Leadership and Management

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Strategy – Set Your SAT NAV

By Christina Lattimer • May 7, 2014 - 11:15 am Organisational Change

Set Your Strategy: Set Your SAT NAV

I am afraid I am a strategy geek. What’s wrong with that? You might ask. Well nothing except when you start developing a healthy eating strategy instead of a diet, or a university funding strategy instead of saving for your child’s uni course, it’s a bit sad.

Well no, even I’m not that bad, although it’s been proven that many of us take our work pattern home with us, but that’s a whole different blog post!

I wish there were other words in the dictionary to describe strategy. The Oxford dictionary definition of a strategy is “A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim:” Thesaurus results have unhelpful words like “plan, approach, tactic and even scheme” as alternatives. As you can see it’s very difficult to inspire you with such mundane language.

Setting a strategy that works inspires me. I know I am in a minority about this, but please bear with me. Setting a strategy involves so many elements and requires a sharp skillset. If it is going to be successful that is. If you have an organisational or team strategy and it’s lying in a drawer waiting for someone to blow the dust off it, then it probably isn’t going to work. In reality there are many components involved in setting a strategy, too many to mention, so I will concentrate on the vital components.

So what are the vital components of a successful strategy

You have to have vision. If you want to achieve something, then you need to be able to describe, what it looks like, where it is, who is involved, when you want it to happen. You need to be able to see it, hear it, feel it, smell it and taste it. You need to be able to describe your vision so it becomes real in your imagination. Once you have visualised what you want and articulated, this then becomes your goal. It’s pinpointing exactly where you want to go and every strategy needs at least one.

The next part is to plan out how you are going to get to your goal. Now I know from experience that we are all different. Some of us love detailed plans with lots of milestones and deadlines. Others like some key milestones along the way, and don’t want to bother too much with the detail. Some of us don’t need a plan at all, but that might be a leap of faith too far unless you and your team are wholly committed. The truth is, the structure of the plan doesn’t matter too much. If you think about most projects or outcomes you have delivered, there are many ways to skin a cat, or many different routes you could have gone down to get there. The real trick about having a plan is twofold. Firstly it keeps you focused on achieving the outcomes and secondly, it keeps you moving forward. That’s why a plan is essential; however you want to detail it.

You need someone to make sure you achieve the milestones and to review what is happening so that you can keep on track. The owner of the strategy needs to be an opportunist and be innovative. These skills are absolutely necessary when the original plan of how to get there becomes unstuck. The owner will always navigate you back to the right road, so that you will get to the right destination or achieve the right goal.

You need to check on progress, and this is preferably someone different from the owner. Someone who can provide a fresh pair of eyes, or a different perspective, but someone who also wants to reach the goal as passionately as the owner. In other words your back seat driver.

And finally, you need to be able to feel the discomfort of uncharted terrain. If the plan doesn’t unfold the way you thought and the route you planned out doesn’t look like you imagined it would, don’t panic and stop. Don’t go back to the beginning either. You need to trust that sometimes unfamiliar territory is exactly what you need in order to get where you need to go.

So my proposal as a new term for strategy is as you will have guessed by now “SAT NAV.”

You pop in your postcode (goal)

You have a general idea about the direction, timing and route, so you can take money for petrol, or time for a loo break etc. etc. (a plan)

You start driving. When you take a wrong turn, the SAT NAV prompts you and takes you back to your original route. (owner)

Your back seat driver will observe as you are driving

A great strategy is like correctly setting your SAT NAV. You need to be able to trust it will get you where you want to be, you must enjoy the journey, but be vigilant about taking wrong turns. You need to be flexible about taking another route if you do take a wrong turn. Sometimes your plans will have to be changed if you want to reach your goals on time. After all if you’ve ever put in the wrong post code, then you will know how long sometimes it takes to dawn on you that you are going the wrong way.

