leader

December 20, 2018

What Is Your ‘Why’?

Habits, Leadership Different, direction, growth, inspiration, leader, leaders, leadership, lifestyle, personal growth 0

“See how the mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.” – Emerson

It is so easy to get caught up in the thick of thin things, to spend a career or a life just reacting to the trivialities of your daily hours rather than using your days to advance the creation of something great.

But leadership is about making things better. It’s about transcending the petty cravings of our egos and donating our lives to build something that will outlast us, a legacy of service. And when we really get this idea, we begin to experience true happiness, perhaps for the first time.
Your life is no accident. You are here for a purpose, some central mission that has the potential to make you extraordinary. Some main aim that – once focused on – breaks all chains that might have previously bound you. Your challenge is to discover your WHY.

Listen, there are no extra people on the planet. Each one of us has our own unique form of genius and authenticity within us that is aching to be accessed. The sad fact is that too many amongst us let the busyness of our lives suffocate the deeper purpose of our hearts. Rather than leading and being our best today, we lie to ourselves and say we’ll make the changes we need to make when the conditions are better. And that day never comes.

So we slowly shut down, the why becomes vague. Discouragement sets in. We start to medicate ourselves with too many petty things such as TV or technology. We smile the fake smile and coast out a life telling people that being brilliant is a fate selected for the chosen few. Rather than realising the truth: we wasted our lives.

I was in the company of a certain gentleman who at just over 60, will be graduating with a law degree in 2019. Now, like me, you are probably thinking to yourself why would he do that, he probably doesn’t have time to establish himself as a lawyer. And you are probably right, but I will tell you that his WHY gives him greater reason not to look at his age but at what needs to be achieved.

I will give you a brief insight into his story, a few years ago he and his wife got divorced and because of a legal error by his lawyer, his wife ended up with all his wealth. So he said to me ” it would take me more time to try and build my wealth all over again than it would take me to study law and represent myself in court and get what is mine.” I will let that sink in a bit.

The moment your ‘why’ is greater than your excuses, the ‘how’ becomes easier. There is no kind of distraction that will move you away from your purpose if you clearly know why you need to do what you need to do.
The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote this in his book Meditations (1 of my favourite books, highly recommend): “Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. But make sure you guard against the other kind of confusion. People who labour all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time—even when hard at work.”

I want you to understand that it is important to live in your purpose not just because every day more of our life is used up and less and less of it is left, but this too: if we live longer, can we be sure our mind will still be up to understanding the world and why we are a part of it?
Without purpose, we’ll still go on breathing, go on eating, imagining things, feeling urges and so on but not getting the most out of ourselves, calculating where our duty lies, analysing what we hear and see, deciding whether it is taking us a step closer to who we are born to be.

So we need to hurry. Not just because we move daily closer to death but also because our understanding, our grasp of the world, may be gone before we get there.
There is only a few days left in 2018, define your why now and begin to move toward it.
Share with us your thoughts in the comments section.

November 15, 2018

The Next Step

Habits, Leadership, self growth journey, leader, next steps, not to do list, priorities, productive, programs, to do list 0

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Chinese Proverb

Andy Stanley said, “Think steps, not programs.” and this has stuck true with me. A step is what each and every one of us takes to make progress. A program can be the environment it occurs in. A step is that actual change that takes place; a program is that resource that you leverage off to make it. A step is that true personal and relational growth; a program is a framework that lets that happen.

Steps are the building blocks of movement. The last critical success factor in making the most of a year. Movement is the key to learning, internalising and growing into your best year ever. Making the decision to do the next most important thing serves the movement, and movement serves momentum. Keep making deliberate, purposeful progress towards your clear destination.

How do you make sure movement happens consistently, progressively and intentionally? Here are five ways I have learned:

ONE

Think Steps. As I noted in the introduction, thinking steps allows you to evaluate and decide what to do next. Being clear on your next best step allows you to take it, then the next one, the next one, and the one after that. The journey of a thousand steps truly does begin with the first one. Get clear on that single and specific step and take it. Develop the discipline to stay on course and accept the humility of taking a few steps at a time. The tortoise beats the hare remember!

The beauty of this discipline is that the more you choose to take just one step the clearer the next one becomes and the confidence to take it grows. You build a bank of evidence that you are on track and the next best next step IS to take the next best step.

TWO

Resource Up. Jim Rohn is quoted as saying, “You will be the sum total of your books, tapes and associations five years from now.” Bearing in mind, the technological changes since that thought, the idea remains strong. What I put IN is ultimately what will come out. What I feed my heart and soul will influence my thoughts and words. To resource up means to ruthlessly select ‘books, tapes and associations’ that will serve and leverage your next year. Leave out anything that doesn’t serve your overall objective. Stop any downloads, programs, emails, updates or alerts that won’t move you closer to your preferred destination. Add in only those resources that will serve your life themes and your overall picture of the future.

