Leadership and Management

No comments

3 Changes of Expression to Change Your Business Forever

By Christina Lattimer • July 6, 2014 - 3:21 pm Communication and Language, Leadership and Management

Business “Speak” Can Close Down Employees

My son had a bit of an “Aha moment” at the weekend. He has been struggling with motivation, which isn’t uncommon for a 17 year old with his life before him and a multitude of opportunities to choose from.

We were sitting in the car and he was talking about going to University. Of course, being practical I trotted out my singular mantra “You only want to go and get £36k + in debt if you know what you want to do”. Little did I realise my flippant and black and white logic was actually paralysing him from moving forward.

His “Aha moment” was when he realised that my tunnel vision type logic was flawed. It sounds so simple, but he figured out he could still plan to go to University, go on visits, work towards it etc., but it didn’t mean by doing so, he had to close down his options to do something else, when decision time came. He figured out that actually if he worked hard and got good results it would hold him in good stead either for Uni, a good job, and to start up a business if he wanted to.

After he realised this freedom, there was a definite spring in his step which made me realise how inadvertently I had been shutting him down from keeping his options open. I was mystified why it was such a big “Aha moment” for him. It hit me like a big sledgehammer that I already assumed he was keeping his options open, but that the language and way I expressed my concerns made him think I expected him to make a decision now.

The incident with my son, made me think about some of the common expressions and practices we use at work from a business perspective and how instead of motivating excellence or great business outcomes, they actually leave employees strapped into a culture of “business speak”, and “norms” of behaviour, leaving them feeling as if their hands are tied, or even worse maintaining a trance-like approach to these practices. Of course, like the incident with my son, leaders often assume their people understand that they don’t literally mean what they say. However, in my experience, that’s not always the case.

Here are some of the most common and badly interpreted names and expressions for business practices which can close down thinking and help maintain the status quo. With some imagination, the way these practices are expressed can help keep minds and conversations open.

Holding a Performance Review/Appraisal

This much maligned business practice has got such a poor reputation, with connotations of a mechanical approach to giving feedback that any business leader who really wants to make a difference, must think again. Even if the practice is good, the mere naming it of a performance appraisal or review simply dulls the brain. Find an alternative way to express the one-to-one time a manager has with his team. Make the process a continuous dialogue, and have milestones which enhance the way managers interact with their team. Call them “Driving up performance” sessions” or “How you contribute” meetings”, or even just “One-to-one time”. Of course it doesn’t matter what you call the sessions if they are mechanical tick box exercises, but by naming these valuable times with employees something meaningful, it can help people see just how important they are.

Business Planning Cycle

This expression implies an especially tedious routine for people who simply hate planning. For people who enjoy planning, it implies a process related way of approaching the business, in a set formula which might bear no resemblance to the actual issues in hand. Replacing the traditional business planning cycle with some inspirational language can transform the whole approach to business planning. Make the coming year a journey, with a story attached to it. Make it interesting, amusing and exciting. Alternative ideas could be “Our Journey of Success For 2015”, or “Involving All for Success ….”, or even “Continually improving xxx during….” Story telling can excite and catch the imagination of your people.

Achieving Results

I would love a £1 for every time I’ve heard an employee tell me the biggest problem with an organisation is their focus on results and targets to the exclusion of other things that matter in a business. Of course, businesses have to achieve results, but at this time when ethical and values based leadership is becoming more essential, the goal posts have changed. While any good business leader will of course understand that good business is about a multitude of factors, they may be inadvertently stifling other successes because their language is all about “Achieving Results”. Instead of simply focusing on results, focus on “Achieving Brilliant Outcomes”, “Our meaningful Impacts”, or even “Delivering on our Customer Success Criteria”. Find ways to celebrate success which harnesses the conceptual and emotional sides to your customers and people.

It’s time to become aware of our propensity to close down innovation, creativity, inclusion and participation, and think again. Next time my son talks about his future, I would simply say “Just do your best, it will all become apparent, and keep your options open”.

Do you have any pet expressions you think close people down in the workplace? Or have you or your organisation found inspirational alternatives to standard business -speak?

Join us on this amazing journey!

This great article is from the our 6 months themed series based on the Centre for Creative Leaderships Report of 2013, in which they identified the 6 top challenges for leaders across the globe: Don't Miss Out! Sign up here to be notified of subsequent issues and posts

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw". If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme. Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014. There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme. You can unsubscribe at any time! Click below to register for further information.

2 Comments

How a Director Can Play a Pivotal Role in Organisational Change

By Christina Lattimer • May 19, 2014 - 11:10 am Organisational Change

As a Director or a senior

team member, you have a pivotal role in leading the way for change in your organisation.

You’ve set the strategic direction, and the project initiation is underway, your organisation is going through a huge change. There is an expectation from the majority of employees, stakeholders and customers that transformation is going to happen. You know it starts with you, but how can you personally do the right thing when navigating change?