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Building Reputation Through Your Employees

By Christina Lattimer • May 7, 2014 - 10:58 am Leadership and Management

Building Reputation through your Employees is always the first step

It is even more important to encourage behaviours and demonstrate values which enhance your reputation. There is a lot of competition out there. Businesses are growing stronger through the power of networking, collaborating and becoming social. Great businesses have already caught on to the fact that building reputation is a multi-faceted process which of course includes customers, but also stakeholders and employees. Increasingly employees have a voice and it is being heard.

You and I both know that when we do business with a company, it’s not usually the leader or the marketing manager we are transacting with. It is the people who work in that organisation. We all have tales of great customer service and poor customer service. And people in the organisation are the experience we remember.

Many of your people will be great at what they do: Some will know what to do, but won’t always, and some will likely need more information. In some respects the levels of ability are a bit of a red herring, because what will be infectious is your employees’ attitude about you as an employer. I would rather have a room full of people who loved the business, bought into the concept but needed some training, than fully trained employees who were luke-warm or even disliked the organisation.

Your customers will get vibes off your employees

Not only will customers get the vibes off your employees; It can’t be helped, energetically we are all giving off vibes; even more importantly, your employees are likely connected in a way they have never been before in human history. Such is the power of social media.

Knowing that my employees were a kind of social media business card for my business could well fill me with horror. The truth is, if as a business you make a gaffe that is newsworthy, then it’s entirely possible many many people would know about it in seconds. We all know bad news is inevitable.

Consider the potential for either sharing good news or bad news. All of your employees have friends, family, social networks, whether they are online or not. What your employees are saying about you, your business, your product, your service, is vital.

It follows that it’s increasing vital to know what you are building with your team. What do they think? What are they saying to friends and family and potential customers about your business?

Ask your employees what they think

I talk to people a lot about their work. I ask them whether they like it or not. Whether they believe in what they do. I can honestly say that I have met people who love what they do, they are enthusiastic, and they believe that the organisation’s mission is their mission. These are the people we would all love to have working with us.

I have also met people who detest what they do. They don’t buy into the company values; they don’t respect what the company does. But they come to work because it’s a job; they need to feed their kids. You can usually spot these people in your team. They can’t help their attitude. While this is a problem, it’s an easily identifiable problem, and you can do something about it.

But what about the people who are in the middle? They quite like their job; they are rubbing along quite well. They aren’t too bothered about what you do, it pays well, and as far as their own responsibilities go, they do what they have to do. Are you content with the messages they are giving? If your employees are pretty neutral about the work they do, then it will come as no surprise that those who should be the biggest resource building your reputation are not talking about your business in the way you would like.

Your employees are one of your biggest advertisements. What they think say and do is totally representative of your organisation. Your business is the sum total of all of your employees, like it or not.

If you don’t know what your employees think about your organisation, ask them. Don’t make assumptions. Just because you think your idea’s are the best thing since Edison invented the light bulb, doesn’t mean your employees share that thought. If they don’t think much of your business, then you have work to do.

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7 Ways to Get It Right And Give Management The Credit They Deserve

By Christina Lattimer • May 5, 2014 - 3:37 pm Leadership and Management

A Management role is a multi-talented one!

I have read so many negative reports about management over the last few months that I felt I had to stand up and hurl in a different perspective. In the past few months, I’ve read quotes such as:

“three quarters of employers report a lack of leadership and management skills and too many managers have an inflated opinion of their ability to manage people”
“More than six out of ten people employed in customer facing sales and service roles say that their managers’ behaviour towards them [Negatively] affects the level of customer service they deliver.”
“Poor people management is at the root of much of the evil in our economy”
“Estimated cost of poor management in the UK is £19 Billion a year!”

What on earth is going on? If I were still a manager I think I’d be feeling pretty battered by now. So ok we have a problem Houston. But what is the real problem?

For me, problem number one, is that although we all know the difference between leadership and management (Don’t we?) We employ managers and complain they don’t lead and then we define leadership with models which talk about competencies such as leading from the front, vision and courage and integrity… to name but a few. Attributes most managers can’t actually use because they have to deliver an already created and articulated vision, where the trail has already been blazed, and the values already decided.

