iWahine Leadership Development
Our leadership development training, in fact all the work that we do, is grounded in the iWahine Leadership Profile© that was developed by Awhimai Reynolds from her research on Maori women and leadership. Essentially it is about being authentic. Being authentic means staying true to your values, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, seeing the big picture and living a purpose-driven life. You can read more about authentic leadership below.
We facilitate leadership development through utilising the inquiry method and the action learning approach. So our work involves being student or client focused, encouraging them to ask questions, to create their own knowledge, to implement, to observe the impact of their actions and reflect on the results or outcomes and then consider what worked, what didn't and why.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can work with you. Contact me here.
We facilitate leadership development through utilising the inquiry method and the action learning approach. So our work involves being student or client focused, encouraging them to ask questions, to create their own knowledge, to implement, to observe the impact of their actions and reflect on the results or outcomes and then consider what worked, what didn't and why.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can work with you. Contact me here.
Authentic Leadership
iWahine NZ is about leading with authenticity. We promote Maori women who are role-models of authentic leadership to share their personal stories and leadership journey so we can learn from both what they know and who they are.
We are excited about building a community of authentic leaders who…
Stay true to their values
Values act as your inner compass, pointing you in the direction of what it means to be true to you. Staying true to your values is not always the smoothest path to take. Authentic Leaders do not change their stripes to make others feel comfortable around them. They honour their unique set of guiding principles that define who they are and how they operate.
Know their strengths and weaknesses
Authentic leaders know what activities strengthen them and which activities weaken them. They lead with their strengths and are not ashamed to admit their weaknesses. Because they are willing to be vulnerable and express a weakness, they easily establish trust with others.
See the big picture
Do you see the world strictly through your own lens or do you always take an objective view and explore the world through the eyes of others? Authentic Leaders do not have a myopic view of the world and are good at seeing both the forest and the trees.
Live a purpose-driven life
People who lead a purpose-driven life are clear that their role is to serve others and they attach meaning to what they do.
You don’t have to be leading a team or managing a cause or company to be an authentic leader. Deciding to live a life by design, going after what you want and role-modeling the above attributes, are what make you an authentic leader.
We hope you join us at iWahine to be empowered to reach your full professional potential while supporting others along the way.
We are excited about building a community of authentic leaders who…
Stay true to their values
Values act as your inner compass, pointing you in the direction of what it means to be true to you. Staying true to your values is not always the smoothest path to take. Authentic Leaders do not change their stripes to make others feel comfortable around them. They honour their unique set of guiding principles that define who they are and how they operate.
Know their strengths and weaknesses
Authentic leaders know what activities strengthen them and which activities weaken them. They lead with their strengths and are not ashamed to admit their weaknesses. Because they are willing to be vulnerable and express a weakness, they easily establish trust with others.
See the big picture
Do you see the world strictly through your own lens or do you always take an objective view and explore the world through the eyes of others? Authentic Leaders do not have a myopic view of the world and are good at seeing both the forest and the trees.
Live a purpose-driven life
People who lead a purpose-driven life are clear that their role is to serve others and they attach meaning to what they do.
You don’t have to be leading a team or managing a cause or company to be an authentic leader. Deciding to live a life by design, going after what you want and role-modeling the above attributes, are what make you an authentic leader.
We hope you join us at iWahine to be empowered to reach your full professional potential while supporting others along the way.
Different ways of leading with authenticity
We encourage women to show-up as authentic leaders in their own lives. This means staying true to their values, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, always seeing the big picture and attaching meaning and purpose to their work.
It is important to know that being a leader doesn’t mean you are a CEO or manager leading a team or organization. There are five different ways leaders present themselves. Each role is equally important and brings unique value to situations or challenges.
The Leader in Front is the one you see up front and centre projecting her authentic voice, holding a vision that has a strong “why” or story behind her cause.
Leaders Beside enjoy the partner or coach approach and co-creating an experience together.
