[Ailist] Essentials of (Appreciative) leadership

[Neil D. Samuels]

Hi Mike, here is some top of head stuff.
First, what a wonderful opportunity--a full day and a half to engage this
group in a great conversation about their own leadership. I am surprised
they didn't ask to do it in 3 hours :-)
What about instead of asking them about what they find most demanding, you
ask them instead to talk about what they find most invigorating, energizing,
and enjoyable about their leadership role. Then ask them what would make it
even moreso. Then ask them if they could magically become even more gifted
in some areas of their leadership what those would be? You might also ask
them to complete the VIA Signature strengths assessment on
www.authentichappiness.com and bring the data with them. This would lay some
great groundwork for the 1-1 interviews and into the design phase. 
I am a little hesitant about doing the pre-survey with the Gallup-12 without
this group really owning that decision. Seems like part of the session you
have with them will be to design the measurement; i.e., how will they know
they are making progress. You can always offer the Gallup-12 as an option
but better if they ask for it (or something like it).
Happy to talk voice-to-voice about this as well.
Good luck,
Neil


Neil D. Samuels
President
Profound Conversations, LLC
1003 Creekside Circle
Naperville, Il  60563
630-605-4610
neil at profoundconversations.com
Skype: neil.samuels

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Michael
Holdstock
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 10:31 AM
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] Essentials of (Appreciative) leadership

I am in need of help again. What better place to turn the the AI list?

I have been asked to do the seemingly impossible:
"The manager of our department with responsibility for care of senior
citizens and her 29 unit managers are asking for a 1-1½ day training on
"Developing from manager to leader" '.
"The best possible outcome of the training would be that the managers take
home with them instruments which will help them in their function as
leaders".

Our current best thinking is to:
 - pre-course invite all managers to write down what situatioins they find
most demanding in their leadership role (so we get an idea as to what tools
are most required)
 - pre-course do some survey with the people these 29 are managing -
possibly based on gallups 12-questions about commitment in the workplace -
which could serve as a base line to measure, every second month say, their
movement after the course towards these goals (or create the survey based on
targets developped in the course during Dream and more specifically Design)

Interview/Discover around experiences of OWN leadership and OTHERS
successfully leading.

Apply whatever has come out of the 4D process to some hard core leadership
tools such as (appreciative) staff performance appraisals.

"All contributions will be gratefully received".

Thanks in advance.

Mike

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