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Leading Community Change Initiatives

There are eight questions that all individuals and nonprofit organisations should ask themselves when embarking on change initiatives within their communities. These questions are:


Question 1: What kind of change are you and your community group trying to bring about?

Question 2. What reasons do you have to believe that this change is necessary?

Question 3: Do you have reason to believe that your community will support you in your bid to bring about change?

Question 4: Who are the top ten opinion leaders that you need to influence in your community?

Question 5: How can you influence the opinion leaders?

Question 6: What message will you convey to the community at large?

Question 7: Who will communicate on behalf of the change initiative group?

Question 8: What methods will be used to communicate with the community?

The questions are explained more fully in our presentation, which is available to view at http://www.slideshare.net/CramdenTECH/leading-community-change

The eight questions form part of CramdenTECH’s “Leading Community Change” blended learning course, which includes workshops and eLearning.

Leadership Shouldn’t be Left to Executives!

Training Managers to LeadGlobal adventurer Alison Levine had some interesting thoughts to share on the nature of leadership recently. She said “… I think it’s a mistake to rely on executives for leadership or people that have certain titles or a certain amount of tenure.” She went on to say “I think people realise everyone’s in a leadership position. And leadership shouldn’t be left to an executive staff or board of directors or heads of department.”

If we take these words to heart – then our jobs as CEO’s, Executive Directors and Vice-Presidents, is to cultivate the leader within each employee. There isn’t a magic formula to achieve this, but we can start by assessing our own behaviour and attitude to work and seeing how our style of management or leadership influences the styles of the people around us. Moving beyond ourselves, how does the culture of the organisation in which we work, affect the emergence of leadership behaviours as the norm, rather than the exception. And what of the power structures within the workplace? What impact would a workplace of leaders have on the exercise of authority, autonomy and consistency in decision-making?

Perhaps the answer lies in creating a culture that enables different people to emerge as leaders as and when the need arises. As circumstances and situations differ, the individuals taking on leadership roles also differ. Hence, the person best placed to fill the leadership role does so, rather than the person whose job title denotes leadership authority in the situation. Managers and supervisors can be trained to exhibit leadership behaviour and to cultivate leadership behaviours in their colleagues and direct reports. CramdenTECH’s two-day programme “Leadership Skills for Supervisors and Managers“, is designed to help participants to develop their own leadership potential and that of the people they work with. You can learn more about the programme at https://cramdentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Learn-with-CramdenTECH-Spring-2014-Workshops-and-Seminars.pdf.

And if you would like to learn more about Alison Levine’s thoughts on leadership, you can watch her appearance on CBS http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-the-edge-an-adventurers-guide-to-leadership/ as she promotes her new book, “On the Edge: The Art of High-Impact Leadership.”

Some thoughts on Aging!

Old age and leadership are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, advances in modern medicine, coupled with a better knowledge of fitness and diet, means that we can expect to live longer than our parents generation. Therefore, in the next few years, the concept of “retirement age” may be consigned to history, as people choose to work on into old age. Should “not retiring” at 65  years or 70 years become the norm, interesting predicaments for older CEO’s that do not wish to relinquish their positions will arise. It will certainly create a predicament for the organisations that they lead. A healthy turnover of senior management can be important in helping an organisation to grow at an accelerated rate. Hence, it is not the age of the CEO that will matter, but rather the length of time she or he has been in the main leadership position in the company.

Some interesting views on aging:

“You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.” by Colette

“One starts to get young at the age 60 and then it’s too late.” by Pablo Picasso

“Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” by Luis BUÑUEL

Hear, Hear!