Leadership by Example: How to Ignite this Quality in Your Life and Work

March 19, 2012 by

SHARE YOUR PERSPECTIVE... What bit of wisdom has MOST influenced your leadership? What other thoughts and advice do you have to share with others? Throughout the world, it is clear that our notions about LEADERSHIP are being turned upside down, questioned, revitalized and changed before our eyes. Like all renewal, the process may seem chaotic for some – but what is emerging has fresh fingerprints on it. As I’ve watched and participated in my own ways, I’ve often thought of the opening line in a treasured old, tattered book, written over fifty years ago. I found it by-chance in a hidden corner of a used bookstore. I’ve wondered if its message carries a modern day truth for all of us. It reads…

 “[William Makepeace] Thackeray once said that the world is a looking
glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.”
Take a Look at Yourself by John Homer Miller

What is this reflection asking of you and me?  Something significant! The reflection of our faces in the mirror of the world is a reminder that the future, collectively, rests in our hands. We are here at this time for a purpose – and it is hard to deny that we are the ones who will create the next chapter in history. A daunting, yet exciting reality and opportunity, yes?

 There are some compelling reasons for us to be responding to our reflection in the mirror by re-evaluating our notions of LEADERSHIP as we have known it: Times have changed. Things are different. Our “systems” are broken. The stakes are very HIGH – and our global and domestic families are looking to us for a renewed kind of leadership, worthy of solving our most pressing problems for the good of all.

The stereotype of the traditional “leader” we have known has been a person seen with authority and privilege – even if in reality, we discover that leadership may be just a little bigger cubicle and a lot of hard and rewarding work. However, today the landscape of leadership touches each of us, at all levels of society. Leadership is as local as any of us sitting at our desks or collaborating in an online meeting or via social media or working in our communities – and as global, connected, and far-reaching as time, distance, and technology can take us. In an instant, it stretches across cultures and many dimensions of difference. We all are part of an emerging diverse, global leadership corps with opportunities every day to influence something or someone. Because of this reality, there isn’t the option we once had to just “opt-out” and leave it to others. As an example, I’ve heard many groups that say they don’t want to rely on a single leader’s authority. Yet, collectively, they are leading one another – and like other bold pioneers across the world, they are influencing change on many fronts far beyond what anyone could imagine. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela described the next steps for us as we continue to open the way:

 “…For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
The true test of our devotion to freedom is just
beginning …With freedom come responsibilities.” by Nelson Mandela

What does it take to LEAD by Example?

There has been a looming set of questions being asked by many groups, “What’s your message?” What do you want?” I believe strongly that the fastest way to calm these questions will come from leadership by example. Two world renowned leaders, present and past,  serve as sources of timeless wisdom to prove this belief: Frances Hesselbein and Gandhi. Together, they make a compelling case that “leadership by example” is the answer. Each leader’s story below demonstrates the power of this quality as a tool of influence, while teaching us how we can apply it to our lives and work.

Frances Hesselbein is founding president and CEO of The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation). He is an exemplary “leader by example.” Among Frances’ long and remarkable list of leadership contributions and achievements, she is a Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, the highest civilian honor in the United States of America for her pioneering work on behalf of the Girls Scouts, women, diversity, and volunteerism. Frances has been my mentor, teacher, and friend for many years. She taught me many valuable lessons. Two stand out related to our discussion on leadership by example:

  • Frances never deviates from her core values.
    I was asked to describe her one time: Frances is a beacon of leadership excellence. Watching her is a lesson in how to BE a leader. Meeting her is an experience you never forget. Futurist, Joel Barker, my long-time colleague, illuminated her qualities when he said, “Frances taught me how important influence – not power – is in changing the world for the better.”
  • Frances defines the leader’s role and lives it.
    She writes: “The leader of the future will not be the leader who has learned lessons of how to do it… The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be – how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values, principles, and courage.”

Mohandas Gandhi forever whispers to us across decades, by his example, providing the ultimate self-assessment and call-to-action for our time. For me, it started many years ago when I read a story about Gandhi. He had a practice of not speaking one day a week. On one of these days, he was traveling by train. When the train stopped at a midway station, a journalist came up to the window yelling, what message do you have for me to take back to my people? Gandhi, staying true to his practice, wrote five words on a slip of paper and put it up in the window for the journalist to see. It read, “My life is my message.”  In the years since, it has become a kind of silent, perpetual mantra for me inside – I have multiple places in my office and home where I’ve placed his message in different forms. It is always asking how my behavior and actions serve as an example for others.

