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​Leaders need a break too Dec 07 2015

As I write this, summer has hit Sydney with a bang and there is a very distinct holiday vibe in the air. Everyone is racing back and forth across the city to Christmas parties, end-of-year school concerts, and catch ups with friends and families. In other parts of the world, the weather might be chillier, but that same holiday season buzz is kicking into gear.

In the past as a business leader, and now as a leadership coach, I encourage everyone to make the most of any break you take around this time of year. Having worked in Australia, Japan and Europe, all of these geographies have some kind of break over the Christmas and New Year period, offering employees and leaders an opportunity to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. Typically, there are no phone calls and emails to deal with (or at the very least, a greatly reduced number) and your office may even be closed.

Reflect and review

A practice I’ve always found useful is to use the holiday season break as an opportunity to reflect on the past year, and review what has and hasn’t been successful. The ability to critically assess the past is an important element in developing emotional intelligence and leadership skills, especially if you can do so in a non-judgemental way.

When looking back on the year, here are some questions to ask yourself in order to prompt your thinking:

• What worked well?
• Where did results exceed your expectations?
• What didn’t work well? Can you pinpoint why?
• What would you do differently?
• Are there any activities that weren’t worth the effort required?
• Did you have team members working on the tasks they were most well suited for?

Plan and prepare

The holiday season is also a perfect time to plan for the idea ahead. Many leaders report that the distance from the day-to-day operations of running an organisation frees up mental space to come up with new ideas and creative possibilities. Relaxing and breaking your routine has regularly been shown to boost creativity and provide a new perspective on problems.

Taking a break can also help your professional development. It can provide a chance to catch up on all those articles you bookmarked with good intentions over the year, and give you the mental breathing room to think about how you could put any learnings into action. (But equally, don’t feel guilty about using the holiday to catch up on the latest fiction blockbuster while you laze on the beach or curl up in front of a fireplace!)

Use this time to think about both the short-term and long-term direction of your organisation and any actions that will be necessary to achieve your goals.

Don’t wait for the festive season

Ultimately, holidays are the perfect opportunity to replenish your energy levels. This will in turn allow you to be a better leader. Leaders should embrace taking leave and actively encourage team members to take leave also. The benefits from leave are widely recognised and shouldn’t be saved just for the festive season. By taking breaks throughout the year, you can improve your performance and that of your team members.

If you need help with tools to help you review your organisation’s progress and setting achievable goals, People Make The Difference can help. Our one-on-one coaching programs for leaders and executives, together with our workshop offerings, can help you to develop a stronger toolbox of leadership skills. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

But for now, enjoy the time with family and friends. I’d like to wish everyone a fantastic festive season and the best for a wonderful 2016.

 

​Don’t let your small business stagnate – kick start your growth with the right strategic adviceNov 30 2015

Small business forms the backbone of the Australian economy. According to SME Australia, 2,045,000 small to medium businesses employ 70% of the Australian workforce. With small to medium businesses forming such a critical part of the economy, it’s important that owners and leaders can access support to help them lead and grow their businesses.

And when you are building a business, there are a lot of decisions to be made – often quickly and with limited information. Often it isn’t appropriate to discuss these issues with staff – and certainly not with suppliers and customers – so it’s important that small business leaders can find an avenue to get independent and confidential advice.

Some of the biggest challenges that the small businesses we work with at People Make The Difference are facing are isolation, setting a strategic plan for the business, and creating a long term vision.

Overcome isolation with the right strategic advisors

There’s no getting around the fact that running a small business can be lonely. All the leaders I work with – even those from large organisations – report that it can be lonely at the top, but I think the sense of isolation can be especially strong for small business owners. If you only have a few employees, who can possibly be quite junior, they are often not able to provide support and guidance. You can find yourself with no-one to bounce thoughts off or brainstorm for new ideas.

The other problem a lot of small business owners’ face is a lack of suitable networking groups. You’re too small for organisations aimed at CEOs. Your problems and challenges are different to those being discussed in groups aimed at solo and micro businesses. Many small businesses join their local Chamber of Commerce which can be great for generating business leads and referral partnerships, but not an ideal forum for discussing issues related to the running and growing of your business. It can be hard to find the right people to connect with and feel comfortable to have open conversations about your business challenges.

