Frank Kanu's Books » Step 1

Frank Kanu's Books » Step 1 - Define! http://frankkanu.com/books Since two decades author and leadership consultant Frank Kanu helps top managers and executives to improve success ratios and productivity. Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:05:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en Checklist http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/checklist/ http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/checklist/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:31:40 +0000 Frank Kanu http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/checklist/ Copyright © 2008 Frank Kanu Visit the original article at Checklist

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

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One of the best ways you can create a set of goals for your team is to remember to follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Realistic, and Timely) principle. Once those goals are set—they have to be evaluated constantly and adjusted when needed.

✓ Are you in control of your own destiny?

✓ Is your boss?

✓ Are you making your own decisions?

✓ Are you allowed to plan?

✓ Can you change given plans?

✓ Does your word count?

✓ Is there too much stress and pressure?

✓ Are blame games part of the daily routine?

✓ Does money or the lack of it rule?

✓ Is there supervision only?

✓ Is the staff qualified?

✓ Are there teams?

✓ Do you feel managed?

✓ Does the team feel managed?

✓ Is the top manager representing or managing?

✓ Do managers in the organization follow their own words?

✓ Do managers meet with employees every few weeks?

✓ Do you like the overall feeling?

✓ Do you have fun?

✓ Are management and staff loyal? To each other and the company?

✓ Is everyone responsible towards customers?

✓ Are there entrepreneurs?

✓ Are there ethical standards?

✓ Are they followed and lived by?

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]]> http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/checklist/feed/ Ethics and Leadership? http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/ethics-and-leadership/ http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/ethics-and-leadership/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:42:55 +0000 Frank Kanu http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/ethics-and-leadership/ Copyright © 2008 Frank Kanu Visit the original article at Ethics and Leadership?

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Ethics and leadership both seem to be abstract and ambiguous—so imagine what happens when we discuss ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is not about how to lead to reach specific goals, but what ethical affects leadership has. Ethics aren’t morals themselves but the meaning of moral ways and actions. Ethics don’t decide, nor do they take decisions away. They serve as a means of guidance—to find answers, make decisions, and know how to justify them.

Leadership is about those who are in a position to make decisions; create opinions and attitudes. It is more then just managing. Because leaders have to lead by example, their words, actions, and values play a huge role in their success. Responsibility and credibility are two of the most important elements of leadership; each is deeply based on the interaction with others. Because every action, even the smallest, has an impact, ethics are always part of the decision-making process. Ethics are not a cookbook for great decisions. Leaders know that every decision has to be carried by responsibility and credibility. To be recognized as a leader requires exuding trust. Remember that for many the values and ethics of the leader have to match their own understanding of those.

To understand the impact of ethics, it’s important to ask the right questions:

How do we implement corporate social responsibility?
How do we select and support employees while achieving the business goals?
What core competencies does a business need to stay successful? How do those bind the people?
What values do managers need to keep the worth, responsibility and future compatibility of the business?

Today’s leaders have to understand what is needed tomorrow if they want to implement the necessary changes to keep the business running. Successful leaders are smart, responsible, and ethical. They’re expected to:

Take responsibility and delegate.
Continuously work on the vision and goals of the business and follow those.
Support shareholders, stakeholders, and suppliers to help them grow and stay within the vision and goals of the business.
Implement valuable, clear and responsible business solutions, either with or without the team.
Design smart teams with responsible team players.
Support employees to be themselves by bringing back the fun, and understanding diversity.
Change the rules (when necessary).

How much can a leader learn by looking at those who have chosen to be unethical?

If you look only at the mistakes others made without trying to understand why they happened, you will learn almost nothing. It may be hard to believe, but often those who behave unethically think of themselves as perfectly ethical and responsible. It’s a matter of how they interpret values. They may be wrong, but remember that values do change over the years and sometimes people make errors of judgment out of ignorance rather than lack of conscience. It is a fine line to walk.

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]]> http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/ethics-and-leadership/feed/ Are You Managed? http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/are-you-managed/ http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/are-you-managed/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:23:10 +0000 Frank Kanu http://frankkanu.com/books/stop-telling-start-leading/step-1-define/are-you-managed/ Copyright © 2008 Frank Kanu Visit the original article at Are You Managed?

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Let’s look at things from the point of view of an employee for a moment. (As a manager, this is directly relevant, since you’re an employee, too.) Think of the job interview. Traditionally, the employer asks questions and the prospective employee dutifully answers them. Even when they’re given the opportunity to ask their own questions, job-seekers seldom do. If you’re in this situation but you fail to ask questions, how can you really find out whether the company you may be working for is well-managed or chaotic? (The employer’s questions aren’t likely to give that information away.) Job seekers are trained and counseled to answer questions, but maybe it would be better if we encouraged them to ask questions and gave them some guidance on how to do it effectively. It might keep a lot of people from stepping into the “perfect job” that ultimately doesn’t turn out to be perfect at all!

“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them”.
Paul Hawken

Are the problems interesting or boring?

Who is in charge?

Are you managed by a woman or by a man?

Does it make a difference?

Should it?

It is sad and shameful that in this day and age gender still plays a role in the business world. Words like “smart“, “creative“, “assertive“, and “talented” are neither female nor male. Yet it still happens too frequently that a woman reaches a certain rung on the management ladder but then goes no further. By keeping women from rising to their full potential, companies are eliminating half (perhaps more than half) of their talented managers suitable for the job.

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