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…]
Leadership
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…]
Think About It! Reflective Leadership
Ultimately, leadership is a human experience. It is all about the people we communicate with and how both we, and they, benefit from the experience. As leaders, it is our responsibility to make the experience one of collaboration, empowerment and positive growth. How do we do that? By practicing reflective leadership. Being present in the moment as we engage with others. We become fully aware of our own behaviour and we focus on reflective thinking. [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…]
The Importance of Social Media in Leadership
I think we all know that trust plays an important role in leadership, if people don’t trust us, they are not going to follow us. This applies not only in the real world, but in the cyber world too. It’s a digital world today, that’s how we build our community and reach out to our followers. The main avenue appears to be social media, most people belong to at least one or two platforms; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest… I could go on. Where does your community hang out? [Read More…]
Do you have a Leadership Mindset?
“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” – Steve Maraboli. From the research that has been done, we know that leadership is not an inborn trait available to a select few, it is something we are ALL capable of. If it’s what we actually desire. That really is what it comes down to, our desire. If we see ourselves as leaders and our mindset reinforces that belief, with the right training and skill sets, we can indeed become great leaders. [Read More…]