Inspirational Leader

1. 0 Introduction The Book that I had selected on business is “The Inspirational Leader” which written by John P G Tan. John P G Tan is one of the country’s highly sought after leadership trainer and speaker. The purpose of this book is to help bring about better management and leadership amongst the people of the country. His belief is that we can become leaders who can make the difference. John P G Tan trains for companies large and small and his training sessions have been consistently rated as excellent, exciting and enriching.

He runs his own training company, Professional Skills Trainers Sdn Bhd, and has developed “The Inspirational Leader” program, a program which made a difference to countless people. Besides that this book is to give us the skills that we need to turn from a scratcher to a soarer. (John (2002) said) This book will also point us in the direction of the areas that we will need further development on. We can become inspiring leaders, but we must know the skills and the reason for being inspirational rather than remaining mediocre of this great transformation process. John (2002) said) So it is with leadership. There are those who think that they are leaders when in reality the only thing that they are leading is themselves into delusion about their leadership abilities. On the other hand, there are those who lead their team to greater heights, whose goal in life is to add value to those for whom they are responsible. There are the ones who inspire us to go on. (John (2002) said) This book will help is discover just how to become an inspiring leader.

The book gives us, step-by-step, and in a very down-to-earth manner, the skills that we will need to, for examples, get your leadership paradigms right, overcome negative mindsets of leadership, think out of the box, acquire the essential skills that you will need to become an effective, inspiring leader. 2. 0 Climbing Up the Inspirational Leadership Rungs To become an effective leader, one has to climb the Five steps of Leadership. John believe that there are perhaps 6 Levels to the question of leadership. He call this the 6 Rungs of Inspirational Leadership. John (2002) said)

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The reason is because RUNGS denote that we have some climbing to do, that effort is needed if we want to proceed and that the effort will require us feet as well as our hands. The journey is not an easy one but rewarding one nonetheless. The first Rung is that of YEARNING. At this level, we are not even a leader yet. We just eyeing the horizon, thinking about all the wonderful things that we would do if we were a leader. John’s experience is that most of the people here are around the 25-28 years of age bracket, educated and who have a desire to go forward.

For some, the way forward seems to be well prepared, but for most of us the way ahead can seem rather hazy. But we have that desire to progress and to that end our arm ourselves with the necessary qualifications and training to get to that next level. (John (2002) said) The second rung is that of BEING, being the manager or leader, that is, we get here by being technically competent. At this point people follow you because, quite frankly, they just don’t have a choice. You are their boss and whether they like it or not, they are going to have to take orders from you.

Not the prettiest of situations to be in, but a situation relished by some people nonetheless. But before you go off and think that this rung is therefore obsolete, think against. It is a position that you must have. But you must not stay put here. You must have the desire to keep on keeping on. (John (2002) said) The third rung is the rung of BEFRIENDING. Here, your subordinated actually quite enjoy being with you and will actually do things for you because they want to rather than feel that they have to.

At this level, to get people to turn towards loving you, you would have to practice a fair amount of human relations skills, as well as communication skills. The problem is that most of us progress upwards on technical competence. (John (2002) said) Rung four is the rung of PRODUCING. This is when people admire you because they see that your leadership brings about results. They come to you with a problem and you help them solve the problem, not refer them to some other department. They come to you with a crisis and you develop opportunities out of that crisis.

The level four person is one adroit in the skills of problem solving, creative thinking and communication. (John (2002) said) The fifth rung had to do with what you have done with your subordinates. The other levels were generally about you but a level five, the rung of REPLICATION, you are more concerned about your people’s development. At this level, the leader’s concern is about helping his people develop to their fullest potential. (John (2002) said) The last level, level 6 is about INSPIRING. Here, the people are loyal to you because you are loyal to them. Here, they are true followers because they see in you a true leader.

They are willing to walk two miles when you asked for an extra one because they saw the same trait in you. At this level, you are an inspiration to the people around you. (John (2002) said) 3. 0 The 3 Essential Skills A guy called Robert L Katz did some research and found that we all needed three essential skills. He called these skills technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills. (John (2002) said) Technical skills are essentially knowledge skills, the type of skills you acquire when you go to college and university for your studies. At the lower level management, technical skills are of great importance.