Ghandi wasn’t wrong when he said words which have been condensed to the famous quote “be the change you want to see”. Walking and talking the change is required at every level of the organisation.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” Ghandi

One of the most inspirational men I have ever met headed a large local authority. The changes he was overseeing were transformational and impactful. Knowing how difficult cultural change can be especially when the circumstances are challenging with job cuts and more being demanded from people, I asked him “How do you make sure your vision, values and outcomes are alive horizontally and vertically across your organisation. He replied “I have built a senior team who passionately shares our joint vision, and are willing to do what it takes to get there; whenever I hear anything which is contrary to our vision and values, or encounter a situation which is impacting results, I personally challenge it”. Wow, I thought, that’s a real commitment. What he said to me showed he was congruent with his values and lived them every day. As a Director in your organisation, there are two strands which you must pay attention to for change to be successful.

Turning strategic aspiration into operational reality

You must make sure that the strategic vision becomes alive through the operational processes and policies. There are three parts to this.

Know your organisational story

First of all you must know your organisational story off by heart. You must know where you have come from, where you are going and the difficulties you might face. Change does not happen without a flow, a resistance and transformation. You need to know and be able to tell your organisational story, as if it were a fact. If you don’t know your story or don’t really agree with it, there will be a mismatch in the change you want to make.

Implement and understand your holistic plan

You might have a project manager who is overseeing the change, but at Director level, it is your business to make sure it is joined up, inclusive, flexible and will make the change through the multi-dimensions of your organisation. Your plan must address the changes needed at all levels of the organisation. Depending on your own priorities you might feel some levels are more important than others, but do not fall into this trap. There is really no hierarchy in change, because at every level it impacts your employees, customers and stakeholders and in order to value them, you need to value the support they need at their level of the change process.

Commit to helping your employees at all levels through the change

Change is scary. The problem with change models, even though they acknowledge change involves emotions; without commitment from the senior team, dealing with fears and the human reaction can become part of the process, and can sometimes diminish the reality of the acute anxiety change can engender in people. It is important that as part of the change process, support is put in place to help employees through the change. Missing this step out might not mean the change won’t happen, but it might take much longer, and you might suffer more stress and casualties along the way.

Being the change you want to see

This second strand is all about you. As well as making sure you commit to and understand the change processes, as a Director and leader, you must be a demonstration of the change you want to see. There are three specific ways you can “be” the change.

The energy you bring to the change

is indeed showing us all that we are at the core of our being, radiating units of energy. We all know we cause an impact with our emotions. Just spend a night with a friend who is down in the dumps and it is energetic vibration in action. As a leading player in the organisation, it is essential that the energy you emit about the change is authentic, positive and believable.

Harbour great expectations about your employees

Our expectations, turn into our reality. This can be a bit of a stretch for some to believe, but that how we look at our world affects the way the world responds. The way to get the best out of your people during the change is to expect the best from them. Even if they are demonstrating resistance during the change, know this is just part of the process and doesn’t mean anything about them. Expect them to embrace process and succeed in the change.

Your personal credibility

Without a doubt change can bring out the worst in your employees and the resistance can be high. Time and time again, I have seen change become a source of conflict and resentment, when the . Being personally credible of course means walking the talk, talking the talk and being the values you want to see in your organisation. So there you have it, some of the ways senior people must play their part in the way change happens in the organisation. Do you have any other ways you think the top team should demonstrate commitment to change? Linked articles: 3 Steps to Harness the Power of the Mind for Organisational Transformation The 5 Step Blueprint Of Successful Organisational Change Organisational Change – Making the Best of Bad News Are You Awake To Change? 3 Reasons Why a Great Engagement Strategy Isn’t Enough

Join us on this amazing journey!

No comments

3 Leadership Skills To Inspire Team Success

By Christina Lattimer • May 1, 2014 - 7:18 pm Leadership Development

3 Leadership skills

Leaders usually have a balancing act to perform, especially around how much they allow their team to contribute to organisational success, or how much they take upon their own shoulders. How well they harness the commitment, effort, skills and effectiveness of their team and how well they are able to let go and allow their team to take up the challenge and deliver, depends on how well they are able to set healthy parameters.

One of the most difficult dilemmas for a leader can be determining when they should let go and allow employees to either float their boat, or sink.

In order to do this well, leaders need to have three skills

A reciprocal and healthy balance of giving and taking
An ability to communicate their own boundaries and have a healthy respect for the boundaries of team members.
The courage to take and manage calculated risk.

Being able to apply boundaries in working relationships is essential for good decision making, although for many reasons some find difficult to do so. A mismatch of boundaries can, and does, create disharmony, distrust and demotivation inside and outside the team.

I remember a story about a CEO who was committed to a life changing cause and was respected by peers and stakeholders. He got good results mostly and where he didn’t, had a great handle on problems. What he didn’t realise of course was 75% of his team were slowly sliding off the deck, while the remainder were standing at his back cheering him on, watching him steer the boat.

This great man had such an extended sense of responsibility, he couldn’t see that by trying to control the whole ship, he was systematically dis-empowering his team one by one. He was wary of taking risks, giving over control or allowing his team to take some of the responsibility from him. His people skills left a lot to be desired.