A Send-Off Message for You:

This seems most important at this International Leadership Blogathon, yes? This seems especially true when the send-off is defined as a celebratory demonstration of good will and enthusiasm for the beginning of a new venture. Leadership by example is perhaps our most powerful tool in putting what we are learning here from one another into action. Imagine how different the world would be if one-by-one, we would each reflect all that we wish for in how we think, behave, interact, and operate in our lives and work. At the end of my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, I quote another passage from John Homer Miller that sums it up:

 “You want [a better organization,] a better world? What you need to help [make your organization better] or to make the world better is not more education of your intellect. What you need is something spiritual and ethical added to your knowledge. You need educated emotions and a dedicated heart.”

May your life be the reflection of your leadership message.

SHARE YOUR PERSPECTIVE BELOW…
What bit of wisdom has MOST influenced your leadership?
What other thoughts and advice do you have to share with others?

Connect to Debbe Kennedy: Website | Blog | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

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Leadership is About Achieving Results (Which are Beyond the Ordinary!)

March 18, 2012 by

Leadership ResultsA few years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a ‘dialogic’ conference held at a small conference venue in a Château in the south of France, near the beautiful St. Paul de Vence.  This was a select gathering of leaders drawn from business, the arts, religion and academia; fourteen diverse minds drawn from across the world.  Who could possibly turn down such an opportunity, even if it were just for the wine, fabulous surroundings and ‘bonhomie’?

A dialogic conference is, as the name suggests, where people talk, present, ask questions and discuss.  The topic for the conference was the mere small and insignificant question ‘What is Leadership’?  After three days of intense discussion and fascinating rumination the group came to the interesting conclusion that it was impossible to define leadership because the concept meant different things to each individual.

To say the least, this was a little disconcerting, since I had promised to return to my organisation with an inspirational insight into leadership and here was I about to proclaim that some of the finest minds in the field had declared that it was an undefinable concept!  Moreover, the discussions had been brilliant; inspirational, thoughtful and intellectually challenging, so the lack of an outcome seemed wasteful in the extreme.  On the return flight I decided there must be some learning to be taken from the event.  From my folder of extensive notes taken from days in cloistered reflection came the following conclusions:

  1. Leadership is about outcomes not behaviours.  Training leaders cannot be achieved by training behaviours or developing qualities; this has been tried and discredited.
  2. Developing leaders, I believe, is about helping them develop a set of skills (intra-personal skills and inter-personal skills), which:
    – Encourage collaboration
    – Encourage the generation and execution of ideas
    – Maximize the potential of people
    – Maximize their own potential (including an understanding of their own limiting beliefs)
  3.  Leadership is a system that enables an organisation to achieve results beyond the ordinary. The leaders are the catalysts that make this happen.
  4. Good managers are not necessarily going to be leaders. Leadership should not be confused with Headship.
  5. Leaders will have an unequivocal source of inspiration that underpins their actions and can be drawn upon by their people.
  6. Most importantly, Leaders have clarity of purpose that drives them to find ways of achieving results that are out of the ordinary.

Of course, that’s not the end of it; there are always new ideas, concepts and approaches which are added ‘into the pot’. I’m tempted to suggest these points are the basis for a much broader discussion.  Anybody fancy three days in the South of France?

Connect with Dave Bradley: Website | Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Reflection as a Leaders Tool

March 17, 2012 by

Leadership ReflectionWhen I started writing The Leaders Workbook back in 2009, I had discussed leadership and leaders with thousands of people around the world. I came to realize that we often ended up talking about the same topic – how can we become better at what we do? What are the key success factors to grow and develop as leaders? What can we – each one of us – do to develop ourselves?

We often agree that if we only could spend more time thinking about our actions, our plans, the results we create, how we ended up where we happened to be, why we made such and such mistake, how to avoid it in the future…the topic list goes on, while the challenge remains. I found that leaders on all continents, in all sectors, in all industries and on all levels, struggle with the same issue. The challenge of reflecting.