This simply means that if you are to begin progressing, you will need to be technically competent. (John (2002) said) Human skills are the skills required to work with human beings and since almost all work is centered around other human beings, we will be in great need of these skills. Executives in all levels of management require this skill be it lower, middle or top level management. People who have this skill are able to get the best out of their people towards greater heights of achievement and self-development. All of us believe that we are pretty good at handling people.

But the truth is that for most part there are more people who practice bad human relations skills than those who practice good ones. (John (2002) said) The third skill is that of conceptual skills, the ability to think and conceptualize, visualize and then help make things materialize as a result of the ability to look ahead. This skill becomes more and more important as you climb higher up to the 6-R. As you get to the level of Producing, you are going to need lots of this skill. Conceptual skill is like that, that is if we have it, and use it. We create value for others be they our internal customers or our external ones.

Conceptual skills help us to surpass the competition, position and reposition products and services so that we create value for those we serve. This in turns brings in a level of loyalty that we would not have otherwise achieved. (John (2002) said) 4. 0 Stop That Bad Trickle Down The problem with management and leadership is that they suffer from what is sometimes called the trickle down effect. What is the trickle down effect? Simply this. We get into the job market. We report to a boss who is less than inspiring. These not quite so professional bosses push down lousy management practices and principles on us.

By virtue of the fact that we are at the bottom of the totem people, we dare not challenge any of these bad bosses. The day arrives and we become bosses. Now is the time to let out some of our pent-up feelings. So we push down all the things that we didn’t like pushed at us to those below us. We trickle down bad management and leadership practices. The guys below us wait till it’s their turn to do more of the same. Well, it’s about time this is stopped. And it can stop with you. (John (2002) said) Take a little time off and ask yourself what are the good things that you have learned from your previous bosses.

List these things down. Basically, listing down the good things that you have seen in your bosses. Make sure that you trickle these down to your subordinates. Then ask yourself what are the not so nice things that you have had to lap up from those above you. List them and make sure that you do not perpetuate these practices. 5. 0 Treat People As People Let’s start with this major area of self-development- if you want to turn hate to love, for example, the area of Human Skills. One of the problems that we face today is that people don’t really care for one another. We are only nice to others when we need them to do something for us.

At other times, we are nice to them because we might need them to do something for us in the future. The rest of the time, we just can’t seem to be bothered. We have lost the sense of looking at people as people. We often mouth words like “people are our biggest assets” and then we go and treat them otherwise. Insincerity is rife in management today. We tend to look at people only as things to help us achieve our objectives. In many situations we call up others not to find out how they are, but to see if we could somehow solicit their help to achieve some goals that we have. (John (2002) said) Treat people as people.

If you like being treated as a thing, useable to others only when they need you, then do the same. Don’t bother to inquire after health and well being of your subordinates. Only call on them when you need things done. And when you don’t need them, cast them away. (John (2002) said) If you do that, then please remember, that’s what they will do to you too. Take a good look at yourself today and very sincerely ask yourself the following questions. Please be brutally sincere and honest with yourself. Am I a user? Do i really look after cares and concerns of my subordinates or do I just tend to look after my own cares and concerns?

Do I ooze charm only when I need the other person’s help? Or am I really concerned about the developmental welfare of my people? 6. 0 Watch The Words It is easier said than done. Criticizing, condemning and complaining are about the easiest things to do, almost second nature to most of us. A simple example will illustrate this point. (John (2002) said) When you are out driving your car and someone overtakes you rather recklessly what is your normal reaction? I would bet that the tough “crazy driver” would have gone through your mind more than once. Looks like we are about the only ones driving at the right speeds on the roads.

We have the habits, and it’s a bad habit, of looking at things, seeing the worst in them and then condemning the person or persons involved. (John (2002) said) Well it was simply this, that negative words can really kill a person’s initiative. And when we have done that, it can take ages to try and win that person’s confidence back against. Watch your words. Take a good look over your vocal thesaurus and see what kind of words, phrases and jargon you use. Learn to reduce the usage of words that criticize, condemn and complain. (John (2002) said) Remember, if you are a manager, your words hold weight. So what has this got to do with black dot?

