Job Promotion to a Position of Leadership

                                                       
 Job promotion to a position of leadership can be a daunting experience filled with fear of failure. To avoid recruiting external candidates who still need to be inducted and oriented to the way the business operates and to learn and adapt to its culture, organisations need to take the time to prepare staff for leadership roles. They will retain smart employees and save time on having to train and develop new recruits who may take longer to adapt and understand how the business operates.
The best way of developing and retaining potential leaders in your company is to develop leadership development programmes that will fast-track junior managers into positions of responsibility. During the duration of the programme the junior managers must be exposed to what it takes to operate at a strategic level within their organisation. Classroom learning has to be customized to deal with real case studies of the organisation. On the practical side of the learning, training and development they have to take part in real every day problems of the organisation.  Feedback should then be offered  on where they performed well and where they should improve.
The skills learnt in this way will define the organisation's leadership brand and inculcate a high standard of ethics; commitment; develop and retain talent and the ability to apply sound judgment and appropriate leadership styles depending on the ability of the junior manager; a passion for performance; and the ability to develop and communicate clear vision or future direction of the organisation.
 Without taking part in such a programme, it will take a lot longer for these managers to learn the ropes. Without taking part in the programme newly promoted junior managers become apprehensive about what to expect in their new roles because they don't realise what they don't know. The stress created by the leadership role for the new untrained  manager , in an effort to prove his/her competence, can ultimately incapacitate the appointed leader resulting in failure for the leader, frustration for the team and losses for the organisation.
It is up to leadership to ensure that future leaders are ready and able to take up more challenging positions. Organisations have to develop leadership brands – broad leadership competencies that are important to build a collective leadership experience for all potential leaders within the organisation as well as leadership reputation that would be recognised by external stakeholders. The biggest problem organisations face when promoting people into leadership roles is that those who shine in terms of their technical skills and abilities do not always have what it takes to be leaders. Appointing people to higher positions based primarily on functional skills alone can have negative results for the appointee, the team and the organisation. Often the top scorer in sports team is promoted to a leadership position, only to realise that the very functional skills for which he/she is admired for, are not nearly adequate to lead a team to higher levels of performance or to spearhead a new direction.  That is why training and development has to pave the way to any leadership responsibility.
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Job Search: To Land your Dream Job be Prepared to take the Total Approach Demanded by Employers

<h1>Job Search: To land your dream job be prepared to take the total approach demanded by employers</h1>
<strong>Author: <a title="Justice Mandhla" href="http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/justice-mandhla/123013">Justice Mandhla</a></strong><br />
<p>

During the duration of the interview candidates lie and their resumes can also lie and depict many people to be the perfect prospective employees with the potential sought after by hiring managers. While interviews are a tool to assess how well candidates manage stress and complex communication and whether there is a fit between the candidate and the company, the truth about interviews is that they have limitations – they are essentially a flawed assessment tool. Hiring managers always indicate the skills and traits required by the post advertised, unfortunately many of these traits can be faked during the interview, which makes recruitment expensive and a waste of time. Employees who succeed in landing a job under these circumstances are soon discovered through the quality of their work and fired to join the lines of the unemployed.</p> <p>Many companies have taken this behaviour of candidates seriously and they now insist that for all candidates applying for senior and executive positions must undergo psychometric and other tests to assess trustworthiness. These tests are done only on the final candidates as it is a costly and time-intensive process. There are a range of different tests and assessments, though they have the same type of results, there are shorter assessments available but the depth of the data or output are significantly  not as comprehensive to provide the employers with a total picture of the prospective employees strengths and weaknesses. The type of assessment may depend on the level of the post and the sensitiveness of the position advertised, for instance, if the position requires a person who understands the key drivers of the company and who would work on and have access to sensitive company information a comprehensive type of assessment test may be vital. The primary assessment tool in this regard would be the competency-based assessment which would identify thought management, influence, adaptability and delivery. The second process is an assessment centre which is developed to assess the same competencies within a working context. Detailed competency linkages are made to assess the personal fit of the candidate against the competencies found in the specific job.  The assessments are quite comprehensive and deal not only with competencies around the specific job but about individual traits and behaviours. This gives the employer a comprehensive picture of the candidate which complements the interview reference and engagement process. These tests not only disqualify people, they can also be used to indicate how a candidate’s skills can be strengthened once they are employed. The weaknesses that are identified do not necessarily rule out candidates but rather help the employer to form guidelines for support structures such as mentoring, job shadowing, training and development when the candidate is hired.

</p> <p> </p><p>Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/interviews-articles/job-search-to-land-your-dream-job-be-prepared-to-take-the-total-approach-demanded-by-employers-912078.html" title="Job Search: To land your dream job be prepared to take the total approach demanded by employers">http://www.articlesbase.com/interviews-articles/job-search-to-land-your-dream-job-be-prepared-to-take-the-total-approach-demanded-by-employers-912078.html</a></p>
<strong>About the Author</strong><br />
<p>Justice Mandhla is the author of four business and career management books.</p>   

How to manage yourself effectively at work?

Self-management is a key life skill exhibited by people who have emotional maturity. Self-management is about recognizing opportunities for growth, learning and gaining insights into your own life. It means learning to manage our moods, choosing appropriate responses to setbacks and making well informed decisions and taking control of our lives. We should be energetic, enthusiastic and results-orientated whatever our job, not because our boss is measuring us but because we are measuring ourselves. Gone are the days when you waited to be told what to do and when you were guaranteed a job for life. Nowadays companies want employees who add value to their business and treat it as though it were their own. If you are an employee, ask yourself: how would I do my job differently if I ran the company? Too often, even good staff members get disgruntled because they feel their extra efforts and innovations are not recognised and simply enriching their employers. But to get ahead in your career you need to ditch that perception and act as though every contribution, good or bad that you make impacts directly on you. Work out a clear plan that links your activity to results and your results to rewards. Look for ways to maximise the resources at your disposal, consider more efficient ways to deal with paperwork or think of new opportunities for your department.
Many employees particularly in government let the dangerous sense of entitlement get in the way of their success. To stop yourself feeling disheartened because you are not where you would like to be, view all aspects of your job with the manager's eyes. Ask your manager, peers and subordinates to give you constructive feedback on what you have to stop doing, start doing and continue to do. Another way of understanding the evolving environment of your career and discovering the skills you need in order to excel is to do a SWOT analysis. Decide if it's really useful for you to put the time and effort into perfecting your weak areas. Take time every month or three months to list your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and then with the help of a mentor, colleague or friend, consider practical ways to counteract your negative attributes. You need to be consistently optimistic and solutions -focused. See every hurdle as an opportunity to be greater and be humble enough to admit your mistakes.

Justice Mandhla is the author of 'The Complete Building Blocks Guide on How to run your Business Marathon and he spends a great deal of his full-time writing days researching and writing about business start-ups, marketing and advertising strategies. See more at http://www.longlife4learning.com/. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Justice_Mandhla

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