It’s that simple. I support that statement unequivocally.
Black lives matter.
What does this have to do with leadership? Good leaders (and good humans) support the belief that black lives matter. Good leaders are anti-racist. Good leaders recognise that racism exists and works against people in the workplace.
racism/ˈreɪsɪz(ə)m noun
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
anti-racism/antɪˈreɪsɪz(ə)m/noun
the policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial tolerance.
Good leaders use ALL resources available to them to get the best outcomes. Research shows that a diverse team is a more successful team. That makes sense when you think about it. Diverse teams have more diverse and better solutions. Diverse teams understand the diverse needs of all stakeholders.
If you haven’t already as a leader – you should think about your approach to diversity, bias and racism.
Not sure if you are racially biased? It’s possible to be very biased and not realise it. This test allows you to assess your unconscious bias.
Great leaders understand their weak areas and work on them. They see when they are part of the problem. THEY SEE WHEN THEY ARE BENEFITING FROM THE PROBLEM. They move beyond feeling personally attacked and work on the issue.
Are you a great leader?
Once again. In case you didn’t hear it up the back.
It’s time to think about planning and leadership for the new normal.
But what is the new normal? The NEW normal is where we are heading now that some things about this pandemic are known and now that countries around the world are moving out of lock down.
We are, as a world, moving on but there are still a lot of unknowns and lot of changes. Changes and unknowns often equal worry, anxiety and fear. This is compounded by unknown time frames.
These feelings are often about a perceived loss of control. Again you can’t control your life in the way you were used to. And a lot of this impacts on work.
So while you might be getting back to work, its going to be a different work to what it was 6 months ago.
Leading in this time is about understanding and being aware of all of these issues and supporting your staff through this difficult time.
So to make sure we can lead and support others you first need to look after yourself.
Developing a Plan
Have you developed a plan to move back to the new normal? Now is the time to plan and now is the time to reset. As we move from one stage to another in these crazy times it helps if we feel like we have some options.
Firstly you need to know that we always have options. You need to understand that and you need to support your staff and colleagues to understand that. If you don’t feel you have any options or any control read this article about Circles of Control.
Secondly, you need to work out what is changing and how you are going to respond to and manage those changes. This will be your plan. Depending on your role, your plan to return to the new normal may include answers to some of the following questions:
Who are my clients/stakeholders now? How are they impacted by their new normal? How can I support them?
What changes need to be made in the workplace at a corporate and team level? How will these impact my staff and colleagues?
What changes do I need make at an individual level in how I work? How will I make these changes?
How do I get the support I need to continue to succeed in my role? What support is needed?
How do I ensure I stay healthy including my mental health? How do I ensure my staff and colleagues remain healthy?
Once you have some of these answers you can move to supporting others in your organisation.
A coach can help you to plan how to return to the new normal. For more information on coaching please contact me.
Its time to start planning for your leadership for the new normal.
What does leadership have to do with toilet paper? What does toilet paper have to do with a crisis? How good are you at leading in a time of crisis?
Well unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that there is a current toilet paper shortage in Australia and other parts of the world. This is mostly due to panic buying to prepare for restrictions around the Corona Virus.
Does Covid-19 cause you to use more toilet paper? No. Do people need to buy lots of toilet paper? No.
Many people are annoyed (and impacted) by the panic buying. It seems senseless and people are angry. Many are laughing at people buying up big.
But the real reason that people are stockpiling toilet paper and other things? They are worried and scared about the world they live in.
It’s been a particularly hard year already in Australia. We have had devastating fires and now a world wide virus. People are stressed about changes that they cannot control. And stressed people do things that are not always logical.
So, what does this mean for you as a leader?
Now is the time to step up your leadership skills. As social distancing in starting across the country and workplaces may shut down or move staff to work from home, your employees need your support more than ever.
Leading in a time of Crisis
What are the best ways to lead in a time of crisis? How do great leaders support their staff? Great leaders:
CARE and UNDERSTAND: Great leaders try to understand the concerns of their staff. They address them if they can. They sympathise at the very least.
COMMUNICATE: Great leaders communicate often and in an open manner. If they do not know the answer they say so. No news is not good news in this case!
STAY CALM and IN CONTROL: Great leaders share their vulnerabilities but remain calm. They stay in control of their response to the situation.
ARE RESPONSIVE but NOT RUSHED: Great leaders do not make decisions rashly or rush around but are timely in their responses. Even in very urgent situations you generally have time for some reflection.
A wise leader once told me to be the reasonable person in the unreasonable situation. This applies today as we go into uncharted territory. Be that voice of reason in your workplace and in a world that is becoming frightening and unrecognisable.
This is great little article from my colleagues at Define Potential in Canberra about Leadership in Challenging Times which has some more tips you may find useful.
