You may sometimes be called on to deliver presentations to groups and organisations about your firm’s services. If this isn’t your usual role, it can seem daunting – but you can take control, deal with nerves and deliver an effective message if you prepare for success.

Prepare your mind

How you think [the words and images you use to talk to yourself] affects how you feel [your physical and emotional reaction] which then affects how you behave [what you do and say and the manner that comes across to others]. All this together then drives how the world treats you, which affects how you think – and sets you going round the same old cycle once again.

Think – All that energy and adrenaline is there to help you and if you can start to consider it as a friend, the fuel you need to power your presentation or the conversation, you may even come to welcome it as excitement, a sense of occasion rather than ‘nerves’. Change the words you use to think about nerves, replacing negatives with positives – ‘it’s an exciting opportunity, they’re interested, I’m ready … ‘ They want you to do well, most people are nice, you wouldn’t be there if you couldn’t do it, you’ve prepared. Collect your positive thoughts, any past compliments, achievements and successes, write them down and read them regularly.

Visualise – Picture your own success, imagine yourself looking smart and collected in front of an interested and attentive audience.

Start a folder of positive terms and inspiring images in your phone, so you can go back to it for a top-up next time you start thinking about presentations, to reinforce an encouraging approach.

Prepare your material

Audience – If you’re planning a presentation, ask yourself ‘what does this audience need to hear from me right now?’ Focus on the benefits you have to offer them.

Aim and Objectives – Decide your aim for the presentation; a one-sentence statement of what you intend to achieve. Then establish three objectives; three outcomes for the audience at the end of the talk. For example,

Aim: I’m going to give an introduction to Confident Public Speaking skills.

Objectives: by the end of my one-day course they’ll be able to:

• Describe the cause and effect of nerves

• Demonstrate how to plan and prepare a presentation

• Deliver a presentation to the rest of the group

Q&A – Read around your subject so you know more than you’re delivering on the day and prepare for the most difficult questions. They probably won’t happen, but if they do, then you’ve planned a strategy in advance.

PowerPoint – If you’re using PowerPoint, the fewer words on screen the better. Go for lots of images instead that will illustrate what you say rather than lots of text that will tempt you to look at the screen and read it out. Always be able to deliver without it – it’s an optional extra, not the presentation itself.

Notes – A6 note cards look better than flappy A4 sheets and are comfortable to hold and use. Use bullet points and key words, not the full text. If the script is there you’ll be tempted to look at it, not at them.

And rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Prepare your voice

What annoys you most when you attend any presentation? Speakers who talk too quickly, too quietly, mumble and ramble? These are very common problems and can all be left behind with practice.

Personal impact – At the beginning, relax, breathe, make eye contact and smile as you deliver your well-rehearsed first few words from memory. If you feel yourself getting flustered, or you feel your throat closing up with tension, stop, relax, think about your breathing and take a few calming diaphragm breaths to help you think before you speak. A sip of water helps you collect your thoughts before starting to speak again. You’ll feel, look and sound better.

Power – as well as giving you fuel and calming you down, breathing from your diaphragm helps you control volume and projection. While you’re rehearsing in private, throwing balls of newspaper as you speak encourages you to project your voice. Keep practicing, as projection is a physical activity that improves with repetition.

Pace – nerves often make us speed up, so slow down if you need to. A variety of speed, volume and tone is interesting. Edit out those ums and ers, you really don’t need them. Allow the pause instead – this lets them think and catch up with you, and helps you think and breathe, too.

Practice speaking every day. What may seem awkward and odd at first will with practice become a natural, useful and enjoyable skill that you’ll no longer need to worry about.

Contact

Philippa Hammond

Any legal professional needs to hold confident and effective client conversations.

I trained many new immigration officers in the PEACE investigative interview technique, and later introduced the concept into an Appraisals masterclass as part of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s leadership and development programme.

Some of those essentials translate well into preparing for any formal conversation where you need to gather and deliver information effectively. To help you achieve a rapport with your client and get the most out of your conversation:

Engage and explain – Whether you’re advising or interviewing a client, you may be tempted to fire off questions and give as much information as possible, in full legal language, to ensure you’ve covered everything. You’re talking about themes familiar and interesting to you, but they’re new, strange and possibly frightening to your client, and when you’re in full flow it can be difficult to notice that you’ve lost them.

Always take time to empathise with how they might feel and ensure they understand what’s happening first and throughout your conversation.

Beware too much, too fast. We can only take in so much new information before our brains switch off. Small bites of information are best.

Clarity and simplicity are virtues, so aim for clear, conversational Plain English. Don’t purchase a property – buy a house.

Gather the account – Gather information with open questions [who, what, when, where, how, tell me about, could you explain, what was the thinking behind … ]. They will open up the conversation and encourage your client to open up, too.

Clarify and challenge – What people say first may not be the whole story. Clarifying grey areas and challenging inconsistencies with probing questions, drilling down and exploring uncertainties while still maintaining a courteous, neutral and professional tone will help you collect the information you need to get to the truth of the matter. Closed either/or yes/no questions can be helpful here.

Listen and observe – If you’re giving information, find out what they already know and understand before launching into a monologue.

Whatever your aim, ask questions and actively listen with eye contact and stillness. Observe their body language, expressions, eye movement and any sudden change of demeanor when you touch on a difficult point. Listen to tone of voice, hesitations and the way they’re speaking – and observe what they don’t say for clues about to how to speak to them and draw out valuable information.

For the interviewer, empathy, questioning and observation skills are as useful as knowledge and the ability to explain.