Just this, address the black dots when you see them. But address them with words that build and develop, not words that destroy and demotivate. 7. 0 The Other Guy’s Got Right Too We are still looking at the rung of Befriending at rung three where you are trying to change the attitudes and mindset of the people whom you manage from one of “have to” to “want to”. This if you remember, is a prerequisite of changing from hate to love. (John (2002) said) At this point it might be a good idea to take a look at this principle, the principle that the other guy does have rights, the same kinds of rights that you have.

Perhaps a good place to start would be to look at what some of these rights are. People have the right to be respected and to be treated in a respectful manner. It matters not what his or her station in life is, the point is simple. If that person is a human being, then he or she deserves to be treated with some level of respect. (John (2002) said) The trouble is that most of us equate respect for the other person with his or her socio-economic status. Thus a doctor gets greater amount of respect than say a perhaps a construction worker.

The guy who comes around to sell lottery tickets, well, he is a nuisance anyway, disturbing our peace as we have dinner and so does not deserve that much respect. (John (2002) said) We do not actually list down who gets more respect, but we judge and we act accordingly very quickly. I believe that people have the right to disagree with us. Just try and remember this one, the other guy’s got rights too. 8. 0 The Wisdom Of The Open Mouth Well, the open mouth is basically about how we speak with people, what we do with our mouths. It’s about positive communication skills and therein lies the important words – positive.

There are many people who relay nothing but negatives when they open their mouth. Their talk is all about the bad side of people, situations, whatever. Would that they refrain from opening their mouths and fouling up the air. (John (2002) said) Yet there are others who, despite their problems, maintain a positive front and convey nothing but goodness from their mouths. But the Wisdom of the Open Mouth is not about not saying negative things. It’s about saying positive things, saying things in such as way as to edify, to build up the other person, to add value to what is being said and whom it is being said to.

At this point it may be good to remind ourselves that the wisdom of the open mouth lies not only in the mouth but in the heart and in the mind. The Wise Mouth knows that the brain and the heart must be engaged before words are spewed forth. (John (2002) said) The Wise Mouth thinks before speaking. The Wise Mouth has decided that the words that come from it will build human relation bridges rather than barriers. The Wise Mouth has decided that it will encourage rather than discourage, edify rather than vilify, mold rather than scold. John (2002) said) The Wise Mouth will seek out ways to say things in a positive, caring manner and in so doing add value to those around him or her.

The Wise Mouth will not allow foul words to contaminate it. Foul words do nothing but offer an illusion of comfort. Give yourself an oral check-up. Are you generally spreading the good news or the bad news? God knows that there is enough bad news in the world today – take a peek at your daily newspaper and you will get the drift. Kind words are often hard to come by, but when they do come by, they add such a dimension of real warmth and comfort to one’s soul. John (2002) said) 9. 0 TeamWork Truth be told, this word “TeamWork” or Teambuilding is overused and under-understood. Most of us think that teamwork is just about a bunch of people, wearing the same T-shirts, working together. But is that all there is to teamwork? Not by a mile it isn’t. (John (2002) said) The role of inspirational leader’s role in a team is to lead the team to higher grounds, setting down greater and greater challenges. Every team, in order to do well, must plan ahead. But planning ahead is not just about anticipating what actions the team will have to do first next and so on.

Planning requires us to also look at what we would like to be or like to achieve at the end of the activity period. (John (2002) said) It is easy to evaluate our team members on quantitative results but such results are not the be-all and end-all of team efforts. Perhaps leaders ought to be looking at things like value-inculcation of their team members as well. Inspirational Leaders do one thing much better than uninspiring ones – they encourage their people to talk, to participate, to give feedback – whether positive or negative feedback. John (2002) said) Inspirational leaders also tend to inspire their teams by allowing greater levels of participation in team activities and in team decision making. It is the leader’s duty to bring the best out of his or her people. Look at them and spot their strengths and then strengthen them even further. By sending them for further training and then allowing them to practice what they have learned during those training sessions. By writing up a three – year development plan for these folks. By not waiting for them to ask you to develop them, but to do so proactively. John (2002) said) Then you need to look at their faults and remedy them immediately.

