Characteristics of a great corporate leader

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis”

A corporate leader is someone who conducts, who guides, who takes his/her team through every thick and thin so that the goals are achieved and the team remains motivated and aligned with the company’s mission and vision.

Here are some key characteristics of a great corporate leader that you must nurture -

INTEGRITY

Integrity or honesty is the primary attribute a corporate leader must have. You should abide by certain principles so as to establish yourself as the role model of your team. You have to establish yourself as a disciplinarian and your activities must reflect your business ethics transparently in front of your team members.

COURAGE 

No great work can be accomplished unless you are courageous enough to take risks and face challenges. As a corporate leader you are responsible for running a whole business. You have to show enough courage to think and decide independently and take the right decisions even if you are being influenced and obstructed constantly. Your vision should be clear.

SELF CONTROL

Another very essential characteristic trait of a leader is self control. A great corporate leader is one who has a tremendous control over his/her emotions.

CLARITY

Be clear and confident. Present your viewpoints explicitly. Come plain to your employees regarding what you want from them, what’s your expectation for the company and so on. Always remember the more direct and distinct you will be with your employees as a corporate leader, the better will be the end result.

CREATIVITY 

Be the painter, not the painting. Come up with new ideas that can open up new doors. Be innovative, be experimental. At the same time give space to your members as well to display their imagination. As a corporate leader, you should leave enough space for intellectual cultivation.

GUIDANCE

There is a narrow line of difference between guiding and dominating. Although often your motives are white but out of too much excitement of executing something accurately you may end up dominating and over-burdening your members which in turn hold up a very negative image and the respect and love for the corporate leader get replaced by fear.

TEAM WORK

‘Successful businessmen share the ability to hire people smarter than they are”. As a corporate leader you individually cannot bring sole success; you need a team for that. If you are a great corporate leader you must have the skill of recruiting smarter and more intelligent people than you are and assign them responsibilities, so that they can come up with the best results.

INSPIRATION

Often the team members look up to their leader for inspiration and encouraging words. Those words motivate them, energize them and assure them of their credibility. Even when the work is going accurately, you should come up and inspire your team members individually.

HUMBLE

Unless and until you have a balance of humbleness and simplicity in your nature, you cannot get the best out of you members. You are their boss. Their love and respect for their corporate leader will be mirrored in their work.

[starrating]

Ravinder Tulsiani, CTDP, BA (Law): Educator, business developer, corporate leader, author, & entrepreneur – I offer diverse talents across a wide spectrum of businesses & industries. My reputation for excellence reflects my expertise as a strategic planner who creates cultural transformation in business – with a focus on educating & motivating the workforce to achieve core business objectives.

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Great Guest Blog on Flipping the Classroom

By taking advantage of technology, math teacher Wendy Roshan details how she has evolved her teaching using the ‘flipped classroom’ model.

by Wendy Roshan

I started teaching in the early 1970’s, when one of the most important resources teachers had was the mimeo machine.  All worksheets and tests had to be handwritten and run through a hand cranked copier, which would turn your hands blue from the ink. There weren’t computers in every classroom, we didn’t use SMART Boards (just chalk) and students came to class carrying pencils and notebooks, not smartphones and tablets.

Wendy Roshan

Yet, 40 years later, my computer, iPad, and trusty iPhone has revolutionized my life as a teacher. Today, there’s more information at my fingertips than ever before, literally. I can type up an assignment and email it to the whole class, or even have tests taken (and instantaneously graded) online.  Students can stay in touch with me, and I can communicate with parents 24/7 by email.  It’s a major change from the past, and has a lot of benefits for my students.

However, the biggest change for me occurred a few years ago when my daughter, Stacey Roshan, decided to follow in my footsteps and become a math teacher too. However, having grown up in a different generation, she became a different kind of teacher. While I continued to resist new technologies that were starting to be used in the classroom, these tools came easily and naturally to her. In 2009, Stacey attended the Building Learning Communities Conference and learned about Camtasia Studio, software that would allow her to literally flip her classroom. She began video recording her lectures, which students watched for homework, and during class she walked around the classroom and worked with students 1-on-1 when they needed help solving problems.

After much coercion, Stacey finally convinced me to give the flipped classroom a try, and just one year later my entire teaching life has been turned upside down. I began flipping my AP Calculus class last year, and as a result, 80% of my students scored a “4” or “5” on the AP exam, with half of the class earning a perfect score! Not only were my students thrilled at how high their scores were, I had one of the most enjoyable and rewarding years of my teaching career, as I was able to spend significantly more time working with students individually and in small groups, helping them solve problems, rather than lecturing – and that’s really my favorite part of teaching.

I had no idea how much technology could change the learning experience for me and my students, and I’m not sure I ever would have given into change if Stacey hadn’t practically forced me too. After such an exhilarating year, Stacey and I have been spending the summer preparing for the challenge of flipping our Algebra II classes, which we will both be teaching this coming school year.  We have been making videos together and are really excited to provide a new group of students with an entirely new learning experience then they’re used to.