The Leader Behind is a mentor, teacher, team member or good friend who wants the very best for others. They may not necessarily prefer the Leader in Front role but they certainly appreciate the vision and are willing to provide their support in any way they can.
Leader from the Whole relies on both her head and her heart to make choices. She knows when to use logic or simply trust her intuition and explores how she both thinks and feels about a situation. She always has the bigger picture in mind.
The Leader Within is where all four dimensions overlap. This is who you are being when you are at your best, trusting your innate inner compass, and taking responsibility for the leadership role you need to play, appreciate or support in any given moment.
Everyone will develop their unique blend of Leadership Style. At iWahine NZ, we encourage every woman to be the Leader Behind for other women.
We envision a world where women instinctively have each other’s backs, always supporting and wanting others to shine.
Research has shown that we are 80 more years or 4 generations away from true gender equality and diversity in the workforce. In the meantime, so many women are being denied their basic human rights simply because they are women and our local shelters are operating at full capacity. A co-gender lead world is the answer to better policies and treatment of women around our globe. The Leaders Behind have strength in numbers on their side. Their support will help women feel empowered and worthy to be the leaders of their own lives.
We hope you join our community of authentic leaders – women who care as much about the business, professional and personal success of others as they do their own.
It is important to know that being a leader doesn’t mean you are a CEO or manager leading a team or organization. There are five different ways leaders present themselves. Each role is equally important and brings unique value to situations or challenges.
The Leader in Front is the one you see up front and centre projecting her authentic voice, holding a vision that has a strong “why” or story behind her cause.
Leaders Beside enjoy the partner or coach approach and co-creating an experience together.
The Leader Behind is a mentor, teacher, team member or good friend who wants the very best for others. They may not necessarily prefer the Leader in Front role but they certainly appreciate the vision and are willing to provide their support in any way they can.
Leader from the Whole relies on both her head and her heart to make choices. She knows when to use logic or simply trust her intuition and explores how she both thinks and feels about a situation. She always has the bigger picture in mind.
The Leader Within is where all four dimensions overlap. This is who you are being when you are at your best, trusting your innate inner compass, and taking responsibility for the leadership role you need to play, appreciate or support in any given moment.
Everyone will develop their unique blend of Leadership Style. At iWahine NZ, we encourage every woman to be the Leader Behind for other women.
We envision a world where women instinctively have each other’s backs, always supporting and wanting others to shine.
Research has shown that we are 80 more years or 4 generations away from true gender equality and diversity in the workforce. In the meantime, so many women are being denied their basic human rights simply because they are women and our local shelters are operating at full capacity. A co-gender lead world is the answer to better policies and treatment of women around our globe. The Leaders Behind have strength in numbers on their side. Their support will help women feel empowered and worthy to be the leaders of their own lives.
We hope you join our community of authentic leaders – women who care as much about the business, professional and personal success of others as they do their own.
LEADERSHIP
What is leadership?
Ask anyone what leadership is and you'll hear a number of different answers. Most know what leadership isn't. Putting leadership into words is much harder. Leadership is shaped by the experiences.
Leadership is a relationship. As JM Kouzes and BZ Posner (2002, p.20) say in their book, “Leadership Challenge,” “It’s a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow”.
Sometimes the relationship is one to one. Sometimes, it is one to many. Irrespective of the number, leaders must master the dynamics of this relationship.
Leadership is an influence process. At any time you’re trying to influence the behaviour of someone toward a goal, you’re engaging in leadership. This is so, regardless of whether you’re a politician, a CEO, a parent, a teacher or a minister of religion.
Ken Blanchard asserts that leadership is about moving people from dependence to independence in pursuit of a goal.
However, he considers that there are some prime requisites here. First, leadership is about going somewhere. If you don’t know where you’re going, your leadership doesn’t matter. Second, leadership is about implementation. Certainly leaders need to give their people vision and direction, but they also need to work to get their people to move closer to their destination. Finally, leadership about serving and supporting. In this way, leaders serve their people by guiding and cheerleading them as their needs require.
