Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 1 Effective leadership: leading for high performance.
The Oxford Executive Leadership Programme explores leadership skills for the complex and dynamic modern workplace. Over eight weeks, you’ll learn techniques to lead high-performance teams to add value and purpose to your organization, through effective leadership strategies and insight into effective decision-making.
Week 1: Effective leadership: leading for high performance. Reflect on the relationship between effective leadership and performance in organizations.
My Takeaway: An organization’s effectiveness and performance measurements can either make or break a leader, based on if they are fairly and evenly applied to everyone, no matter what their strengths or weaknesses.
My Reflection: My strengths as a leader include a clear vision, and I have a deep understanding of breaking that vision down into manageable parts for others to manage. My weaknesses include dealing with relationships with no integrity and my passion, which may cause me to cross boundaries.
My Observation: My classmates are profoundly wise in many ways - I am humbled and honored to be among them - CEOs, senior executives, directors, and leaders from quite a spectrum of verticals. While I certainly will add to the conversation, I am learning different perspectives.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 2 The job of the leader: Visioning and engaging.
Week 2: The job of the leader: envisioning and engaging. Learn about vision and engagement as two core activities of leaders.
What does visioning mean to me?
My Takeaway: The clearer the vision, including some details, the easier it is to define it.
My Reflection: My vision allows me to come up with unique approaches to complex problems while providing the best user experience possible.
My Observation: Surveys, trends, and details all matter, and ensuring a high degree of accuracy is important to being successful. How we get there – that’s where the team’s insights are valuable.
What does engaging followers mean to me?
My Takeaway: Communicating the vision requires the leader to paint the picture of what will be – how it will impact the organization from a revenue, market share, or positive impact perspective.
My Reflection: Using storytelling and data to tell the story of the vision is crucial to my success – this is why I often practice important speeches and projects at Toastmasters 1-2 times to ensure I capture diverse feedback, which I incorporate into the speech.
My Observation: Engagement is everything. Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: The speed of the leader determines the pace of the pack.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme: Week 3: The job of the leader: Choosing and connecting.
Module 3: The job of the leader: Choosing and connecting. Learn about decision-making and connection as two core activities of leaders.
Decision-making
My Takeaway: Biases, upbringing, and life experience all affect the decision-making process.
My Reflection: Learning about bias (Implicit Project), and close examination of upbringing and life experience, can allow you to make better decisions in everything in all aspects of life.
My Observation: When you understand something based on these things, you can destroy, modify or rebuild your perspectives for better decision-making.
Building connections and relationships with people.
My Takeaway: Building connections and relationships are key to a leader's success in any arena.
My Reflection: Understanding and managing your emotions are critical to furthering your progress in any organization.
My Observation: This is an area I am constantly building on. I recently completed a CQ assessment and online class to improve my cultural intelligence better.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 4: Leading with power and influence.
Week 4: Leading with power and influence. Explore the significance of power and influence within leadership.
What does power mean to me?
My Takeaway: Power is simply the way to get things done. Many look at the dark side of power - my perspective is to use power to strategically to empower those we lead to allow for their growth and success.
My Reflection: The best use of power is behind the scenes, where it doesn't overpower others, yet allows for the organization and their members to accomplish their goals.
My Observation: I have seen many misuses of power in my life - the best use of power is to do what is best for the organization and its members, not what is best for the leader. This always comes back to you in a positive way.
What does influence mean to me?
My Takeaway: Influence is a form of soft power, and can often achieve more than by exuding power and authority.
My Reflection: Influence has a huge impact on everything - and learning to understand how influence affects us is enormously valuable in wielding it. I found Influence by Robert Cialdini an amazing listen!
My Observation: Reading the Starfish and the Spider and Soft Power understanding how leaderless movements were started were truly enlightening - Ice Bucket Challenge, Black Lives Matter and the "Me Too" movement were very insightful.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 5: Leading teams for effective performance.
Module 5: Leading teams for effective performance. Explore the functions and dynamics of high-performance leadership.
Leading Teams
My Takeaway: Building a high-performing team is easier when you get to choose your team. It less easy when your team is either currently exists, is chosen for you, or some combination thereof.
My Reflection: The Navy Seals perspective is my own - there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.
My Observation: Psychological safety is critical to building a high-performance team reaching any level of success - team members have to be able to challenge each other in a positive way to succeed without the fear of retribution.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 6: Strategies and models for leading change.
Module 6: Strategies and models for leading change. Consider the role of the leader in driving change.
My Takeaway: Change is everywhere, and as leaders, we must lead through change.
My Reflection: When you have spent twenty years knowing change is your only constant, leading through change is somewhat easier.
My Observation: Having the vision to see where the organization is going is helpful; being able to explain why the change is needed through building a compelling case is imperative.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 7: Mastering complexity and plurality.
Module 7: Mastering complexity and plurality. Explore strategies to manage the complexities inherent in leadership.
My Takeaway: Achieving multiple goals which may conflict - such as financial goals and social goals - requires adjustments of focus in both areas.
My Reflection: While making money is important, what you do with some of that money to give back to things important to the community is equally important.
My Observation: To keep on top of complexity and plurality, I do the following four items:
1. Reading – I read as much as possible, especially looking for thought leaders in my industry. Understanding their worldview, futuristic predictions and mindset, is tremendously helpful.
2. Education – I send my team and myself to as much education as I can manage. This class will certainly have a game-changing impact on my curiosity, asking questions and reflection.
3. Events – I make time to attend 4-5 events per year to network and understand how other companies, industries and verticals are using technology to better serve their organizations.
4. Self-Improvement – I attend 1-2 programs each year on my own self-improvement, which helps me to become a better leader, person, and father.
Oxford Executive Leadership Programme Week 8: Reflect on your purpose as a leader.
Module 8: Reflect on your purpose as a leader. Establish alignment between your personal purpose and the purpose of the organization.
My Takeaway: Authenticity in leadership is understanding yourself and your impact on others around you. Adaptability conflicts with authenticity, and consistency over time will win the day if you are true to yourself.
My Reflection: I understand myself well and work every day to try and understand my impact on others I lead.
My Observation: Positive intent is wonderful when backed up by authenticity. Using positive intent to wreak havoc on others is wrong on every level.