We want managers to be people managers, but actually none of our outcomes or targets or values is about our people, so where do we expect them to focus? Ok, so I’m stretching a point, or two, but I do think that those points illustrate that at times, just sometimes, managers can’t win.

I’m not going to get into the leadership debate in this blog; I’ll save that for another day. Today, I am going to concentrate on the sometimes thankless task of being a manager and why I think our good managers need a big and hearty pat on the back.

And just a final observation about the bad press managers get. With all the “poor” managers out there, I just have three questions. Who is recruiting them? Who is managing them? And who is letting poor managers get away with it to the extent that they have such a “negative” impact? Well, someone is!

There was an advert a few years ago that featured a mother wearing different hats. When her little girl cut her knee, she had the nurse cap on. When she was helping her son with his homework, she donned the mortarboard, and finally when cooking dinner she wore her chef’s hat. (I know, I’m probably showing my age) Well for me, managers are like mothers, to the extent that they have many roles and have to wear many hats.

In most organisations, managers are multi-faceted. They have to manage their people, their budget, their results locally and globally, the environment they work in, change management, training needs, absence, performance, initiatives, projects, the business plan, the people plan, stakeholders, partners, customers, reward, reviews, income, communications, processes, media, social responsibility, diversity,…….oh and of course the work. Need I go on?

I know that there are some great qualifications for managers and also managers pay is probably not too bad. But what I do think is that managers are not given the actual credit for the demanding, time-consuming, multi-talented role they have to play in an organisations’ success. It may have simply slipped my attention, but I have honestly never heard an organisation come out and say things like “we owe our success to our multi-talented managers” Or “the real backbone of the organisation is held together by our highly skilled managers” High profile leaders tend to get the credit for great successes.

So how do we go about changing the image of our managers, and giving those good ones the credit that they are due? Well here are my thoughts:

Be clear about the limit of the leadership role the manager. If a manager is an executor of an organisational vision, then specify that they have to have a team vision, which derives from the main vision. They don’t have to be able to change the world.
At recruitment stage, be clear about why you need the manager. If their prime focus is people management, then make sure they have people management skills. If you want a people manager and the successful candidate has written a great thesis on your range of products and the best way to sell them, then you are on the wrong tack.
Develop potential within the organisation, with brilliant role models and clear demonstrations of the skills, behaviours and standards expected.
If your organisation only has aims and targets based on product or service, then that’s where your managers will place their attention. If you want them to manage your people, then set targets about your people.
Make sure management is clear about the expectations of them. More importantly be clear you know what you expect of them. If you shift the goalposts, involve them in the decision.
If you employ specialists or professionals, value your managers as much as, if not more than your specialist or professional contribution. (Yes really)
Give your manager’s credit for the difficult and dedicated job they do. Their jobs are highly skilled professional roles, and you should acknowledge that.

In life there are people who work well and people who don’t do so well, and this is reflected at all roles in an organisation, there are poor CEO’s, all the way down the hierarchal chain to poor Administrators; as well as poor managers.

I believe that the reason for the focus on underperforming management is because they are such a pivotal and impactful force in an organisation. So let’s raise the standards of our managers and have better businesses, but also give credit when managers are doing a great job and value them.

I hope you enjoyed my small but heartfelt accolade to the manager. What do you think? Do you agree? Why do you think management are getting such a poor press? I’d love to have your views.

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Responsibility – The Road To Freedom

By Christina Lattimer • April 25, 2014 - 5:27 pm Leadership Development

Taking Responsibility is the key to greater freedom

Responsibility can be a tough bedfellow. Today in a couple of separate encounters, one with a 14 year old girl and the other a 40 year old man, I heard how they had recently experienced difficult times in their lives. What both had in common was they blamed others for their plight. The common theme was ”If only x had done y then z, and I would be ok”.