Find your preferred learning style, reading, listening, designing, drawing, walking, running and leverage that. Invest in the right number of experiences and opportunities for you to get to where you say you want to be.

THREE

Tension Your Priorities (Don’t order them). Zig Ziglar says, “The most productive day of your life is the day before annual leave.” Zig is right. Have you noticed how efficiently you can get through the in-tray, delete the emails and respond to phone messages just before you are off for a holiday? Amazing that we can’t be that productive all the time. Imagine when you are! Imagine having the habit of focus and disciplined execution to be present to the things that require your attention at that time.

I don’t list my priorities. I keep them in a circle, tensioned against each other. When I am at work, I’m not being a great Dad. When I’m camping with my son, I’m not tending to the professional responsibilities I have. Nor should I. At work, be at work. At home, be at home. I realise we are wired and on much more than ever before, I am too. What I’m suggesting is that we need to be fully present to the responsibility in our hand at that time. Even the people I work with benefit from this. Sometimes we work together and sometimes we play. Be clear on which is which and do it with passionate abandonment. Be present where your feet are.
I serve my workplace, but it’s not my master. That role is filled. By keeping my priorities in tension, I can be clear about which one gets the best of me at that time. Helping me to stay focused and present.

FOUR

Create A Not To DO list. Made famous by Jim Collins in Good To Great. Popularised by Tim Ferris and leveraged by one and all wanting to be as effective as possible. The not to do list serves your focus. It also empowers you to decide what is REALLY important. A not to do list helps me work out the difference between what I want to do, what I can do and what I will get done. A not to do list consistently serves to focus you by asking what is ON TOP of my list.

Sean Kim’s article on Not to Do Lists argues that it serves innovation and it helps you ‘avoid distractions in order to focus on accomplishing the things that matter.’ Choosing the things that you DO and choosing the things that you DON’T DO matter equally to Sean Kim. Both are designed to serve your effectiveness and productivity. Sean rightly concludes, “You can’t be a superstar if you try to do everything.” Sean is right.

FIVE

Overcome the Three Setbacks. Generally but not exhaustively three things that will get in your way when it comes to effectiveness over the next year can be traced back to these three areas, distraction, disappointment and discouragement. When you have strategies to recognise and address these obstacles, you can be more assured of your continued effectiveness. Don’t be surprised when the obstacles occur, be diligent; create a game plan that will address the issues as quickly and effectively as possible.

Distraction. This happens when you hear yourself or someone else says “I’m off track.” It’s when other things have become more important than the most important things. It’s when you have a number of competing priorities and deadlines and can’t seem to get things done as effectively as you previously could.

The antidote to distraction is not focussing. The antidote to distraction is stillness. Take some time to stop, sit and reflect on what’s happening around you and mentally form a plan to move forward. Think, plan, execute. Stillness allows you to regain focus, composure and confidence.

Disappointment. This is when you believe you have been let down, usually by people, and often by people closest to you. This is a fact of life and a fine line exists between leading yourself through the ups and downs of relationships, guarding yourself against the ups and downs of relationships and expecting things to let you down. This is the ‘inside job’ of personal development right here. Not everything will go to plan, so have a plan for when things don’t go to plan.

The antidote to disappointment is forgiveness. It frees you from the need to be bound to the unhelpful behaviour of another. It also guards your heart against being hard for any subsequent setbacks. It gives you the pleasure of a light soul and a clean slate to move forward. Nothing is more tragic than a heart hardened by issues that can be resolved by forgiveness.

Discouragement. This is when what you set out to do, looks harder to accomplish and further away than you thought it would be. It’s when your reality seems disconnected from your dream. The further away it looks, the harder it can be to pick yourself up and take the next best step. It’s that point when making it, looks further away than it ever has. Discouragement is what happens when what you were sure would happen hasn’t happened. It’s a critical leadership moment to make wise, considered and courageous choices to make positive progress.

The antidote to discouragement is not courage; it’s perspective. When you take the time to reflect on what the big picture is and how you can navigate your way through your current reality, there seems to be a strangely intuitive way of clarifying what is really going on. And what the realistic options are moving forward. When you have a helicopter view, you have options, that’s the gift of perspective.

Hoping to avoid these setbacks is fanciful at best. Having strategies to overcome them is both wise and empowering. Avoiding setbacks is unavoidable. Doing something about them is critical. The more you take your next best step, the closer you’ll be to your preferred future. That sounds worth doing, wouldn’t you agree?