We all accept that we need to stop and rewind from time to time. There are not many I have met that call themselves a leader, who do not agree that we need to focus more on retrospection and reflection. Yet, very few seem to have found the key to reflection in todays busy schedule.

Time

As soon as you agree that reflection is important for you to grow as a leader, to develop yourself and your team, your first quest becomes to find the time for reflection. There are written books on time management, from Steven Covey’s Big Rocks to Getting things Done, from Personal Efficiency Plan (PEP) to Do it Now. There are trainings, theories, and competing theories of course,  and wars fought between some of these groups. None of these tools give you more time – they can only help you structure your time better.

No matter how you use your time, I believe that you are able to find the required time to reflect in your busy schedule. Most leaders I know, travel. Some only between their home and their office, others seems to always be stuck at some airport. And travel time is easy to convert to reflection time. When you sit there, stuck in traffic, you can spend quality time with yourself. And if you, like me, spend much time on airports and planes, you have plenty of time to bring out that notepad and jot down your doodles while thinking about how you are doing.

Even if you are not traveling, there are plenty of other opportunities for reflection – if you are working out, spend that time thinking, reflecting on your goals, and your results. You can make it a routine to take five minutes in the morning (or before going to bed at night) to reflect on a topic. Or you could schedule a meeting with yourself every week – 30 mins a week will take you a long way!

Take a couple of minutes right now, and review your weekly activities. Where can you add reflection to an activity? As soon as you figure out that it is quite easy to re-design your time to accommodate for reflection, the next challenge turns up.

 Topic

After time, figuring out what to reflect about seems to be the biggest hurdle for leaders I speak with. My answer was: Any reflection is good for you., it does not really matter what you reflect upon, as long as you reflect. In my own reflection, in retrospect obviously, I found that my answer wasn’t very helpful. It was too broad, to open to actually provide a solution.

I realized that most of us had unlearned reflection and reflective behavior, even if reflection is one of two key elements in experiential learning (Kolb, 1984). We need to relearn reflection. As leaders, there are some topics that tend to be more important than others, and the challenge for many leaders is to discover these topics, and to use those as a training ground for relearning reflection. As soon as you start searching for these topics, you realize that those tend to evolve around one main area – leadership.

Questions like «How valid is our goal?», «What is different now, compared to when we started? How does this impact our journey towards the goal?», «Where are we going if we continue down this path?», «What alternative paths are there?», «How can I change my behavior (so I am better suitable to reach our goal)?». The questions themselves may be different, and the answers you seek may not always be what you like to find. That is part of the purpose of reflection – you are to look deeply within to see if you are doing the right thing. For you, for your team, and for the organization.

Impact

I took it upon me to relearn reflection, as well as learning leaders how to reflect. All of the trainings I design are designed with reflection in focus. We use reflection actively to both teach the topic of the training itself, and as a way to exemplify how important reflection is in our learning and development. Often in our trainings, you will go through exercises designed for individual reflection, group reflections and plenum reflections, each iteration adding to your learning. And often without you realizing that what you are doing, is in fact, reflection.

The same is true when you start looking into reflection as a leadership tool. The more you reflect, the more you realize that it comes naturally, and that without it, you are not able to do your job. You will discover that we all reflect, most of the time. By relearning how to use your reflecting skills as a tool in your leaders toolbox, you can increase your ability to see possible challenges early, and seek alternative solutions before you are forced into a corner. You become pro-active.

To create that impact, I invite you to take a couple of minutes to identify three possible topics where you would benefit from reflecting more. If you like, you can share those topics below in the comments.

Connect with Kai Roer: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

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Leadership Around the World Using Positive Power and Influence

March 16, 2012 by

Leadership InfluenceMany definitions of leadership involve the word INFLUENCE. “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” (John Maxwell) What does influence have to do with leadership, though?  A leader needs to do two things: build or maintain relationships, and get things done.

What is common to all cultures is the need for a leader whom people trust and admire. But in the global organizations that exist today, what makes someone trustworthy and admirable when you have five different cultures in the room as those attributes are viewed differently across cultures? Also, there are various personality types in addition to cultural differences. Lastly, don’t forget the various levels of dysfunction that exist in most corporate cultures! Therefore building or maintaining relationships can get complicated.

