NVSC LtCol J. D. Fleming 10 Oct 2014

 Learning from experience  Communication  Listening  Assertiveness  Guidelines for effective stress management  Building technical competence  Building effective relationships with superiors and peers  Building credibility

 Creating opportunities to get feedback ◦ Make sure you are approachable and sincere in requests for feedback ◦ Feedback is some of the most helpful information in developing your own leadership  Taking a “10 percent stretch” ◦ Take risks and reach beyond comfort zone ◦ Voluntary but determined efforts to improve leadership skills ◦ Good way to change certain behaviors

 Learning from others ◦ Ask questions to those who previously had similar responsibilities or experiences ◦ Actively observe how others react to and handle different challenges and situations  Keeping a journal ◦ Good ways to log and keep a record of experiences and thoughts or feelings about them ◦ Good to look back on for future reference ◦ Assists in creating development plan  Having a development plan ◦ Developing a systematic plan of self-improvement goals is a good way to take advantage of opportunities ◦ Prioritize more important goals

 Know what your purpose is ◦ Know what you want to communicate and how you want to do it  Publicly? Privately? Orally? In writing?  Choose an appropriate context and medium ◦ Praise in public, punish in private ◦ Context of communication is sometimes as important as the content ◦ Oral communication is the most personal and immediate  Typically has the most impact  Cannot be conveyed well in some settings and is not permanent  Official communication which requires records often times need to be in writing

 Send clear signals ◦ Understand others’ frames of reference  Framing communication in something familiar can help avoid confusion ◦ Use familiar terms and jargon ◦ Be sure to send congruent verbal and nonverbal signals ◦ Be specific with your complaints  Actively ensure that others understand the message ◦ Actively engage in two-way conversation, when possible, to ensure the message is understood as you want it to be.

 Demonstrate non-verbally that you are listening ◦ Listening is a two way process ◦ Make sure your body language shows that you are listening  Eye contact is important  Actively interpret the sender’s message ◦ Keep an open mind to the message  Do not try and interrupt  Do not think of what to say while the message is being sent ◦ Put the sender’s message into your own words and see if that is what they meant

 Attend to the sender’s non-verbal behavior ◦ Non-verbal cues are often as important as the verbal ones ◦ Pay attention to tone of voice, body language, gestures, etc.  Avoid becoming defensive ◦ Being defensive to all negative feedback will discourage further feedback ◦ Try to put yourself into the complainer’s shoes

 Being assertive means standing up for your or your group’s rights ◦ It is not the same as acquiescence or aggression ◦ Not merely a compromise between the two ◦ Being assertive with superiors is as important as with subordinates  Use “I” statements  Speak up for what you need

 Learn to say no ◦ Sometimes need to stand up for your subordinates to your superiors  Monitor your inner dialogue ◦ Try and make sure your that when talking to yourself, it is positive and affirming  Be persistent ◦ Stick to what you want to do without being irritated

 Stress can either facilitate or inhibit performance, depending on the situation ◦ The optimal level of stress depends on the situation and the person ◦ Leaders generally increase or decrease the level of stress on their followers ◦ Stress can help some situations but can cause many health problems which affect performance  Monitor your own and followers’ stress levels ◦ Make the habit of actively trying to identify the warning signs of high stress

 Identify the cause of stress  Practice a healthy lifestyle ◦ Balanced nutrition and exercise helps reduce stress levels  Learn how to relax ◦ Try and practice deep breathing and muscle relaxing techniques to better relax ◦ Exercise ◦ Professional reading or events can be part of leadership development and relaxing at the same time.

 Develop supportive relationships ◦ Friendly support from others is a good way to relieve stress as well  Keep things in perspective ◦ Learn to not get stressed out over every small problem ◦ Try not to stress about things that have already occurred.  Critique and learn from actions but expending energy on previous errors reduces ability to focus on current issues

 Degree of technical competence in an organization effects overall organization ◦ Organizations with higher technical competence tend to have flatter organizational structure ◦ Organizations with less technical competence tend to be more centralized and autocratic  Technically competent leaders ◦ Better able to train subordinates ◦ Can get people to see things in new ways due to understanding ◦ Can better serve superiors ◦ More likely to receive promotions ◦ Better able to reduce role ambiguity and conflict in groups

 Determining how the job contributes to the overall mission ◦ It is an important step to determine which technical skills are important and required ◦ Find out through feedback of superiors, followers, and peers  Becoming an expert in the job ◦ Learn from those who already know. Watch, ask, teach.  Seeking opportunities to broaden experiences ◦ Try to fill a variety of positions to better appreciate what goes into completing the overall mission

 Understanding the superior’s world ◦ Get to understand the superior’s values and the objectives that need to be completed ◦ Understand that supervisors do not always have the all the answers ◦ Recognize and complement the superior’s weaknesses ◦ Keep the superior knowledgeable with all new developments in the field of work  Adapting to the superior’s style ◦ Not all superiors will have the same values and behaviors as you ◦ It is up to the followers to understand their place in the superior’s system  Understand that usually your success is contingent on your boss’ success

 Recognizing common interests and goals ◦ Get to know your peers to understand what you have in common (personally and professionally) ◦ Building strong ties can help performance  Understanding peers’ tasks, problems, and rewards ◦ Building respect among peers means understanding their problems and the nature of their work ◦ Since encouragement can go a long way  Practicing a “Theory Y” attitude ◦ Giving your peers the benefit of the doubt can help build strong relationships and makes it easier to get along ◦ Does not mean being very naive

 Two components of credibility ◦ Expertise ◦ Trust  Building expertise ◦ Build technical competence ◦ Build organizational/bigger picture understanding ◦ Use a mentor or coach  Building trust ◦ Clarify and communicate values ◦ Build relationships with others

 Mid-Term Review Monday  Mid Term Wednesday

Questions?