Leadership; 5 easy steps

Becoming an effective leader has been compared to being in the stock market, in a normal year. You don't make your fortune in one day; you make it daily and weekly, a little bit at a time. What matters most is what you do day after day, over a long period of time. The secret to leadership success is investing in your leadership development, much like letting your financial assets compound. The final result "Leadership Growth" over time.

Are leaders born or made, nature or nurture. The process of leadership is long, complex and has many elements. Respect, dignity, discipline, people skills, vision, emotional strength, opportunity, preparedness and experience are just some of the intangible elements which come into play when talking leadership. Calm assertive personalities.

You can, over a period of time, increase your leadership potential if you can understand and accept the five levels of leadership. They are;

Level One - Leadership From Position
This is the basic level of leadership, square 1. At this level people follow you because they have to. Your ability to lead people is totally geared to your position and does not exceed the lines of your job description or the authority granted to you by the company and your boss. Your security with the company is based on title and position, not talent. They salute the uniform not the man.

To be an effective leader at this level know your job, be prepared to accept responsibility, exercise authority with caution, assess the strengths and short comings of your people, do more than what is expected and challenge people with interesting and tough assignments.

Positional Level is the doorway to leadership and every successful leader must pass through this doorway.

Level Two - Leadership From Respect
At the respect level of leadership people follow you because they want to. The core of Leadership From Respect is that people want to know that you care and understand about them and their viewpoint (empathy). You have to accomplish this before they care about or will consider or value, what you know. People see you as a professional partner, sharing the similar goals and challenges along the way. Leadership will flourish with respect, because respect breeds lasting trusted professional relationships and therefore forms the basis for effective leadership.

To be effective at the respect level, you need to possess (develop) a genuine concern for your people. It is important that you see life through their eyes. Deal thoughtfully and wisely with, apparently difficult people. Cultivate success and make employees successful by setting them up for success. Give them an appetite for it and stand back.

Since leadership from respect is built on professional relationships, it forms the foundation for leadership success.

Level Three - Leadership From Results
People follow you because of what you have done for the company. People admire you for your accomplishments and respect your tenacity. At this point leadership becomes fun. Going to work is fun, work related challenges are seen to be opportunities for a more stable work environment and all tasks have a purpose in the minds of the employees. Good things happen at the results level. Making profit, low employee turnover, higher employee morale and solving problems with ease are some of the items that become evident at this level.

To be an effective leader at this level be prepared to initiate and accept responsibility for growth by developing a purpose and seeing it through to completion. Develop accountability for results, beginning with yourself and ending with your people. Make the difficult decisions that will result in positive long term gains while championing change as a change agent and understanding the need for and the process of change.

Leadership from results is built on admiration and respect for the leader.

Level Four - Leadership From People Development
People follow you because of what you have done for them. It is a leader's responsibility to develop their people to do the work that is expected to contribute future growth opportunities to the company and the people who serve it. People are loyal to you because they see first hand personal growth opportunities for them as well as, the company. Leadership success is underscored by a win - win scenario and a high commitment to success.

To be effective at this level place a priority on developing people. Focus your attention on the fact that people are your most valuable asset and your leadership success will depend on your ability to surround yourself with an inner core of competent people who compliment your leadership style and goals.

Leadership from people development is built on honesty, commitment and loyalty.

Level Five - Leadership From Mentorship
People follow you because they respect you. As a leader you have credibility, you may appear larger than life and your success is shown through a life of proven accomplishments. People seek you out after you have left the company because you have left an indelible mark on the organisation, its employees and its clients. Although less than five per cent of all leaders will attain this level of leadership, it is a level worth striving for.

In summary, everyone can become a good or better leader. It is important to keep in mind that the higher you want to go up the leadership scale, the longer it takes to accomplish results and the higher the commitment will need to be. It is imperative that we know what level we are on with our people, the team and the company.

H5N1 Pandemic Flu - breakthrough research

From my previous article on the H5N1 Pandemic flu virus, you will know that the flu virus constantly alters its surface proteins and constantly mutates into variant forms. This means that we can be infected many times over a lifetime and a flu vaccine made last year has but a short period of effectiveness.

Now studies show that this behaviour is just a decoy to guard the virus's more vulnerable parts; a fact that might enable us to make drugs, or a vaccine, that will work on all kinds of flu, year after year.