Some Definitions of Leadership
"The legitimate use of power to achieve outcomes on behalf of a group of people” (Jock Cameron, National Student Leadership Forum, Parliament House, Canberra, 20th Sept 2012)
“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right thing” (Peter Drucker; Austrian-born American management consultant and educator, 1909-2005)
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves” (Lao Tze; 6th Century BC, philosopher of ancient China)
“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power, but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders” (Follett, MP. The Creative Experience, NY; Longmans Green, 1924, page 3)
Are Leaders Born or Made? This is a familiar question. So, what’s the answer. Leaders are both born and made.
According to Prof Bruce Avolio, a Professor of Management at the University of Washington, his research and investigation revealed that 70% of leaders are made and 30% are born.
Interestingly, the next question is that if this is so, how do we learn leadership?
Prof Avolio indicates that the 70-20-10 rule applies. In short, 70% of your ability to lead comes from your experiences and what happens to you, 20% comes from your role models, and that final 10% we just don’t really know about yet.
Further, there was a landmark piece of research back in 1994 by AK Ericsson and N Charness (“Expert Performance, It’s Structure and Acquisition,” American Psychologist, Vol 49, Page 725-747) which highlighted that people who were considered prodigies in areas such as music, chess, athletics and so on, all had a very consistent pattern. All not only showed interest in their talents, but all practised from between 2 to 4 hours a day for 10 years. They went on to find that “experts” had practised over 10,000 hours, the next level down about 7,500 hours, and the next level 5,000 hours.
They therefore concluded that “the traditional view of talent, which concludes that successful individuals have special innate abilities and basic capabilities was NOT consistent with the reviewed evidence.” Instead, high performance was characterised by “factors that predispose individuals toward engaging in deliberate practice” and then “sustaining high levels of practice for many years.” Expert performers also typically had coaches who encouraged them to practice intensely.
So, what’s the message? Some great leaders are not necessarily born with, but acquire at an early age, the desire to make things happen with other people. Other leaders can acquire increased leadership ability with practice at any age. Finally, coaching helps the leaders acquire the skills they need and keeps them accountable.
In brief, if you want to get good at leadership (and coaching for that matter), then, engage in intense practice! Practice, practice, practice. It’s not rocket science really…
Failure of Leadership.
Typically, leaders who fail at building support from their followers do so in one of two ways:
Instead, leadership is a paradox of power in that it is top-down, but interactive, command-and-control but participatory.
Is there a difference being a manager and a leader? Two sources and anecdotal evidence certainly says that there are differences. Although it is true to say that most of the leaders would admit to fluctuating between the two. it is important to recognize where you are at any point in time. Are you leading or managing?
The Key to Leadership is Trust
Professor Bruce Avolio in his book in 2011 titled, “Full Range Leadership Development” highlights the notion that the core of effective leadership is abouttrust. Without it, leadership is non-existent.
Trust is critical
See below the key quotes from his book:
“…without trust, you can never achieve the full potential of your leadership…” (p 23)
To gain trust, it is important for leaders to have “set clearly defined expectations and agreed-on levels of performance…” This is “effective transactional leadership [which] can create the conditions on which deeper levels of trust are formed” (p 23).
“…transactional leadership was the basis for developing transformational leadership…without the transactional base, expectations are often unclear, direction is ill defined, and the goals you are working toward are too ambiguous (p 24)…the most important effect in the early development of teams was learning how to structure roles and expectations…So, getting the transactions right consistently, in what we have labelled transactional leadership, is essential to becoming an effective leader, follower, and team” (p 30).
“Transformational leadership involves the process whereby leaders develop followers into leaders. This is a conscious goal; the leader has a development plan in her or his head about each follower…Such leaders stimulate challenge, as opposed to suppressing it when it arises…they work to leave behind an organisation, community or even society that is better positioned to succeed than when they first began their work….[they are] moral agents who focus themselves and their followers on achieving higher-level missions and purposes. The higher levels of identification result in higher levels of commitment, trust, loyalty, and performance (p 51-52).
