Leadership

Hi Leaders During a debate between my partner and I on the reasons why Nokia failed, it was evident that perspectives were divided. On one hand the technology was inferior to Apple, and on the other the business model that was flawed. But, I couldn't help inspecting it from an operational view. A company's success is directly related to the leadership...and there is was...organisational fear! What is organisational fear? Fear is the ultimate culture killer. Most organisations have some level of fear that holds back the potential of their organisation on many fronts.It’s not always a major incident that thrusts the subject of fear and unacceptable behaviour into the limelight. Fear at some level and the lack of full alignment around values and expected behaviours is rampant in many organisations today.Fear slows organisations down, causes hesitation, drives stress, and keeps literally millions of individuals from reaching their potential in effectively supporting th...

Hi Leaders I recently had an assessment with my boss for a possible promotion, and while we were discussing leadership, he made mention of " servant leadership ". This totally resonated with me, as I have always believed that to be a leader, one must be a servant first to know how to lead. In becoming or being a servant, the most important step to this state of leadership is, becoming humble. Humility and ego do not see eye-to-eye and will definitely be at odds with one another. To give you a quick view of the difference between traditional leadership compared to servant leadership, here is a simple diagram: As you can see, the roles of importance has flipped. So what is servant leadership exactly? While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with th...

Hi Leaders "Let me ask you a question: If you were crafting a list of behaviour patterns that you think good leaders need to be successful, what would be included?" One person suggested that you needed to be politically wise to truly  manoeuvre  your way through a newsroom (gossip parties); that if you weren't, you would essentially be eaten alive. I understand the politics of a office chit chat all too well. But I also know that, as a leader, you can discourage it or encourage it. You can operate with what has become known as creative tension or you can let it be known that playing politics will get you absolutely nowhere. I did my best to practice the latter, and those working with me know I have no tolerance for politics and the gossip that accompanies it. Another point of contention came when a mid-level manager questioned whether you had to work longer and harder than everyone else to get ahead. And, he added, do people who work for you feel they have t...

Hello In the previous post I made reference to "Transformational Leadership", and thought I'd elaborate on the topic today. The business world has moved from management styled running of businesses, to leadership. It is the hype today, and it brings with it a lot of excitement, but also uncertainty in some cases. Trailblazers James McGregor and Barnard M. Bass saw the importance and the need for businesses to survive, to change the way they were managing or leading their teams. James defined transformational leadership as:  "leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation."  Leadership became more about a team effort, than an individual in charge of the whole.  This was a revelation that stuck with me, and worked magic everywhere I implemented this behaviour. Now, I cannot imagine managing or leading any team any other way. The Backbone: Creating an inspiring vision of the future: A team needs a compell...

I have been fortunate to be in a leadership or management position since I have been 20, and 19 years later, a lot  of things have changed. We have moved from a management approach to running a business to leadership, which is all the hype today. And for a good reason, and tongue in cheek, for the better. So what is leadership? Leadership can be hard to define and it means different things to different people. Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organisation; and it is (should be) dynamic, exciting, and inspiring. Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. – Professor Warren G. Bennis Instead of listing the differences between a manager/boss and a leader, I will focus more on helping you define what kind of leader you want to be, how to ge...