Coach Train Learn

Better Leaders Get The Best From Everyone

Every team has a make up of a variety of people, all of whom have different skills, characteristics and above all styles. If you have balance, you will have a blend of types so that each complements the team as a whole.

For many teams, the biggest contributors are those outgoing characters who think out loud, introduce ideas and are seen to be active and lively.

There will also be quiet people who are able to contribute fully and yet often are overshadowed by their more boisterous colleagues.

This is something of a shame because the seemingly more reluctant ones can often be the deepest thinkers, who so often have solutions to problems well thought out and considered.

For a leader, this can create a challenge. The liveliness of some of the team is a valuable quality, because it usually engenders a positivity that is enjoyed by many and helps create a sense of team achievement too.

Smart leaders need to find ways to engage with those who take the quieter line, whilst also keeping the value that those less reluctant to be visible provide to the team.

Certainly there are tactics that will bring out the best from those less keen to be in the limelight. For example, using different styles of communication, using all the senses, rather than just auditory might be one way. Facilitating ways that the more introverted can contribute – perhaps simply by asking them what suits them best could be another.

Ignoring the contribution potential of those less extroverted is a big risk, in a world where the smallest egde can have the highest value.

For a leader who is able to harness all the individual styles in their team, much reward above and beyond that expected might well be the valued outcome achieved.

Perceptions à la Covey

As I left my client in Cumbria earlier today, we were sharing our understanding of Stephen Covey’s ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ he had just started reading.

I explained that one of my favorite anecdotes from the book was when Covey misinterprets the actions of unruly children on the New York subway (I’ll not spoil it for you!).

As I approached one of the Costa Coffee hatches (there seem to be three or four at most of the service stations these days – hence the potential for Whitbread to float them off eventually, they’re everywhere!), I was anxious to get my coffee (medium skinny, extra hot to go) and be on my way – it’s a 5 hour journey for me, so I wasn’t keen to hang around.

Grumpily, I pondered on why there were 5 people ahead of me and only one person serving – and that was some complicated frappuchino thing that required as much crushed ice as the iceberg that sunk the Titanic might have provided.

In a huff I wandered off moaning (and considering Tweeting) that they could do with a bit of better staff planning.

To seemingly cut my nose off to spite my face, I had to cross the motorway via a bridge to get to the only other drinks provider at this services, to see two Costa employees returning with a portable wheelchair. It seems that someone had collapsed and they had been required to take them to the other side of the motorway to get expert assistance.

And there was me being grumpy. The irony and parallel with the Covey story were not lost on me and my wry smile.

Perceptions come up to bite you even when you least expect it, I reflected.

How To Become A Leadership Legend – Part 2

Yesterday, we looked at the requirements of leaders. To create legendary status as a leader, there are three key steps that go beyond the ‘good’ and become legendary:-

1. Deliver Results

Legendary leaders go beyond delivering for the short-term, vitally important though that is – especially in the climate of right now.

Focus on results for today is simply not enough to get your legendary badge. You have to go further.

Legends are constantly considering the needs to be even better in the future. To develop their people through challenge and support that encourages risk-taking for employees – but in an environment where they feel safe enough to give it a go.

Results for today are who we have become as a society – as good leaders – the greatest and the legends do more to focus on the today – and the tomorrow.

2. Create Relationships

Legendary leaders are well thought of by their people. Indeed they are memorable and would often feature on that most famous of lists – three people who have been the biggest influences in your life.

They don’t really need to work at it – except perhaps at first – because it’s something they do naturally. Building relationships is about being out there with your people. Talking with them and much more importantly, listening to them and valuing them because of that.

Relationships are also about fairness, equality, trust, rapport, keeping promises and more. Relationships are that togetherness where each would – and will – go the extra mile. Leader and employee – together.

3. Vision for the Future

Legends come from having a motivation and drive that is irresistible. An ability – a charisma – where their people can’t help but come along with them.

To get there requires inspiration and the skill to see the possibilities and share that energy with your people. When you dream for yourself, you sense that it’s possible. When you dream together, it IS possible.

Having a vision is a great idea. Co-creating a vision together with your people is unexpected and unbelievable – they will love you for it.

Being a leadership legend is simply an amazing opportunity not only to deliver the results you want, but also to do that with purpose. The purpose of being with your people on their journey too.

Leadership: 5 Potential Hazards Facing New Leaders

In this week’s blog post, Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements, shares his thoughts on the hazards a new leader can face. You can find out more at his excellent blog at goalsandachievements.com

Leadership: 5 Potential Hazards Facing New Leaders

You have just got your fist leadership role.  Chances are you are excited, elated and feeling generally positive.  At the same time you know that becoming leader brings with it many new challenges and hazard that you need to be alert to.

Hazard 1: Self Doubt

You have got o the level of leader because you are good at what you do, have demonstrated achievement and potential for the future.  Yet you know that it is a big step.  Some people I know have described it as being back on the bottom rung of the ladder again.  Recognise that there will always be doubt and fear when you move into a leadership role and this is totally natural.