So how do you build relationships and get things done in this kind of environment? INFLUENCE.  There are many different ways to positively influence people. For example, you can use logic, you can be clear about what you need, you can draw out the other person using disclosure to make them comfortable, and you can speak to what you both have in common and paint a picture of where you are headed.  Positive influence is about being genuine and authentic which builds trust, hence relationships. That trust is built when the leader is consistent and therefore reliable.  These attributes come naturally when a leader uses positive influence.

Many top leaders want everything delivered in sound bites of data. The direct reports are instructed to have the problem defined and fixed, with the data to support the solution. If you can’t present it in ten minutes, then don’t bother. What many corporate structures do is isolate people as they get promoted so internal relationships become less and less important. Getting things done becomes critical, as the top layers are beholden, i.e. in a publicly traded company, to the Board and, in the US, to investors and Wall Street.

However, there is a period of time with each ascending role where internal relationships are critical in order to get things done. Understanding that each person is a unique personality requires you to be flexible in your use of appropriate influence styles, which is critical to your success in building solid relationships.

In order to get things done globally generally translates to a lot of conference calls with people that have never been in the same place physically and have cultural differences. There is, however, a similarity between unique personalities and cultural differences.  Leaders have to stop focusing entirely on their own agenda and understand what matters to their direct reports regardless of culture. Knowing about the culture you are interacting with obviously is a great first step. The next step is to create the time to connect. Listen to what the issues are that create barriers to progress. Make it safe for people to give you bad news. Back up your people when things go wrong. Be present.

Whenever I talk to groups about being present, the room becomes very still.  When I am present with another person from any culture, the gift of my attention in this age of a million distractions creates an immediate bond. When I am willing, as a leader, to be present with someone, I am authentic and become more trustworthy. I am then a leader whom people trust, admire, and want to follow. Isn’t that the definition of impactful leadership?  Building my constituency one relationship at a time and exceeding expected results.

Connect with Sherri Malouf: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Leading from the Driver’s Seat

March 15, 2012 by

Leading From The Drivers SeatOne of my favorite quotes about change comes from psychologist R.D. Laing. He said “We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.” I’m not sure when he made this observation, but since he passed in 1989 it was at least 20 years ago. However, his words still ring true, especially today when the pace of change continues to get faster.

Let’s think about what Laing said, especially “we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.” Picture that. It’s like driving your car but instead of looking at the road right in front of you, you only look through the rear view mirror. So you only see things after you have already passed them! Fortunately nobody drives a car this way – but many people do drive organizations this way.

Looking at the past is something business leaders have been trained to do. We look at the previous quarter’s earnings to see how business is doing. We look at annual performance for the previous year to see how well the organization met its goals, and then we plan for the future based on information from the past. Of course, it can be helpful to learn from the past, but this should not be the extent of an organization’s learning and planning efforts.

When you look behind, you can see what has changed. But how much does that really help you plan for the future? When you’re driving, it’s not very helpful to see that the light you just went through is now red, especially if the one in front of you is turning yellow and will be red before you reach it. You might see that a car is following you too closely, but if all your attention is focused on that car you might go through a red light, or miss your turn, or even crash into a car in front of you. When you are driving, it’s important to be aware of all your surroundings, but the most important area for attention is what is in front of you – immediately, as well as down the road. Your destination is also important, unless you like driving around without going anywhere in particular.

The same is true for organizations. You have to have a specific destination, or goal, in mind. You have to drive the organization toward this goal, watching out for obstacles in the road in front of you, and anticipating issues that may come up further down the road. You have to be mindful that conditions might change, and you have to be ready to react quickly to those changes. As the organizational leader, you are in the driver’s seat. You can think of everyone else in the organization as the vehicle that gets you there, but without your direction they won’t know where to go, how fast or when to change course.

I see many organizational leaders that are too focused on the road behind them, or looking out the side window to see whether the competition is passing them. But it is only by looking forward, sometimes far ahead, will they see not only obstacles but also opportunities that can lead to new value creation and innovation. Like a surprise shortcut or a rewarding side trip, these opportunities are only seen by those who are looking for them, and looking forward.

