Become A World-Class Coach

Professional Coaches Needed.

 

 

Do you want to become a qualified, executive coach either within your organisation or in a self-employed capacity? If so, read on…

Coaching is the science of asking the right questions in the right way in order to effect real and lasting change. Coaches ask great questions that unlock limiting paradigms, go straight to the heart of the matter and make the individual or team sit up and challenge their own thoughts and actions. As a consequence of great coaching, they apply changes in their behaviour and activity, in order to reach their full potential.

Coaching is also the art of believing in someone and making them have total belief in themselves.

Great coaches rely on tried and tested systems to apply effective and powerful coaching intervention and deliver the results that the individual, team and organisation want and need.

Best Year Yet® is such a system. Its been around for 25 years with amazing success. Used by over 800 companies and 1 million individuals world wide it does exactly what it says on the tin – deliver a plan for success that enables you to experience and deliver your best ever year, year after year. Best Year Yet is the combination of powerful coaching intervention and an online goal setting and performance tracking system that offers a fool-proof guarantee of success.

Over the past 25 years $millions have been invested in developing and enhancing the live, Producing Results Online System.

Consequently, Best Year Yet is transformation for an individual. It creates unstoppable teams. It delivers results that give organisations the edge over their competition. It can and has been used in the sporting arena, business and corporate world and with non profit making institutions and even with expeditions with amazing results:

See here for some of the testimonials.

Best Year Yet is part of a bigger US organisation, but our company owns the UK licence.

In the UK, many blue chip organisations are moving away from traditional ‘training’, where people go away on courses, come back to 2 weeks of emails – their course binder ending up on a shelf gathering dust, while the day to day challenges of the business take over. (Sound familiar?) Consequently all the good intentions and best practice they learned on the course is forgotten. This is called the Ebbinghaus Effect.

My team are having huge success in the UK with Best Year Yet® because it consists of a full twelve month programme with monthly coaching intervention that creates ‘moments of change’ in individuals and teams. Their results and development is phenomenal. BYY has a direct positive impact on their attitude and their action. For British companies and SME’s it offers a clearly defined return on investment and tangible measurable results. One team has just delivered £36million against an original objective for the year of £12 million. This is truly their best year yet. The very essence of Best Year Yet delivers:

Results
Accountability
Moments of Change
Personal and Team Development
Empowerment
Engagement
Enhanced Morale
The feeling of success

This system, skillfully applied by a good coach is transformational.

The testimonials speak for themselves.

Consequently, Best Year Yet in the UK and countries such as India and Africa is growing rapidly and to cope with this demand we need coaches. So if you are thinking about becoming a self-employed coach; a recognised, qualified coach within your organisation; or you are already a coach but would like access to:

• our growing, international support community
• A UK  Best Year Yet license and training
• Be on our list to be called upon for National/Global contracts, and be able to use Best Year Yet as a proven model for you and your existing clients/teams.

Then please contact me asap at simon@simonteague.com.

Included within the Best Year Yet programme:

• Initial assessment and comprehensive training programme leading to the five steps to transformation.
• 10 questions detailing your accomplishments, limitations, ambitions and goals.
• Production of your own one page plan for success, so you become a product of the product.
• 12 month online goal setting and tracking programme
• Coaching support for BYY community by audio/conference call and/or face to face every month (3 hour coaching sessions)
• Monthly leadership skills audio programmes.
• Monthly behavioural skills learning toolkit
• Your own personal copy of the book Your Best Year Yet!: Make the next 12 months your best ever! written by Jinny Ditzler.
• All our training materials.
• We are also currently working with the ILM to gain their endorsement, thereby giving individuals a worthwhile Leadership & Management Certification.

If you were considering setting up your own coaching business you will need to consider the following:

• The need to develop your own coaching proposition and purchase a license for any material you use.
• Starting from scratch with no support, marketing or testimonials is one of the biggest challenges facing all new business coaches.
• Cash-flow
• Purchasing an existing coaching franchise for anything upwards of £15,000 plus a percentage of your fees.

With Best Year Yet UK, you can obtain all the benefits of the BYY UK community, marketing, technical support and three and a half days training, together with a license to sell Best Year Yet individual coaching programmes. You will also make your own Best Year yet plan and receive 12 months professional coaching, so you become a product of the product. All of this will require an initial up-front investment from you, the majority of which can easily be returned through your first client. With an investment of only £3,498.00 all this can be yours and all you pay for thereafter is the cost of the Online programmes, NOT a percentage of your fee income.