Flu's main surface protein, haemagglutinin, looks like a lollipop. Our immune systems mostly produce antibodies to its rounded head, and it is this part that changes every year, making immunity short-lived. But in a large library of human antibodies, Wayne Marasco at Harvard University and colleagues found very few that bind its "stalk", which barely changes at all, either through time or between different flu viruses.

To see if this might provide a way to attack the virus, they produced large amounts of the antibodies that home in on the stalk and found that they cured and protected mice from two kinds of H5N1 bird flu, as well as many other flu families including H1N1 pandemic and ordinary flu. The researchers now want to develop the antibodies as a flu drug, possibly to stockpile for pandemics.

The team also plans to test the stalk antibody as a vaccine, so that people produce more of these antibodies themselves. They suspect haemagglutinin's big head is a decoy aimed to attract the immune system's attention and to stop us making many antibodies to the stalk – a delicate bit of molecular machinery that not be so easy to change to evade our immune attacks. In tests on mice, they found that the flu viruses did not evolve to escape the treatment.

Another benefit is that such antibodies stay effective for more than three weeks when injected into people, and in a pandemic could keep people alive long enough to produce their own antibodies to the virus.

Managing the pack - Leadership

In the absence of good strong definite, disciplined, leadership, subversive elements will move in to take over that position and assume dominance over the pack /team.

These subversives are normally the very ones that are threatened by the lack of leadership and discipline. They need defining rules and boundaries, because they are very insecure. They want to be given direction, to be told what to do and how to do it.

The more independent types will be less concerned about weak management and leadership, because they can manage and lead themselves. They are very at ease with co-operative and supportive behaviour and are the backbone of any pack /team.

Unfortunately subversive leaders are ill-equipped for the leadership or governing role and become more insecure, distressed, unpredictable and aggressive. In the absence of hierarchical controls and strong executive management, subversive managers can easily become abusive and vindictive.

In dogs this shows up as unwanted aggressive behaviour when in contact with other dogs, particularly those of a lower standing in the pack. Pulling aggressively on the lead, in a direction chosen by the dog, to the pain and detriment of the owner. Plus inappropriately attacking everything that comes along, and treating it as if it were a major threat e.g. cats, dogs, postmen, skateboards, etc. It is all driven by fear and lack of confidence in the leadership abilities of the owner.

In managers it is slightly less obvious but not much.

• Loud and disruptive at meetings. (attacks other subordinate members of the pack)
  
• Dominating the conversation (unwanted prolonged barking)
• Averse to change (attacking anything new as if it were a threat)
  
• Aggressively defending their position and ideas (doesn't mix well with others and quick to bite)
  
• Hijacking the strategic plan and moving it in another direction entirely, to the detriment of the company and the annoyance of the executives (pulling on the lead in the wrong direction).

So, how are your pack leaders? Are they calm assertive or excitable aggressive? You hire the employees that you need and you get the managers you deserve. Be the leader of the pack, the one that keeps them under control at all times. That way you can let them of the lead and know you can call them back to heel, when required, and you will not be afraid to have them play with small children, occasionally.

Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!

View Philip Zimbardo's thought provoking presentation on TED.com

Linkedin - Make the most of it

I was invited to join Linkedin some years ago when it had just a small following and I subsequently lost the e-mail account that I was using to log in and could not retrieve the Password. So recently, I had to start again and try to re-connect with past colleagues and friends in other locations. It has been an interesting voyage but I still have a long way to go.

I have decided to share with you some of my findings and some suggestions from others about improving your Linkedin account. Hopefully, this will make it more interesting and more effective.

Recommended reading
Within your LinkedIn profile you have a section for recommendations. This is intended to be a useful tool for recruitment consultants and potential new bosses, to find out something about you. Do you play well with others? Unfortunately it can be a bit incestuous, with a circle of friends patting each other on the back and congratulating themselves for doing what they do.

The section suggests that you seek out approval and recognition from a list of your contacts, to allow potential employers a fuller view of you as a direct report, boss, colleague, or client. They are intended to make your LinkedIn profile more dynamic and personal than the fairly static information (where you worked, what you did) that appears in your general resume.Be aware that employers will look beyond the shallow and obviously long-standing friendships, to find the real you.

Instructions on how to get to the Recommendations page;

1. After you log into your LinkedIn homepage, scroll your mouse over to the left navigation menu where it says "Profile." Click on the subsection that says, "Recommendations."
2. On the Recommendations page, click on the "request recommendations tab."
3. You can then walk through a simple three step process.