To overcome these challenges, one of the recommendations we often provide to our clients is to set up an advisory committee for your business. These can be people who have expertise in specific areas and can help you to delve into the details of your business challenges with the goal to create a realistic action plan. For many small businesses, this group or committee may only meet a few times and provide you with advice and support to develop a strategy for your small business. By sharing their experience, your advisors can help you to gain the confidence to take the calculated risks that are necessary to expand and grow your business.

Know where you are going and how you’re going to get there

Aside from isolation, the other major problem that our small business clients struggle with is floundering about how to move their business forward and set achievable plans for growth. Typically small business owners are very good at providing whatever their core business is, but don’t necessarily have skills in strategic planning.

By engaging a third party who has experience in running and growing businesses of varying sizes, small business owners can bypass a lot of mistakes. Instead of figuring it out on the fly – and maybe taking a couple of sidesteps or even backward steps along the way – you can get a realistic and achievable roadmap to provide you with guidance and direction.

To help small business owners overcome some of these challenges, People Make The Difference offers leadership coaching, including our one-to-one Coach-on-Call service. We can help you to develop a tailored approach that meets the needs of your business and your growth aspirations. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

 

 

 

​Leaders – stop and think about the message your employee gifts are sendingNov 09 2015

As November rolls around, it can often feel like time starts to speed up. All of a sudden, Christmas decorations are everywhere, your calendar starts filling up with social engagements and you are left with no doubt that the festive season is in full swing. As an organisation’s leader, you could well be starting to think about employee gifts and how to reward your team for another year of hard work. Perhaps you’ve even started browsing one of the various gift hamper sites on the internet?

Before your mouse clicks the ‘Buy Now’ button for 27 gift hampers containing questionable crackers and chutneys, or send your assistant out to buy a few cases of wine to distribute among the team, take a moment to stop. Giving an end-of-year gift is an opportunity to show employees that you truly know them, care about them, and understand them. Is a generic corporate hamper going to be genuinely appreciated, or just seen as something tokenistic? Or even worse, could you be giving wine to someone who doesn’t even drink?

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase ‘it’s the thought that counts’ and maybe you’ve even used that as a justification for standard corporate gifts. But if that adage is true – and I believe that it is – how much thought have you really put in to buying that hamper/wine/chocolate? If you are buying the same thing for each of your employees, then I’d have to say that it’s probably not a lot. A hamper is great if you know your employee would like to receive it; perhaps you know that they’ll be hosting lots of family members over the holidays and having a stash of edible goodies will be really useful. The problem is when you don’t take the time to know what an employee would like and just choose any old gift with no level of personalisation.

Here’s three fantastic reasons why leaders should put a bit more effort into corporate gifts this festive season:

• According to TalentSmart, managers who care about the experience of their employees are the managers people will want to have on their side not only when things get tricky but also on a daily basis.
• If you want to be a more likeable leader, never forget that your team members are humans first. Giving a personally tailored gift is an opportunity to connect with employees as a person first, boss second.
• Taking time to know your team members strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes will allow you to use that knowledge to draw the very best performance from your employees. So not only can you use that knowledge to get a gift that your employee will enjoy and appreciate, but also get a tangible business benefit.

Relating to people as humans and individuals first is an important element of emotional intelligence. And emotional intelligence is absolutely a skill that can be learned and enhanced. Through our leadership coaching, including our one-to-one Coach-on-Call service, and training workshops, People Make The Difference can help you to become a more people-centric leader.

To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

P.S. – Don’t forget that these same tips apply to client gifts too! Showing your appreciation with a low-cost but personalised and considered gift will go a lot further than an expensive but generic gift.

 

​Building leaders from the ground up: Leadership skills training isn’t just for those who have reached the topOct 25 2015

Where is your organisation investing in leadership skills training? For many businesses, that investment of both time and money is being directed to people who have already reached the top. But is that strategy going to give your organisation the best return? I’d argue that leadership skills training is something that should be offered to high performing employees at all levels of your organisation.