I watched this dynamic without judgment. I too had taken such a position for a very long time. I also felt a little saddened because I realised nothing could be changed permanently until they realised there was another way of seeing their situation now and in the future.

On both occasions, I attempted to suggest maybe there was another way of viewing their respective situations. Not to make them wrong, but to show them a way out of their agony. Both firmly rejected my suggestions, because sometimes, just sometimes, as human beings we would rather be right .

Sometimes you only see the light when you experience the darkness

A number of years ago, I personally experienced hard times. It was a depressing period in my life; the future looked bleak indeed. I knew things had to change. I didn’t know it then, but I came to realise what had begun as a monumental disaster, turned out to be the biggest gift life could have handed me.

As I pondered on what had gone so wrong, I blamed everyone and everything. The truth was some external and some internal factors had led me to that low point and blaming or focusing on external factors was getting me nowhere fast.

My first “light bulb” moment happened when I began to take total responsibility for my experience. I couldn’t control everything in my world. What I did have power over was my response to what life threw at me. Focusing on whose fault it was and wanting to point the finger of blame was deflecting from the energy needed to move beyond the situation.

Secondly, I began to pay attention to my intuition. I overrode my intuition pretty much of the time. The rot began early in life, times when I wanted to be like my peers; I wanted my relationships to be harmonious; I didn’t want to rock the boat with my parents. After many times of overriding my own internal truth, I realised my own best friend was inside me.

Acceptance releases the energy used for blame to finding a solution

Accepting my situation I began what I thought would be a slow and torturous route out of the fix I found myself in. On the contrary, it was the most enlightening and exciting of journeys. It wasn’t easy, but it was transformational. I went from being broke, dispirited and in despair, to a place where I was financially secure, optimistic and at peace with myself. The experience was like replacing a house of straw with a house of bricks with very solid foundations.

Taking Total Responsibility

I developed a vision: I set goals for my working life, I set figures for my income, how I would feel about my work and how good I would be at it. I achieved them almost 2 years ahead of target.

I set out a detailed plan. I needed certain skills and experience. I articulated the detail of “how” in my plan. I achieved all milestones and was offered the job I wanted before I had met the outcomes in the plan.

I engaged my team. I needed a support network around me. My beloved network included my family as well as my professional colleagues and friends. I let the right people know things had changed, and I got them on board to help me.

I focused on my successes and goals. I didn’t waste time thinking about the reality of the situation I found myself in. I faced up to it, identified the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be, and concentrated on closing the gap; not the past. In the present moment, I chose to be grateful for what I had achieved and the help and opportunities which came my way.

I let go of unhelpful doubts, thoughts and beliefs. I got in touch with the power of my mind. Doubt and negativity simply create resistance to achieving what you want

I have used those steps many times when leading teams at work as well as creating my life outside of work. Repetition should create mastery, yet I still struggle at times, but at least I now take total responsibility, so if things don’t work out, I only have myself to blame.

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7 Essential Mindset Shifts of New Leadership

By Christina Lattimer • April 22, 2014 - 4:44 pm Leadership Development

Leadership of the future will be all about mindset

New Leaders will be at the forefront of creating paradigm shifts for themselves, their teams and followers. Not only will they lead by example, but they will show others through focused thinking and vision a brave new world.

There are certain ingredients which leaders and people in the development field must be aware of moving forward. The ingredients included vision, beliefs, thinking skills and emotional intelligence. Using those ingredients effectively requires a Mindset different than that which has gone before. is now proving what most people believed was impossible is actually true, based on scientific evidence. Very briefly and simply, this means:

The universe is made up of pure energy
We are all interconnected and part of that energy
Energy is invisible, but what we what we pay attention, believe and think becomes our reality
Every observer will create a different reality depending on their Mindset

There is really only one shift to be made which is the realisation of the infinite possibilities which exist. But it as rare as St. Paul’s “Road to Damascus” moment for the majority of us to make such a huge shift all at once. It takes time for most of us to let go of old and outworn beliefs and thoughts and replace them with new life affirming mind-sets.

