From the Center for Creative Leadership
Leadership Survey: Most Critical Challenges
In the recent Leadership Challenges survey, CCL asked what the critical leadership challenges you and your organization are currently facing. According to 254 members who responded, leading and managing change (33%) is a key challenge for organizations today. Interestingly, little has changed on this front since 2009 when 38% of our members indicated that leading through change was their number one challenge.

Adaptability may be an important factor in addressing this tough challenge of leading change. CCL experts Allan Calarco and Joan Gurvis have discovered that leaders who adjust best to change possess key elements of adaptability including cognitive flexibility and emotional flexibility.
  • Cognitive flexibility is the ability to use different thinking strategies and mental frameworks.
  • Emotional flexibility is the ability to vary your approach to dealing with your own emotions and those of others.
Political Savvy is an important skill members want to improve over the next few years, especially in the areas of managing up, influencing others, and fostering alignment. To learn more about managing workplace politics download the Leading Effectively podcast, Six Aspects of Political Skill <http://www.ccl.org/leadership/podcast/SixAspectsPoliticalSkill.mp3> .


When working with direct reports, the top skills you would like to focus on are, improving performance, communicating effectively and coaching. Other important areas for improvement include, boosting morale, innovative problem solving, and setting clear direction.

Working effectively with direct reports often requires important team building skills. In How to Form a Team: Five Keys to High Performance, CCL identifies five critical factors for effective team building:
  • Set a clear direction.
  • Build organizational support.
  • Create a team structure that empowers team members.
  • Identify key relationships.
  • Monitor external factors.
Research study: Managing Relationships @ Work
Our members recently participated in a survey tied to a broader CCL leadership research project on Managing Relationships @ Work. The purpose of this study was to better understand how skilled leaders feel they are in their interactions and relationships with others at work.

Of the FOUR identified political skills that managers typically use at work, members said they were most successful in conveying your genuineness to others and least effective in networking and knowing how to present your image as a leader.

The CCL Guidebook, Leadership Networking  is a good source for those interested in learning specific strategies for developing your networking skills.

We will make the broader results of the Managing Relationships @ Work study, which combines the results of the Leading Insights Panel sample and the study sample, available to you upon publication.

Coaching Survey: Common Practices
A total of 179 members completed the survey on Coaching Practices which included questions about development perspectives, coaching credentials, how organizations use coaching, and who receives it. Of those surveyed, 73% indicted they were responsible for coaching others in their organizations.

Most Leading Insights members (41%) continue to use internal coaches through an informal process, as they stated in the 2009 survey (69%). As in 2009, the use of external coaches continues to be secondary to the use of internal coaching practices.

As in the 2009 survey, members still mostly learn to be coaches through trial and error, 58% in 2010 and 67% in 2009.

The majority of Leading Insight members rely on peer recommendations when selecting an executive coach. Industry specific expertise is also a key criterion for selecting an external coach.

You were also asked two open-ended questions about how coaching has changed in the past five years and to describe your best and worst coaching experiences.

In the past five years, members indicated that coaching has become extremely valuable in forming effective leaders especially in giving business leaders guidance, enhancing organizational visibility, and bringing upper and lower managers together. One member said, "Coaching is an essential management responsibility to manage performance and develop direct reports. Effective coaching makes a significant difference between "average" teams and high performing teams."

When asked about best and worse coaching experiences, many of you indicated that your best experiences involved coaches who were trained, passionate, and able to listen and give honest feedback.

News You Can Use: Be a Change Leader, Not a Change Manager
In the CCL Leading Effectively article, "Be a Change Leader, Not a Change Manager", John McGuire argues that change leadership is the missing piece in how we handle change in our organizations. "In organizations, change pushes whole groups of people to think and feel differently -- in other words, the culture is asked to transform," says McGuire. Read the full article. <http://www.ccl.org/leadership/enewsletter/2009/JANbe.aspx>

 What's New: Creating Coaching Cultures
This issue's free white paper, Creating Coaching Cultures <http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/CoachingCultures.pdf> : What Business Leaders Expect and Strategies to Get There shares the perspectives of almost 350 senior business leaders who shed new light on the evolving practice of coaching, and what the leaders expect from coaching cultures and suggestions.
 
 
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