• Name the job (among those listed in your resume) for which you want a recommendation, using the drop-down menu.
• Decide who you'll ask for a recommendation. And lastly,
• Write a customized note, telling the person why you'd like them to recommend you.

a) What kind of recommendation should you have
While you should have a recommendation in which your boss praises your abilities and how your work helped drive good business results, don't stop there. You want to be able to demonstrate that you were a team player, having your peers say in a recommendation that you go the extra mile or help mentor people can help shape your image with a potential employer.

You also might want to look externally to clients and internally to your direct reports. If you really want to show that you're an effective manger, you want to have endorsement from those people, not just the person above you saying so. Recommendations are about how you work with the people around you, and that should really be all the way around you: above, below, and sideways.

Clearly, make sure you know the person well before asking them for a recommendation. Not only will that ensure a recommendation with greater depth and detail, but also, you avoid putting someone in the awkward position of saying no.

b) Setting Expectations for a Recommendation
Like a recommendation written for the paper-based or e-mail world, a person recommending you on LinkedIn can benefit from some guidance on what specific thoughts and key items you're looking to present in their recommendation. It doesn't hurt to meet them halfway and state what aspects of your experience and relationship you're wanting to convey.

Don't put words in their mouths unless you know more appropriate ones. Do ask them to accentuate one or two good points about what it was like working with you. You can sit back and leave it up to chance about what they might want to write but you may not get the answers you want.

That said, you want to make sure you're not shutting down a colleague from writing something about you that you were unaware. Something that would bolster your image and that you may not have even thought of. In the invitation to write the recommendation, you shouldn't set overly specific guidelines, but mention that you'd be happy to offer them some ideas, if they think it would be helpful.

You might get a happy surprise if they create something that exceeds your expectations and then again you may not.

c). Length: Quality over Quantity
It doesn't hurt to give your colleague some guidance for how long the recommendation should be, and in this case, experts agree that quality should trump quantity. Reader attention spans on the Web are known to be very short. So, you don't want potential employers missing the overall message of a recommendation because they were unable to take several minutes to read it. Time is money and always short. One paragraph should be sufficient, with two paragraphs being an absolute max.In most cases, recommendations with as few as three sentences communicate the most essential points about a person.

d) Number of Recommendations: Again, Quality Over Quantity
Some LinkedIn profiles look like infomercials if you overuse the recommendation feature. You should not follow such a blatantly obvious deviant strategy. I know people who have 300+ recommendations but it waters down the impact of any of the individual recommendations and can confuse and distract the reader. If you have five really important ones, that's sufficient. At a guess the next 295 will be saying roughly the same thing i.e. this person is great! It adds too much noise and degrades your integrity.

We certainly recommend having no more than 10, or if you must have recommendations from each previous position or employer, limit yourself to two to three per job.

e) Give Before You Get
The importance of building social capital and goodwill can not be overstated and it's really unavoidable when it comes to LinkedIn recommendations. Before you can expect serious endorsements from people, it's better to start by recommending some people yourself. This way, when you find yourself in need of a new job, hopefully you can rely on them returning the goodwill.

A mirror on your bedroom ceiling reflects badly on you

Keep the Recruitment Consultant on your side

Job seekers need recruiters more than ever. But in their efforts to nurture their networks and stay at the forefront of recruiters' minds, some job seekers are frustrating the very people they need to help them land a new job.

Executive recruiters tell me that job seekers are inundating them with calls and e-mails to inquire about the job market and seek advice on how to land a job in a recession.

The recruiters tell me that they want to help everyone who's contacting them, but they don't have time. The economy has made their jobs much harder. Drumming up business, hunting for candidates and convincing them to take a new job requires much more time and effort in a recession. As one recruiter put it: "Spending 30 minutes with somebody to give them career counsel is not always going to be feasible. If we accepted every request we got, it would kill our day."

What the recruiters are telling me—though not in so many words—is that some job seekers are really pissing them off. In their efforts to get time with headhunters, over-aggressive job seekers are actually alienating themselves from the very people they need to help them find jobs.

If you're looking for a job and you want to stay on good terms with recruiters, heed the following advice they shared with me:

1. Be respectful of recruiters' time.
Realize headhunters can't devote a half hour of their day to answering your questions about the job market and your résumé. Ask them for five minutes, and don't exceed that five minutes. Have a specific question for them, and if possible, have something you can give back, whether it's a contact or information about the market or one of the recruiter's clients.