There are many variations on this theme and it’s not a perfect art, so few people get it completely right. There have been many times I’ve dis-empowered my kids by making decisions for them. In a work situation, when the risk seemed too great I have been known to take over and override an employee’s decision; although I tried to do it kindly, it was not always perceived that way.

Sometimes a leader has to take a calculated risk, and this can mean letting people fall and suffer the consequences of that fall, in order to learn and grow. Those situations can be a tough call for a leader.

I heard from a team who had big problems because their leader “overdid” delegation. He was so focussed on what others should or must be responsible for, he left himself out of the equation. He didn’t gain the respect of his team, as they often felt overburdened and were wary of asking for help because the signals he was giving indicated he didn’t really want to be involved, although that wasn’t the case at all.

One of the most difficult issues is respecting role boundaries. Of course roles are meant to be fluid and let’s face it, we all must cross over role boundaries in order to get the job done. But there are times when crossing over such boundaries either masks poor performance, or muddies the water so much that account-abilities are confused. Good role boundaries are essential, with a suitable degree of flexibility, to fit different situations.

When to let go and when to keep steering can seem daunting. Much depends on a leader’s inner confidence and maturity. I have rarely worked with or for a leader who gets risk, responsibility and boundaries completely right. Being aware, checking understanding and exploring where boundaries lie is essential.

Join us on this amazing journey!

No comments

Lead Yourself First: Attachment and Letting Go

By Christina Lattimer • April 23, 2014 - 9:40 pm Leadership Development

Attachment can become unhealthy

We all can become attached at some stage in our lives. As children we are attached to our parents or other caregivers. In this scenario attachment is seen as healthy and affirming.

When an attachment prevents us from seeing or acting clearly it has become unhealthy. Sometimes we are attached to other people, to particular kinds of situations, or substances for example. Obsessive attachments as we know become addictions. When these kinds of attachments become obvious we will often seek help.

In the workplace, we can become attached to a particular culture, belief or perception about the way things are, or should be. We can become attached to our views of others and also about how relationships should be at work. People who resist change are usually people who are attached to maintaining the status quo.

A number of years ago I worked with a manager, who believed employee surveys weren’t helpful because in his view the survey gave people the opportunity to complain and only employees who had a grudge filled in the survey. Hard-working employees did not have time to fill in the survey; they were too busy doing “real” work. Despite attempts to help him see the employee survey as an opportunity, he preferred to be right and his view prevailed. His survey results never did improve.

Often we don’t even realise we are unhealthily attached to our views, something or someone, until we have to face physical, emotional, or intellectual change. An unhealthy attachment is actually a reaction to fear of change, or when letting go feels like we have to give up or sacrifice something we believe we need. It’s also human nature, and very few of us have the emotional intelligence and insight to completely avoid the pain unhealthy attachment brings.

The problem with letting go of attachments is it feels scary. There is however a magical empowering alternative to attachment. We all need to form relationships with people and situations. We need to build a framework of beliefs and ideas so we can function. Instead of attachment, we need to connect. Connecting is involving oneself emotionally, physically or intellectually without the fear of “giving up” or “sacrifice” unhealthy attachment is borne of. We know we can connect, enjoy and when the time is right, with love; let go.

Below are some of the ways we can better navigate our lives by replacing unhealthy attachment with healthy connection.

Recognise when we are attached to people and instead re-frame into healthy connection. We can intimately connect with our very close relationships. As you connect with others, rather than become attached, you are freer and can enjoy each other without the fear of loss. You realise people come into your life sometimes for a lifetime, and sometimes for a season.

We might not realise we are attached to objects or situations until we have to face the pain of giving them up. How often do you hear sad stories of people who ruin or take their lives because of losses on the stock exchange for instance? “Giving up” can create depression and despair. “Letting go” is a healthy alternative. If we know we can enjoy our lifestyle, or our situation and be able to “let go” when the time is right, this attitude empowers us to live and enjoy the present.

Let go of our need to be right. Attachment to beliefs, attitudes and ideas can limit our life tremendously. Reality is shaped by our beliefs. What we focus on becomes our world. By keeping an open mind and being prepared to examine and change limiting or unhelpful beliefs and thinking; we stay fresh and open to what life brings.

Be purposefully positive. Recognise when we are unhealthily attached to being negative and how negativity is limiting ourselves and others, in our lives and our workplaces. Holding onto negative views and conclusions will ultimately prove us right in the end

If the manager who dismissed his employee survey results by his fixed views about the respondents had been more open minded; he might have been open to the possibility that even negative feedback was “valuable”. He could have taken the opportunity to engage with his people, acknowledge their perceptions and take action to positively impact them, and his results.

Good programmes should approach the psychological issues which can impact performance, although most don’t.

We all become attached and sometimes unhealthily, it is an ego trait which can cause unnecessary pain, suffering and resistance. If you find yourself attached, then with kindness and understanding, gently detach and reconnect. You will become magically empowered to live life more openly and freely, and after all isn’t such freedom what we all want?

Join us on this amazing journey!