While at one time, I was only looking forward to my retirement, I now am looking forward to the new and exciting year ahead.  Technology has made me feel young again, as the boredom and tedium of the mimeo machine is gone, and in its place is a whole new world!

Wendy Roshan started her career in Montgomery County public schools teaching Math.  She taught in Tehran, Iran at the Tehran American School for 3 years, was an Adjunct Professor at Montgomery College, and taught at the Langley School in McLean, Virginia. She is currently in a math teacher at the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, where she serves as department chair.

View the original article here

Great Guest Blog on Flipping the Classroom

By taking advantage of technology, math teacher Wendy Roshan details how she has evolved her teaching using the ‘flipped classroom’ model.

by Wendy Roshan

I started teaching in the early 1970’s, when one of the most important resources teachers had was the mimeo machine.  All worksheets and tests had to be handwritten and run through a hand cranked copier, which would turn your hands blue from the ink. There weren’t computers in every classroom, we didn’t use SMART Boards (just chalk) and students came to class carrying pencils and notebooks, not smartphones and tablets.

Wendy Roshan

Yet, 40 years later, my computer, iPad, and trusty iPhone has revolutionized my life as a teacher. Today, there’s more information at my fingertips than ever before, literally. I can type up an assignment and email it to the whole class, or even have tests taken (and instantaneously graded) online.  Students can stay in touch with me, and I can communicate with parents 24/7 by email.  It’s a major change from the past, and has a lot of benefits for my students.

However, the biggest change for me occurred a few years ago when my daughter, Stacey Roshan, decided to follow in my footsteps and become a math teacher too. However, having grown up in a different generation, she became a different kind of teacher. While I continued to resist new technologies that were starting to be used in the classroom, these tools came easily and naturally to her. In 2009, Stacey attended the Building Learning Communities Conference and learned about Camtasia Studio, software that would allow her to literally flip her classroom. She began video recording her lectures, which students watched for homework, and during class she walked around the classroom and worked with students 1-on-1 when they needed help solving problems.

After much coercion, Stacey finally convinced me to give the flipped classroom a try, and just one year later my entire teaching life has been turned upside down. I began flipping my AP Calculus class last year, and as a result, 80% of my students scored a “4” or “5” on the AP exam, with half of the class earning a perfect score! Not only were my students thrilled at how high their scores were, I had one of the most enjoyable and rewarding years of my teaching career, as I was able to spend significantly more time working with students individually and in small groups, helping them solve problems, rather than lecturing – and that’s really my favorite part of teaching.

I had no idea how much technology could change the learning experience for me and my students, and I’m not sure I ever would have given into change if Stacey hadn’t practically forced me too. After such an exhilarating year, Stacey and I have been spending the summer preparing for the challenge of flipping our Algebra II classes, which we will both be teaching this coming school year.  We have been making videos together and are really excited to provide a new group of students with an entirely new learning experience then they’re used to.

While at one time, I was only looking forward to my retirement, I now am looking forward to the new and exciting year ahead.  Technology has made me feel young again, as the boredom and tedium of the mimeo machine is gone, and in its place is a whole new world!

Wendy Roshan started her career in Montgomery County public schools teaching Math.  She taught in Tehran, Iran at the Tehran American School for 3 years, was an Adjunct Professor at Montgomery College, and taught at the Langley School in McLean, Virginia. She is currently in a math teacher at the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, where she serves as department chair.

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It’s true, great minds must think alike…

….because earlier this week Lesley Price and I both tweeted about the same subject within an hour or so of each other. This was the thought that was running through my mind as I was driving home a few days ago, which I subsequently tweeted about…

Later on that evening Lesley tweeted this

This led to an exchange of tweets between us, which resulted in Lesley being kind enough to share an experience with me via this email.