Silence is golden – One of the most important conversational skills is the ability to stop talking. Be patient and resist any urge to interrupt or finish their sentences for them if you feel you know what they’re trying to say. Sometimes silence is more effective than a question, and more information may be coaxed out if you resist the urge to dive in with the next one.

Be clear – Their needs are paramount and you may not realise at first what they are. The way they speak may alert you to hearing or learning difficulties. If they’re hard of hearing, you don’t necessarily need to speak more loudly, it could just be that you’re not speaking clearly enough. Emphasise your consonants and word endings – vowels carry the emotion and the feeling in speech, while consonants carry the clarity and authority you need to get your message across.

Reasonable adjustments If you’re working with a Deaf client, always turn to face them, seat them with their back to the window so they aren’t seeing you in silhouette, keep your hands away from your mouth and remove distracting visual noise and clutter from their sight line. Speak normally – exaggerated lip movements make it hard to lip read. If you’re working with a sign language interpreter, keep your hands still and give plenty of time for translation. With any translator, speak ‘to’ the person you’re talking to, rather than to the interpreter.

Check understanding – Check they’ve got each point clearly before moving onto the next one. Repetition, simplification and summarising will ensure they understand – asking ‘do you understand?’ isn’t always helpful, as clients may say yes so as not to seem stupid to you.

For your professional development, you may find it helpful to ask a trusted colleague to attend your client meetings and give you feedback on your performance. Your interactions with your clients can mean the difference between success or failure – and a great client experience may win your firm repeat business and enhance your reputation.

Contact

Philippa Hammond

What happens to you when you speak in public?

It’s a vital professional and social skill, yet so many are nervous of public speaking and this can affect your personal impact. Being looked at and judged and worrying about failure, letting people down and losing face can make you feel under stress, even under threat.

Your system reacts and the ‘fight or flight’ threat response kicks in. A shot of adrenaline jolts your heartrate up, pumping oxygen round your system, causing overheating, blushing and sweating, hands tremble, breathing speeds up, you can’t think or speak clearly …

Sounds familiar? You’re not alone – you may not realise that everyone who has to speak to an audience, a camera or a mic, including actors and other professional speakers, feels nervous, too.

Whether it’s a one to one with a client, giving a presentation about your work to an audience or speaking in court, you need to feel, project and inspire confidence in yourself and your abilities. It all starts with you.

Think positive … If you’re a young person in the early stages of your legal career, a lack of life and career experience could mean establishing yourself among older more seasoned professionals and your clients is a challenge. Remind yourself that you’re bright and new, you’re trained and qualified with your whole future ahead of you and a recent learning habit to draw upon.

Be self-aware … Your personal impact is first visual, then vocal and finally verbal. Deportment and diction may seem old-fashioned concepts, but paying attention to how you look and sound affects how people think of you, your skills and your firm, and will support your developing professional brand.

Relax … Too much tension will affect your visual impact, as well as your voice.

If you’re standing, here’s an easy way to achieve an elegant yet relaxed public posture: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, your back straight and your chin parallel to the floor, shoulders comfortably dropped, elbows a little away from your waist and your hands lightly clasped in neutral at elbow height in front.

If you’re sitting, keeping your feet flat on the floor, your behind against the back of the chair and sitting up straight, not leaning on the chair back, will have the same effect. Stillness plus considered movement and gesture add gravitas.

Breathe … Of course you can breathe – but are you doing it properly? Controlling your breathing is essential for anyone who uses their voice professionally.

Stand or sit as you’ve practised and just observe yourself breathing for a few moments. Now place your right hand on your front where you feel you’re doing your breathing. Where is it? If it’s high up on your chest, it could be you’re in the habit of shallow breathing, which we do when we’re scared, sick or running – all stressful situations.

Next put your left hand at your diaphragm where your ribcage ends and breathe deeply in through your nose so your left hand moves and your right hand stays still. Practice shifting the focus away from chest breathing to diaphragm breathing for more power, more fuel and a greater sense of calm.

And speak … Clear diction and precise speech imply precise thinking and make you easy to understand.

Tongue twisters are fun to do, and will make your speech more agile and eloquent. Here’s a link to some exercises you can practice as part of your personal development, and just as actors would do, try them as a warm-up before you go out to a client conversation or to deliver any speech or presentation: http://www.speakingwellinpublic.co.uk/articles/tongue-twisters

Practice them for articulacy and clarity, paying attention to opening up your mouth, and pronouncing the consonants clearly till you’re very precise, then try saying them as quickly and accurately as possible. Take care to pronounce every element of each word, avoiding any tendency to swallow the ends of words and sentences.

Younger professionals sometimes retain some teen speaking habits that can undermine their impact:

Australian Question Intonation? That rising tone at the end of a sentence? Even when you’re not asking a question? This can make you sound unsure and insecure and will make your listeners feel the same way about you. It can also make you sound like a car alarm, which is not a good sound.

Vocal Fry, that creaky-croaky languid ‘Made In Chelsea’ tone, is hard to listen to and hard to project. Here’s Kim Kardashian demonstrating extreme Vocal Fry

And ‘like’ – the teen ‘um’ – only, like, reinforces youthfulness and can, like, infuriate.

They’re just habits. Time to move on and let those fashionable habits go, so the polished and professional authentic you shines through.

Your voice will develop throughout your twenties – if you record yourself speaking now, and again in five years’ time, you may well hear differences as you mature.

Enjoy speaking well in public – it’s an essential skill and will be a real asset to your career.

Philippa Hammond

Contact

Stop saying ‘like’.