No comments

A New Paradigm – A Leadership Development Model

By Christina Lattimer • April 21, 2014 - 1:41 pm Leadership Development

To give clarity to my paradigm on leadership and management, I set out below my leadership development model which gives on overview of my own philosophy.

I fell into the leadership and management field really. When I left school at 16, with no expectations other than eventually to get married and start a family I had no clue what I wanted to do. Taking the first job I could, in an office, I eventually became a manager at the tender age of 22. Being the youngest in the office and the manager meant I had to learn quickly, and I did. After decades now of leading and managing teams I made every mistake in the book. Much of my career whilst successful in many respects was born of trying one thing, and when it didn’t work, trying something else. I think I probably need to apologise to my many team members and colleagues over the years, because life with me as a leader wasn’t always easy!

The years of leading and managing though always felt right, even when everything was going wrong, and it quite often did. What I did over that long path of time, was to learn. I realised early on that life was about learning. First of all I had to learn about other people, then myself, and ultimately that real learning which only occurs around relationships.

In the early days, I wanted to learn to become a better person, and often failed miserably. Although I needed to take in information and learn the tools of my trade, I realised these were mere props. Eventually I realised that learning is actually about bringing out of one self. The word “Education” actually derives from the verb educe, which meant “to draw forth from within”.

Having dedicated myself to a path of self-learning over the years, I would contend that the most satisfying purpose in life is to learn and uncover one’s own real self. In this respect, I now know that learning about one’s self is not to make a better person. But rather to uncover the person which was always there. That is true for all of us.

What I also discovered on my learning journey was that as my self-awareness grew and where my leadership development model came into being, so did my understanding and ability as a leader and manager. For someone who hasn’t undertaken a path of self-learning it might sound self-centred and egocentric. But it isn’t. What I have learned is that as self-awareness grows, so does your regard, concern and respect and understanding of and for others. I also believe a true leader does not lead per sae, but brings out the best in others, consciously or unconsciously helping them to unwrap their own true selves.

Sometime last year I spent some time with MBA Students and we were talking about modern leadership. We looked at the many problems with the world, with politics, and with business. We examined the many crises leaders must be tasked with. They are enormous tasks which need great leadership and vision. When I asked them what skills leaders needed across the board to cope with what was to come. This is what they said.

Our leaders need “Integrity: Credibility: Wisdom: Courage: Consistency: Social Intelligence: Charisma: Vision: Communication: Appreciation: Decision making: Fairness: Justice: Rational: Creativity: Honesty: Open-mindedness”

There are many leadership models, hundreds of thousands of leadership books, underlying the many perspectives out there. But at the core of all us there is a commonality. “A knowing” when things are right, and what is needed. I believe many of the attributes most people want their leaders to have are contained in that list articulated by the students.

Below is my leadership model based on this commonality and knowing. This is, I believe, the new paradigm, so sorely needed right now. Many are already there, many on the journey, and many still to undertake it. But it is open for anyone to choose to do so at any time.

THE PEOPLE DISCOVERY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODEL

The Model is based on a number of characteristics which are available to anyone. The characteristics of the Model are:

Connected to Higher Self

1. An ability to connect to ones higher self. Some people call this Right mind or Right brain, or Spirit, Love, Intuition, a Guardian Angel, or some other Inner Guide. And so they are Inner Directed, Discerning and Confident.

Unity Consciousness

2. An understanding that the higher self is who we really are; the main characteristics of which are unity consciousness and love. And so they are Positively Value Based and Value Others Equally.

Self- Awareness

3. Well-honed visionary, thinking and emotional intelligence skills which are used with the purpose of making a real difference and so they are Creative, Self-Aware and Purposeful

Inspiring Others

4. Understand others and therefore know how to communicate, engage, create an environment which encourages enthusiasm, commitment and motivation, and as a result get the best out of their team. And so they are Accepting, Non-judgmental and Inspirational

Motivate Inspire Lead Engage

Leaders who develop the characteristics of the model are able to create the conditions to self-motivate, inspire, lead and engage their people.

Join us on this amazing journey!

2 Comments

21 Ways To Use MBTI To Help You and Your Team

By Christina Lattimer • March 12, 2014 - 10:01 pm Employee Development

MBTI is an essential tool for you and your team.

As a leader, manager or HR Professional, one of your foundational strengths is the depth of your own self-awareness and awareness of how other’s tick. You know the key to motivating people is being completely open and transparent and being able to be yourself, which in turn allows your team to follow suit.

One of the easiest and globally credible tools to develop self-awareness and understanding is Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI). Carl Jung, the great psychologist developed a model of personality type which was later refined by the mother and daughter team, Isobel Myers and Katherine Briggs.

One of the principles of Jung’s model, “Psychological Types” developed in 1921, was each person has an innate urge to grow. Part of our growing process is to learn how we individually operate, develop the parts of us that we need to learn more about, and learn about the people around us.

Understanding difference is a real people skill. Differences occur through cultural, physical and psychological factors. Mix this up with differing beliefs and temperaments, and no wonder managing and understanding people can be challenging.

