Leading Diverse People

Got People? Then you have cultures and identities to deal with…

Are you an expert in your field  — who is now responsible for leading a team, a unit, a division or an entire organization?

Then it’s time to forget everything you learned in graduate school about your field of expertise. It’s now time to take on learning about people, and what makes them tick.

Why? Because building your portfolio of success and achieving your goals is not sustainable without other people.  Success actually demands more than you, alone, can deliver.

To be successful at leading people, you have to leave your leadership clichés at the door. People are individuals with motivations, needs and stress behaviors of their own.

To Lead People you have to become masterful at human behavior, so that you can relate to and communicate from something other than your own values, attitude, perception or viewpoint. You have to learn to relate to people as individuals who each have unique behavioral operating styles. And how to work with each individual’s unique motivational needs, versus react to their stress behaviors.

Stress behaviors are simply negative social management tools. Like a young child who has a meltdown to get his/her way, adults have ways to force their own personal agenda, as well. And one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch and undermine even the most passionate and dedicated leader.

You are accountable for producing results. It’s your job to meet benchmarks. How do you coach success? How do you manage the stress of success … for yourself, as well as for your team?

Strategic and operational leaders need to know how people “tribe”, how they “team.” And how a group dynamic can shape the culture of an organization – good or bad — regardless of how great you are, what you know and what kudos you’ve earned.

Leading People is about empowering people to be effective, to perform consistently and predictably, and to be satisfied and happy with their personal performance – on behalf of a team.

To lead the future, you must become competent at motivating and leading inter-dependent teams of leaders that are empowered to create in the face of today’s global workforce, multi-cultural core values and challenging business climate.

The benefit to you?

Complacency, cynicism, resignation and “business as usual” will be replaced by passion, vision and inter-dependent teams of committed stakeholders. High performing teams of leaders will foster a culture of passion, buy-in and ownership, while generating innovative, creative and highly profitable business solutions.

Judy Lane is a dedicated and astute executive leader and coach. She generously gives her time and attention in her work to improve job performance. She is a creative, seasoned and effective executive, global leader and management consultant. Judy demonstrates strong leadership, facilitation and visionary capability. She has excellent business acumen and a clear communications style.

R. Garcia