Leadership exists at all levels, in all types of organisations

Leadership writer John C. Maxwell says it well: “Leadership is not about titles, position, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” Leadership isn’t just about those at the top telling those beneath them what to do. It’s not about one person – the boss – who leads anymore, if indeed that’s ever what leadership was.

In our fast paced culture, leadership and decision making has become increasingly distributed. This is true for all types of organisations - schools, government departments, and companies of all sizes. Leadership isn’t just about being the big boss, but about guiding teams, mentoring other employees, modelling behaviour, and empowering people to make smart and timely decisions.

Why leadership skills training matters

What are some of the skills needed by leaders? At People Make The Difference, we think some of the core skills leaders need are giving and receiving feedback, developing self-awareness, and the ability to learn from experience. Do these sound like skills that are only needed by people at the top of your organisation? No, didn’t think so.

Leadership skills training is an important element in your organisation’s succession planning. Even if you think no-one at the top of your organisation is leaving, change can happen at any time. People get sick, accidents happen, or they just wake up one day and decide that it’s time for a change. By investing in leadership training for people at all levels – especially those identified as having strong potential for future opportunities – you can avoid your organisation ending up in limbo.

Investing in skills development also plays a key role in employee retention. Providing leadership training gives employees the message that they are valued, their contributions are appreciated, and that there will be opportunities in the future for them to grow and advance their career. Even if these employees don’t go on to become leaders in the conventional sense of the word, the skills they learn will still boost productivity and create a feeling of good will towards the organisation.

Set the foundations for success

It’s true that it takes time and money to invest in future leaders – and that sometimes, employees can go off and put their new-found leadership skills to use in other organisations. That’s a real risk.

But a far greater risk we believe is waiting until a leader is in place to invest in skills development. In this scenario, leaders can flounder, trying to learn the skills that they should have been taught before they got appointed. This takes away time and attention from other important business management tasks and can create a culture of uncertainty within the organisation.

To help organisations provide leadership skills training to people at all levels, People Make The Difference can provide workshop-style sessions. These can be tailored to suit your organisation’s needs. We also offer one-on-one coaching programs. If you’d like to find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

 

​Stop avoiding difficult conversations and learn how to approach them with confidenceOct 13 2015

Difficult conversations are a routine part of leading an organisation. Beyond the typical performance management problems that we tend to think of, confronting conversations can often be part of the day to day operations of an organisation. If leaders choose to avoid and delay those talks, there can be detrimental effects for the business.

Successfully managing difficult conversations can mean integrating information signals from our heads, hearts and tummies. We need to listen to and respect the nervous and uncomfortable reaction of our gut, but balance that with the logic of our brain to determine the right course of action for the particular circumstances at hand.

It’s my experience that people avoid or delay difficult conversations for two main reasons. They are either not confident in their ability to lead the conversation, or they are afraid of conflict. But learning how to successfully manage these situations is one of the most important skills leaders can develop, whether they are a school principal, the head of a government department or a senior leader of a company.

Thankfully, there are some proven strategies leaders can use to help tricky discussions run more smoothly. These are tips that I’ve successfully used and have seen coaching clients use with great success.

Five steps to better difficult conversations

1. Analyse the situation and think about any potential outcomes, both positive and negative. Consider any consequences from delaying or avoiding the exchange. Also determine what you want to achieve from the conversation and any topics you need to avoid.
2. Work out your strategy. You should consider where the conversation takes place, where to position yourself, how to open the conversation, and what sort of tone and body language you should use. Free tip – never cross your arms!
3. Practice and prepare. Aim to practice what you want to say at least five times. Try doing it the mirror!
4. Deliver with confidence. Tone and body language are critical – you don’t want to be too firm, or too kind and nurturing.
5. Don’t forget to follow up. Once the conversation has taken place, it’s important to regularly check in to make sure agreed actions are taking place and to monitor any results. Otherwise you could find yourself having to have yet another tough conversation down the track.