2. Don't send bland e-mails.
E-mails that simply say 'Hi. How are you? Do you have any new positions?' don't endear recruiters to job seekers. Cut-and-paste e-mails rub recruiters the wrong way because they're not personal. Recruiters are relationship people. Recruiters say job seekers may have a better chance of building a relationship with them if the job seeker catches the recruiter on the phone. Phone calls are inherently more personal than e-mails.

3. Don't call the recruiter at the same time every week.
Calling a particular recruiter at the same time every week makes them feel like a cog in your call cycle. And routine calls aren't very personal. Rather than calling them every week, stick to every couple of weeks, and vary the days and times you call.

4. Don't send recruiters your résumé every time you update it.
Recruiters say they are generally happy to give job seekers advice on their résumés. Just don't send your résumé to them every time you update it, expecting feedback. They don't have time to give you feedback on every version, and they don't want to see every iteration.

H5N1 Bird Flu - Pandemic preparation?

UK to double pandemic flu drug stockpiles in a futile attempt to prepare for a an epidemic of Bird Flu (H5N1) in the UK. I carried out a research project for the European Space agency in 2006 and published a paper of the findings. I still retain an interest in the subject and my attention was drawn to a recent move by the UK government.

Pharmaceutical vaccines
Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) - 1st line vaccine is ineffective against new strains of emerging bird flu

Relenza (Zanamivir) - common flu vaccine, may dampen down the effects or the symptoms of a flu virus

UK Government statement

The UK has awarded contracts to double emergency supplies of flu drugs, promising to treat ‘everyone who is predicted to fall ill in a pandemic’. The government claims that this makes the UK one of the most prepared countries in the world. This will please the pharmaceutical lobby more than the National Health Authority.

Pharmaceutical lobby

The agreements with Roche and GlaxoSmithKline will double antiviral stockpiles, which are expected to be in place by April 2009. The contracts will deliver an additional 7.6 million treatment courses of Tamiflu (Roche) and 10.6 million treatment courses of Relenza (GlaxoSmithKline). Once the extra capacity is in place, there will be 33.5 million ineffective treatment courses of antivirals, with limited shelf life.

High mortality rates

The government states that without antiviral treatment, estimates suggest that up to 750,000 people could die in the UK during a pandemic. Antivirals will play a key role in the clinical response, reducing the severity of the illness and reducing the chance that complications such as pneumonia will set in.The onset of pneumonia is more likely to be a bacterial infection due to the immune system being seriously compromised and the treatment for bacterial pneumonia is antibiotics.

Current status

There are currently enough drugs for a quarter of the population, but the latest cross-government pandemic plan aims to cope with the worst-case scenario of an infection rate that could hit up to half the UK population. The new contracts awarded by the Department of Health is said to ensure that that aim can be met. Unfortunately that is not the case.

H5N1 mutations

The bird flu virus mutates regularly through its RNA and for it to become a pandemic affecting humans, it needs to develop the capability of crossing the species barrier, from birds to humans. It has yet to do this, as far as we are aware. Bird flu has mutated and crossed from birds to other mammals e.g. mice, rats, cats, pigs, etc. The greatest risk will come if the virus mutates from bird to human, using another mammal as an interim host.

Maybe the UK government know better. Because the bird flu has not yet mutated, it has not yet been forensically examined. Therefore, a matching vaccine has not yet been developed i.e. one that specifically targets, a yet to be mutated flu virus. In average, and with maximum effort, it takes scientists and pharmacologists 6 months to develop a new anti-viral vaccine. So we are still in danger, when the time comes, despite noises to the contrary.

UK Public Health Minister

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said:

"The UK is already widely recognised as one of the best prepared countries in the world. The increased flu-drug stockpile means that we should be able to treat everyone who falls ill in a pandemic." I think the key word here is 'treat' not cure. You can treat a broken leg with a band aid but it doesn't help and will not 'cure' it.

Broken umbrella
Dawn continues "Antivirals are an important part of our robust countermeasure strategy and will ensure we respond effectively in the event of a flu pandemic." Nice speech Dawn but a think you had better look behind the pharmaceutical companies' curtains and see the truth for what it is, scary!

