Lead with Courage Being a leader is not easy and we all approach it a little differently. But to be a truly great leader, we need to lead with courage. This means that we need to seek out and actively confront the difficult decisions and activities we face on a daily basis. This in [...]
Energise your team Are you aware of your presence? Do you understand the effect you have on those around you? Being aware of the effect your presence has on people is an important, but often overlooked, part of being a leader. In his article, 6 Ways to Energize your Team, Michael Hyatt describes an [...]
Radical Candor Radical Candor, Manipulative Insecurity, Ruinous Empathy and Obnoxious Aggression – four terms that you’ve probably never heard of! I came across these interesting terms in Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor. While they might not become part of your everyday vocabulary, it is certainly worth the time to understand the concepts and consider [...]
Committed Leadership This one is for all of the aspiring leaders out there – official or unofficial. What makes someone a leader? My definition is simple – it’s helping your team achieve higher degrees of success. A leader is not someone who has been granted a position or job title; they might be the [...]
Cultural creativity and innovation ‘Culture is King’, a recent article by Dr Linda Sharkey explains that a culture of creativity and innovation can only be created from the top down. She was able to support this assertion with an example of a leader who was complaining about his team’s lack of creativity. As it [...]
Focus on focusing Mindfulness has become quite the buzzword around the photocopier. Large organisations like Intel, McKinsey, Apple and Google, all famous for their innovative leadership practices, are embracing Mindfulness as a core concept of their operating rhythm. Even I wrote an article not too long ago on ‘centredness’, a concept closely aligned to [...]
Empowering your people If I asked you what it is that a leader actually does, what would your answer be? For me, leadership is less about delegation and management, and more about empowering others to help them succeed. Of course, you have to clearly set the direction and role model the behaviours, but if [...]
Emotional Influence How does an ad trigger a particular emotional response in people? Any marketer out there can probably give you an answer that is far better than any that I can give, but I’ll give it a go anyway: an ad triggers an emotional response with some sort of appeal. This could be [...]
Constructive Feedback and Destructive Criticism Feedback – a reaction or response to a particular behaviour, process or activity (constructive). Criticism – the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything (destructive). Feedback is a gift – a gift that we can give to our people every day. In fact, it is our responsibility to provide our people with feedback at every [...]
Forgiveness as leaders A young leader I am coaching recently asked me ‘How can I stop appearing to be vulnerable’? Curious as to the intent of the question, I asked ‘what do you mean by vulnerable’? ‘I want to be the rock for my team. I want to be seen as unafraid and able [...]