  A couple of years ago… I fell down stairs and sprained my ankle really badly.  I had to be at a Technology Conference organised by Becta as I was facilitating a table…. Natalie, my daughter took time off work to drive me.  She sat on the table I was facilitating…. even although it was an educational technology conference and she was a primary school teacher, she had no idea of the language and jargon that was being used.  It was almost like the Emperors New Clothes and she was the child watching from the side lines.  She sat all morning and the first part of the afternoon taking it all in.  She then just said…. I have no idea what you are all talking about, what does Social Media mean?  I typed that into questions that were coming from the floor… Facilitator picked it up and came to talk to her.  She was youngest person in the room and just said… “now that I know what it means…I can tell you I use SoMe all the time…I just don’t see what all the fuss is about, that is my life!  Why all the discussion???  Why don’t you just get on with it??”I have just talked to her again about it this evening and she still remembers the occasion… and still does not understand the facination by oldies. SoMe is part of her life…. she is not into Twitter, doesn’t see value in it.  If you look at profile of average user of Twitter I can understand that.  She uses FB, FB chat, skype , skype chat and txt all the time.  Sometimes using more than one at once… makes for interesting conversations lol!!I am trying to persuade her to start blogging… she has wonderful ideas. Although she teaches reception she also runs Computer Club for Girls with Yr 6 girls.  When the Tsunami and Japanese earthquake story started breaking, she put BBC news on her interactive white board and had it running all day as her reception class were interested in the live commentry that was coming through and bombarded her with questions.  She doesn’t close down social networking when she is teaching, not that she spends any time on it, it just runs in the background, the kids are now used to ‘silly noises’ that come from her laptop and tell her she when she has a message!  So kids completely understand SoMe… just don’t call it that…. they see it as normal… why are the rest of us making such a fuss about it instead of getting on with it!!So my question to you ‘Dear Reader’ is are we right, or are we waaaay off the mark?Is the ‘social’ holding things up due to it’s ‘connotations’?Should we just be referring to media, learning, networks etc and work under the assumption (a dangerous thing I know) that the ‘social’ is inherrent.Why not let me know your thoughts in the comments box below?

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Great feedback – Great progress!

Several weeks ago I had the good fortune of being invited by Nick Lee to facilitate a couple of CPD sessions for members of University Hospital Southampton’s L&D team and a number of ‘leads’ and SMEs from around the organisation.

We agreed upon a session that would challenge the attendees perception as to what ‘elearning’ was, with a focus on achieving the realisation that it could be (and is) so much more than ‘self paced, click next’ modules.

The session involved a number of activities including conversation, debate, self-directed research and modelling of good practice with me using a range of technologies within the physical classroom environment.

As always with these sorts of sessions, they concluded with a general sense of positivity and implied ‘actions’ that people would take away, however as an external facilitator it’s often difficult to ever get a sense of whether your session had any real impact on people or whether they were just being polite.

That uncertainty is why I was incredibly chuffed to see this series of tweets from Nick Lee appear just a few days after the sessions took place.

I received the best email ever today – literally can’t describe how happy I was to see it (details in next tweet)

— Nick Lee (@N1ckL33) October 9, 2013

A stat&mand lead emailed to say she wants to change the way her subject is delivered thanks to “the excellent session” by @CraigTaylor74

— Nick Lee (@N1ckL33) October 9, 2013

The subject lead wants to move away from ‘click next’ to other forms of “e-learning” – it’s great news!!

— Nick Lee (@N1ckL33) October 9, 2013

Result!!

If you’d like to keep tabs with how Nick is getting on with this you can always follow him on Twitter and/or his blog.

If you’re interested in me helping you to also trigger a change of thinking within your organisation then why not get in touch.

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Great leadership books for your summer reading list

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Thursday, May 30, 2013 - by ASTD Staff

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(from the Washington Post)-As summer approaches, there are a number of good books you may want to consider that will not necessarily make the top 10 lists but that will provide food for thought. These books are not mysteries, psychological thrillers, romance novels or historical fiction. These are books that offer keen insights into leadership and management challenges, which on a day-to-day basis can bring their own dramas, twisting plot lines and, in this city, political intrigue.

The authors lay out leadership traps that include overconfidence, the tendency to seek out information that supports your own point of view and to downplay information that doesn’t, and the common habit of getting distracted by short-term emotions. The Heath brothers propose a four-step process designed to counteract these biases and, in doing so, provide real-life stories that include a rock star’s inventive decision-making trick and a CEO’s terrible acquisition.A good place to start is the latest book from Chip and Dan Heath, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. In their classic conversational style, the Heath brothers present a well researched, easy reading book about improving decision-making on everything from personnel to personal actions.

The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinkingby Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppler. This short book outlines several decision-making tools you can use, whether you’re looking to manage your time better, deliver a message that sticks, settle a dispute with a colleague, motivate your team, or help your team learn from mistakes. I rely on these models whenever I confront a tough decision.

You also may want to check out The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinkingby Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppler. This short book outlines several decision-making tools you can use, whether you’re looking to manage your time better, deliver a message that sticks, settle a dispute with a colleague, motivate your team, or help your team learn from mistakes. I rely on these models whenever I confront a tough decision.

Another title may seem less relevant to a federal audience, but Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin offers great advice for leaders in any sector. Lafley is a former CEO of Procter & Gamble and, in close partnership with strategic adviser Martin, doubled P&G’s sales and increased its market value by more than $100 billion in 10 years.

In light of negative public perceptions and resource constraints, federal leaders would be wise to challenge themselves and their teams to answer Lafley’s and Martin’s central strategy questions: What is our winning aspiration? Where will we play? How will we win? What capabilities must we have in place to win? What management systems are required to support our choices?

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Great leadership books for your summer reading list ASTD Staff 2013-05-30

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