I’ve always found that I have achieved the best outcomes from tough conversations when I’ve taken the time to stop and think about the problem, and how I should communicate. When I’ve had a clear strategy to know what actions and outcomes I wanted to achieve, and a plan for how to follow up on the conversation, typically there has been a result that has been productive for all parties. Conversely, when I’ve acted on the fly and not planned and thought through outcomes, the resulting talk has usually not gone well.

If you need help with strategies to help you manage difficult conversations, People Make The Difference can help. We hold workshops on this topic, as well as one-on-one coaching programs for leaders and executives. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or
call +61 412 333 415.

 

​Leadership + community engagement = a stronger teamSep 29 2015

For many leaders, it can be hard to make the time to think about the big picture. Pressures include quarterly targets to make, board members to satisfy, and shareholders demanding better returns. Leaders spend so much time thinking about how to increase revenue and customers that they don’t get around to thinking about community engagement – it’s a take, take, take mentality.

But it is vital to also think about what your organisation can give back.

All organisations operate within the wider community and being able to give something back to that community can play a critical role in uniting your team around a common cause. A strong corporate social responsibility program often infers practical benefits for team morale and improving your organisations reputational capital. Clearly, CSR can be good for business. But more than that, investing in communities and maintaining a long-term view about the sustainability of an organisation and its operations is simply the right thing to do.

But how do you decide which programs to fund? When I was a leader of the Japan and Asia Pacific region with a previous company we always involved our leaders and our teams in CSR activities in each country that we had an office. This meant programs were relevant to the local market and would engage the team members. Despite different tactical implementations in each geography, all projects united our team members around the chance to give back to less fortunate people and to make a difference in a social way.

Now at People Make The Difference, this commitment to CSR is continued through our support of the Nelune Foundation. The Nelune Foundation’s motto is ‘helping patients fight cancer with dignity’ and it recently held its 15th annual Lilac Ball in Sydney. Through the event, the Nelune Foundation raised over $2.1 million to make cancer treatment more accessible to patients and the experience more tolerable. The services and facilities funded include transport to and from treatment, psychologists, breast care nurses, more comfortable treatment chairs and beds – anything that can help patients through their treatment and on to recovery. As a small organisation, our sponsorship was limited, but every dollar raised can make a difference to a cancer patient. More important than the financial aspects was the opportunity for our team, friends and business partners to work together in support of the community.

As sustainability advisor Dr Carol Adams says on the topic of leadership and CSR, “change towards sustainability is mostly about people and we can all make a difference – together.” Obviously, at People Make the Difference we 100% agree that having a strong and motivated team is critical to an organisation’s success. A well-considered and effectively implemented CSR program can play a significant role in maintaining team motivation and contributing to a strong workplace culture.

• When developing a CSR program that both serves your organisation and the broader community, we believe there are four critical factors to consider:
• Your commitment as the CEO (or organisation leader) to the program and your leadership qualities.
• The executive team’s understanding of the relevance of sustainability to strategy and risk and your ability to communicate that relevance effectively.
• Supporting an organisation that is relevant to employees and that they can engage with. Consider involving employees in the selection of the organisation you support.
• It’s not about the money. Instead focus on what projects you are able to support and how this enables your team to work together on something that has a positive social impact.

If you need help with getting support in your organisation for a CSR program and implementing it in an effective way, People Make The Difference can help. Our leadership coaching can assist you to be clear on your values and why you want to support a particular program, how it aligns with your organisation, and how to communicate that in a way that will motivate and inspire team members. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

 

​Blending gut and data for successful leadershipSep 15 2015

Instinct versus insight. Intel versus intuition. Gut versus data. However you describe it, these are the two most important dynamics at play for business leaders when it comes to making decisions. In the modern world, we are both blessed and cursed with more data than ever before. But is all this data diminishing the trust we have in our instincts? And does it matter?

Why instinct is still important in the age of data

According to the 2014 Economist Intelligence Unit report, ‘Gut & Gigabytes’, 64% of executives said that big data has changed decision making at their organisation, and 49% said that data analysis is undermining the credibility of intuition or experience.

But even the largest data set cannot be relied on to make a decision without human involvement.

Frankly, we are overwhelmed by data – and it can be difficult to assess what is truly useful. This is where instinct remains a useful tool for leaders. According to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, our brain produces powerful somatic markers when something feels right – or not. Paying attention to these markers and our intuition in combination with facts and data can lead to better decision making.

