Leadership Matters…Technically Speaking

by Lorne Brown

Fall, 2008
More and more I hear organizational leaders talk about the need to develop the “people side” of their technical talent.  Are people in technical/professional roles simply not capable of leading people?  I think not.  What I do believe to be true, as the amateur psychologist that I am, is that people with a strong technical bent have focused a lot of attention on the development of the analytical side of their brain, and very little attention on the relationship side.  Are they capable of developing their relationship capabilities?  Absolutely.  Do organizations have the tools to do so?  Apparently not.

Recently I was facilitating a program for a client and heard about their need to create an organizational matrix structure, where IT talent have a dual reporting relationship; they formally report to a “people” manager, while for the technical project work, they report to any of several “technical” or “project” managers.

It is fundamental to combine managing both the “people” side of business as well as the technical.  There are two key components to successfully leading others.  The ability to provide clear direction, with clearly articulated expectations of deliverables and time-frames,  and the ability to engage those same individuals in doing that work.  This is where most leaders need some support, not just those who have technical/professional backgrounds, but in my experience the majority of leaders need to develop their relationship skills.

What if you could provide your leaders with the ability to have powerful conversations that created true engagement and superior performance in members of their teams?  The truth is, some basic communication skills are required in addition to an understanding of how to have that kind of conversation.  These skills can be learned and developed by focusing on taking a “coach approach” to conversations intended to engage and empower others.

Bridges – Coaching Conversations for Engagement and Results, provides exactly that.  InCourage  has developed a 2-day program to provide organizational leaders with a better understanding of how to have a coach-like conversation.  Bridges provides 5 skills necessary to be effective in doing so; Questioning, Listening and Responding are three skills presented in Day 1, and Intuiting and Acknowledging are the focus area of Day 2.  These are all skills that each of us possess, we have simply developed them to different levels, based on our interests and our focus in work and in life.

In addition to these skills we have developed a 6 step structure to be used in conversation, particularly when there is a gap that exists between a persons current performance and the desired performance level.  Bridging that gap is done most easily when the employee identifies the gap themselves, focuses on what’s important and what it will take to get to the desired future state, and creates a plan to get there.  The manager facilitates that process, not provide the answers.

 If you or your organization is interested in finding out more about how you can enable your leaders to more effectively engage their people and dramatically improve organizational performance, give us a call, or come to our open-enrollment Bridges program in Toronto – October 20 and 21, or in Calgary October 27 and 28.