The Practice of Leadership

Blogging about we have found a very interesting blog called The Practice of Leadership, which is written by South-African George Ambler.

We particularly love his post on ‘No Communication No Leadership’ and we couldn’t agree more with that. Communication is key to leading people – after all, who’d follow someone they don’t understand?

George says that without effective communication one cannot lead and ends up talking a walk on his/her own. He argues that communication is essential to effective leadership and raises questions for us to consider:

How effective is your communication? How do you know?
Is your communication relevant?
How do you get within their (your staff) experience when your communicate?

We know from experience that many programme, project and risk managers are working under extreme pressure at the moment, with tougher targets, tight budgets and severe time constraints.

It’s not always easy to keep your one’s eye on the ball at times like these, let alone constantly keeping a team updated, motivated and working at optimum levels.

In a programme or project environment the elements of leadership (behaviours and competencies) need to be managed in a way that meets the needs of each step of the project or programme lifecycle.

We don’t want to seem opportunistic or use this blog for commercial reasons, but it just so happens that The Maven Training Skills Academy™ focuses on key interpersonal skills such as negotiation, conflict management, leadership and, of course, communication.

In our one-day Leadership Skills for Projects and Programmes course, we look at competencies and behaviours that successful leaders exhibit as well as at different leadership styles. We also explore the differences between leadership and management and discuss opportunities for establishing leadership credibility.

In our Communication Skills for Projects & Programmes course we addresses the specific management challenges associated with the communication needs of projects and programmes. These include communications that develop buy-in and support for the initiative and communications that provide progress information and reassurance of the achievements of the initiative.

These courses form just two of our specialist Skills Academy division. Each course is highly participative, giving delegates many opportunities to review their own skills-set and understand how their skills impact on their success at work. Our Skills Academy courses are designed to inspire, energise and motivate you so that you return to work better able to deal with all the challenges that you face.