As leaders rise to higher levels within an organization, they are required to navigate increasingly complex and chaotic situations. There are hand-offs and trade-offs with stakeholders and constituents. There are executive leaders to please and junior leaders to lead. Fellow peers with competing agendas from other functions such as Sales, Engineering, and Finance, vie for the same set of limited resources. And, decisions become more and more consequential to the organization. 

Ignite Leadership Launch is a two-hour Leadership Training seminar that will ignite your potential as a leader, and the potential of the people around you.  Whether you’re a future, emerging, transitioning or senior leader, you’ll gain insight and practical skills to elevate your effectiveness in the workplace.   Led by author, speaker and consultant Sal Silvester, this seminar is now offered to individuals and is based on his popular book Ignite!  The 4 Essential Rules for Emerging Leaders.  

Look at you — you’re a rising star! You’re smart and successful. People are taking real notice of how good you are in your job as an engineer, financial analyst, customer-service representative or software developer.

Life is sweet, but something is about to rock your world.

You are about to get promoted.

I just kicked-off an 8-month leadership development program with a client in Denver, and one of our topics was about the "shifts" people need to make when they step into leadership roles. Reflect on the items below: 

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review, Leadership is a Conversation, by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind. As of June 2012 Boris and Michael had spoken to over 150 people in 100 companies where research participants consistently mentioned their efforts of "having a conversation" or "advancing the conversation" in their organizations.

I agree that Leadership, in part, really is a conversation. And I have also found that leaders who struggle most fail to engage people through conversation. Often times they:

I recently read an article in PR Newswire titled Study Shows the Current State of Women in Leadership. The article cited a study by The Women's College of the University of Denver and The White House Project that presented some interesting findings comparing women to their male counterparts:

Here's my challenge to all leaders in 2013:

WHO will you be?

It's a great time of the year for all of us to reflect on where we've been and where we want to go. The trap that most leaders fall into is that they often reflect on the WHAT and the HOW without considering WHO they are as leaders.  For example, they ask -   WHAT do I want to accomplish this year? WHAT are my goals? And, HOW will I achieve those goals?

I received the following email from a participant in a recent leadership development program.

Veteran's Day to me represents the best of what leadership is truly about...

We just completed a three-month leadership training and development program with a client in Colorado. During one of our sessions together, the participants identified leadership behaviors and characteristics of leaders in their lives who have made the biggest impact. 

Take a look at see how you stack up.