This ability to look forward and see opportunities is the process of “strategic foresight.” Strategic foresight helps you identify the global drivers and industry trends that are driving change, as well as how customer behavior is changing. With this information, you can plan for different scenarios – instead of merely reacting to change – and foresee customer needs before the competition does.  It’s a skill that all organizational leaders must have if they hope to grow their organization organically through innovation.

Connect with Kamal Hassan: Website | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

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International Leadership Blogathon – Day 15 Recap

March 14, 2012 by

Leadership BlogathonSince March 1st, I have had the privilege of having some of the very finest leadership experts from around the world, write guest posts on A Slice of Leadership as part of the International Leadership Blogathon. I been inspired, uplifted, and filled with ideas and thoughts that have opened my eyes to a greater understanding of leadership, additionally I have made some friendships that I expect will last a lifetime.

Here is a recap of the articles. I highly recommend you click through these and read the leadership insight collected here from around the world. Tomorrow we will start fresh again with more experts for the remaining days in March. Please come back each day for more international leadership wisdom.

Day 1 – Andy Phillips from Columbia
Does Your Leadership Style Need To Change When Leading Internationally?

Day 2 – David Lapin from the USA / Canada /South Africa
Leadership Re-Imagined – Why the lessons of the Past Are Not Enough!

Day 3 – Hans Balmaekers from The Netherlands
Leaders in Beta: Testing What Works

Day 4 – Kimunya Mugo from Kenya
Lessons of Leadership & Culture From Kenya

Day 5 – Colleen Jolly from the USA / UK
Belief: The Underpants Gnomes Method of Leadership

Day 6 – Lora Crestan from Canada
Leaders …Let Go!

Day 7 – John Wenger from New Zealand
Leaders Hold The Power to Engage

Day 8 – Kimberly Bordonero from the USA
The Leadership Brand: How to Discover Your Personal Brand Persona

Day 9 -Oscar Capote Agudo from Spain
The People Will All Say, “We did this ourselves!”

Day 10 – Paul S. Allen from New Zealand
Leadership: It is not about you! Get over it.

Day 11 – Janne Othonen from Finland
Achieving Success with Personal Leadership

Day 12 – Amy Beth Miller from the USA
5 Ways Leaders Botch Communication – Without Saying a Word

Day 13 – Sandro Da Silva from Te Netherlands
Leadership: Do You Practice What You Preach?

Day 14 – David Hain from The U.K.
Lessons on Leadership and Life from a Football Match

I know each of these writers would love to hear your comments and connect with you. You can do so on each of the pages above.

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Lessons on Leadership and Life from a Football Match

March 13, 2012 by

Cardiff City Footbal - Leadership“Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy. ” ~ Joe Paterno

——————

I’m a big football fan, season ticket holder at Cardiff City, my local team in the UK.   We’re a good side, among the best in England’s second tier league.  3 weeks ago we played a national cup final, at Wembley Stadium, against Liverpool Football Club, arguably the most famous team in the world.  They’re pretty close to the top of the Premier League, which we’re battling to get into.  Their team on the day cost £450m, the most expensive player £35m.  Our full team, including seven substitutes, was pieced together for £4 million.

You could have made a lot of money with a winning bet on Cardiff. Every pundit agreed – if Liverpool turned up anywhere near their best, we had virtually no chance.  The game was watched live by 90,000 passionate supporters and broadcasted live across the world.  It was set to be a valediction for Liverpool.

They duly won, we lost.  So why did it mean so much to me that I’ve chosen to tell the blogosphere about it?

A result is just a measure – it doesn’t tell you anything about the game.  And in the game, there were many lessons for life and for anyone, like me, who studies and promotes leadership. As I trudged 4 miles back to my car and spent the next 4 hours driving home on the same road as most of the 35,000 defeated fans, I had plenty of time to reflect on the day.  And what started as a journey into depression ended up as a triumph of inspiration that I thought might be worthy of sharing.