Ultimately, all data tells you is what has happened, not what will happen. Intuition remains critical for making predictions based on data. Thankfully, our brains are powerful prediction machines and tapping into gut instinct helps us to assess those predictions. Jeff Stibel, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp and holder of a master’s degree in brain science, sums up this balance between data and instinct: “What do you need to do with a gut? You need to feed it, and to feed the gut of the brain you have to give it knowledge.”

How to harness gut instinct together with data for better decision making

I haven’t always been such an advocate for gut instinct in business. It is a result of learning the hard way that an over-reliance on data leads to analysis paralysis and delays decision making. A manager called me out on this and told me that I was spending too much time making sure that data was right. I was encouraged to look to my gut and learn to tap into my intuition – and I needed coaching to do this.

Today, clients needing guidance on how to listen to and trust their gut instincts forms a key part of my work. Here are some of the strategies I use with clients to help combine instinct with data in their quest to become more effective leaders:

• Start by listening to your gut on decisions that aren’t related to business – for example, when at a restaurant, what’s your gut feel on what you want to eat from the menu?
• Only rely on your gut for non-critical decisions until you have become comfortable with interpreting your brain and body’s signals and know you can trust those instincts.
• Pay attention to the intensity of your gut feelings. If it’s only a tweak, maybe the numbers are right. But if every fibre of your being is shouting at you that the data doesn’t stack up, then you really need to take another look and see if the right questions have been asked.

Knowing when to go with your gut despite the data, and vice versa, separates super leaders from mediocre managers. Making decisions purely based on instinct could be reckless – but making decisions purely based on data can also be a path towards disaster. Combining both perspectives helps to reduce risk and can speed up the decision making process.

If you need help learning to tap into your intuition and learning how to better manage the never-ending data flow that leaders are exposed to, get in touch to discuss leadership coaching with People Make The Difference. Stop feeling overwhelmed and instead become empowered to confidently make decisions that you feel are right. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or
call +61 412 333 415.

 

​Are business leaders too scared to fail?Sep 05 2015

It’s the mantra of most start-ups – ‘fail fast, fail often’. And for start-ups, it’s a great mantra because the very act of creating a start-up is filled with risk. But what about established businesses, with investors, shareholders and quarterly earnings targets to achieve? What’s the role for risk in these businesses and how can leaders negotiate this terrain?

Why risk is good

I’m not going to try to tell you that failure is pleasant – nobody likes to fail. But as IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr once said, “The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”

As a leader, you can’t let the fear of failing stop you from taking risks. Risks are an essential part of business; taking risks drives innovation. You can’t make new products or introduce game-changing processes without an element of risk. Taking no risks will ultimately make your business stale, competitors will start to impact your market share and you can potentially lose the loyalty of customers and employees.

This was a lesson I had to help my team learn when I relocated to Japan. The Japanese operation needed to step up its performance and meet the company’s expectations for growth. I had to encourage my team members to be prepared to try new things and to know that it was okay if not everything we tried was successful. The team learnt that it was more important to take the risk and not have it work, than to take no risk at all and maintain the status quo.

How can leaders make better risk assessments?

True leaders understand their business and have a good feeling for their team and their customers. They can match data with gut feel to take wise risks. Combine this with solid emotional intelligence (EQ) and you have a winning formula: Data + gut instinct + EQ = good risk taking behaviour.

Emotional intelligence is an important element in risk taking, as an understanding of our emotions – and the causes behind them – helps to provide a filter for our instincts. For example, your gut might be telling you that you’re nervous about a business decision. But in reality, your anxiety is being triggered by the presentation to the board you need to make that afternoon. By developing your EQ, you can not only better recognise and name your emotions, but also identify the true triggers for those feelings.

Equally, if the data that you have points to a certain decision but your gut is telling you that something is not right, by harnessing your EQ you can have the confidence to investigate that reluctance and make a call that aligns with your values and instincts. We’ll discuss how to tune into your gut instinct more in a future article.

