LEADERSHIP CONSULTING

“Where Does Your Power Really Come From?”
Do you rely on your title or position to get things done? Do people look to you as a leader because of your knowledge and experience? Do you have to threaten or give rewards to get things done? Knowing where your real leadership power comes from is a huge asset in leading people. We can help you find where your power comes from.
 
“Good Ol’ Boys-n-Girls…How to Recognize and Avoid It”
We’ve all heard the stories of the in-groups, “The Jocks, The Cheerleaders, the Popular Ones,” etc. But knowing how to recognize and avoid the In-group/Out-groups is very important to leading in today’s organizations. We can help you recognize and avoid the in-group/out-group challenges as a leader in your organization?
 
“Followership…How Can You Lead Without Them?”
How can you be a leader without followers? You can’t!! But what kind of followers do you have? Are they all exemplary? Do you have any alienated followers? How do you know? What do you do? Learn what kind of follower you are, and what kind of followers you have.
 
“Leading With the Heart and Not Just the Head (Transformational)”
Napoleon said, “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.” How do you get your people to work for you? Do you appeal to the company interests? Do you appeal to their interests? Do you appeal just to the head, or the heart? Which is best? We’ll help you figure out how to lead with the heart and not just the head.
 
“People in the Workplace - Understanding Each Other”
As a leader we treat everyone exactly the same right? Wrong! Do you know how your conscious and unconscious biases affect the way you treat people? Should you talk to someone who is of a different generation than you differently? What is the best form of communication given someone else’s conscious and unconscious biases? We’ll help you understand how to understand each other better.
 
“Who gets the Blame or Credit?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” “So-and-so made me do that; I would have done it differently. You jinxed me!” So who gets the blame or credit for things in your organization? Do you take credit as the leader if something good happens and give the blame to someone else if something bad happens? We can help you make sure the appropriate blame and/or credit goes to the appropriate place.
 
“Setting Realistic and Attainable Goals”
Is it the bottom line, giving the best service, market share, or how about a healthy profit margin? What is a realistic, attainable, measurable goal? How does your organization set goals? Is it the “we’ve always done it that way” method, or is there something else? We’ll help you learn how to set realistic, attainable, measurable goals for individual, group, and organizational performance, motivation, and satisfaction.
 
“What’s Fair is Fair”
If one person’s perception is that they haven’t been treated fairly, it can cause you lots of problems. So, what is fair? Can you… must you, as the leader treat every member of your organization exactly the same? How do you determine what is fair and equitable for each member of your organization? Surprisingly, the solution is a simple one that will make looking at such problems fairly simple to remedy.
 
“Motivation and How It Works”
What do you do to motivate your people; a paycheck, some perks, days off, timeshares, stocks, or just a “thank you?” We all respond differently to different motivating factors. Why? We’ll show you a formula for motivation and how it can work for every employee.
 
“The Carrot or the Stick – Motivating with Consequences”
Once you know how motivation works, you need to know how to get it put into place. You’ve heard people say they use “the carrot or the stick,” but realistically, in today’s complex multi-level organizations there are people who don’t like carrots and others who won’t respond to sticks…so what is a leader to do? Knowing that consequences aren’t just negative and understanding consequences and how they help motivate is huge for a leader in any organization. We’ll help you understand how to use consequences to motivate your employees.
 
“Building Teams – From Beginning to End”
How do teams work? What brings them together? Is there a predictable cycle of development and if so, how do you as the leader recognize it and adjust for it? What happens if you change something in the group? Knowing what you are experiencing is critical to adjusting your leadership behavior to help improve or maintain team performance.
 
“Team Player’s – What Kind of Team Player Are You?”
There are different types of team players. Do you know what type you are? Are you a “Challenger?” Are you a “Contributor?” How do you know? And what can you expect from the four main types of team players? How do you deal with them as a leader in a group setting? We’ll show you a way to help determine what type of team players you have, and how to deal with them.
 
“Growing Your Teams into the Right Mix”
Do you have a team, or just a group of individuals? Who is in the group mix? How do you put a new person into a group and maintain momentum and focus in the group? Can you as the leader create chaos by who you move into or out of a group or team? How do you get them into the right mix to make sure they are part of the team and not just another person? We will help you understand the socialization process and how it affects the team.
 
“Knowing What Glue to Use to Hold Your Teams Together”
How do you get and hold your teams together? “A team with a star player is a good team; a team without one is a great team.” (Author Unknown) Do you have a good team, or a great one? We can help you find the glue that holds the team together.
 