In the UK, we have travelled some distance in identifying equality and cultural issues; the Equality Act 2010 takes that thinking even further. Some organisations are still learning how to get to grips with difference, and some excel. But I’m sure you will agree it is fair to say we always have room to improve.

When it comes to understanding psychological differences, we still have some way to go, but understanding such difference is important from a leadership or management perspective. Not only is it important; it is relatively simple to grasp.

If you’ve experienced MBTI, you may have found learning about your own psychological type a key starting point for self-development. Once you have an understanding of what makes you really tick, then your whole world will look different. Not only will it lead to greater self-acceptance, but it will also help you accept and value the differences of others.

Many leaders,managers and HR professionals are familiar with and use Myers Briggs extensively so I will skip going into more detail. If you haven’t come across the tool before, you can find out more about Myers Briggs on the link.

If you haven’t used Myers Briggs or you don’t feel you’ve fully realised the benefits from using the tool, here are 21 compelling reasons why you might want to look again.

Learning and understanding how each other tick can help to:

Avoid and resolve conflicts
Play to an individual’s strengths
Identify gaps in the team
Discover how your team style works best with customers
Enable self-understanding and so reduce stress
Help you learn to relax
Aid career development
Assist communication strategies
Provide managers with the understanding to give effective feedback
Inform personal development plan
Work together more effectively
Relate to each other with greater understanding
Encourage true psychological diversity
Support people through life transitions
Inform your own and others decision making
Develop thinking skills
Develop emotional intelligence
Identify and develop strengths and weaknesses
Develop leaders, managers, teams and HR expertise
Encourage team members to understand and appreciate different strengths
Improve and change culture.

There are some circumstances where it can be dangerous to use Myers Briggs such as recruitment selection, judging performance or by making assumptions because of type indicators. The 8 elements of Myers Briggs can be used interchangeably, and people can be just as accomplished using their non-preferred type

If you have used personality type as part of your leadership, management, team development, or HR strategy; I’d love to know how you got on and what you got out of your experience……or not!

Join us on this amazing journey!

3 Comments

3 Steps to Harness the Power of the Mind for Organisational Transformation

By Christina Lattimer • February 20, 2014 - 2:31 pm Organisational Change

In my article about the Hidden Power for Leadership and Life, I wrote about how beliefs, attitudes and expectations drive the outcomes within teams. In today’s blog I am expanding on those ideas and identifying how the power of the mind can be harnessed to lead your team.

The conscious mind is selective. If we don’t like something about ourselves or others, or we just don’t want to think about it, we can bury beliefs, ideas, thoughts and paradigms into our unconscious minds.

This could sound very efficient on a level, but in fact it isn’t really because we can still be unknowingly driven by the information stored in our unconscious which can if left undiscovered, cause all kinds of mischief.

As individuals, developing self-awareness can identify those unhelpful buried beliefs, ideas and attitudes which can help us to become more conscious of why we might do things, and help us to better understand ourselves.

Organisational culture can equally be created by unconscious or long-forgotten beliefs and ideas about the organisation, and the most common approach, i.e. training or developing behavioural competencies are fine, but it’s like trying to get an addict to stop their addictive behaviour by giving them a set a standards to adhere to. It’s often unsuccessful, or takes years.

Using the creativity of our mind through vision or imagination is the most powerful way to overcome those unconscious beliefs, although visionary thinking is often down to individual personality. If you are a visionary, or an intuitive, you are more likely to tap into the power of the imagination to create your story, or future, than someone who may be logical and deal in facts and evidence.

It is the same in an organisation. Organisations which might need lots of attention to detail and factual information to get the work done for example, are likely to attract people who are good at, and enjoy using their minds in that way.

The good news is, you don’t need to be a psychologist to take some simple actions to harness the power of the mind in a positive and affirming way to get better results. The next three steps describe a process which can help to transform the mindset of an organisation, if everyone is involved.

1. Discover the current organisational story

What is the history? What does the team believe about the organisation? Does the organisation have any defining stories which have helped shape the culture of today? Use focus groups, staff surveys and inquiry to piece together the collective view of the organisation by employees, customer’s, stakeholders, and anyone important in the making of that story. Ask people to describe the organisation to you, what critical events, changes or decisions have made them draw those conclusions. Ask them to describe successful characteristics and not so successful characteristics or decisions. Once you have this information, you can determine how far away the perception of employees, or customers is from where you would like it to be.

2. Raise self-awareness by shining a light on any part of the story which might be holding the team back

A particular HR team I worked with, had their role in the organisation changed from a regulatory, decision making entity, to giving advice and options to help managers to make decisions. A couple of years after this change, the team simply weren’t working well. In a reflective focus group, it became apparent that even though the team were paying lip service to the new role, deep down the new role was resented and resisted. Once this was unearthed, and people were allowed to talk about the difference in status in a way they couldn’t at the time, changes for the better came about quickly. Determine what decisions or stories are holding your organisation back from embracing a brighter future.