Bouncing back – What to do when new ideas and approaches fall flat

Sometimes, in business and in life, we take risks that don’t pay off. As a leader, it’s important to be honest and upfront about the risks that don’t work out – and take the time to both understand what the reasons were for the failure and ensure that is appropriately communicated to your team. Vulnerability and transparency are important attributes for super leaders to develop. By allowing yourself to be open, you give your team members the space they need to take their own considered risks.

As Farson and Keyes write in Harvard Business Review, failure is not the opposite of success – it is its complement. Understanding and embracing that dynamic, together with leadership that seeks to learn rather than blame, will help you and your team to feel comfortable with making decisions that might not feel like the safe choice.

Do you need help in embracing risk and getting over your fear of failure? Do your actions when your team stumbles match your words? At People Make The Difference, our leadership coaching can help you to develop your EQ, learn to trust your instincts and empower you to make decisions with confidence. To find out more about our training and coaching services, visit www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or call +61 412 333 415.

 

​Have you got the ‘E Factor?’ Emotional intelligence is what sets super leaders apartSep 01 2015

It has been 20 years since Daniel Goleman’s ground breaking book Emotional Intelligence, which introduced the term emotional intelligence (EQ) to business circles. In the years since, there has been a growing recognition of the importance that EQ plays in business leadership. The best leaders can blend operational excellence and emotional intelligence in a way that motivates and inspires team members to achieve better results together. At People Make The Difference, we call them super leaders.

 

EQ isn’t soft and fuzzy; studies show bottom-line benefits

Most organisations now recognise the importance of emotional intelligence. It has been proven to be an essential element in successful leadership and correlates with improved financial performance and building winning teams. For example, according to the report The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence, managers with high emotional intelligence achieved 34% greater profit growth.

My own experience of leading teams globally confirms this. Where members of my team were in touch with their EQ and blending that effectively with operational excellence, they were able to accomplish more and accelerate their careers.

But despite the benefits that EQ and its impact on leadership, many organisations are not doing enough to support leaders in developing their EQ and creating an environment where EQ can be put into practice.

The organisations that ARE investing in leadership development programs though are reaping the rewards. According to a study in Consulting Psychology Journal, companies reporting strong leadership development programs are 1.5 times more likely to be found atop Fortune magazine’s ‘Most Admired Companies’ list.

Get the ‘E Factor’

There are four key elements that are recognised as essential for building EQ:

1. Self-awareness: The first step to building EQ is to recognise and acknowledge your own emotions, and be prepared to ask people for their insights.
2. Self-management: Once you are in tune with your emotional responses, to further build your EQ you need to learn how to control and manage these emotions.
3. Social awareness: To foster your EQ, become aware of how your emotions, verbal communication and non-verbal communication impact others.
4. Relationship management: The best leaders recognise the importance of people to the success of their business, and foster these relationships.

Here’s the good news. Like any skill, emotional intelligence CAN be developed. For some people, EQ levels are naturally high, but others need to work at it. For some people, that might involve digging deep and making some uncomfortable discoveries about themselves. Developing emotional intelligence takes time and commitment; it isn’t something that can be learnt from just reading a book or by attending a seminar. You need to do the work. The best results come from learning these skills in an environment where ideas can be discussed, strategies can be put into practice on a consistent basis, and you can be held accountable for what you are learning.

Even for leaders who do naturally possess good emotional intelligence, being promoted to a leadership role can erode those skills. In leadership roles, getting bogged down by the running of a business and achieving financial targets, suddenly you can find yourself having less meaningful interactions with staff, and becoming out of touch with the needs of your team. It is true what they say – it can be lonely at the top and this can have a negative impact on emotional intelligence.

Whether you are looking to build, enhance or retain EQ skills, coaching can help. Fast Company reports that 43% of CEOs and 71% of senior executives say they have worked with a coach – and 92% of those leaders plan to use a coach again. To help leaders build their emotional intelligence and embrace their potential as super leaders, People Make The Difference offer tailored and personalised solutions, like one-on-one coaching and mentoring. If you’d like to discuss coaching options to help you become a super leader, get in touch at www.peoplemakethedifference.com.au or
call +61 412 333 415.  .