For leaders of the future, the following seven shifts may be good places to start in the workplace. Shifting our attention from:

Sickness to Well-being

Concentrate and invest in physical, emotional and mental wellness. We will measure wellness and our activities will be centred around being well. We will celebrate wellness, and set targets around well-being. Focusing attention and energy upon absence and sickness simply creates more of the same.

Scarcity to Abundance

Instead of cutting costs or settling for second best or laying off employees for example; we will develop possibilities of generating ways to grow and increase wealth. Be generous and don’t allow fear or guilt about finances be the decision-maker. Realise wealth isn’t all about money. It is about an abundant mindset.

Limited to Unlimited

There are no right or wrong decisions or beliefs. There is just difference. Moving from limited beliefs and thinking can at first prove overwhelming when we realise there are infinite possibilities or paths to traverse. We are only limited in our achievements by our limited thinking and beliefs. we must listen to our intuition and dare to believe what we truly desire can be achieved.

Powerlessness to Power

We will empower ourselves, believing in our ability to create, and change our current reality. Accept our current reality without resisting or wishing away what is. Have faith and patience with the right Mindset we can make positive changes.

Competition to Excellence

Let go of the need to compare and compete with others, whether personally or in business. Concentrate instead on only doing the best we can understand there is a niche for everyone and a contribution for everyone to make. We will focus on doing our best, not coming first.

Profit to Contribution

It matters not about the size of the contribution as long as it is authentic and borne of a desire to make a difference. ~We will shift from how much profit to how much of a contribution we make. It is the energy of contribution honestly made meeting a real need which is paramount. When we concentrate on contribution and make it a brilliant one, the energy will bring abundance.

Management to Relationship

Relationships are going to be the main focus for the future. Relationships built on mutual understanding, equal responsibilities, agreed roles, with built in accountability for fair reward. It is a mutual and agreed relationship of give and take, which returns energies of contribution with those of reward.

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Five Ways To Get Rid Of Stress and Honour Yourself

By Christina Lattimer • April 21, 2014 - 9:58 pm Leadership Development

To alleviate stress, you have to strike an equal balance between work, rest and play.

I write a lot about inspiration and what leaders should be doing well. I am always keen to describe how we should have vision and be using reaching strategies and behaviours to make things happen. Big action is often my cry. I’m a big advocate of emotional intelligence, intellectual dexterity; resilience, unity consciousness and how we relate to each other for example.

I read and share a plethora of intellectual, insightful and inspirational articles and blogs about what makes a great leader, manager, boss, HR Director or whoever may be paving the way for others. is a passion.

There are many people out there who tell us how to live our lives and what to strive for, how to do things well, improve, be better, be best, and yes I do that too.

For the majority of the time, I love it. I love finding new ways to motivate interest, excel and go the extra mile.

But there are times, when thinking about how efficient we should be, or how much we should challenge and push ourselves that sometimes; just sometimes it’s great to be just ok, in the here and now, right now, without any wish to be, do or think anything else.

The world is mostly in a queue, a whirlwind, aspiring to something, wanting to improve, getting better results, being more honest, moving forward, changing at the speed of light, a hive of activity which can be true in our personal lives as well as at work.

Stress is one of the biggest reasons for absence and one of the biggest costs of presenteeism at work. There are a number of causes of stress, and most of them caused as we live out the challenges of moving quickly, changing lives, work, roles, partners, houses, jobs, and the way we do things and there are many more.

And we don’t really have much choice. Unless everyone stood still at once, we need to keep up with it all, or risk being left behind, and that is our fear and why we tolerate stress often.

