leadership

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Small things matter

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You don't have to be in a position of authority to be a good leader and we can show that through our communication. To paraphrase Simon Sinek, “Leadership is irrespective of what level we are at.“ When you start a business there is a method and there are things you need to do in order to build it up. In business you have to set certain goals that you want to achieve and then act towards achieving those goals. Once you have defined your goals and begin to pursue them with your team you will find that obstacles continuously arise as you go towards it. 

 

Whenever you create something new, it’s rarely a smooth progression, you will have to overcome obstacles along the way in the form of people or situations that go wrong. I think that when an obstacle arises, immediately face the obstacle which can come in the form of a situation, for example, something is not working or something is going wrong or perhaps somebody is trying to sabotage you. What is your relationship to difficulties and obstacles that arise as you travel towards your goal?
 Contact me via e-mail as it's very helpful to share our stories with others as doing so will help you process your emotions.

Movers and shakers

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If you don’t know where you are going then any road will take you there! Human beings are goal seeking organisms and we only function at our very best when we are working towards accomplishing something that is important to us. Clarity is the starting point of all success, and this means clarity in thinking. Clarity means the ability to determine exactly what it is that you want to be, have, or do in life. The more I study successful men and women, the more I find that every single one of them are very clear about where they are going and what it is they want to accomplish. 

 

All the great movers and shakers throughout history have been dreamers. If you’re leading the ship and don’t know how to operate a compass, the journey will not be a fun one - for you or your shipmates. It’s vital to have a clear sense of where you are going. Clarity is especially important when you’re introducing change or working towards new goals with your team. The common mix of excitement and anticipation alongside anxiety and fear can be challenging and even unsettling. The differences between successes and failures are not that successful people make right decisions, it’s that successful people make their decisions right.

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Confidence is a key leadership quality

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c/o Getty Images

c/o Getty Images

Regulating and balancing feelings of confidence requires considerable self-awareness and knowledge. I have seen really good salespeople lose confidence in their ability to sell simply because of a bad relationship with their boss. It’s normal to feel quite confident in some circumstances and less confident in others, this is influenced by past events and how we remember them. Over-confidence can make you take on projects that are beyond your capability, and you might not be able to complete them, so in the same way that you don’t want to lack confidence, you also don’t want to be over-confident. 

 

Self-confidence is an attitude about your skills and abilities. Self-confidence comes from really feeling good about yourself, and one of the best ways to feel good about yourself is knowing that you did your best in every situation. This state is changeable according to the situation we are currently in and our responses to events going on around us. This knowledge will allow you to accept and trust yourself as you are and generate a sense of control in your life. On the other hand, low self-confidence might make you feel full of self-doubt, be passive or submissive, or have difficulty trusting others. 

 

Are you familiar with the “ACT” acronym?
A = Action, C = Changes and T = Things.
Individual mentoring can also help increase your self-confidence if you need more help contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.

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The currency of trust

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I think the currency of trust is when you sense the other person cares as much about you as they do about themselves. Here are some simple generic questions to evaluate where you stand:

  • How's it going?

  • How is what I am doing for you helping or not helping you?

  • What could I do better?

  • Where else do you need help?

  • Did what I do provide value for yourselves and if so, how?

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
— Simon Sinek

The language of successful managers

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When I look back at the number or courses I have attended where there has been a lot of smiling and nodding. I often wonder about how many people then go back to their organisations and continue doing what they think works. Managerment who continue to only look at the numbers, seeing the agents/distributors as tools rather than members of the team.


The language that successful managers use:

  1. How can I help?

  2. What do you think?

  3. Your work matters

  4. I trust you and our team

  5. I appreciate your commitment

  6. Thank you for working hard

  7. I was wrong, I am sorry

  8. Your career path is my priority

  9. Do you have the tools to succeed?

It's lonely at the top

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The journey towards better leadership requires change and change is extremely challenging. It demands that you get out of your comfort zones and experiment, to do things that people around you may think are strange. Here are some leadership questions you can use for benchmarking your current performance:

1. What do I do that enables positive performance in the team?

2. What do I do that impairs or reduces performance in the company?

3. What should get more of my time and attention?

4. What 3 things will substantially improve the company’s performance?

5. How can I serve the company better in the next 6 months?

You cannot do this alone and you may need some support, contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.

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In my experience

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Successful people have a purpose and as a result they are excited, dedicated, passionate, and fearless. And they share their passions with others and lead from the seat within as they usually don’t have the luxury of maintaining a wait-and-see attitude. I think that If you are doing things the way you have always done them, then try something new and invite disruption into the picture. Why? This is because if you continue with those slow-moving strategies, you will be leading your organisation down the road to becoming obsolete. #justsaying

“You can’t climb the mountain of excellence if you’ve made camp on the hill of mediocrity!”
— Burrellism

Follow the leader

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I think leadership is the mixture of presence and stature that can inspire energy, dedication and purpose in others. Leadership can be learned! Especially if you treat people with respect and learn how you can make certain that people are achieving the right goals, doing it the right way and getting the assistance that they need.


When was the last time your leader asked you:
a) What can I do better?
b) What can I do better to help you?
c) What can I do better to help the organisation?

Passion vs. purpose

Morten Hansen’s book, “Great at Work”, talks about the ways you can be more productive at work. It brings data from a 5 year research project that reveals why some people in a variety of industries are more productive. I think when you have a strong sense of purpose and a passion about the contributions you make to the world is when you are most dedicated. You will work better, you will pay more attention to what you are doing and everything you do is just better, and this will subsequently lead to great performances.