Lesson 1 – When you win, do it with class

The match was lost in the most dramatic, heartbreaking way possible.  After full time and extra time finished all square, there was a penalty shoot-out and we lost 3-2. When we missed the critical penalty, in the pandemonium of victory celebrations, 3 of the Liverpool players went straight to our side to commiserate the guy who missed and congratulate the entire Cardiff team on the way they played the game.  Classy winners who stayed humble in the hubris of victory, they recognized how fine the line is between winning and losing

Lesson 2 – You can lose, and still win

Every single Cardiff player gave his last drop for the shirt. In the last 10 minutes of extra time, when many of them were going down with cramps, they somehow found the strength and belief to equalize with two minutes to go.   They must have been completely dispirited to lose having given so much and been so close.  But their manager talked to the world about losing with dignity, giving credit to the winners, and learning lessons to draw from in their next battle.  And with these words he re-framed losing into something much more meaningful which resonated with millions across the world who could reflect on their own battles.

Lesson 3 – The team is the most powerful vehicle that we have as human beings

Last year we had a team with a few stars who were capable of great things, but when the chips were down, they put themselves first.  This year, under a new manager, we have a team with no acknowledged stars, but whose spirit and willingness to fight for their colleagues means that they regularly exceed the sum of their parts.  And very quickly, the fans spotted the difference and became an even more passionate ‘twelfth man’.  The ‘one for all’ attitude they can see on the pitch transmits itself far beyond the white lines to inspire greater support for the cause they can see the players so obviously believing in.

Lesson 4 – We all need role models

Our new manager has quickly, by example, fashioned a group in his image through what he demands of and rewards in others.  When asked about how he would console the poor guy who missed the critical penalty, he replied that the team was more important than individuals and they would all take care of that.  You can see the way he behaves transmitting itself to his players.  And you can see examples of his leadership values all over the pitch.  This year we have leaders throughout the team – people who take responsibility not just for what they do, but for challenging each other to dig deeper.  Resilience is so much easier if you know others will give you all they have, while demanding everything you have got. And a leader has to somehow convey values that are demonstrated especially when he has no immediate control.

Lesson 5 – Moments of small, quiet heroism happen all the time

From the defender who literally put his body on the line in front of a certain goal, to the cramping midfielder who played the last 15 minutes on one leg, there were moments of heroism all over the pitch.  Each one seemed to inspire another – acts of courage were contagious and the more one player gave for the team, the more the team as a whole responded. It struck me that I should register these moments more often in other areas of my life and let people know that I have noticed.

Lesson 6 – It won’t take the recession to end to give people back their pride

Wales had 3 big sporting moments that weekend.  Our rugby team won an acclaimed prize by beating the national nemesis (England) away from home. Our champion boxer and Britain’s only world champion retained his title. And Cardiff City lost – with pride, courage and dignity.  Yet in many ways, theirs was to my mind the most inspirational achievement of all.  People where I live were walking slightly taller that morning after the game – somehow they found a common inspiration, even from those who don’t follow the team every week.  Glorious failure has ignited a common sense of civic pride, and when the hangovers cleared, productivity wilrose again.  How many opportunities do we have to engender that pride (in a smaller and less public way) every day?

Final lesson – Disaster, like triumph, is an opportunity if we chose to see it that way

The regular season has 11 games left, all against teams less endowed than Liverpool.  If Cardiff can harness the spirit generated at Wembley, promotion to the Premier League and untold riches can really be ours.  If the players believe in what they did, recreate the resilience formula and inspire generate even 80% of Wembley’s support from fans, they can truly achieve the ultimate goal.  The manager knows that and has already begun to refocus the team and the Cardiff public on the next game, using glorious failure as inspiration for eventual triumph.  Isn’t that just like life?

A legendary Liverpool manager voiced the quote below.  I realized yesterday that I’ve always undervalued it.  Today, as a leader and being in the business of inspiring leadership in others, it means more than ever.

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” ~ Bill Shankly 

 Connect with David Hain: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Leadership: Do You Practice What You Preach?

March 12, 2012 by

Leadership ValuesBeing a leader is certainly not an easy job. As a leader, you have to deal with high levels of responsibility and pressure. Expectations are very high, no matter where they come from.

Take the expectations of those who you lead, for example: they expect you to motivate, inspire and guide them. They want you to be courageous, wise, fair and credible. They turn to you when no one knows what to do. They look up to you and hope you are the one who does the right thing. It may sound like a lot, but that’s what for them – justifies your high salary.