I wish you and yours continuing good health and remind you to focus on your mental wellbeing at this time as well as that of your staff.
Coaching can help people through times of crisis and difficulty. You can participate in coaching sessions virtually – via phone or video link. Please contact me for more information.
I’m a long way from Townsville and Australia this New Year but I’m still thinking about leadership, change and growth.
We live in difficult times. You only have to read the news to see change is upon us. And that some change is going to be difficult. It’s going to require us to grow as leaders – both in our work and personal lives.
I’ve written about my focus on change this year here.
Good leadership is about managing change in yourself as well as supporting others to change and grow. Sometimes that can be a challenge when the change is difficult and the outcomes are unknown. This is when fear can take control.
Learning about how you respond to change and making conscious decisions manage your response is the first step in great leadership. Only then can you support others.
To learn more about how to manage change in 2020 contact me for a coaching session.
Good leaders understand the importance of looking after the people they lead. Great leaders understand the importance of looking after themselves. Leadership is about looking after you as much as it is about looking after others.
In our busy lives its easy to forget to spend time focusing on your needs. Mainstream society tells men to ‘harden up’ and work to the death. And women don’t get it any easier – women in today’s society often have so many caring responsibilities and are taught to put themselves last, that they often never get the time to look after themselves.
Why?
Why is it important to look after yourself? Its the story that you have probably hear before. On an airplane you are instructed, in the event of an emergency, to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. This includes children and those who cannot help themselves. The message is very clear, you are no use to others if you cannot breathe yourself!
Of course it’s the same in the workplace. While you might not be literally struggling for breath, when you are leading and not looking after yourself, you become stressed. Your leadership is less effective, you are more prone to mistakes and you are less supportive of others. Small problems become big when you operate from place of high stress! And eventually you become sick (or worse)and can’t lead in the workplace at all. Looking after you is one of the most important parts of leadership.
A few years ago I was working in a stressful environment, leading a small under-resourced team where conflict with other key stakeholders was frequent. I started to feel like punching people in the head might be a viable answer to some of my daily issues! This gave me pause to think and I decided I needed to get out of the office. I scheduled a run at least three times a week over lunch. It wasn’t a long run or a fast run but the effective on my well-being was instantaneous!
Are you too busy at lunch time? That’s probably a sign that you really need to get out.
How do I look after myself?
You don’t like running? There are a number of alternatives to improve your well being by taking a break:
Swimming (indoor pools make this easy all year round)
Yoga
Craft
A gentle walk
Spending time in nature (this can even just be a small park)
Eating outside – alone and without your work phone
Look out the window for 10 minutes
Drink (and savour) a cup of tea
Meditation (there are many many apps available)
Doing something you enjoy that is just for you
Reading a (trashy) book or magazine
Deep breathing
That last one might make your skeptical. How can deep breathing be looking after myself? Deep and focused breathing for even just a few minutes every day has been shown to have proven health benefits.
This article from Harvard shows how you can use breathing to reduce stress.
Anything that make you slow down, reflect and focus on you can help to reduce stress and make you a better leader.
Are you still telling me you don’t have time in your leadership journey to look after youor to take time out from your busy stressful day to relax and refocus? Use niche time. Run or walk to and from work. Schedule short breaks in your diary – something is better than nothing. Exercise with a friend who will keep you going. Encourage your staff to take time for themselves and model the behaviour!
Coaching can be another way to reflect and focus on you. Coaching can also help you to work out how to fit ‘me time’ into your busy life. Contact me for more information on setting up a coaching session.
Babies and small children have instant reactions when things affect them. They cry if they are upset, they laugh when things make them happy.
Hopefully, as more mature humans, we no longer react when presented with certain situations in the workplace. Or do we?
We are conditioned to behave a certain way from birth. How we behave depends on how we have been brought up by our parents or other caregivers. It depends on the experiences we have in our lives and the culture we experience growing up. We do make decisions that change these behaviours as we get additional input – from school, friends, society in general, the media and the workplace but many remain in place our whole lives.
And although we no longer simply react to every situation like a small child (luckily!) we do react in ways that are based on these set behaviours. You could call these things our default behaviours. Default behaviours are the things that you might talk about by saying “Oh yeah, that’s just me.”
Some examples:
Louise is always early. Her parents were always early. She was taught growing up that being late was rude. When her staff do not turn up to meetings on time, Louise is unhappy. This causes her to yell at her staff during one staff meeting.
Harry likes to talk through problems. He has always done this. He often discusses work issues in the team area. This drives Kim crazy as they prefer to reflect on any problems in quiet. Harry doesn’t even realise that he is annoying Kim.
Both of these examples show people following their default behaviours. Perhaps they haven’t considered them or perhaps they are reacting rather than acting with intent.