Sometimes though we need to stop and do something different. Oh the sweet relief of taking time out. Taking time out is important for anyone, whether you are a leader, a team member, stay at home or business owner. The world would be a better place, if everyone gave themselves a real break. So if you are endlessly busy and the adrenaline is wearing thin. Or you are too busy, too worried, stressed or in the throes of any kind of change: The following are some of my suggestions about how you can give yourself a respite from the madness of your daily life:

Accept everything completely as it is and make a decision just for even half day or so, not to wish for anything different. Just accept and surrender to where you are right now. Stop wanting people, situations or ourselves to be different. You don’t have to be happy about “what is” just make a decision not to be unhappy about it. That’s called being at Peace. And it’s refreshing.
Be with yourself: Watch yourself, feel your feelings, if you feel happy indulge yourself and let yourself really feel the happiness. If you feel sad, then give yourself permission to. Know it isn’t going to destroy you. Feel negative emotions instead of repressing them, just don’t act on them. Your emotions are simply a guidance system. If they are happy you are on the right track, if sad they are telling you that there is something you believe which is not true about yourself. Feeling and releasing negative emotions can feel brilliant, as long as you don’t wallow in them and don’t identify them as being who you really are.
Breathe; get away from the hustle and bustle if you can. Breathe in some healthy fresh air and enjoy the feeling of taking the air into your lungs and right into your body. When you are breathing you are relaxing your body, and giving it a rest. Conscious breathing is like having an inward shower, all your cells and your being benefits.
Meditate: For years I struggled with being able to meditate. I read all of the guidance and yes of course when I tried to stop thinking, the thoughts crowded in. Once I realised the true purpose of meditating is to focus on the gap between the thoughts I cracked it. The beauty of concentrating on the gap is twofold. Firstly you are in touch with your higher self who is all powerful and wise; and secondly, by being in the gap between your thoughts you are actually giving yourself a well-earned break. Thoughts are energy and too much thinking depletes us, yes even if most of our thoughts are happy ones.
Appreciate: Gratitude is a brilliant state to be in. Appreciation is even better because you tend to be grateful for something you have or have earned, or have been given. You can appreciate situations, people and stories which have nothing to do with you and as a result you are simply being appreciative of the world around you. Appreciation is akin to real love because real love is unconditional, all-encompassing and not limited to the personal self. Therefore feeling appreciation is restful, energising and soothing.

So go on, give yourself some much needed time off and practice some of the relaxing ways of “being” described. If you have your own ways of de-stressing or relaxing please do let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

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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.

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Challenging Limiting Beliefs Is A Leadership Skill

By Christina Lattimer • April 17, 2014 - 10:13 am Employee Development

Understanding how people tick is essential for a leader, especially at the level of our beliefs.

Beliefs create our individual and collective worlds. Millions of pieces of information are available to us at any one time. Our beliefs and the parameters which are then laid down by our beliefs determine which pieces of information we receive. Our beliefs determine which pieces of information we accept or reject. If we don’t believe it, then we simply don’t perceive it, or won’t allow ourselves to perceive it. In the words of the song

“No matter what they tell us No matter what they do No matter what they teach us What we believe is true” Beliefs come in all sorts of packages and create all kinds of effects in our lives.

When conflicting beliefs come into our awareness it can create confusion
Holding opposing beliefs at the same time can cause internal conflict
Limiting beliefs can prevent you receiving what you want
Subconscious beliefs appear to control your behaviour and make you feel helpless
You can bring subconscious beliefs into your awareness
You can choose your beliefs. No belief is ever fixed
The key to changing your world and experience is to change your beliefs
How you interpret reality around you can inform and shape your beliefs.
Beliefs are simply an interpretation that you choose to determine as true
Beliefs can be changed.

When a leader or manager understands the process to go through to challenge limited beliefs, then they have the key to secure positive change for the greater good. I’m not suggesting that it is a leader or manager’s job to change people’s beliefs. And certainly we need to make sure we respect people’s beliefs, particularly in the arena of equality. However a good leader or manager will understand the effects of limiting beliefs and understand the process of undoing them.

