Last week I said that you must cultivate the philosophical mind-set that puts you first. Since I wrote last weeks blog I have completed another Authentic Leadership Seminar for Women Leaders from diverse companies such as ...Coke, Lloyds, Cisco, Vodafone and Cigna, amongst others.

During the event last week, a large majority of our discussion time was taken up by the very important subject of work/life balance. I hesitate to use the phrase 'work-life balance' because it has become a well used cliche but when I am facilitating group discussions with women who are trying to manage the feelings of guilt spawned by a high flying career when they also have young children, it is a very serious topic indeed. These women are often the majority earners and their husbands either stay at home or earn far less. Managing feelings and expectations in these new 21st Century relationships is tricky.

It is possible to keep all the balls in the air and to feel less guilty through creating a time management system for the whole of life. One of the keys to it's effectiveness is your willingness to put your well-being first so that you have enough energy to keep all the balls in the air at the same time.

Once you have a plan for life and have identified your key roles and responsibilities you need to start getting ruthless about how you invest time.

Here are some strategies for making the most of your precious time:

1. Plan your day before it starts
2. Analyse activities and prioritise them
3. Analyse your colleagues/peers/customers to identify time wasters
4. Manage interruptions - learn to say NO!
5. Control telephone and email by scheduling block time for it
6. Learn how to terminate discussions, identity a strategy for doing this (email tracey@eve-olution.net if you need more support or tips here)
7. Delegate

The last point - delegation - is a subject in itself and I will go over this in more detail next week.

Remember that time is the only thing that is equal - you can run out of money and/or talent and you can get it all back again but time ticks away and it will never return. Spend it wisely.

For now, breathe in some sunshine and Live with Passion!
Tracey

Sir Stuart Rose. Executive Chairman of Marks and Spencer, recently said this "Apart from the fact that you've got more equality than you ever can deal with, the fact of the matter is that you've got real democracy and there are really no glass ceilings, despite the fact that some of you moan about it all the time. Women can get to the top of any single job that they want to in the UK. I mean, what else do you want to do, for God's sake? Women astronauts. Women miners. Women dentists. Women doctors. Women managing directors. What is it you haven't got?"

Well, all I can say is I would love to have a personal conversation with Sir Rose about Gender IQ and, yes, we do have women represented in most areas of work but ....and this is a big but...very few women, if any got to the top without feeling that they had to compromise their identity and literally morph into a bloke in a skirt.

It is time to widen the acceptable range of Leadership styles so that women can lead as women with a unique set of skills, traits and abilities.

Enough on that. Onto you and your 7 keys for increasing effectiveness. How have you been getting on implementing keys 1&2? I have had some lovely emails from people. Thank you, it is gratifying to know that this blog is helping you.

Tool Number 1: Communicate clearly and explicitly

Tool Number 2: Consistent Execution

Third Tool for Increasing Effectiveness: Manage yourself not your time
I have been re-thinking this whole subject because I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment and I am creating new products, writing a book, bringing you new web casts and being a great single parent Mum to my three daughters. Oh, and because I want to have 'it all' I am also committed to my health and fitness and having an exciting social life too.

Is it easy? Yes, but it requires discipline and the rewards far outweigh any downside associated with 'managing me'

Managing yourself is a big topic and includes both the philosophical and the practical. Next week I will focus on the practical, such as, best use of time and I will bring you some tips on terminating time-wasting discussions and controlling telephone and email.

However, before we get into the practical, we need the right mind-set. Women often look at their diaries and schedules and think 'there is no way I have time for the gym or my friends' and they leave themselves out. Bad decision!

It is vital that you take care of you first. If you don't take care of yourself you will be no good to anybody else and the impact will be felt in all of your relationships at work and at home. You must schedule time for exercise and relaxation into your diary first. Think about what sustains you and gives you energy and then ask yourself if you have more of that energy would you be more effective at work? Happy people are productive people.

Plan your week before it starts and plan each day before it starts and make 'me time' a golden rule that you never break.

I only ever speak passionately on a subject when I have direct experience of it. Like the pendulum that swings each way I know how effective I am when I am in a peak physical state and I know how ineffective I am when I tell myself the story that 'it doesn't matter' of 'I haven't got time' ....discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons.

Live with passion!
Tracey

We had an overwhelming response to last weeks blog which invited you to download the free report on senior women's bench-mark competencies or Authentic Leadership. We hope you found it useful and remember we are here to support you in any way, so please contact us if you need further support or have any questions.

Onwards then with my promise to deliver the 7 Tools for Increasing Effectiveness. The first tool was communicate clearly and remember I gave you some practical steps to effective communication and I also said that you must master the inner game. How has that been going? It is so easy to let the 'chattering voice' take over at times of stress. However, blocking out unsupportive inner dialogue is a habit and it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Give it a go!