3. Change the Story

Harnessing the power of imagination, develop a vision for the future. Tell the story of the vision. What will it look like, feel like, and sound like. What will people be saying about the organisation in this imagined future and how will employees feel about working for the organisation? These are just some of the questions you can use to describe the future you want to create. Use feedback mechanisms to bring out doubts, limiting beliefs and different ideas, about the vision, to the surface, then find ways to strengthen belief, faith and patience about achieving the outcome.

What I have described is a simple methodology, using consciousness, self-awareness and imagination to change the culture of your team or organisation. Can you think of any other ways the power of the mind can be used to get better results?

Join us on this amazing journey!

No comments

50 Ways you can make a difference as a leader for 2014 – Join the leadership challenge!

By Christina Lattimer • January 23, 2014 - 2:05 pm Miscellaneous

I would like to invite you to a leadership challenge.

Don’t worry there is no work required from you during this leadership challenge. You can simply read, observe, catch up if that is what you would like to do. Alternatively, if something inspires you, then please join in, submit relevant articles, news, insights, contributions or even experiences. Whatever you choose, its up to you, the only commitment is to sign up and receive the weekly updates directly to your mailbox.

You are a leader. I know I am like a parrot repeating this to you again and again, but you are a leader to someone, from being prominent on the world stage to simply being your own inner leader, you are a leader to your employees, your kids, your family your friends and yourself. You can lead on the world stage or simply in your own day to day routine. Join our leadereship challenge and improve your leadership mindset!

At this stage in 2014, you are either feeling great because your New Year promises to yourself are being kept, or you once more have lapsed into the same old habits. If the latter is the case, my only advice to you is to forgive yourself and wherever you are, I’d ask maybe to consider a slightly different approach to 2014.

Why not make 2014 a year when you concentrate on how you are leading yourself and others and your life. It’s about quality, not quantity – content, not form. It’s about how and not what; give and not take. Join our leadership challenge. It costs nothing!

What these following practices in the leadership challenge actually help you do is change mind-set – your own and others. How do I know this? Because over a 30 year span of managing and leading others, these are some of the things I learned along the way and which I know if applied can change the way you lead and manage for good.

The truth is, what you give out, you get back. Newton’s 3^rd Law, “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions”, while centred on physical actions and reactions, it is the same with mental and attitudinal energy too.

So come with me on a journey. Each week of the leadership challenge, I will expand on the suggestions below, one by one, week by week. Updates might include a new article, related articles, research, videos or a relevant quote. You need do nothing, but simply consider the suggestion and read the material. If you are hoping to change the way you lead yourself, simply substitute “others or them” for “you or yourself”. If you are inspired, then I invite you to submit your articles, experiences, quotes or other relevant material for each weekly topic. You can do this by commenting, submitting material to me in advance or providing links on the commentry. If you aren’t inspired to do so, simply sit back and enjoy.

You will know some of this, maybe a lot, and some of it might simply be a refresher or even could be new. My hope is that the journey on the leadership challenge will be an interactive one, where we can share perceptions, views and ideas as we progress through the year.

So if you’d like to join me on the leadership challenge journey,

50 Ways to Make a Difference As A leader

Leadership Challenge Part One

Developing Self Awareness to Benefit Yourself and Others

Remembering It’s a Journey not a Destination
Accepting the power of your mind
Tapping into your right-mindedness
Dealing with your inner critic
Understand your own personality type
How to forgive yourself and give up guilt for good
Developing self-trust and trust in others
Practice “honest” thinking, not just positive thinking
How to change limiting beliefs
Understanding, you don’t know what you don’t know

Leadership Challenge Part Two

Creating A Compelling Future

Developing a clear vision
Communicating and engaging with others about your vision
Bridging the gap between the here and now and the future
Understanding the power and limitations of planning
Practice Letting Go
Developing resilience
Developing patience and trust
Keeping an open mind to opportunities
Living in the present while creating your future
Dealing with doubt positively

Leadership Challenge Part Three

Engaging and Motivating Others

Help others feel connected to something bigger than themselves
Help others feel they are part of making a significant difference
Help others feel good about their positives
Help others feel good about the challenging parts of themselves
Demonstrate the power of giving
Practice acceptance of themselves and others
Practice non-judgement
Practice discernment
Develop new thinking skills
Develop new ways to raise awareness of the impact of emotions

Leadership Challenge Part Four

Interaction and Communication

Demonstrate congruent communication
Make decisions with integrity
Use “toward and away” motivation in your interactions with integrity
Raise your awareness of how people tick
Be inclusive
Be visible
Understand how to ask the right questions
Use logical levels to increase understanding
Use Carl Jung’s personality types to aid understanding
True listening

Leadership Challenge Part Five

Relationship is everything

Another way of looking at relationships
Giving up specialness to gain everything
Dealing with difficult people
Preventing conflict
Responding not reacting
It’s either love or fear
The boomerang effect
The role of gratitude
Myths about others
The central relationship lesson

Join us on this amazing journey!