If you fulfill those expectations, chances are that the influence you exert is big. And influence is crucial in gaining your team’s willingness to coordinate their efforts towards organizational goals. As I write this article, Harvard Business Review coincidentally posts an article written by Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham, which links trust to influence, and reinforces what I have just said. (This synchronicity scares me, by the way)

If you were a leader in the 1990’s, I’d probably present you a list of motivational and inspirational techniques to help you better influence your team. Times have changed, though. These days, your team has read the same books you’ve read (or even more!). Information has become more accessible, and workers more independent and emancipated. They know the “tricks” and don’t fall for them anymore.

Nowadays, your team looks much more at who you are and what you do. They observe how you make your decisions and pay attention to the choices you make. They judge your behavior, evaluate your performance and decide for themselves whether you deserve to be followed or not. And while they may agree with you in public, they might disagree with you once you turn your back and leave the meeting room.

If tricks don’t work in this emancipated and extremely demanding work environment anymore, what is it that makes your team follow you and dedicate their time and effort in helping you achieve your company’s organizational goals? How do you get all the vectors to point to the same direction? How on earth do you win your team’s commitment?

This is when your company’s Core Values play an important role. Core Values are, in our ever changing and demanding times, a constant which you can use to guide you in your behavior, your choices and your decisions. Core Values are the laws that rule every employee in the company, from the receptionist to the C-level executive like you.

But how exactly do Core Values help you? Here’s one example: instead of making decisions based on a pros-cons equation, try letting your options be guided by your company’s Core Values. Ask yourself which course of action complies with those Values. Or try to see which action those Values ask from you in this situation. When you finally see that your choice agrees with those Values and translates them, take it. Otherwise, leave it.

Using your company’s Core Values to guide you makes your job a lot easier. It helps you put an end to your dilemmas, prevents you from making bad choices and from letting your own personal interests play a role in your decisions. Consequently, your team sees you as a trustworthy, fair, reliable, credible and consistent person. They become more open and approachable, and more willing to cooperate.

However simple it may sound, do not be trapped by the illusion that this is easy. It’s not! Just to give you an example, imagine Respect is one of your company’s Core Values. If you choose to act accordingly, you must show Respect in everything you do and say, continuously and repeatedly – every day. Core Values are not something you set and achieve, they are something you practice.

You may even realize that you must reprimand or punish someone’s behavior if it contradicts your company’s Core Values – fire someone who has been disrespectful to his secretary, for example. You must act like a sentinel, who protects and defends your company’s Core Values, and makes sure they are practiced at all levels. So above as below.

Are you ready to be a personalization of your company’s Core Values? Are you ready to practice what you preach?

Connect with Sandro Da Silva: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

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5 Ways Leaders Botch Communication – Without Saying a Word

March 11, 2012 by

Leadership CommunicationLeaders who focus only on what they say to employees—through speeches and written words—overlook one of the most powerful ways they communicate: their actions. Without saying a word they can hinder productivity and kill morale.

Check whether you are guilty of any of these five mistakes:

  1. Failing to communicate. When is the last time you had a conversation with an employee? How often do you talk with employees who are two rungs or more down on the organizational chart? Often leaders talk with everyone except their own team members. They give orders, but they don’t engage in dialogue.
  2. Blindsiding employees with change. Leaders wonder why it is so difficult to convince employees to adopt changes that an executive team has spent months debating and designing. The problem is that they have left out a key part of the plan: the employees who will be responsible for making the change. The frontline workers don’t understand why the change is necessary, and they see obstacles that the executives overlooked.
  3. Sending them on goose chases. Employees drop everything to work on a new, urgent priority, and then their work seems to disappear into a black hole. The leader never explains what happened, whether the idea has been dropped, revamped or rescheduled. The next time one of those assignments comes along, the employees think “No need to put much effort into this. It’s just the ‘Idea of the Day,’ and it will pass.”
  4. Ignoring what employees say. When an employee tells you about a problem, what happens? Many organizations proudly tout their 360-degree evaluation programs and open-door policies, but the employees learn that voicing concerns about a manager or another problem just pegs them as troublemakers. If leaders don’t listen—and act to address problems—employees stop speaking up.
  5. Failing to keep commitments. Do you deliver what you say you will to your team members, on time every time? Do you treat an appointment with an employee the same way you treat an appointment with an important customer, showing up on time and devoting your full attention to that employee? If you keep the employee waiting, reschedule multiple times and multitask while you are talking, those actions send a clear message to employees that they are unimportant.