“If you honour all your various transactions with people, over time they come to trust you; it is higher levels of trust versus compliance that transformational leadership uses as its base for achieving exemplary performance” (p 52).
“What we have clearly learned is that leaders who can balance transactional and transformational leadership across time, situations, and challenges are the most effective” (p 50).
Ask anyone what leadership is and you'll hear a number of different answers. Most know what leadership isn't. Putting leadership into words is much harder. Leadership is shaped by the experiences.
Leadership is a relationship. As JM Kouzes and BZ Posner (2002, p.20) say in their book, “Leadership Challenge,” “It’s a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow”.
Sometimes the relationship is one to one. Sometimes, it is one to many. Irrespective of the number, leaders must master the dynamics of this relationship.
Leadership is an influence process. At any time you’re trying to influence the behaviour of someone toward a goal, you’re engaging in leadership. This is so, regardless of whether you’re a politician, a CEO, a parent, a teacher or a minister of religion.
Ken Blanchard asserts that leadership is about moving people from dependence to independence in pursuit of a goal.
However, he considers that there are some prime requisites here. First, leadership is about going somewhere. If you don’t know where you’re going, your leadership doesn’t matter. Second, leadership is about implementation. Certainly leaders need to give their people vision and direction, but they also need to work to get their people to move closer to their destination. Finally, leadership about serving and supporting. In this way, leaders serve their people by guiding and cheerleading them as their needs require.
Some Definitions of Leadership
"The legitimate use of power to achieve outcomes on behalf of a group of people” (Jock Cameron, National Student Leadership Forum, Parliament House, Canberra, 20th Sept 2012)
“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right thing” (Peter Drucker; Austrian-born American management consultant and educator, 1909-2005)
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves” (Lao Tze; 6th Century BC, philosopher of ancient China)
“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power, but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders” (Follett, MP. The Creative Experience, NY; Longmans Green, 1924, page 3)
Are Leaders Born or Made? This is a familiar question. So, what’s the answer. Leaders are both born and made.
According to Prof Bruce Avolio, a Professor of Management at the University of Washington, his research and investigation revealed that 70% of leaders are made and 30% are born.
Interestingly, the next question is that if this is so, how do we learn leadership?
Prof Avolio indicates that the 70-20-10 rule applies. In short, 70% of your ability to lead comes from your experiences and what happens to you, 20% comes from your role models, and that final 10% we just don’t really know about yet.
Further, there was a landmark piece of research back in 1994 by AK Ericsson and N Charness (“Expert Performance, It’s Structure and Acquisition,” American Psychologist, Vol 49, Page 725-747) which highlighted that people who were considered prodigies in areas such as music, chess, athletics and so on, all had a very consistent pattern. All not only showed interest in their talents, but all practised from between 2 to 4 hours a day for 10 years. They went on to find that “experts” had practised over 10,000 hours, the next level down about 7,500 hours, and the next level 5,000 hours.
They therefore concluded that “the traditional view of talent, which concludes that successful individuals have special innate abilities and basic capabilities was NOT consistent with the reviewed evidence.” Instead, high performance was characterised by “factors that predispose individuals toward engaging in deliberate practice” and then “sustaining high levels of practice for many years.” Expert performers also typically had coaches who encouraged them to practice intensely.
So, what’s the message? Some great leaders are not necessarily born with, but acquire at an early age, the desire to make things happen with other people. Other leaders can acquire increased leadership ability with practice at any age. Finally, coaching helps the leaders acquire the skills they need and keeps them accountable.
In brief, if you want to get good at leadership (and coaching for that matter), then, engage in intense practice! Practice, practice, practice. It’s not rocket science really…
Failure of Leadership.
Typically, leaders who fail at building support from their followers do so in one of two ways:
- They are autocrats or dictators who are typically ruled by their ego where they use a megaphone to blast a point of view without making anyone around them any smarter and if anything, cause their followers to withdraw and hibernate or occasionally, cause their followers to become their favourites and in turn, create cliques. These leaders lacked any kind of emotional intelligence and normally self-centered and perhaps narcissistic.