14 Comments

2 Faulty Thinking Patterns Leaders Must Ditch

By Christina Lattimer • November 14, 2013 - 3:00 pm Leadership Development

Most progressive people in business understand only too well that the old paradigm of faulty thinking has long gone.

Examples like “profit before values”: underhand strategies of “the end justifies the means” or “we are important so we deserve special privileges” have been exposed and deleted by the best organisations. While businesses regroup and to make amends, change doesn’t happen overnight. Some two years or so on from the major scandals, there is still much to do.

Optimistically change for the better must occur, and evidence of proactive and definitive change is happening, typically illustrated by the very strong corporate statement issued by the likes of where they set out in no uncertain terms their ethics and standards moving forward. Other companies are positioning themselves accordingly.

Many of the problems arose, not because people involved in the scandals where inherently bad people, but because they were victims of “faulty thinking”. Faulty thinking taken to the extreme. Throughout history you can see examples of faulty thinking being taken to the extreme. Think Hitler and modern day dictatorship, terrorism, and modern day slavery. There are lesser degrees of faulty thinking, but if adopted globally then innocently seeming “right” thinking can be catastrophic.

There are some key beliefs and thinking patterns which underlie many of the “ills” of society and of course can be evidenced on the leadership stage. These beliefs have permeated our culture as a global society and therefore have become a paradigm which acts like a closed cell door and makes it seem difficult to get out. Much is of course unconscious faulty thinking. This might sound bleak, but actually by acknowledging such faulty thinking, then we are able to shine a light on this paradigm and change our beliefs and thoughts to more positive and affirming thinking which will of course create a brand new paradigm and a much brighter future.

The following set out 2 ways we continue to exercise faulty thinking and therefore limit great changes in the world and in business.

There is not enough to go round

The economic crisis is not yet over, and there is a cacophony of voices telling us there is recovery, and others who are predicting the end of society as we know it. Who knows? The whole debacle has been made by ongoing and systematic faulty thinking about our collective purpose and the possessive of money in particular.

The scarcity principle is one which is one of the most prevalent traits of faulty thinking, and one which people feel most justified in bowing down to. But it is a faulty system, borne of faulty thinking. There is no real scarcity in the world; we have made a system where we have bankrupted the world, businesses and individuals. There is plenty of food to eat and there are enough resources, we have sufficient intelligence to overcome the majority of problems which arise. We just don’t do it. Why? Because we believe there is scarcity, on a global, collective and individual level. The scarcity is literally all in our mind.

For a business leader, this is a difficult one because the thought and “evidence” of scarcity through downturns in economy, reduced budgets, income etc. is compelling. The scarcity principle is one which makes people work longer for less with little hope.

The unified alternative is to find the opportunity in any situation whether reduced economy or other situation where scarcity is the fear. Use the experience to find ways of creating more, leveraging growth and learning to challenge beliefs and assumptions and “the way things have always been done”.

This is not rocket science. Every savvy entrepreneur knows that there are always opportunities in adversity.

Favoritism

There is a standing joke on the UK version of the “X Factor” involving Louis Walsh, the long serving judge from Dublin, who is said to favour acts from Ireland whether they have talent or not . I think most people see it very much as harmless fun, and it always raises a laugh. This is only a TV show, and while I’m sure some hopeful with talent might feel put out about being turned down because people with less talent have got through by virtue of their place of birth, they hopefully can get their talent recognised elsewhere.

Favouritism in other arenas and especially in the workplace has more serious connotations. At its worst, favouritism stems from a conscious or even unconscious form of discrimination and can seem harmless, but it has far reaching effects. At best, favouritism is simply a matter of keeping ourselves in our comfort zones, because of a fear of “difference”.

Many years ago I applied for a job. Pitching up for the day of assessment and interviews, I was joined by 6 other hopefuls. Of the seven of us there was one man. We were collectively greeted by the CEO and his board, all men, and the day of interviews commenced. I remember thinking they were doing really well because they must have recognised the overly masculine nature of their top team, and they had called 6 women to interview. Surely they were committed to giving women a chance. I don’t know indeed they may well have been. The next day, I got a phone call to say that I had been an “exceptional candidate” and the board had been very impressed, but that they had decided to offer the job to another person. I was fine, and was quite amused to note when they announced the appointment, it was the only male candidate, who was successful. Now I’m not saying that they were discriminating against women, nor am I saying the male candidate didn’t have the best qualifications. But I did wonder if they were pretty comfortable in their “all male” group.

Favours can consist of securing contracts, promoting, awarding bonuses, praising, promoting, spending time, allocating quality work etc. to others with little regard to contribution or effort but because they are in the “favoured few” circle. It can mean employing family members even if they aren’t the best qualified.

The unified alternative is to be open to many different types of contribution and value them all. To develop a framework of fairness, appreciation and reward open to all. Be aware of, and guard against biases. The underlying premise to this is of course that we are all equally of value in whatever situation.

There are many ways we think in a faulty way, but if we solved those two we would have opened up a vista of opportunity, the like of which has never been seen before.

Join us on this amazing journey!