In addition:

1. From time to time, you may need our existing highly qualified and experienced coaches to support you to win large corporate contracts and deliver coaching programmes for you.
2. We in turn may have work for you from our existing and growing contract base, in your particular field of industry/coaching expertise.

In this respect, we are urgently seeking 12 new coaches for the UK. If you are interested please email your CV right now to simon@simonteague.com

How Can I Become A Better Leader – Part 4 – Good Listener

 

“It struck me so forcibly that I shall never forget him. He had ‘leadership qualities’ which I had never seen in any other man. Never had I seen such concentrated attention. His eyes were mild and genial, his voice low and kind. His gestures were few. But the attention he gave me, his appreciation for what I said, even when I said it badly, was extraordinary. You’ve no idea what it meant to be listened to like that.” The narrator describes his experience of meeting one of the world greatest ever listeners, Sigmund Freud.

The late great Dale Carnegie How To Win Friends And Influence People tells the story of a time when he met a woman at a dinner party, who had heard about his travels to Europe and was desperate to hear all about it. She commented that she and her husband had recently returned from a holiday in Africa.

“Africa!” I exclaimed “How interesting! I’ve always wanted to see Africa, bit I never got there except for a 24 hour stay once in Algiers.” Dale Carnegie went on to ask if she visited the big game reserves and over the next 45 minutes, she proceeded to tell him all about her wonderful trip. She never again asked him where he had been in Europe or what he had seen. She didn’t really want to know – all she wanted was an interested listener, so she could expand her ego and relive her memories.

Is this unusual? No. Most people are like that. Most of us prefer to talk than to listen. There is a saying:

We were all born with two ears and one mouth, but we don’t use them in proportion.

Dale Carnegie knew the art of listening. He could listen for hours to people talking about what interested them most, without hardly saying a word, but still be known as a ‘good conversationalist’.

Years ago a Dutch immigrant boy whose family lived in poverty, had to gather coal in the streets that had fallen off coal wagons, instead of going to school and yet Edward Bok went on to become one of America’s greatest magazine editors. At the age of 13, he started work as an office boy for Western Union, but he was fascinated by the lives of famous people. He decided to write to them asking for details of their childhood and how they became successful. He wrote to the then President of The United States, famous inventors, industrialists and politicians. And they all replied. Before long, he was corresponding with many of the most famous people in the Nation. They all invited him for holidays, as a welcome guest in their homes. ‘This experience imbued him with a confidence that was invaluable. These men and women fired him with a vision and ambition that shaped his life’.

All because he was a great listener, genuinely interested in other people.

I once came up against an extremely irate and obnoxious customer. (I suppose we all do at some stage of our working life!) He was furious – ranting about my staff being rude to him, not following our procedures and not acknowledging our mistakes.  He had written copious letters of complaint; phoned on twenty occasions; he was threatening legal action; wanted his money back and all his accounts closed. Different staff became involved and despite trying desperately to resolve the situation and explain why certain decisions had been made, he accused them of conspiring and making excuses. The matter became so vitriolic that the staff, including several managers who had been involved, couldn’t cope with him and every attempt to try to resolve the situation just seemed to antagonise him further.

As soon as the situation was referred to me, I picked up the phone, explained who I was and offered to meet him at a time and place convenient to him. “You mean you are actually prepared to listen to my justified complaints about your staff and take me seriously?” Yes I said. So we met and he ranted on for nearly 3 hours. I listened patiently to everything he had to say, making notes on key issues I felt were important to him and displaying empathy for his situation. Never interrupting, I just listened, paying attention to every word. Finally he ran out of steam. I thanked him for letting me know about all the issues. I apologised and explained that I couldn’t solve everything or change the poor experience he felt he’d suffered, but that I did take everything he said seriously and that I will do my best to ensure we improve our service to him in the future.

That was the last thing in the world I think he expected me to say. He had come ready for a fight and here I was agreeing with him, (on the premise that the customer is always right), apologising, listening genuinely to his concerns and being honest about the outcome.

A few days later another letter arrived. This time addressed to my boss, saying I was one of the most professional, courteous and honest people he had ever had the pleasure to meet and that I was a credit to the organisation. After reflecting on his own behaviour he apologised and admitted that he may originally have been wrong in the first place. He remains a loyal customer and significant introducer of new business to that organisation, to this day.

If you want to win the respect of your team, your peers, your boss, your customers and your competitors, DON’T talk incessantly about yourself. If you have an idea while the other person is talking DON’T interrupt in the middle of a sentence. People who talk only of themselves, think only of themselves. ‘A persons toothache means more to that person than a famine in Africa which kills a million people.’

