A key piece to playing at your absolute best as a leader (and as a person) is to ensure that your daily schedule reflects your deepest values. Anything less is a flight from integrity.
One of the exercises I've been taking our clients through at my "Leadership in Turbulent Times" workshop is called "The 5 Main Values." I take participants through a powerful visualization where they visit themselves, not as they now are but as they want to be at the end of their career. Then they record the main 5 values they will have wished they'd worked under.
I wanted to share my own 5 Main Values with you. I hope you'll share yours with me on Twitter so we can continue this conversation. Anyway, here are the top 5 values I want to work by and stay true to:
1. EXCELLENCE. I adore this word. My goal is to work at a level of excellence, constantly refining my craft as an author and speaker - while delivering outrageous values to our clients.
2. PASSION. Without passion, nothing great every gets built. Passion fuels innovation, builds a fantastic team and makes the impossible possible. I want to express my passion in all that I do. Otherwise, what's the point?
3. SELF-MASTERY. You can't be a better leader than you are a person. So every day, I work intensely on developing my inner life. I read. I reflect. I write in a journal. I exercise. And do all those things I need to do to express my best.
4. BEAUTY. I'm an aesthete. I love beauty in all forms. So I make the time to look for beauty, in both expected and unexpected places. Interesting conversations are beautiful to me; brilliantly designed products (think Apple) are beautiful to me. Great food, fresh nature, cool architecture, a strong cup of coffee in the morning and modern art are all some of the things that fill my life with a sense of beauty.
5. CONTRIBUTION. Leadership is about doing deeds that live on long after your death. I want to do things that will help people awaken to the fact that, regardless of what they do and where they are, they have the opportunity (and responsibility) to show leadership in their work and at their life. Few things are important to me than feeling I'm making a difference for people. And doing my part to build a better world.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Chart your leadership career path
As a Leader we are always thinking about how to improve our team, through maintaining the morale, offering challenging work, looking for opportunities to grow your team members. But have you stopped to take a look at your own path. You need to take control and through careful planning achieve your career goals too. As you grow you become more valuable and your career opportunities will blossom.
This may sound a little corny but you need to come up with a plan so you always know what the next step is and what you should be doing to get there. Here's a simple three step plan to get you started.
Step One. What's my current situation? Sometimes this is hard to gauge. Sit down and pretend you met a guy at the bar and you hit it off. At the end of the night he says " Hey I'm really glad we met I'd like you to come and work for my company"! with that he gives you his business card and says send me you CV by the end of the week I'm sure we have an opening for you". Get over the shock and sit down and write you CV. Be sure to be honest and draft away.
Step two. What's the future for me? Again this is tough but lots of people just wander through life and have no real goal they are aspiring towards. Well how do we start this one? This time pretend you're at a different bar and you meet someone who is a prospective partner. Tell me about yourself and where you'll be in five and ten years time? By stepping back from today and focusing on an interim and a long term goal it will help to clarify the "End Point" for our exercise.
Step three. Stand up your CV against your interim and long term goal, take note of the Delta areas. Maybe some of the following questions might fall out at you.
Should I look for work experience in another function, industry to round out my skills?
Should I attend some retraining or upskilling of my professional qualifications?
Should I transfer - even at a lower rate - to get into the area I want to be in?
Should I find a mentor to provide some advice from a different perspective?
There maybe lots of other questions and areas you need to focus on to get onto or turbo charge your path to your goals.
Some tips to help you along the way.
Every job you ever have is an opportunity for you to increase the value of your work for yourself and your boss, as you add more value your worth will skyrocket alongside.
Take calculated risks - this will ensure your you expand your knowledge and skills and demonstrates your ability to move outside your defined role.
Beware of becoming stale, regularly monitor your progress, if you stay too long you risk losing momentum and falling behind.
Take responsibility for your career path - no one cares as much as you so you should be vigilant to ensure you are always moving in the right direction.
While we are always looking to do the best for our team we also have to include time to do the best for ourselves. As the leaders its important that we are moving forward so we can also move our teams along on our journey.
This may sound a little corny but you need to come up with a plan so you always know what the next step is and what you should be doing to get there. Here's a simple three step plan to get you started.
Step One. What's my current situation? Sometimes this is hard to gauge. Sit down and pretend you met a guy at the bar and you hit it off. At the end of the night he says " Hey I'm really glad we met I'd like you to come and work for my company"! with that he gives you his business card and says send me you CV by the end of the week I'm sure we have an opening for you". Get over the shock and sit down and write you CV. Be sure to be honest and draft away.
