Blogs
No more hero leaders
There are so many great conversations about what makes a successful leader and as I have said before we need to appreciate that just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder so is leader effectiveness in the eye of the follower. I do believe followers no longer look...
Resolving conflict doesn’t have to be filled with negative energy
Over the last few weeks I have facilitated sessions on conflict and many people find it surprising that they can ignite and resolve conflict without feeling personally stressed or even overly emotional. Many of us avoid conflict for fear of others reactions and many...
How do we ignite conflict courageously?
Courageous leaders actively encourage diversity of thought and so they walk towards such situations and invite people to share honestly. For them to share honestly then the leader must drop the defensive behaviour - do not justify or blame; try dropping "why"...
Finish the Cycle and Forget about Later
Listening to Body and Soul on radio 106.5 I heard an interview about de-cluttering your house......and I believe it is equally valid for de-cluttering your mind. The first thing is to finish the cycle - like washing in a machine it gets pretty smelly if you leave it...
Courageous Leaders Embrace Conflict
I have found it fascinating over the last few days to watch how leaders evade conflict and use many techniques to do this - pretend they are unaware of it, fire challenging and provocative questions to make the other person back down, circle around the mob like a...
Putting Energy in as Opposed to Giving Up Time
I have recently finished reading a book called Chasing Daylight - written by Eugene O'Kelly just before he died in September 2005. At the age of 53 he was diagnosed with inoperable and incurable brain cancer and given 4 months to live. When diagnosed he was in his...
Think the Best of Others
Recent experiences have confirmed for me how our basic human nature prevents us from thinking the best of others - instead we jump straight in and think the worst. I marvel at how and why we do this. And I especially reflect that this happens no matter the depth of...
Back to Basics – With Delegation
So many people ask me what they need to do to become more effective leaders. And it is easy to get bogged in the complexity of leadership and the way business works when it can be more critical to return to the basics and assess what you are doing well and what you...
Existing leaders ignite cultural change with vulnerabillity
Over the last month we have experienced the impact existing leaders can have on cultural change. I am sure many existing leaders are unaware of the impact they create when they show vulnerability. By sharing stories and by showing what they are experiencing in order...
Change your Language and Change the Impact you Create
We have been facilitating a large number of leadership programs over the last month. Participants have been asked to explore and challenge themselves around the language they use when engaging in conversations. Conscious effort to be more constructive in the language...
Reality walls keep us away from our potential greatness
We all have reality walls that prevent us from seeing the genius we each have – and they come in the form of defensive habits that we have created over our lives; experiences that we have hung on to and decide to pull out on a regular basis to prove that we cannot...
What to do if you want to change your ‘lot’
Middle managers – the emerging leaders of a business – are increasingly feeling overwhelmed, stressed, deluged with stuff that needs to get done and people wanting more and more of their time. One of the experiential activities integrated into our 12 month leadership...
What does an effective leader look and sound like?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and effective is in the eye of the follower. There is no silver bullet, there is no recipe and that is because you lead human beings and each of them is different. Each of them have characteristics, strengths, capabilities,...
Increasing the Velocity of your Leverage Cycle
To free up your time so you can invest more of it in leading you must let go of DOING – this is done by managing your leverage cycle. What is your leverage cycle? It starts with your delegating conversations, and is followed by ‘supporting’ conversations to achieve...
Caught in a Sticky Web
I believe many leaders are caught in a sticky web of power, politics, compliance and avoidance. For many it is simpler and easier to just keep spinning their web the way they always have. There is too much at risk to remove the web and start afresh. For many this only...
Don’t take things for granted
Recently our dog died and his passing taught us all not to take things for granted. His excitement when we got home, his warm snugly coat, his beautiful brown eyes, his love of walking and playing. It got me to thinking about how this relates to our business life and...
Taking time to reflect and recognize what you’ve achieved
Over the last couple of weeks I have witnessed and facilitated people taking time to reflect on what they have learned and what they have achieved as a result of investing time and energy in their leadership development. I sat in the back of the room as a group of...
The ever present tension of bottom line results and culture
This does not become any easier especially since we live in a society that brings a focus on the short term - and the short term generally demands a focus on the bottom line. Stakeholders all too often want short term results and this usually means we ignore the...
Seth Godin – 7 Questions for (Courageous) Leaders
At Courageous Leaders we often ask leaders to ask themselves some challenging questions. Recently Seth Godin provided a list of 7 (actually 8 including the bonus) challenging questions, that encourage leaders to approach issues differently, be flexible and open, be...