Is it just ME, or are you, too, so proud of what women with military experience are doing these days? I know you are!
I want to introduce you to one such woman, Holly Landau…
Holly is a former US Army Officer, who earned a BA in Sociology, and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at Cornell University. She actively speaks, writes, and facilitates workshops on the many aspects of leadership. She has over 60,000 follows on Twitter who look to her for tips and advice about leadership: @LeadershipMuse.
Holly Landau has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review. She is the featured Leadership Expert in the American Express Open Book on Leadership. Landau is the CEO of Landau Leadership, an innovative consulting firm that designs customized training & employee development solutions, hosts unique experiential learning events, and offers online leadership courses and assessments to boost individual/team productivity, strengthen work relationships, and help organizations reach peak performance.
In alliance with TheIWLA, I have had the opportunity to speak with Holly on a number of occasions and personally experience her style, her passion, and her capacity to lead and to teach.
I’d like to share the following Q&A…
Q: Let’s start with this question, what is leadership?
A: Leadership is the ability to influence and motivate people toward a common goal. Leaders inspire people to believe in possibilities and take action. When we think about great leaders, certain characteristics and traits come to mind. Leaders are usually powerful communicators, they find and maintain followers, they have a strong belief in their cause or project, they think strategically and creatively, they change course when necessary, they encourage leadership abilities in others, and they create change.
Q: How did you decide to focus your career on leadership?
A: I began my career as a US Army Officer right after I finished college (where I studied sociology). The Army taught me leadership in a classroom and gave me many hands-on opportunities to test my knowledge. Following the Army, I was a Retail Executive where I led a team of thirty people. In was in this role that I got to hire, train, and retain a big team and I loved every minute of it, even the challenges. I also spent a few years in Corporate America as a Leadership Development Expert where I traveled around the US, Canada, and Europe training, coaching, and motivating corporate leaders. I left that role to launch my own firm in 2008. I’m so pleased to say that some of our clients include American Express, Worley Parsons, Mellon Bank, and Quadrant Engineering. I really enjoy helping people identify and build on their strengths to reach their potential as leaders. Years ago, I never knew that this would be the focus of my career, but I seemed to have found a niche and there will always be a need for what I do.
Q: Are people born leaders or can they learn to become leaders?
A: I get this question often. We know that everyone who wants to effect change has certain strengths. The key for all leaders, emerging or seasoned, is to work to your strengths. Leadership skills can be learned and practiced to get better results. Everyone has the ability to improve their leadership skill set in the areas of inter-personal communication, strategic thinking, team building, and motivating others, to name a few. Great leaders are committed to learning and development for themselves and the people around them.
Q: What’s the difference between management and leadership?
A: You manage things like your budget, your time, or your database. You lead people. As a leader, you set direction, align people, and see the big picture, so you can create strategies that get short and long term results. Sure, we all need to master the day-to-day management tasks to be successful, but to adeptly influence and motivate others, we need to work to our strengths and acknowledge our blind spots - and continually polish the leadership skills that will lead us to success.
Q: Do all leaders need to build their leadership skills and where should they start?
A: I think all leaders need to focus on developing their leadership skills, whether they are just starting out in a leadership role or they are a seasoned leader - there is always more to learn, I believe. I use a competency-based approach when I work with individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Competencies are like the buckets that hold all the specific skills within them. For example, there’s a Communicating as a Leader competency and within it there are several skills to build like presentation skills, sharing information during meetings, and giving developmental feedback, to name a few. I think the best place to start building your skills is to take a leadership assessment to better understand your strengths. My favorite assessment is called DiSC. It’s a quick way to identify your strengths and better understand the impact you have on others. I’m excited to share that a DiSC assessment will be included in the upcoming TheIWLA online leadership training events taking place the first quarter of 2013. This way you can take an assessment and then have a Leadership Expert help you interpret your results.
Thank you, Holly…you truly are a leader.
So, IS it just me, or do you also feel that Holly has much to share? Please join Holly on Thursday, January 24, 2013 for a FREE training session, which she has so generously offered to provide for the women of
TheIWLA.
To participate, please register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5068784872/efblike
Also, visit Holly’s website: www.landauleadership.com.
Learn more about Holly on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hollylandau
No comments:
Post a Comment