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“Purpose and passion are not the same. Passion is “do what you love,” while purpose is “do what contributes. Purpose asks, “What can I give the world?” Passion asks, “What can the world give me?””
— Morten Hansen
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Self reflection

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As transparency rises in society, particularly in the business world, there will be more and more open feedback demanded about leadership performance. Knowing how to lead yourself means knowing the answers to the following questions:

  • What is my purpose in this work?

  • What motivates and demotivates me?

  • What are my values and how am I honouring them in my work?

  • What are my strengths and weaknesses, and how am I working on them?

  • How do I overcome challenges and re-energise?

  • What do I tend to resist or ignore?

Your answers may change over time, but they are worth reflecting on if you are serious about remaining a leader. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.

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Mind the gap

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One of the big lessons I learned from the pandemic has been patience - “Make do now and then make better later”. We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people and now I realise that everything I learned about parenting was about leadership. Both parenting and leadership have the following attributes in common:
- Caring
- Listening
- Trusting
- Empowering
- Teaching
- Mentoring
- Leading

There is always going to be a gap between your ambition and your ability. The big question is are you willing to trust progress and not seek perfection? Contact me via e-mail to arrange a confidential meeting if you are questioning yourself about: Who you are, what you stand for and what you do for others?

Old dog...new tricks!

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In my early days of leadership, people centric thinking was not part of my business plan. I was a nice guy, I had a positive attitude but I wouldn’t say to you that I was sensitive to the impact of my initiatives on people. It was all about numbers and building shareholder value, not human value. My early days were very traditional, if I had to fire people - I just did it. I mean, that’s what you do in business! Unfortunately, that conventional thought still exists today, it’s not human, it’s just all about numbers.

I think the major problem with business leadership today is that there is no leadership; there’s a lot of management. It’s a very short-term attitude to just think about people as a resource that you pay and expect them to do their work. What will you lose if you take it from a human perspective? In reality we are responsible for the lives of human beings. And if you want to be cold-hearted about it, people who like coming to work are even more productive. People who feel safe and can trust the people they work with are more likely to offer bigger ideas, take better risks, be more innovative and more productive. That’s a whole host of good business reasons. When you are ready to look at your employees from a human perspective, just contact me via e-mail to arrange a confidential meeting.

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Bad news doesn't get better with age

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Whenever any comes to me with a problem I always have an answer for them, I always look for solutions and if I don’t have them personally, then I will leverage my network. Personal ownership is part of my leadership style as I think that it’s all about the team. Nowadays, I have to constantly remind people that you cannot get all the answers from YouTube.


The subjective side is where you involve individual motivation and culture is just as important as having great systems. You can have the greatest systems in the world but if your culture stinks then you won’t have alignment within your organisation. If the culture of helping and supporting each other is not present within your organisation, then there will not be a level of teamwork required to take on the external challenges. Some level of teamwork and personal responsibility is always required when setting the direction of where of you want your organisations to head. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting to discuss an introspection into your “true worth” principles.

Looking back to the past

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The late, great Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”


I think in the future when we look back at our careers the leaders that we remember will be the ones who:

1. Provided us a safe space to grow

2. Opened career doors

3. Defended us when we needed it

4. Recognised and rewarded us

5. Developed us as leaders

6. Inspired us to stretch higher

7. Led by example

8. Told us our work mattered

9. Forgave us when we made mistakes

10. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.

Follow my leader

© Rawpixel Ltd

© Rawpixel Ltd

““A person who wants to lead an orchestra must turn their back to the crowd.” - James Crook”

This quote offers a humble perspective of leadership. Leadership is not a popularity contest, I think a a good leader doesn’t do his (or her) job for praise or recognition. The best leaders are the ones who do their job silently and enable their employees. The leaders whom I most respect are humble, honest and dependable. They listen and learn and take in new information, because they care enough to understand the perspectives of others and strong enough to stand alone when the crowd is not with them. What values are looking for in your leader? Contact me via e-mail for a meeting (in confidence).

How to inspire your team

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““To inform is for free, ‘the how to’ is for a fee.” ”
— Stephen Burrell

This is my go to mantra whenever the smart people asked if I could help them with this or that. Today I have made an exception, as I feel that many managers and leaders need a little spark in these difficult times. How to inspire your team:

  • Show that you care

  • Build people up

  • Listen with empathy

  • Treat people with respect

  • Showcase their strengths 

No one needs what you are selling

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No one needs what you are selling, they may want it but they definitely don’t need it! Sometimes it’s OK that the goal is to understand for the sake of understanding. I think the hallmark of curiosity is a thirst for knowledge that has no obvious utility. As I am a lifelong learner, I enjoy exploration regardless of whether the discovery has any immediate relevance. I have never been in the position of selling water to thirsty people! I have always had to use my skills to formulate the brand promise - explaining who’s it for, what’s it for and why you should buy it…


Nowadays, the majority of people are working at home and those of you with young children have the opportunity teach them two of life’s most valuable lessons:

  1. To solve interesting problems
    To look at something that no one has ever looked at before and come up with an interesting way to solve the problem.

  2. To connect, to lead and use emotional labour

    Using emotional labour by looking someone in the eye and telling them the truth. Emotional labour means doing things that you don’t feel like doing.