QUESTION: What have you learned that helps you take your next best step? I’d love you to share your thoughts.

October 4, 2018

Why You Should Be An Agile Leader

Buisness, Leadership agility, leader, leader next 0

‘Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.’ Laozi

Did you know that studies show that only fifteen percent of the workforce globally make it to be experts in their fields? If only Fifteen Percent of the workforce rises above the level of being an expert and achiever in their field we choose to ask two key questions.

What place and skill level are you in right now?
What development experience do you need to step to the next level?

The Fifteen Percent Leader is the one who is able to identify specifically where they are at in their development stage AND engage in skill and personal development experiences that help them move towards increasing levels of competence and influence. It’s like they have a real-time radar in front of them and in response to the markers on the screen they respond with deep, intentional, internal development.

The world of an Agile leader looks like this:

Leaders hold five main roles as they develop into an increasingly agile player in their space and place. The critical piece is knowing your starting point and being intentional about your next steps (see above two questions)

Agile leaders know what they need to do to navigate towards increasing levels of skill and influence as they move up the role levels. These roles are:

LEVEL ONE
Role Expertise (Lead Yourself)

Most environments are dominated by people that are outstanding at their roles and get things done. Both of these are an essential foundation for the Fifteen Percent Leader. In all the environments I am part of I don’t know anyone who wants to be ‘just average’ – People have a drive, good ambition, energy and some smarts about how they can continue to do even better at the roles they have. These people lead themselves with responsibility, discipline, action and margin. These people know that their ability to contribute and add value comes from a place of self-leadership.

And, for the Fifteen Percent leader expertise is a beginning, not an end. They have an instinctive desire to move towards great levels of competence and as such greater levels of influence.

LEVEL TWO
Strategic Expertise (Manage A Team)

When you’re an expert YOU get things done. When you’re a strategic expert you help OTHERS get things done in the context of your mission and vision. It remains technical in flavour but more complex in experience. As a leader, your contribution becomes not just what you do but who you connect to the wider game plan.

This role is a multiplier role. It’s the beginning point for working through people and not just for an outcome, a number or a target. This is the environment where the ability to handle complexity, paradox and competing priorities. It is a role that serves the bigger picture of the mission not just the specific responsibility of the department. The Agile Leader develops the skills to navigate the day in and day out in the context of the week, month, quarter and yearly objectives. They can move easily between detail and the big picture and assign resources to ensure the best possible result for the organisation.

LEVEL THREE
People Expertise (Lead Teams)

People expertise is the price of entry for The Fifteen Percent Leader. You are an expert at what you do. You get things done effectively and efficiently and you help the overall strategy of the organisation move ahead – and all that comes crashing down unless the Agile Leader develops advanced and nuanced people skills. Packards Law is all about the priority of developing people who can carry the mission forward. You can’t grow bigger until you grow broader.

The Agile Leader makes what appears to be a sublet shift at this point. It isn’t but it appears so. They shift from technical expertise to people expertise. They shift from resource deployment to people development. They shift from being an expert in their role to become an expert at getting people to do their roles.

The Fifteen Percent Leader make this area of development a priority at all times. Deeply internalising the skills, sensitivity and execution of influential, subtle yet powerful people skills. This changes the leadership world as we know it!

LEVEL FOUR
Organisational Expertise (Lead Leaders)

At this stage, the Agile Leader begins to experience convergence. As the developmental pathway unfolds and you leverage the learnings around expertise, strategy and people you naturally navigate towards greater levels of scope, complexity and payoff. The Fifteen Percent Leader understands how to integrate a variety of skills, often competing and navigate teams of people to a place of energetic and aligned commitment to the future.

The Fifteen Percent Leader is able to hold the space of focus monad drive towards mission achievement as well as flexibility and agility as to how that is accomplished. It’s allowing the movable parts to move and holding fast on the critical and essential parts of the playbook. There is less certainty at this point yet a greater need for clarity and confidence that the overall next steps are the right ones to make together.

LEVEL FIVE
Disrupter (Shape Future)

The level of leadership we all dream about, this is the level of the Elon Musks, the Bill Gates and the Steve Jobs. To offer such game-changing value to the world that there is a fundamental shift in the playing field because we were there. Wow!

In his short post-Dr Scott Yorkovich list five principles that define the disruptive leader. These resonate the Fifteen Percent Leader Journey. They are:

Look at your problems in new ways.
Look for the problems others have labelled unsolvable.
Focus on direct and simple solutions.
Accept failure in the beginning.
Be patient for long-term change and impatient for meaningful impact.