To be a trusted, respected and effective leader, pay as much attention to what you aren’t saying as you do to your speeches and memos. Ask yourself: What are my actions telling my employees?

Connect with Amy Beth Miller: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

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Achieving Success with Personal Leadership

March 10, 2012 by

Personal LeadershipThe world is full of recipes for success, but many times we forget that success comes from within ourselves with work that we do. I would even claim that success is mainly about attitude. When you have the right attitude, you focus on the right things, obstacles are there to overcome, you feel better and work more efficiently. I am sure you know what happens if you have a bad attitude: nothing seems to work at that time. Here are some questions for you to ask to become more successful through your own attitude towards other people and life. Even though you may not have answers to every one of them, thinking about these matters will already take you towards your personal success.

Am I sure that those I love, feel loved by me? 

Love is the all-healing force of the world. Too many couples go days, weeks or even months without showing each other their love. Everyone wants to be loved, but even more everyone wants to love.  Any bad day will become better when you love someone so that it shows. And do not limit your love just to your spouse; tell your parents, best friends or to any other people that you love them and see the difference in your personal success!

Do I feel grateful every day for having whatever I have or get today?

Every day when I go to bed I thank for at least three things. It really lifts up your spirit to be grateful for what you have or you got that day. And do not limit it only that; thank for what you are going to get also! You can be brave and thank beforehand for what you are going to get. Try it out for one week and see how it changes your thinking. When you face hard times, it is much easier when you are thankful for other things that you already have. And if those hard times will not kill you, they will make you stronger and that is something to be grateful! Thanking beforehand for what you will get will set your mind towards getting that thing.

Have I done my best to avoid unkind acts and words?

Think only positive. There is nothing to gain by revenge, doing bad acts, saying bad things or even thinking bad things about anything. You are what you think, so if you think well, you are good. And people judge you by what you do, so if you do unkind acts, people think you are bad. So, do yourself a favor and avoid all bad acts, words and thoughts. That will promote your personal success by being the person, who everyone wants to hang around with.

What can I do today to make the world better place?

All of us can do something to make this world better place for everyone, every day. What have you done or what are you going to do today? As you well know: what goes around comes around.

Have I helped anyone less fortunate?

You can read this, so for sure you are doing better than many other people in this world (many of them cannot read, do not have Internet, etc.) so what can you do to help less fortunate people? Giving is the start of receiving process…

Have I done and reviewed my personal success plan?

Better tomorrow is earned today. So, have you done and reviewed a good, sound personal success plan for better future? You have very limited time in your life, so you better use it wisely. Have you written personal mission statement? Have you set goals for this and next year? Have you identified your roles in your life? And did you write all that down and review it regularly so that you stay on the track?

What worthwhile I have yet to accomplish?

What is your dream? Are you working towards it? Did you know that only difference between a dream and a goal is that are you working towards it? What is out there something that you really want to accomplish? Have you done a road-map and are you walking along it? Many dreams can come true if you just work persistently towards it.

What wonderful memories do I have?

If you want to dwell in past, you should then dwell only in good memories. Get rid of bad memories by writing them down, learning whatever you can from them and then forgetting them. Enjoy the feeling of good memories and make bad memories tools for learning and getting over them. Only good memories are of value to you (bad memories have value in teachings, not in memories itself).

Does my integrity hold as well in public as in privacy?

Are you living a double life? If yes, then quit it. The reason is that if you live your life by any other rules than by your internal ones, you will have conflicts and loose energy in thinking what should you do in each situation. Establish yourself ground rules that you can live by in every situation. And review those rule, if needed. Deny those activities that do not suit your integrity and go full with the ones that are in inner peace with you.

Each of these questions are big ones and you can easily find many books to help you on your journey. Only thing you need to bear in mind is what you really want to achieve and keep on working towards it and one day you will succeed for sure!

Connect with Janne Ohtonen: Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

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