Step two. What's the future for me? Again this is tough but lots of people just wander through life and have no real goal they are aspiring towards. Well how do we start this one? This time pretend you're at a different bar and you meet someone who is a prospective partner. Tell me about yourself and where you'll be in five and ten years time? By stepping back from today and focusing on an interim and a long term goal it will help to clarify the "End Point" for our exercise.
Step three. Stand up your CV against your interim and long term goal, take note of the Delta areas. Maybe some of the following questions might fall out at you.
Should I look for work experience in another function, industry to round out my skills?
Should I attend some retraining or upskilling of my professional qualifications?
Should I transfer - even at a lower rate - to get into the area I want to be in?
Should I find a mentor to provide some advice from a different perspective?
There maybe lots of other questions and areas you need to focus on to get onto or turbo charge your path to your goals.
Some tips to help you along the way.
Every job you ever have is an opportunity for you to increase the value of your work for yourself and your boss, as you add more value your worth will skyrocket alongside.
Take calculated risks - this will ensure your you expand your knowledge and skills and demonstrates your ability to move outside your defined role.
Beware of becoming stale, regularly monitor your progress, if you stay too long you risk losing momentum and falling behind.
Take responsibility for your career path - no one cares as much as you so you should be vigilant to ensure you are always moving in the right direction.
While we are always looking to do the best for our team we also have to include time to do the best for ourselves. As the leaders its important that we are moving forward so we can also move our teams along on our journey.
6 Action Steps for Performance Oriented Leaders
How do you align yourself as a performance oriented leader? How do you ensure your actions assist your goal of improving the performance of your team? The following six steps are a general blueprint for what you need to do on a consistent basis to move your leadership along.
1. Give your team members regular, specific, observable behaviour feedback.
Feedback is one of the fundamental activities you can do to interact with your team and gently guide them down a development line to gradually improve. Care needs to be taken to ensure you observe the behaviours you wish to reinforce and those that you wish to correct, you cannot use generalisations as then the recipient will not identify with the behaviour. As such it is important to observe and note exactly the behaviours you want to comment about. While this will take a big effort on your behalf because the comments are specific to the recipient they will be able to relate to the action, it then is up to us put together a development action plan to improve the situation.
2. Make Timely decisions.
Leaders need to make decisions to keep the team moving along in the right direction, it's important as a performance oriented leader to continually adjust the plan and the actions to keep the team focused on the big picture - the output of the team. Without timely decisions the team will get stale and loose its edge, as things go up and down it is up to the leader to make the decisions needed at that time, not after a period of procrastination or in the spur of the moment without considering all the factors.
3. Encourage creative ideas.
With the implementation of new and creative ideas, our team's can lift their performance to new levels, Why restrict the teams thinking to just yourself, embrace creative ideas from the team members, you may find some real gems. Setup a process where new and creative ideas can be aired and tested to see what results can be gain by implementing these ideas.
4. Reinforce the lines of command and authority.
Does your workplace have a hierarchy, do you have formal lines of command and authority? Nothing will upset the whole organisation more than people who ignore these established protocols. Take care to demonstrate your fitting and willingness to work in this system and demand your team also work through these established chains.
5. Be accessible to your work circle of acquaintances.
Are you accessible for your team to approach when they need to discuss issues with you. It is often quite intimidating for members to approach their leader/manager/boss, you need to identify this and drop what your doing and make yourself available to handle the issue there and then. If you can do this your team members will respect you as a proactive and caring leader.
6. Provide personal support.
We all have problems from time to time, it's important that you support your team members, a kind ear when things are tough will be remembered by your team members. This is because your team will see this as a personal association, as such you need to keep the tone at an appropriate level. However team members often complain my boss doesn't take the time to help me and understand my problems, by ensuring you provide this personal support to your team they will feel they have a leader who genuinely cares for them. If you can gain this feeling within your team they will be willing to go the extra mile for you when the team needs a special effort.
Take some time to examine your work practices and see how you can include these six steps into your regime and watch the performance of your team improve.
1. Give your team members regular, specific, observable behaviour feedback.
Feedback is one of the fundamental activities you can do to interact with your team and gently guide them down a development line to gradually improve. Care needs to be taken to ensure you observe the behaviours you wish to reinforce and those that you wish to correct, you cannot use generalisations as then the recipient will not identify with the behaviour. As such it is important to observe and note exactly the behaviours you want to comment about. While this will take a big effort on your behalf because the comments are specific to the recipient they will be able to relate to the action, it then is up to us put together a development action plan to improve the situation.