Never allows a subordinate’s faults to become a habit for habits are hard to break. 10. 0 Motivating There are two kinds of motivation - one that is centered around motivating yourself and another that is centered around motivating others. At this juncture, I want to only address the one which is centered around motivating others. (John (2002) said) The first principle of motivating others I believe has to do with our own perception of people. This one is really quite self-evident; you treat people nice, they tend to treat you nice. John (2002) said) You treat them bad and you can bet your boots that they will treat you rotten. Somehow, unfortunately, most of us just don’t quite seem to get this into our heads. The second principle of motivating others has to do with giving them the recognition that they deserve for the work well done. A third principle in motivation is simply this – your integrity level. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Always keep to your word. As an inspirational manager your word and your integrity is more important than your signature. John (2002) said) Nothing destroys the confidence that your people have in you than a lack of integrity. Principle number four has to do with involving people. Getting your people involved in the work that you are doing, getting them involved in the decision making process, communicating with them your intentions and asking for their feedback tend to result in better all-round performance and productivity. (John (2002) said) Principle number five has to do with rewards. Make sure that you reward your people for work done. The problem is that too many of us take the easy way out when rewarding our people.

We bribe them with money, and only money. Think about how to reward people in different ways. (John (2002) said) 11. 0 The Inspirational Leader At Work The inspirational leader is one who keeps on keeping on; who keeps on reading and learning more and more about the business, the science and the art of leading, managing and inspiring his or her people. (John (2002) said) Most of us start the journey at a point, when we were formally appointed into some sort of managerial or leadership role. At that point in time, most of us only had our technical expertise to fall back on. John (2002) said)

We had little by way of awareness of the skills required to become better leaders. We were at the stage of Unconscious Incompetence. What this means is that we did not know that we lacked the skills of becoming a good leader. (John (2002) said) Then people complain about us or higher ups recognize our lack of ability and they point these shortcomings to us. At this point we move from Unconscious Incompetence to the stage of Conscious Incompetence. (John (2002) said) We now know that we don’t know. A big help this is – but it is nonetheless a good start.

We then embark on training programs and so on to enhance our leadership skills. (John (2002) said) We learn new things to practice. Some of the things in this book might be new to some of you - but to others, they might not. Whatever it is, you learn and begin to practice. You are now in the stage of Conscious Competence. (John (2002) said) What this means is that you have now decided to put into practical application what you have actually learned. Here’s something for those if you who have learned but refuse to translate that learning into practical application - you are still at Conscious Incompetence.

Progress is slow and sometimes mistakes are made. But that is really quite acceptable. This is the stage of Conscious Competence. (John (2002) said) You are able to do what is required of you - but you have to think through it before you can practicalize it. The last stage is that of Unconscious Competence. At this stage, you are able to unconsciously put into practice all the various principles that you have learned. All the stuff that has been written in the preceding chapters is no longer a problem for you. Because you have been practicing them, you have been incrementally improving on them. John (2002) said) 12. 0 Conclusion For as long as we retain our humanness, all of us are going to make mistakes. But then mistakes are simply opportunities to improve.

The inspirational leader knows how to take corrective steps when he or she makes mistakes – including apologizing for their mistakes. Then he or she picks up the pieces and gets on with it. As the leader keeps improving, he or she gets to level 6 of the 6-Rungs of Leadership. Here, he or she knows how to delegate, motivate, communication, reward inspire and lead his or her people through the synergistic practice if all the skills acquired.

Please don’t think that all there is to being inspirational is in this book. There are just so much more to know, to understand, to practice. The inspirational leader is a true professional who understands the needs to continue improving. He picks up extra skills, skills on assertiveness, strategic thinking and a whole range of other career-enhancing skills that will make him an asset to his company, his bosses, his peers and his subordinates. Some final words, is the journey worth it? Those who have travelled that road with me all agree that it is. Those who have travelled that road as my subordinates believe that it is.

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