When we take a closer look at why a staff member would be dissatisfied enough to walk away from a secure job, it pays to look past the income, that is not usually the leading factor. It is the way they are left feeling about themselves, usually as a result of those they work for. How do you treat the people who work for you? Do you lead them using empathy, honesty and empowerment? Are you having the discussions that will give you this information? [Read More…]
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6 Sentences you Shouldn’t be Saying to Your Staff
Words can be very powerful, and they can’t be taken back once they’ve been spoken. Just a few short words can have an enormous impact for those on the receiving end. Sometimes that impact has wonderful consequences, sometimes not. Choose them carefully. What we say to others not only influences how they feel about themselves, but how they feel about us. Your words represent you, and how you want to be perceived. It’s difficult to have respect for someone who cuts down others to get their point across. [Read More…]
What Does Your Dragon Look Like?
One of the best metaphors I have seen for an organisational culture was the one described by John Hoover and Angelo Valenti in their book “Unleashing leadership: aligning what people do best with what organizations need most”. They explain that workplace culture is like a dragon. It will often start off similar to Puff the magic dragon, one that is protective, supportive, and kind. BUT if it is left to its own devices, ignored or neglected, it can transform into a destructive beast, which will consume the best of intentions. [Read More…]
How Well Does Your Team Trust You?
We all know that effective leadership requires trust from your team members. If they don’t trust you, then they’re not going to buy in to your vision and purpose, or anything else for that matter. Effective leaders instil confidence and belief in those that they lead. If that is not happening in your workplace, then you have a problem on your hands. Think about it… Do you have confidence in the abilities of someone you don’t trust? [Read More…]
We Need More Selfish Leaders
I understand that this is an odd statement to make these days. We are taught that workplaces need to be collaborative, co-operative and inclusive. They should be environments where we grow and develop the leaders of tomorrow. BUT – without selfish leaders, it will never work. The failures we see in business, as well in personal lives, can be attributed to giving too much of ourselves and people pleasing. We see issues where managers are too quick in deferring to others or changing the plan in order to make others happy… [Read More…]
Leading in a Virtual World
With virtual staff becoming commonplace in business today, we often have team members located in far off locations. Managing a remote staff brings a new dynamic to how we build and engage our teams. Working with virtual staff is not difficult, it’s just different. Technology makes it very easy to manage your team members no matter where they are located, but what about leadership? We know that there is a big difference between managing and leading a team, one takes care of tasks, while the other takes care of people. [Read More…]
Understanding Your Leadership Presence
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear about a person who has ‘presence’? Is it someone who takes the floor and keeps everyone spellbound? Or maybe it is someone who enters a room and everyone turns to watch them? It seems to be effortless to some people, why is that? What exactly is presence? Presence is the ability to impress or make note through your manner or appearance. When it comes to your ability to garner and hold people’s attention when you are speaking, how strong do you believe your presence is? [Read More…]
3 Practical Ways to Engage Your Team
Deloitte released a paper last year outlining a number of changes to expect in the way management interacts and deals with people within their organisation. In the paper, they shared that “employee engagement has become the top issue on the minds of business leaders” and that it is “directing us to an entirely new model of management”. Employee engagement is becoming one of those phrases that leaders and managers strive to have within their organisation, but often don’t understand what it means or how to get it. [Read More…]
What I Learned about Leadership while Running a Charity
A family holiday to Vietnam in 2006 had a profound impact on my life. As a result of that trip I founded The Australian Charity for the Children of Vietnam. ACCV was set in motion after a meeting with a young blind man, Quan. At only eighteen years of age, Quan was living like an old man. He had lost his sight as a result of a childhood illness when he was ten years old and his entire life came to a halt at that point. For the previous eight years he had been isolated at home in a rural village, no education, no intervention, no social activities. [Read More…]
5 Tips to Avoid Accidental Leadership
We’ve all heard about the importance of purpose, especially when it comes to leadership. Without a shared purpose, it’s going to be difficult to engage your team. Without a focused purpose, our leadership comes down to position or title; you’re merely a leader by chance. An accidental leader. Many things in business should be purposeful, including your approach to leadership. This is necessary to achieve our desired results, and empower those who work for us. [Read More…]