The disrupter looks at the circumstances with a reality distortion tool and possesses the ability to assemble a team of misfits committed to doing what has never been done. The Fifteen Percent Leader has the ability to respond to the wind, manage the tide and consider the unchartered ocean ahead. And more often than not, disruptive and positive innovation results.

The Agile Leader knows their current role. Is aware of their next developmental step and has the drive and focus to get there. That’s what makes The Fifteen Percent Leader different from the 85% that share the same levels of capability but are missing that special and significant something that is THE difference that makes the difference. Be the difference.

September 13, 2018

The Sum Of All Teams

Leadership, self growth, Success, Uncategorized leader, team, teambuilding, winners, winning 0

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan

“Seventeen of France’s 23 World Cup players are children of first-generation migrants,” Ishann Tharoor wrote in the piece reflecting on both the multicultural nature of the World Cup and the gap between perception and reality when it comes to how ‘European’ the final stages of the tournament actually is.

73% of the team is made up of players from backgrounds different to that of strictly French geography. And on July 15th 2018 they prevailed as one team, representing not just one, but many countries. Celebrating diversity, perseverance, grit and a bit of luck. The power of belonging has a beauty about it. It has the ability to strengthen where we have come from and at the same time transcend it. To remind ourselves that our heritage is African and we play in French colours has both a paradox and a unifying contextual narrative to it. Patrick Lencioni said ‘Not finance, not strategy, not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage. Both because it’s so powerful and so rare.”

When a leadership team has a deep and unifying identity the ability to run the game plan, remain agile, seek the greater good, strive for the best result, deal with obstacles, expect the best from yourself, and others. It’s like the moment you see a team member owning their position, for better or for worse. It’s humble eye contact, the nod seeking forgiveness, or saying thanks. It’s this leadership identity that binds us through and through and makes victory sweeter, and losses more digestible.

The power in leadership identity for teams has three connected principles.

Where dignity is practised. People are treated as equal and valuable.

Where ownership is expected. Where the mission of everyone is bigger than the mission of just one.

Where consistency is critical. We have clear behavioural expectations of one another.

Holding this together are two seemingly paradoxical pillars that leaders have to hold in tension. They are the willingness to submit and having permission to shine. World class teams have and hold both these commitments moving between them as required. At some point the team we’re IN becomes the defining boundary for my actions, then as if some membrane has been crossed there is equal time for each person to shine in their superpower, and shine they must. The art is knowing which to do and when. To truly know when it’s time to put your own agenda aside or when to step up and shine.

That is a true team sport. What does this sum add up to? It adds up to this; Identity creates intensity. When we share a common what, we can serve a common way. The alignment this develops becomes almost intuitive and hidden at times, particularly at elite levels.

In practical terms it works like this:

Dignity + Ownership = Respect

Ownership + Consistency = Engagement

Dignity + Ownership = Trust

Leading teams that win is about leading teams that respect one another and respect the privilege of the work they do. They engage with each other in the mission. They operate in trust. Best understood as the ‘belief that each others intentions are good’ (Attribution: Patrick Lencioni for the best definition of trust in the world) Leadership Identity creates team intensity. That’s the sum of the parts.

Are you a team player? Share with us your views and experiences in the comments section.

be-prepared-preparation-key-plan-prepare-perform-businessman-working-office-desk-using-computer-objects-gamification-79896619

August 2, 2018

Are You Prepared Or Are You Ready

Leadership, Productivity, self growth discipline, key, leader, prepare, prepared, readiness, ready 0

“I will study. I will prepare, my opportunity will come.” – Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying the above quote and i am sure you agree with me that Abe is right. If you have been a girl guide, a brownie, a cub or a scout you know the motto is “be prepared”. The Scouts are right. Consistently in leadership, I hear people saying, “I’m not ready to lead” or “I couldn’t do that” or “I’m not a leader” or “What if I get asked a question I don’t know?” This is all true for all of us. Hear me right, I understand you asking those questions, I ask them too. It’s not the questions that we shouldn’t ask; it’s the pathway we use to answer them or the belief behind the statement.

When I think about life and leadership, I can’t remember a time that I REALLY was ready before I began. Talk about marriage, parenting, business, positions of influence, even job interviews. This is what I know about life and leadership. YOU’RE NEVER READY. One of the places that form my worldview on leadership is the bible. Apart from one leader of the more than four hundred leaders in there, not one was ready before they were called to lead. Not a single one.