So, if you aspire to be a great leader, an inspirationalist and good conversationalist, be an active listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask meaningful, relevant questions that other people will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.

Ask better questions and the result will be better answers.

Real listening develops emotional intelligence. You learn far more by listening to your team and the people in your life than by talking. Daniel Goleman The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership describes the rare leadership qualities of a ‘Level 5 leader’ – leaders who get the best results are often humble and show a great deal of empathy with their team.

Leadership qualities of humility and empathy come only through listening actively, engaging your teams and creating a culture where they feel they have a voice, where their opinions and ideas are listened to, encouraged and nurtured. This leads to empowerment and creativity, vital components of building top performing teams and great leadership.

Watch out though. Listening can be one of the hardest leadership skills to learn. You will often have to stop yourself… just when you are about to wade in with reams of your own ‘great ideas’; just when you know you have all the answers. STOP. Instead of making suggestions, offering solutions and giving your opinions, ASK. Question your team – get them to come up with the answers. Sit back and LISTEN. You will be amazed at what you hear. This leadership skill takes great practice and much self-awareness and reflection, but I encourage you to spend most of your time as a leader living to Paretos 80/20 principle. Listen 80% of the time and talk only 20% – the results will astound you.

Next week we will take a look at creativity. In thinking there is creating, in creating there is doing, in doing there is learning, in learning there is success.  

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” George Bernard Shaw

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Leadership-Expert Development Programmes – Testimonials

Before you choose a Leadership Training Provider, there are two major considerations:

1. The training organisation’s ability to meet your specific needs. Ideally the training provider should be capable of designing and delivering bespoke training to meet the specific challenges you and you team face on a day to day basis. Don’t go for ‘cheap ‘off the shelf’ versions of training. A really good tip is to invite training companies to come to a presentation day (otherwise known as a beauty parade) with a fairly broad brief (ie ‘leadership training‘). The good training company will have researched your companies vision and values and should have made contact with you beforehand to ascertain what leadership development programmes will work best.
2. Have a strong track record, backed up by awards and strong testimonials. In the case of British training companies they should be Government Registered Training providers and will have been issued with a Unique Provider Number (UKPRN). This means they may be able to access Government funding, if there is any available for specific training provision.

Leadership-Expert offers a range of bespoke training programmes to meet the specific needs of your organisation. Registered in the name of Simon Teague LLP (UKRPN: 10035854), these programmes are designed and delivered:

• Directly by Simon Teague LLP and Associates
• OR, using expert companies who Simon Teague LLP has researched and recommend as being the top for value and quality provision in a specific field.

Testimonials:

Mitsubishi Electric Europe BV:
‘Simon Teague LLP is working directly with our board to develop winning strategies based around bringing to life our vision, enhancing our reputation for quality, developing and engaging our people and building a winning culture. The philosophies and uncompromising actions have led us on a journey of successful outcomes we would not have foreseen. We would strongly recommend his services to anyone except our competition.’ Seiichiro Kurosawa, General Manager

Sir Robert McAlpine:
‘My team consists of a consortium of up to eight different organisations tendering and bidding under the Governments Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for the construction and maintenance of a large scale school building programmes. This is an incredibly challenging, diverse and complex project involving production of detailed plans and tender documents which have to be submitted to strict deadlines. Our presentation was an outstanding success and we could simply not have achieved anywhere near that level of professionalism, clarity of message and audience engagement without the expertise of Pauls presentation techniques and without Simon’s outstanding one to one coaching. I would strongly recommend these guys to all of our consortium partners and look forward to continuing our work with them in the future.’ Peter Ingram, Project Director – Somerset BSF

Veritek Global Ltd
‘At a time when we were expanding our business into new markets it was essential we invested in improving the skills of our 40 strong leadership and management team. Undertaking effective performance and development reviews to drive up the performance of our workforce was a key strategy and given Simon’s background and experience, he was the ideal person to help us on this journey.
He has provided us with an incredible array of techniques in which the team can adapt to the changing needs of the business, address issues of under-performance and conflict management and recognise and reward our top people. We are now seeking to engage Simon’s invaluable input into the next phase to implement a range of development programmes across the business.’ Jim Edgar, Managing Director.