People also have unconscious bias that affects the decision we make every day. What’s unconscious bias? The Australian National University defines Unconscious Bias as “the associations and automatic assumptions, negative or positive, that everyone makes about other people or groups of people based on cultural stereotypes, rather than careful considerations.
If you don’t think you have unconscious bias – consider undertaking the Harvard test…I think you will find you do!
What does all of this mean for you in the workplace? And how can you act with intent? Recognising that you have default behaviours is the first step! If you find yourself saying “Oh that’s just me!” stop and think about the behaviour. Work preference tests can also help here. Or talk to a trusted but honest friend. Strive to become self-aware!
Once you understand what your defaults are you can choose whether to use them or not. You can really act with intent.
Louise makes the most of being early to meetings by catch up on emails on her mobile device. Louise encourages staff to come to meetings on time by starting on time but tries not to yell about it.
Harry knows he has a tendency to talk through issues. So he often goes for coffee with Sam when he has a tricky work problem that he needs to talk through. Sometimes they even brainstorm ideas in the meeting room. Harry makes an effort not to talk all day at his desk.
Acting with intent – choosing your behaviour to best serve you and the situation.
And what about unconscious bias? What can you do about stuff you might not even know is happening? Accepting you have biases is a big step. Then introducing processes that check decisions can help. For more information see this article by the Australian Public Service Commission.
Coaching can help you to understand your default behaviours and encourage you to acknowledge your biases. It can ensure that you act with intent in the workplace – giving the best of yourself to get the best result. If you would like to talk about acting with intent in the workplace contact me.
It’s true. Everyone can be a leader. Everyone can demonstrate leadership. It doesn’t matter what level you are at in your organisation or where you are located.
I often work as a coach with people located in Townsville in North Queensland, Australia. It’s a small city of approximately 175,000 people. While it’s a lovely town located on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, job prospects are… tight to say the least. People generally work in smaller organisations, at lower levels for lower pay than people who live in, say Sydney or Canberra.
Does that mean there are less leaders here in Townsville? No. Emphatically, no.
Leadership has nothing to do with role. It has nothing to do with pay or location. Being a leader has everything to do with the type of person you are and how you behave in the workplace.
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Generally, it accepted that leadership is formal – that is you have a specific role that relates to leading others in the organisation or it is informal.
Informal leaders lead others in the organisation despite not having people report to them.
What does this mean for you?
You do not have to wait until the organisation gives a formal leadership role to be a leader. Naturally you can’t make decisions for your organisation that are not appropriate to your role but you can influence others, support the bigger picture, introduce new ideas, look for efficiencies and continuous improvements.
Developing your skills as a leader at any level, can lead to better outcomes at work and perhaps promotion and better roles in the future.
Want to read more? This Forbes article talks about some types of informal leadership.
Want to having a coaching session about how you can develop your skills as a leader regardless of your role? Contact me.
As an executive and leadership coach, I speak to people at all levels in organisations. While you can be a leader in your organisation in any role and at any level, it’s when people start to move up into management positions that they start to think about leadership. Many people I talk to in coaching sessions want to be a ‘better leader’.
One of the best ways to learn how to be a leader is to look at others, both in your organisation and outside of it. People in senior roles rarely act without intent. They consider how they communicate, how they present and how they act. If you want to learn how to lead people watch what established leaders do.
Watching leaders in your organisation also gives you clues about the culture and what type of leadership is rewarded. This doesn’t mean you have to follow this strictly but it can be useful if you want to be promoted or be offered different work.
“What about if all of the leaders around me are crap?” you ask.
That’s okay – you can still learn from them. A friend of mine that grew up in a dysfunctional family said he learnt a lot about marriage from his parents. When I expressed my surprise he said, “Yes I learned what NOT to do!” It’s the same with leadership. You can learn what not to do from those not so great leaders.
How can I learn from other established leaders?
When you are watching a more senior colleague or associate in the workplace consider the following:
What style of communication are they using? What words do they choose? What impression or brand are they trying to present? For example are they being ‘one of boys’ or an ass-kicking manager or something else entirely? Are they authentic? Are their actions suitable?
Is their leadership style working? It is getting the desired result? (And what is the desired result?)
If their leadership is successful, can you emulate their actions and style? Would you need to modify it to be genuine and to make it work for you? How could you apply this in your role in the workplace?
If they are not successful, what are they doing wrong? What would you do to make it better? How could you apply your improvements to your role in the workplace and develop your leadership skills?
The answers to these questions will guide you on how to behave like a leader (or not) in your organisation. As always its a good idea to experiment to develop your leadership in the workplace. Start small if you don’t feel confident. Try out leadership behaviours with colleagues or peers where there is not too much at stake.
Talking to a coach about leadership strategies can help you to learn how to lead more effectively. Contact me for more information about coaching.