People act and react in accordance with their beliefs and uncovering those beliefs to enable positive growth is extremely powerful. Brainwashing people or trying to force people down a different route is not ethical, and it is not what I am suggesting. Everyone has a free will, and this must be respected. But it is useful to know, how and what you need to do to understand when your employees are holding unhelpful beliefs about themselves or others. Being aware that these beliefs can be changed can help you to influence and persuade employees to adopt more positive beliefs.

I’ll give you an example. I worked hard for a couple of years engaging with a particular team and helping them to think and feel like a successful highly motivated team. In those days I was pretty idealistic and hoped that I would win everyone over, and that everyone would enjoy working in the team. But there was a core of people, who no matter what, were still unhappy. They habitually criticised and caused negative waves. Simply put, they had fixed beliefs about their working lives and maintaining their belief was more important to them then changing beliefs.

I was talking to one of the employees who could be particularly negative. I asked her why she seemed so resentful and was there something I was doing which was causing this particular resentment? Her reply was a real eye-opener. She told me that it was nothing to do with me at all. I had come in and she observed that I was trying to get the team on board. However, she didn’t like management, never had and never would. She went as far as to say that nothing I would ever do would persuade her otherwise!

We did come to a somewhat uncomfortable compromise in the end, which limited her impact in terms of negativity within the team and how our relationship would work in the workplace given her fixed and unrelenting views. Not ideal, but then, not my job to change her beliefs.

The real power of understanding beliefs and belief systems is when managers are instigating change. Work on drawing out existing individual and team beliefs and then understanding how to help people see things through a different lens for the better within the workplace is the key to fundamental and lasting success.

Encouraging employees to reach positive beliefs about themselves, their contribution and the meaningfulness of your vision and task are the building blocks to brilliant success.

Incidentally for the sake of clarification: in the Equality Act; belief is defined as “including philosophical beliefs, such as humanism, which are considered to be similar to a religion. Other categories of beliefs, such as support for a political party, are not protected by the Equality Act.” This is not what this blog is about.

This blog underpins the work being developed for my leadership programme which will be released later this year. If you’d like to be updated when this is available,

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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!

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A Creative Look At Routine – 5 Steps To Transform Your Routine Processes or Tasks

By Christina Lattimer • January 9, 2014 - 1:15 pm Leadership and Management

Are you creative in your routine?

A human myth is that there are creative people and people who simply aren’t. The truth is that we are all creating. Some of us simply create more routine in our lives than others. Some create a more adventurous lifestyle, hone artistic qualities or even can create much drama in their lives. One of the determinants of how you will use your creative skills will be based on your personality preferences.

MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), is based on the psychology of Carl Jung, where he identified eight distinct personality functions which can strongly influence the way we create our world, our creative approach will differ depending on our type preference.

Until I understood my personality type preferences I used to judge myself for “not having more attention to detail” and for preferring to spend time on my own than with friends (not always, but often!), or for having millions of ideas and not being able to finish implementing many of them. Realising that I had unconscious preferences to be a certain way, but I could choose to do things differently, even if that felt uncomfortable; was extremely liberating.

The relevance of all that is that while some people love routine and feel lost without it, for me I get bored very easily with routine tasks, I love starting new projects, a varied workload and trying new things. At this time in my life I have learned enough about myself and created sufficient discipline to get the routine stuff out of the way, but I simply don’t enjoy it, procrastinate too often and look forward to the utopian day when I can afford to pay others to carry out the routine tasks to free me up to vision, imagine and create new adventures.

Setting up my new business has been a steep learning curve. I have been self-employed in the past but simply worked as an associate and worked with many different companies. This time, I’m actually setting up a business, which means it has to have outcomes, structure, financial plans and on and on. Up until a few months ago I actually sang my way into the office every day. Using my imagination to decide what I wanted to create, with real meaning and purpose has been exciting, new and adventurous.

A few months ago the social media side of the business took a remarkable positive turn which meant lots of services being delivered to new clients. Enviable isn’t it? Well yes it certainly is and we are counting our blessings every day. The problem of course for me is it meant routine work increased because we simply had to deliver. Not my strong preference!

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