Further Information is available from; Roche Pandemic Preparation Toolkit AND GSK Pandemic Preparation page

Categories of intelligence

The categories of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner are:

Bodily-kinesthetic

This area has to do with bodily movement. People who have this intelligence usually learn better by getting up and moving around, and are generally good at physical activities such as sports or dance. They may enjoy acting or performing, and in general they are good at building and making things. They often learn best by doing something physically, rather than reading or hearing about it. Those with strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence seem to use what might be termed muscle memory - they remember things through their body such as verbal memory or images.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include athletes, dancers, actors, surgeons, doctors, builders, and soldiers. Although these careers can be duplicated through virtual simulation they will not produce the actual physical learning that is needed in this intelligence.

Interpersonal

This area has to do with interaction with others. People who have a high interpersonal intelligence tend to be extroverts, characterized by their sensitivity to others' moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group. They communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or followers. They typically learn best by working with others and often enjoy discussion and debate.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include politicians, managers, teachers, and social workers.

Verbal-linguistic

This area has to do with words, spoken or written. People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words and languages. They are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with dates. They tend to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and discussion and debate. They are also frequently skilled at explaining, teaching and oration or persuasive speaking. Those with verbal-linguistic intelligence learn foreign languages very easily as they have high verbal memory and recall, and an ability to understand and manipulate syntax and structure.

This intelligence is highest in writers, lawyers, philosophers, journalists, politicians and teachers.

Logical-mathematical

This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning, and numbers. While it is often assumed that those with this intelligence naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer programming and other logical or numerical activities, a more accurate definition places emphasis on traditional mathematical ability and more reasoning capabilities, abstract patterns of recognition, scientific thinking and investigation, and the ability to perform complex calculations. It correlates strongly with traditional concepts of "intelligence" or IQ.

Many scientists, mathematicians, engineers, doctors and economists function in this level of intelligences.

Naturalistic

This area has to do with nature, nurturing and relating information to one's natural surroundings. This type of intelligence was not part of Gardner's original theory of Multiple Intelligences, but was added to the theory in 1997. Those with it are said to have greater sensitivity to nature and their place within it, the ability to nurture and grow things, and greater ease in caring for, taming and interacting with animals. They may also be able to discern changes in weather or similar fluctuations in their natural surroundings. Recognizing and classifying things are at the core of a naturalist. They must connect a new experience with prior knowledge to truly learn something new.

"Naturalists" learn best when the subject involves collecting and analyzing, or is closely related to something prominent in nature; they also don't enjoy learning unfamiliar or seemingly useless subjects with little or no connections to nature. It is advised that naturalistic learners would learn more through being outside or in a kinesthetic way.

The theory behind this intelligence is often criticized, much like the spiritual or existential intelligence (see below), as it is seen by many as not indicative of an intelligence but rather an interest.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include scientists, naturalists, conservationists, gardeners and farmers.

Intrapersonal

This area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. Those who are strongest in this intelligence are typically introverts and prefer to work alone. They are usually highly self-aware and capable of understanding their own emotions, goals and motivations. They often have an affinity for thought-based pursuits such as philosophy. They learn best when allowed to concentrate on the subject by themselves. There is often a high level of perfectionism associated with this intelligence.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include philosophers, psychologists, theologians, writers and scientists.

Visual-spatial (Spatial reasoning)

This area has to do with vision and spatial judgment. People with strong visual-spatial intelligence are typically very good at visualizing and mentally manipulating objects. Those with strong spatial intelligence are often proficient at solving puzzles. They have a strong visual memory and are often artistically inclined. Those with visual-spatial intelligence also generally have a very good sense of direction and may also have very good hand-eye coordination, although this is normally seen as a characteristic of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

Some critics point out the high correlation between the spatial and mathematical abilities, which seems to disprove the clear separation of the intelligences as Gardner theorized. Since solving a mathematical problem involves reassuringly manipulating symbols and numbers, spatial intelligence is involved in visually changing the reality. A thorough understanding of the two intelligences precludes this criticism, however, as the two intelligences do not precisely conform to the definitions of visual and mathematical abilities. Although they may share certain characteristics, they are easily distinguished by several factors, and there are many with strong logical-mathematical intelligence.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include artists, engineers, and architects.

Musical

This area has to do with rhythm, music, and hearing. Those who have a high level of musical-rhythmic intelligence display greater sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music. They normally have good pitch and may even have absolute pitch, and are able to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music. Since there is a strong auditory component to this intelligence, those who are strongest in it may learn best via lecture. In addition, they will often use songs or rhythms to learn and memorize information, and may work best with music playing in the background.

Careers that suit those with this intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, and composers.