2. Make Timely decisions.
Leaders need to make decisions to keep the team moving along in the right direction, it's important as a performance oriented leader to continually adjust the plan and the actions to keep the team focused on the big picture - the output of the team. Without timely decisions the team will get stale and loose its edge, as things go up and down it is up to the leader to make the decisions needed at that time, not after a period of procrastination or in the spur of the moment without considering all the factors.
3. Encourage creative ideas.
With the implementation of new and creative ideas, our team's can lift their performance to new levels, Why restrict the teams thinking to just yourself, embrace creative ideas from the team members, you may find some real gems. Setup a process where new and creative ideas can be aired and tested to see what results can be gain by implementing these ideas.
4. Reinforce the lines of command and authority.
Does your workplace have a hierarchy, do you have formal lines of command and authority? Nothing will upset the whole organisation more than people who ignore these established protocols. Take care to demonstrate your fitting and willingness to work in this system and demand your team also work through these established chains.
5. Be accessible to your work circle of acquaintances.
Are you accessible for your team to approach when they need to discuss issues with you. It is often quite intimidating for members to approach their leader/manager/boss, you need to identify this and drop what your doing and make yourself available to handle the issue there and then. If you can do this your team members will respect you as a proactive and caring leader.
6. Provide personal support.
We all have problems from time to time, it's important that you support your team members, a kind ear when things are tough will be remembered by your team members. This is because your team will see this as a personal association, as such you need to keep the tone at an appropriate level. However team members often complain my boss doesn't take the time to help me and understand my problems, by ensuring you provide this personal support to your team they will feel they have a leader who genuinely cares for them. If you can gain this feeling within your team they will be willing to go the extra mile for you when the team needs a special effort.
Take some time to examine your work practices and see how you can include these six steps into your regime and watch the performance of your team improve.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
LEADERS ARE TRUE
Shakespeare, the genius English playwright, once noted: "To Thine own self be true." Such powerful words. To lead remarkably. And to live richly.
More than ever before, the clients we do leadership development work with are embracing the imperative of authenticity as a means to build fast teams and grow real results. "Authentic" simply means to "self-author". To show authenticity at work is simply to be yourself. To stand comfortably in your own skin. To be real versus plastic. And to express your absolute best. In so doing, you will become the passionate author of an excellent career. And the wise scriptwriter of a life well lived.
More than ever before, the clients we do leadership development work with are embracing the imperative of authenticity as a means to build fast teams and grow real results. "Authentic" simply means to "self-author". To show authenticity at work is simply to be yourself. To stand comfortably in your own skin. To be real versus plastic. And to express your absolute best. In so doing, you will become the passionate author of an excellent career. And the wise scriptwriter of a life well lived.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Grow Leaders Fast
Big Idea: The competitive advantage of your organization comes down to a simple imperative – your ability to grow and develop leaders faster than your competition. You need to develop a leadership culture if you want to win in your marketspace. And it needs to be done quickly.
A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, like a CEO or Managing Director. This means they focus on getting to solutions rather than on the problems. This means they take personal responsibility for achieving results that move the business forward (whether they run the mailroom or sit in a boardroom). This means they shape culture, stay positive and lead by example.
Please hear me on this: I'm not saying everyone needs to do the job of a CEO or Managing Director. Showing leadership doesn't mean every employee will run the organization. That would lead to chaos. All I'm suggesting to you is that everyone needs to know their role (and then show up fully in that role – like a leader would). And when they do – when they think, behave and feel like leaders – good things will happen. And soon, your organization will get to great.
A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, like a CEO or Managing Director. This means they focus on getting to solutions rather than on the problems. This means they take personal responsibility for achieving results that move the business forward (whether they run the mailroom or sit in a boardroom). This means they shape culture, stay positive and lead by example.
Please hear me on this: I'm not saying everyone needs to do the job of a CEO or Managing Director. Showing leadership doesn't mean every employee will run the organization. That would lead to chaos. All I'm suggesting to you is that everyone needs to know their role (and then show up fully in that role – like a leader would). And when they do – when they think, behave and feel like leaders – good things will happen. And soon, your organization will get to great.
World Class Language
Language offers a framework for meaning. Please think about that powerful idea. We understand the world through words. The words you use determine the way you perceive reality. If you call a stumbling block a “problem” or “a big mess” you will create a different emotional state within you than if you call the issue “an opportunity” or “a challenge that will only make me better.” I have the privilege, as a success coach, to work with many extraordinarily successful people from around the world. One of their core traits of greatness is that the vast majority of them understand the power of the word. They use world-class language. Not only do they refrain from using profanities, but they use the language of passion. They use the language of leadership. They use the language of possibility. They use the language of love.
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