Hazard 2: Being Swayed By The Most Vocal

When you move into a leadership role you will have no shortage of people ready to tell you what to do, what not to do, who to avoid, who to get on with to name just a few.  As a new leader you need to take the time to do your fact finding rather than just relying on those with most to say.

Hazard 3: Making Being Liked The No 1 Priority

In any situation there will be people who will support you, others who will block you and some who will jump either way depending on the issue.  Remember that each time you take a decision it will be popular with some but not with others. Take decisions in terms of what is likely to give the best result rather than being the most popular.

Hazard 4: Dismissing The Past

You probably want to make changes as a new leader. Trouble is most people don’t like change.  The poor leader will be critical and dismissive of the past and what happened previously.  The good leader by contrast will still make changes but at the same time try to bring good elements from the past forward.

Hazard 5: Not Taking Control Of Your Time

One of the biggest challenges of any leader is getting everything done and it can sometimes feel like you are drowning. Being an effective leader starts with highly effective self leadership and taking control of your time is a huge contributor.

Bottom Line – Being a new leader brings with it new challenges.  So what steps do you need to take to be a success?

Duncan Brodie is a leadership and management expert who can help you and your people achieve extraordinary success. Check his website out at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

5 Quick Tips for Transitioning To Leadership

In this week’s blog post, Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements, shares his thoughts on ways to transition into your role as a new leader. You can find out more at his excellent blog at goalsandachievements.com

5 Quick Tips for Transitioning To Leadership

You have just heard the good news that you have secured your first leadership role.  You probably feel a combination of elation and possibly even a bit of apprehension.  So what are my 5 quick tips for transitioning to leadership?

Quick Tip 1:  Do some research

As the new leader you need to quickly get a handle on the organisation or part of the organisation you are going to be leading.  It is vital that you get to understand a bit about the history, the strengths, the opportunities, your peers and your team to name just a few areas.  Make the time to do this as it will be time well invested.

Quick Tip 2:  Create a plan

You will probably have lots of areas that you could potentially tackle but what you want to try and create a plan of action that gets you some early wins while laying foundations for longer term success.  A scatter gun approach is rarely the most beneficial way to go as the new leader.

Quick Tip 3: Make listening the core component of your communication

When someone new arrives or is arriving it creates a degree of uncertainty in those that are going to be impacted.  It is tempting to think that you can step into the job with the blueprint to sort out all of the things that are not working so well.  In practice this rarely works.  People, especially those who have been with an organisation for a significant period of time can offer great insights, if you are willing to make the time to listen.

Quick Tip 4: Regularly remind yourself that the role is different

It is easy and sometimes highly tempting to forget that you are in a different, more senior role with new demands and expectations.  Make a point of reminding yourself of this regularly to avoid the trap of falling into old ways of working and behaving.

Quick Tip 5: Expect it to be a struggle

It takes time to adjust to any new role and this is even more important to remember when you are stepping into your first leadership role.  Chances are you will have gone from a situation where you are top of the tree at your current level to being at the bottom at the next level.  If there is no challenge or struggle you are either not truly stepping into the new role or you are in a job that you are over qualified.

Bottom Line – Your first leadership role will require you to make a major transition.  So what steps are you taking to set yourself up for success?

Duncan Brodie is a leadership and management expert who can help you and your people achieve extraordinary success. Check his website out at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

Leadership – One Change Is All You Need

When we lead others, we carry a set of challenging responsibilities with us. Responsibilities to the organisation, to our people and above all, to ourselves.

In ourselves, we carry other burdens too. We are responsible for our well-being as a start and we also look after the needs of our family and friends as well.

So it’s vital that we are in great shape to do the best leadership we can, for the sakes of all these responsibilities.

Within this, we can find it a rather friendless existence. We need to be close enough, but distant from those who direct us from above. we need to keep a distance too from those we lead, because being too familiar with them creates its own problems, which can easily come back to bite us in the future.

Such as a closeness that prevents us from being honest with people. A closeness that clouds our judgement and prevents our objectivity from being sharply focused.

It can be difficult to understand, from the perspective we read our performance by, to appreciate who we are as a leader and who we might be if we refined our performance slightly. If we just tweaked our leadership, even by a bit.

And Perspective?

It defines seeing the same thing in many different ways, dependent on who we are; where we’ve come from and where, right now as we study things, exactly where we sit.

Changing the way we look at things can be on of the biggest – and indeed scariest – challenges we face, when we lead others into battle. From a different perspective, it is possible to see challenges in ways we can be different, when we see them in the different light that a change of perspective offers.

Whilst changing something about ourselves can make profound differences in how we do things and indeed, what we are able to deliver as performance, perhaps the one, most impactful change we can make, is to develop the capability to see things differently at all.

And then everyone, including those we take responsibilty for, can all be the beneficiaries too.