- They are abdicrats where they allow the free flow of democracy in such a way that it becomes almost an anarchy of misalignment. Generally speaking, in an endeavor to please or because of their own lack of confidence, they tend to go overboard to gain consensus and not surprisingly, the team loses its way without any clear direction.
Instead, leadership is a paradox of power in that it is top-down, but interactive, command-and-control but participatory.
Is there a difference being a manager and a leader? Two sources and anecdotal evidence certainly says that there are differences. Although it is true to say that most of the leaders would admit to fluctuating between the two. it is important to recognize where you are at any point in time. Are you leading or managing?
- According to Capowski, G. (1994) “Anatomy of a leader: Where are the leaders of tomorrow?” Management Review, (March), p 12, the different characteristics between leader and manager are as follows:
LeaderManagerVisionaryRationalPassionateBusiness-likeCreativePersistentInspiringTough-mindedInnovativeAnalyticalCourageousStructuredImaginativeDeliberativeExperimentalAuthoritativeIndependentStabilisingShare knowledgeCentralises knowledgeTrustingGuardingWarm and radiantCool and reservedExpresses humilityRarely admits to being wrongInitiatorImplementerActs as coach, consultant, teacherActs as a bossDoes the right thingsDoes things rightLeadership Development
Vision, values, clarity of mission,teamwork, managing change,communication, cultureManagement Development
Financial acumen, project strategy, organising skills, process improvement,financial control,information technology“When it ain’t broke may be the only time you can fix it”“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. - In “What Leaders Really Do” by JP Kotter, HBR (2001), the following depicts the difference between Leaders and Managers.
LeadershipManagementCopes with ChangeCopes with complexityFirst step is to set a direction – developing a vision for the future & strategies to achieve itFirst step is undertake planning & budgeting – setting targets or goals and steps to get thereAchieves plan by aligning people & communicating the new direction to coalitions who are committed to it happeningAchieves the plan by organising & staffing – org structure, jobs, staffing the jobs, communicating the plan to staff, delegating, devising systems to monitor implementationAchieving a vision requires motivating & inspiring & keeping the people moving in the right directionPursues plan accomplishment by controlling & problem solving & monitoring results via meetings, reports etc
The Key to Leadership is Trust
Professor Bruce Avolio in his book in 2011 titled, “Full Range Leadership Development” highlights the notion that the core of effective leadership is abouttrust. Without it, leadership is non-existent.
Trust is critical
See below the key quotes from his book:
“…without trust, you can never achieve the full potential of your leadership…” (p 23)
To gain trust, it is important for leaders to have “set clearly defined expectations and agreed-on levels of performance…” This is “effective transactional leadership [which] can create the conditions on which deeper levels of trust are formed” (p 23).
“…transactional leadership was the basis for developing transformational leadership…without the transactional base, expectations are often unclear, direction is ill defined, and the goals you are working toward are too ambiguous (p 24)…the most important effect in the early development of teams was learning how to structure roles and expectations…So, getting the transactions right consistently, in what we have labelled transactional leadership, is essential to becoming an effective leader, follower, and team” (p 30).
“Transformational leadership involves the process whereby leaders develop followers into leaders. This is a conscious goal; the leader has a development plan in her or his head about each follower…Such leaders stimulate challenge, as opposed to suppressing it when it arises…they work to leave behind an organisation, community or even society that is better positioned to succeed than when they first began their work….[they are] moral agents who focus themselves and their followers on achieving higher-level missions and purposes. The higher levels of identification result in higher levels of commitment, trust, loyalty, and performance (p 51-52).
“If you honour all your various transactions with people, over time they come to trust you; it is higher levels of trust versus compliance that transformational leadership uses as its base for achieving exemplary performance” (p 52).
“What we have clearly learned is that leaders who can balance transactional and transformational leadership across time, situations, and challenges are the most effective” (p 50).