“Team Decision Making”
Who makes the decision in the group? Is it truly a group decision? How do you know? What are some of the pitfalls and challenges of making group decisions? Does your group suffer from “group-think” or is there an inability to manage agreement? We can help the leader recognize some very real, barely discernible, common, and costly group decision-making errors, and show you how to avoid them.
 
“Managing Team Conflict – Healthy or Not?”
People are people, and not everyone in a group is going to agree with everyone else in the group. Is this good or bad? How do you know what is healthy and unhealthy in team conflict? We can help the leader understand the need for team conflict and how to manage it before it becomes unhealthy to the very survival of the team.
 
“Communication in Any Organization/Active Listening”
What is the richest form of communication? Do you manage/lead by e-mail? What are communication barriers? How do you avoid or overcome communication barriers? How does active listening enhance the motivation, satisfaction, and performance of others in your organization? As a leader this may be one of the most important things you can do…LISTEN…ACTIVELY LISTEN! We will help you understand the difference between hearing and listening and what forms of communication are most useful for given circumstances.
 
“The Organizational System and How I Fit In”
Am I just a name on an org chart? Does what I do really matter to the organization? How do I fit in to this organization and the environment we are in? Understanding where someone fits in is very important to realizing the motivational factors, satisfaction levels, and performance of that person within the organization. We can help leaders consider the individual in an overall organizational setting…remember, as Gen Schwarzkopf said, “organizations are made up of people.”
 
“Understanding the Environment We Are In”
What do you see when you look out the window? Fill in the blank: What is the _____________ environment we are in? (Political, economic, social, physical, etc? Is there more than one?) The environment that leaders operate in has many factors and many inputs to consider. Understanding the environment that the organization is operating in is critical to the leader. We will help you consider many different aspects to the operating environment. We are not going to try to run your organization, but we will help you recognize some environmental factors to consider.
 
“Change Is Happening Anyway”
The title says it best…change is happening anyway whether we want it to or not. Just try going back in time, it isn’t possible, but we can use the past to help lead us through to the future. Looking at ways to scan the horizon and “see” what is ahead has always been a leader’s challenge. Knowing how to do this is very helpful, not just to the leader, but to the organization as a whole. We will give you some tools to use to help understand change and how to “look” ahead.
 
“An Ethical Environment – The Leader’s Challenge”
“Do as I say, not as I do.” Can you lead this way? Do your actions speak louder than your words?” Creating an ethical environment is extremely important to the organization in today’s ethically critical, media-rich environment. From politicos who have been ruined for “ethical errors,” to whole organizations which have been toppled due to unethical practices, the leader’s challenge is to create and maintain an ethical organizational environment. We will help you understand how this can be accomplished.
 
“Molding Your Organization’s Culture”
“That’s the company’s way; we’ve always done it that way.” Organizational culture can be healthy and positive, or it can be harmful and damaging and almost anything in between. In either case understanding the culture of the organization is extremely important to the leader in shaping and molding the culture to achieve the organizations goals. We will help you learn how to recognize organizational cultural influences and how to reinforce the culture or begin the organizational culture change process.
 
“Adaptive Leadership – And How it is Used”
Adaptive leadership is just that. A leadership strategy used when the leader is either trying to take the organization in a new direction or needs to change to meet the changing conditions of the organization, or needs to adapt to the changing environment…just like other living organisms and creatures must adapt or perish, so must organizations…and a good leader knows how to do it.
 
 “Succession Planning and Exit Strategy”
What is your plan to keep the organization going when you decide you've had more fun than any one person should have and want to leave the organization?  Do you know who can immediately replace someone in your key positions, for key functions?  Do you know who wants to be developed for those positions?  Do you know who is capable of stepping in?  We'll help you identify how to put together a succession plan and how to implement it.
 
“Mentoring, Coaching, and S.C.O.R.E. Counseling”
Many leaders think mentoring, coaching and counseling are the same, but the are very different and need to be understood and applied differently. In addition, CMF Leadership Consulting has developed a method for having those “difficult discussions” when performance is not up to par, and the leader must make an adjustment in the follower’s behavior. Supportive, Clear, Organized, Redirecting, Effort (S.C.O.R.E.) Counseling is just what the name implies; it will help the leader make a clear, organized effort to redirect the employee, while still being supportive of the employee and the organizational goals