The Inspirationists

‘Simon is a creative thinker and presenter, and uses both his business skills and his vast experience to consult, advise and support both businesses and individuals, via speaking engagements, one-to-one support and advice and via his writings, which are highly strategic and yet fitting for this busy, difficult, mixed-up business world. Go talk to him – he makes things work for you!’ Henry Lee

Crane Office Supplies

‘I attended the Leadership-Expert course over a 6 week period, I found the material and style of coaching excellent. I use the skills learned everyday now and couldn’t be without them. A GREAT investment, I would do it again under Simon’s leadership. I attended with a colleague and have found this more valuable now, rather than during the course, my colleague and I are always referring back to our learnings of the course. Our action plan is STOP, THINK (back to the course), ACTION. My business is going from strength to strength, 2008 our T/O was £1.6mill, 2009 on target for £2.6mill. Obviously, not all down to the training from Simon but definitely helped in: setting the plan, re-aligning my thoughts, mapping out the vision. Finally having the belief you can do it. I fully recommend the 6 week leadership course.’ Michael Crane, Business Owner

Capital Training Group

‘Simon’s input into The Plumbing Academy has proved invaluable. His experience, know-how, and attention to detail has helped our business grow and prosper, and I would thoroughly recommend his services to any business that wishes to use him on forthcoming projects, integration or expansion plans, or for streamlining processes and finding efficiencies.’ Alex Galway, Managing Director

A4G LLP

‘I attended one of Simon’s leadership courses and found the experience invaluable. He has an extensive knowledge of different leadership techniques and he was able to share these in a very professional and informative way.’ Caroline Coleman, Partner

Skatta TV

Simon has a vast wealth of experience and knowledge in Leadership and Management. He has worked with our staff using his business tool The Ultimate Guide, which is unquestionably the best Leadership tool we have ever seen. Its clear, easy to use and gets your team thinking in the correct way. The fact that The Ultimate Guide is in physical format and digital format makes it a very versatile product. Its an invaluable asset to our arsenal of business tools. Along with Simon’s coaching and guidance we have been able to implement many of the Leadership strategies into every day business and made a positive change to the infrastructure of our company. Simon is a great communicator and very personable, he fits into any team and implements change with integrity. I would highly recommend Simon as a Business Consultant and definitely suggest every team gets a copy of his Ultimate Guide. – Tricia Lichfield Director at Swat.tv, & SkattaDigital, BBC Lighthouse Building, London

KL Express Logistics Ltd

‘The Business Leader programme has transformed the way I now lead and run my business operation. I have become much more of a listener and am prepared to give my staff more time and discuss different aspects of the business. Two heads are better than one! The coaching modules have been integrated into my company and this has had a positive knock on effect to business efficiency.  Staff feel more engaged, giving them a feeling of self worth and commitment, with more involvement in the company. This is by far the best training I have ever received. I now have a toolkit of leadership styles, traits and techniques which I can use to get the best out of my people and deliver the business objectives. I am sending a junior manager on the next leadership programme and have recommended it to an associate who will also be using Leadership-Expert to help develop his people.’ Gary Knight, Managing Director

Royal Bank of Scotland Group

‘A sensible choice for any Leader or Manager who is looking for a guide of proven work place techniques to use as building blocks for self development and longevity of high individual and team performance.’ Graham Wright, Regional Director

See here for further testimonials regarding the Leadership Toolkit: The Ultimate Leadership Guide.

Leadership-Expert offers a full range of leadership development programmes and for more information please email simon@simonteague.com.

 

How Can I Become A Better Leader – Part 3 – Goal Setting

 

 

  Nothing happens unless first we dream. Carl Sandberg

There is a moment in every person’s life when the awareness of their destiny bursts like a bubble onto the surface of their conscious mind. It is then that the weak avoid the realisation and busy themselves with the mundane tasks of their lives. It is also at that moment that the strong will awake and decide to take action to change their world for the better and thereby secure for themselves their rightful and valued place in the history of humankind.

Napoleon Hill writes about some of the worlds greatest thinkers and achievers and what differentiates them from most others people. The biggest differentiator is that of persistence. He highlights that Henry Ford was often misunderstood to be ruthless and cold-blooded. This misconception grew out of Ford’s habit of following through in all his plans with persistence.

“The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purpose overboard and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all opposition until they attain their goal. These few are the Ford’s, Carnegies, Edisons” and more recently the Gates, Bransons and Cowells of this world.’