7 Comments

The Leadership Formula – 5 Components For Transformation

By Christina Lattimer • November 7, 2013 - 11:34 am Leadership Development

Influential Leaders have several components in place, working together, which I call the leadership formula, which compels people to join in with and embrace their leadership.

The leadership formula usually involves a number of fairly simple concepts. Yet, despite the simplicity of such concepts, there still appears to be a dearth of great leadership at a business, political and world level. Even though there seems to be some “modest” improvements on employee engagement reported by the Hay Group 2013 there is still much to be done.

In their most recent research, “”, Hays have concluded leaders need to improve on three levels, cognitive, emotional and behavioural

[pullquote style="left" quote="dark"]Cognitive Leaders need new forms of contextual awareness, based on strong conceptual and strategic thinking capabilities. They need to be able to conceptualize change in an unprecedented way, again based on conceptual and strategic thinking. Leaders need to exhibit new forms of intellectual openness and curiosity.

Emotional Overall, leaders will need to be much more sensitive to different cultures, generations and genders. They will need to demonstrate higher levels of integrity and sincerity and adopt a more ethical approach to doing business. They must also tolerate far higher levels of ambiguity.

Behavioural Leaders must create a culture of trust and openness. As post-heroic leaders they must rethink old concepts such as loyalty and retention and personally create loyalty. Collaboration – cross-generational, cross-functional and cross-company – will be their watchword. They must lead increasingly diverse teams.”[/pullquote]

While the research shows a marked progression and depth to the skill set required of a leader, and are vital components of the leadership formula, they miss out essential components of the formula. Without these missing components, the change needed to develop our leaders for the future may well be slow and fraught with difficulties.

Expectations of our leaders are increasing Ethical and value centred leadership seems to be the emerging priority across the globe. The world needs leaders who can pull it from the current state of chaos. Certainly enhanced cognitive, emotional and behavioural skills and competences will help to make that change.

According to Mike Myatt In the USA alone, it is estimated that some $170 billion has been spent on leadership development. The danger is though, we approach the problem and waste many more billions in misguided leadership programmes which miss important components of the leadership formula.

The missing parts in the leadership formula are the filters which our thinking, emotions and behaviours are sieved through. These are our beliefs, and our ability to envision a future.

Cognitive, emotional and behavioural excellence is to no avail and the leadership formula is incomplete when the belief system those skills are filtered through is somewhat blinkered, limiting or biased. Without vision, then no-one is going anywhere, and we remain at Groundhog Day, repeating the same mistakes, making the same future from yesterday and remain in our respective comfort zones.

What I have seen from people who have inspired and influenced the world, such as Ghandi, Luther King JR and Mandela for example have been some basic beliefs and a clear vision which have freeing and unifying beliefs. These are similar to:

We are all equally as valuable
There is only love or fear of love
We can create our reality

Such leaders and truly successful business leaders, also have a capacity to envision a future and enable great loyalty and enthusiasm from teams and the public when their vision includes the precepts of:

Anything is possible
Our vision is for the greater good of all
What we can imagine we can create

If you add these two elements to cognitive, emotional and behavioural skills, then you have the ingredients for all possibilities, and a chance to shape the world; the organisation or the team anyway you want. They are the 5 components of a successful leadership formula, which, if done well could change the world for the better.

Join us on this amazing journey!

Tag Archives: leadership development

3 Changes of Expression to Change Your Business Forever

Business “Speak” Can Close Down Employees

Holding a Performance Review/Appraisal

Business Planning Cycle

Achieving Results

How a Director Can Play a Pivotal Role in Organisational Change

As a Director or a senior

Turning strategic aspiration into operational reality

Know your organisational story

Implement and understand your holistic plan

Commit to helping your employees at all levels through the change

Being the change you want to see

The energy you bring to the change

Harbour great expectations about your employees

Your personal credibility

3 Leadership Skills To Inspire Team Success

3 Leadership skills

Lead Yourself First: Attachment and Letting Go

Attachment can become unhealthy

A New Paradigm – A Leadership Development Model

To give clarity to my paradigm on leadership and management, I set out below my leadership development model which gives on overview of my own philosophy.

21 Ways To Use MBTI To Help You and Your Team

MBTI is an essential tool for you and your team.

3 Steps to Harness the Power of the Mind for Organisational Transformation

In my article about the Hidden Power for Leadership and Life, I wrote about how beliefs, attitudes and expectations drive the outcomes within teams. In today’s blog I am expanding on those ideas and identifying how the power of the mind can be harnessed to lead your team.

50 Ways you can make a difference as a leader for 2014 – Join the leadership challenge!

I would like to invite you to a leadership challenge.

2 Faulty Thinking Patterns Leaders Must Ditch

Most progressive people in business understand only too well that the old paradigm of faulty thinking has long gone.

The Leadership Formula – 5 Components For Transformation

Influential Leaders have several components in place, working together, which I call the leadership formula, which compels people to join in with and embrace their leadership.

Inspirational New Leadership

Join Us On Our Amazing Journey!

AS FEATURED ON

Follow me on Twitter

Find Specific Articles