It wasn’t their readiness that was important. Readiness isn’t the point, preparation is. Study, prepare and be alert for the opportunity that will inevitably intersect with your relationships and skills. Remember also, that your preparation serves your readiness. Here are three ways how:

1. Preparation is private, readiness is public.

Like LeBron James, preparation means spending $1.5 million a year on getting his body and mind in shape to play at the highest level. For the Olympic swimmer, preparation is being in the pool 6 days a week at 4.30am. It’s the thousands of kilometres travelled by the triathlete months before the competition. It’s the 56 hours it takes to prepare a 20 minute Talk. That’s just over 3 hours preparation for every minute of speaking. No one sees what gets done in private. We only ever see the end result. Leaders prepare ‘in the dark’ knowing that one day the time will come for light to be shed on their work and diligence. The many hours of private serve the few hours of public. Private preparation makes the public presentation count.

2. Preparation is a daily discipline; readiness is a momentary destination.

John Maxwell mentioned that people say to him regularly “I want to do what you do.” He has been quoted as responding, “You can do what I do if you DID what I DID.” There are things Maxwell does every day to make sure he continues to grow as a leader and fulfil his personal mission to the world. What handful of things must you do as a leader every day to ensure you are adding value to your life mission and to building into the lives of others? What few things like reading, journaling, writing, reflection, thought leadership, mentoring or training that will develop your skills daily will you do? Leadership develops daily, but not in a day says, Maxwell.

3. Preparation is a character, readiness is a skill.

There is nothing wrong with readiness by the way. The end goal of training, study, exercise, writing, and preparation is to present something useful to the world. At some point being proud to go public with your abilities and expertise, has to be your plan. Preparation is the willingness to go unnoticed, overlooked and passed by all the while you are preparing to offer your best work to the world. Having the character to focus on what isn’t seen so the pleasure of what IS takes humility and diligence. ‘Fixing the roof while the sun is shining’ as John F Kennedy put it; it is the priority of you as a leader. It’s one thing to want to win; it’s entirely another to have the character to prepare.

The primary goal for you as a leader is to always be preparing. Remember, you’re rarely ever ready, just unprepared. Share with us your thoughts in the comments section.

June 21, 2018

Build A Team To Build The Dream

Buisness apple, build, business, dynamic, dynamics, employee, grow, leader, leaders, leadership, microsoft, servanthood, skill, team, teambuilding 0

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

– Henry Ford

The success of any system lies in the efficiency of the components working together to achieve a common goal. Such is true as well for any business or organisation that provides product or service. Its success lies in the efficiency of the people working to create or to give the service. If you look at two of the most influential business personalities of our time, Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates, you will find that they had similar traits in growing their respective businesses.

Both highly driven and undoubtedly talented, they had a unique gift to attract top talent and gain employee loyalty. The ability to attract and motivate great people is critical to the success of a company because a company is just a group of people that are assembled to create a product or service. As simple as this concept may seem, it’s still challenging to find and hire top talent, which is why more companies are employing various tactics beyond standard compensation to attract new employees. Over the years, these incentives have become more and more extravagant, with perks like pet-friendly offices and catered lunches becoming more common, particularly in the tech sector where there’s already a shortage of talent.

At their Redmond, Washington campus, Microsoft employees have access to an organic spa and receive benefits like pet insurance and a free shuttle to and from work. Apple employees receive discounts on company products and have access to an onsite wellness centre at their Cupertino, California headquarters. As indulgent as these benefits may seem, the results speak for themselves. Both Microsoft and Apple consistently top the lists of companies where job seekers want to work. However, companies must provide more than free perks in order to engage and retain top performers, which is where motivation comes into play.

According to organisational experts, employees who feel like they’re contributing toward a shared vision for the company are much more productive and driven than their counterparts. During Microsoft’s early years, for example, all employees were awarded stock options. This incentive pushed employees to be innovative thinkers and created “Microsoft millionaires” when the company went public on the stock exchange.The company has since eliminated this program.

At Apple, Jobs included his employees in the decision-making process, says Willie Pietersen, a management professor at Columbia Business School and author of “Strategic Learning: How to Be Smarter Than Your Competition and Turn Key Insights into Competitive Advantage.” The late founder would create different teams to work on projects that had breakthrough potential. When they reported their findings, he listened to all of their ideas before picking the strongest ones and shelving the others. Although Jobs could be a harsh leader at times, his management strategy was based on creating the most innovative products, which galvanised his employees and won their support.

By carefully studying these approaches you will realise that successful leaders lead by being selfless. Leaders should find ways of motivating and inspiring their teams, reduce the noise and hassle in their work and help remove obstacles. If you are a manager or leading at any level at any organisation, the nugget is understanding that your team is not there to serve you. You are there to serve your team and help them do the best possible job for the company. Let us know in the comments section how you motivate your team or how your company or organisation motivates and inspires you to perform at your best.