The key is not just to set goals, but to ACT on them. Paul McKenna writes about the traits of rich thinkers and successful entrepreneurs and what he noticed was that there is virtually no gap between their decisions and their actions. Once they decided to go ahead with a project, the first action steps were generally taken within 24 hours. When Mark Burnett arrived in LA in 1982 with only $600 in his pocket, his first job was selling T-shirts on Venice Beach. Today he is the most successful TV producer in the world. His moto is “jump in – take action even if you are not entirely ready”. He firmly believes that a major part of his success has been his willingness to go for what he’s passionate about.

The world is into goal-setting isn’t it? And yet most people I meet suggest we are not generally into goal-setting, yet everybody says how essential it is for success, particularly in relation to leadership. And it absolutely is. Goal setting and goal acting is what differentiates the most successful leaders to those who just generally ‘get by’.

Unfortunately, many people don’t set aside time to think about their goals, plan for success, take the right action, measure and reflect. Why? Most people think it takes so long to prepare they give up before they begin and convince themselves that goal setting isn’t for them.

One of the easiest ways to think and plan goal setting can be summed up Dr Stephen Covey’s second habit – that of ‘begin with the end in mind’. Set your goals for where you want to be in one year’s time and then work backwards from there. Where do I want to be in 9 months, 6 months, 3 months? Where do I need to be at the end of next month to be on track to hit my annual goal? Imagine for a moment, you have been asked to organise a tennis tournament – a singles knockout competition. Two hundred and fifty seven people apply to play in the competition. Your job is to work out how many matches there will need to be. Two hundred and fifty seven people, singles knockout competition, how many matches altogether?

The answer, of course, is 256 matches, because at the end of the day there will be only one winner – and 256 losers.

How does this relate to goal setting? Well if we look at where we want to get to first (ie to win) and determine our destination, rather than the starting point, then the road ahead becomes clear.

When goal setting, also bear in mind the Pareto principle – the 80/20 rule. Dr Spencer Johnson, author of The One Minute Sales Person plays out this scenario with a successful sales employee:

“I do four specific things: 1) I decide on the few important 20% – and they become my goals. 2) I write my goals down in a special way. 3). I often review my goals. 4) I frequently look at my goals and then at my behaviour to see if it matches my goals.”

From hereon I have decided to split this article in two halves. The first section looks at personal goal setting and the second focuses on my advice regarding corporate goal setting.  If you work or run your own business you will definitely experience the latter, but the most successful people will have both areas covered.

 

Setting and Delivering Personal Goals:

 

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.
Brian Tracy, Eat that Frog

Think of goal setting as if you were driving in a foreign country – You wouldn’t get where you expect to go without a clear set of directions. It is like drawing a map for yourself.

Many studies have proven that long-term perspective is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in the world today. And it has been proven that people who have goals written down are much more likely to achieve them. In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.

Here is my step by step guide to setting yourself personal goals. Also bear in mind the following rule to making this a worthwhile activity by using this long established philosophy (well my slightly amended version) – goals must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic but stretching
• Timely
• Exciting
• Enjoyable (yes – make it fun)

STEP 1: Write Down Your Focus Areas

Here is a list of some areas you may want to focus on. Skip the ones that are not for you and write out each focus area goal.  It often helps to think about what you have accomplished over the past few years – where would you like to focus your attention now to lead a fulfilling, successful and enjoyable life?

Branding – Your look and feel, your image and health, or your pitch.

Career Progression – What are your ambitions and how can they be realised.

Money – How much money you would like to earn?

Time – How will you manage to balance your time this year to make sure you can focus on what’s important to you?

Relationships – How will you spend more quality time with those whose company you enjoy the most?

Leadership – what do you want your performance and that of your team to look like?

Personal Health – So your performance is better – exercise, eating  etc.

Time of your life – If you were planning to experience the best year of your life – what would you like to happen in the next 12 months to be able to look back and say “Wow, what an amazing year!” So dream big – plan to win.

STEP 2: Write Your Goals Down

• Write each goal as if it is already happening – use the present tense

• Give dates by when you want to achieve each one i.e. within the next 12 months.

• Balance your goals between work, business, health, hobbies and relationships. This will ensure you achieve that elusive work/life balance you have always dreamed of.

• Make them so they are realistically achievable and maybe a little stretching at the same time. Have fun with this.

• Set the goals so they can be broken down into small objectives (milestones) that you can check off throughout the year. Make sure you celebrate success.

STEP 3: Look At Your Goals Everyday

I highly recommend writing your goals neatly on paper or creating a vision or dream board that illustrates them. Use colour pens or make a collage that brings them to life and hang them in a place where you can see them everyday. Keeping them within your sights will keep them in your mind.