The second tool for increasing effectiveness is consistent execution
So, you have communicated your vision to your team and everybody is fired up and ready to go. Everybody knows their role and responsibilities and you have clearly communicated your outcome and time-line.

And then.... everybody starts running around like a headless chicken! There is a big difference between being productive and being active. I would go so far as to say that lack of consistent execution is the death knell to many great plans and visions.

Put simply the basis of execution is to have 1. A plan 2. Communicate the plan and 3. Be explicit about tasks and not just outcomes. Develop a system that tracks progress on weekly tasks. Colour code for importance and colour code for progress i.e. yellow for 'in progress' green for 'complete and red for 'overdue' Share this spreadsheet with your team weekly or even daily so that everybody remains on target and accountable to each other.

Finally, in order to grow you must give up control. Release control by delegating not abdicating. You cannot abdicate responsibility but you must trust that the person you have delegated to will do the job and do the job well. You will know if they need extra support or knowledge because you will have created the systems for tracking as described above.

If all of this makes you groan then remember what George Bernard Shaw said 'Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy but it will make you great'

Live with passion!
Tracey

Over the past seven years, we have had the privilege of having over 1500 hundred women go through our leadership programmes. The women have largely worked in the professions for large Blue Chip organisations and have been in the marshmallow layer, ready to take the next step into senior executive positions. In other words they are within the top 15% of employees within their organisation and already enjoying considerable success.

A significant proportion of these women also completed eve-olution's 360 degree performance review, developed in 2004 and based on well researched leadership theory. We have utilised the aggregate data from these reviews to come to some conclusions about competency benchmarks for women leaders. This information is being made available to you as we believe it may be a helpful tool to assist with drawing up a developmental plan to progress your career to a more senior executive position.

The Authentic Leadership Model

There are five broad and interrelated dimensions of leadership in this model and they are Building Relationships, Developing Self, Leading Change, Leading People and Leading Performance. We call this model Authentic Leadership because we strongly believe that women and men bring different skills, traits and abilities to the table. We hope that this will encourage you to lead in your own style, even if that differs from the traditional male model.

Building Relationships

Relationships are critical to any senior role. Your technological competence will get you a long way but your ability to form and nurture strategic relationships will be the key to your success in the long term. In relating upwards or downwards you need to know how to influence. Make sure that you have had some training and development in the area of influencing and negotiating plus development of your interpersonal skills. Bearing in mind that men and women, generally, tend to negotiate differently you need to make sure that your training includes this vital information. Also, take a look at your network. Is it political enough? As women we tend to focus on relationships with people that we like but we also need to make sure that we are nurturing relationships with people we don’t necessarily like but who we know can be useful professional contacts.

Developing Self

It goes without saying that those leaders who command respect are the ones who gain the most influence. How do we develop our personality to command respect? There is only one way to do this and that is to develop yourself. In order to lead others, we must first know how to lead ourselves. Yet how many of us take the time out to do this? In a time poor, process-driven world where output is king, the so called soft skills can be overlooked. Work harder on yourself than you do on your job!

Leading Change

Every business is currently going through change and every business needs employees who embrace and support change. It can be hard to be as flexible as the 21st century demands but it can be done. I am a firm believer in examining the 6 Human Needs to answer the question on how to be more comfortable with change. Ask yourself what you need most – certainty or uncertainty? Generally, people are more comfortable with certainty. Practise being outside of your comfort zone and being more comfortable with uncertainty. Try to reframe the process of change by seeing it as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Leading People

When you are leading your team, are you considering diversity, managing conflict well with a win/win attitude and working hard to make sure that your team functions as a highly productive whole? Managing people is an art form and this is an area where you can easily learn strategies for doing so. However, this has to be balanced with your ability to lead by example and this goes back to respect and the leadership competency of Developing Self.

Leading Performance

Profitability comes from high performance. How do you demonstrate accountability - both personally and from your team? How do you keep your team on track and focused on the goal? What do you need to know about the business, both formally and through your network? How is your financial literacy? Do you need to undertake an MBA? This is an area where business knowledge is key. Figure out what you need to know to perform and do what you need to do to get the requisite knowledge and know-how.

If you would like to know more about your individual leadership competencies we can help you with a practical step by step process. For a small fee you can take part in the 360 degree performance review and your scores will be mapped against the average scores for all the senior female leaders who have already taken part. One you have an idea of your strengths and weaknesses, as viewed by your team and line manager, we can offer follow-up coaching support to close the gap. Having the 360 degree report will give you something practical to work with over a long period of time. To take part click here.

To see the benchmark scores in all categories you, can download the free report.

Tracey Carr, CEO of eve-olution, has been working with women in leadership for the past 7 years and has run her flagship seminar Authentic Leadership (incorporating Gender IQ) for women all over Europe, in Asia and in the USA. She is also a Master Practitioner of NLP and a Professional Speaker.