 

Techniques for Personal Success

1. Start With An Easy Goal And Complete It

One of the main reasons people don’t end up achieving their goals / keeping their New Year resolutions is they set themselves up for failure by choosing goals that take a lot of discipline and time to achieve. There is nothing wrong with having big goals however, but here’s a great way to get started:

Choose a simple goal and get it achieved within the next two weeks. This will start your momentum and get you feeling like you making good progress. Think of a small, achievable goal that only takes three to four hours to complete.

Choose something like:

• Clear office
• Organise my diary
• Delete unwanted files from computer
• Recycle last years unwanted papers
• Go for my first run
• Take my children over the park.

Next, set a date when you will get it done by and go for it.

Now that you have achieved a goal within the first two weeks, the rest of your goal setting will seem a lot easier to accomplish.

2. Make Lists To Stay On Track

• Make daily lists of what you need to do to get your goals met – the night before! Do the hardest thing first in the morning – don’t procrastinate.

• Do something everyday that moves you towards the goals

• Delegate the little activities that waste your valuable time to other people (I know it is easier said than done!).

• Don’t overload yourself – studies show that 6 tasks is the maximum you can achieve in one day!

3. Get Help

Build a team of friends, colleagues and supporters around you. There are two things you can do with these people. Delegate (in the nicest possible way!) or turn them into raving fans. We can all accomplish so much more when we have people cheering us on or by our side. For example going to the gym is no fun on your own… and sometimes it requires that extra special level of discipline to force ourselves out the door. Meeting someone there or going along with them makes all the difference.

Find a coach. Every successful sports athlete has a professional coach at their side. Coaching is one of the most powerful and effective things leaders can experience. Having a coach at your side will enable you to focus on setting great SMARTEE goals; taking the right action at the right time; develop a winning mind-set and ensuring you achieve and celebrate success.  In every case that I know of, successful leaders, business people, CEO’s, Entrepreneurs and athletes swear by the power of coaching.

4. Structure Time to Achieve Goals

They won’t happen unless you have time to make sure they do!

5. Remember You Can Change The Goals As You Go

Goals should be looked at as beacons and guiding points for you to keep yourself on track along your journey.  I would not recommend changing them every week but the world is changing so rapidly it can sometimes be a challenge to know what goals are reachable in this climate. So if during the course of the year your goals change its OK to cross one off or modify as you go.

6. Write Down 5 Successes Each Day

I’m inviting you to write down five little victories a day for this entire year.

This is a very powerful technique from T. Harv Eker.  Once you start getting into this habit, you are training yourself to put the focus on the positive and get your brain to stop being so critical. Put a notebook in your bag or next to your bed and each day write down 5 things. Make sure they are balanced.

My final piece of advice for personal goal setting

This is a process intended to take a whole year and you will have your days where you may get frustrated, and you will start to beat yourself up (sound familiar?)

Self-criticism can interfere with achieving your goals and dreams.  So, the next time you are making yourself feel bad, take a step back and instead acknowledge the good, and celebrate your achievements.

Another thing that will stop you is not taking time for YOU, so schedule time to reflect and take it all in.  Maybe that’s a walk in the park or listening to your favorite music, or maybe it’s spending time with people you love and turning down your power for a few precious moments.

 

Setting and Delivering Corporate Goals

In organisations, setting clear, achievable, challenging, and unwavering (as much as possible given today’s rate of change) measures are critical to employee and organisational success. Appropriate measures are also strong motivators because most employees want to excel, and knowing the target helps them self-measure.

1. ‘Partnership’ goal setting:

Ideally goal setting should be done in partnership between bosses and employees. Involving employees will enhance their involvement and ownership. Direct reports are closest to the action and often in the best position to provide information on what’s possible in their work. Partnership goal setting carries some risk, (if morale is low), but executives are often surprised by the ambitions of motivated teams of people and more and more organisations are giving this methodology a try. It’s hugely empowering. Getting the boss’s input on metrics at the same time will ensure you are measuring all the same outcomes with the same language, measures and expectations.

Watch out for the pull… The demands of shareholders’; market expectations; consumers and over ambitious CEO’s can lead to real challenges when it comes to setting achievable objectives for all. I once worked for an organisation where the senior executive thought it would enhance motivation by setting ‘BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS GOALS!’ Suffice to say, the opposite happened. A recent survey by The Booz & Company revealed the great majority of executives (64% of the 1800 respondents) said their biggest frustration is ‘having too many conflicting priorities’. They feel their biggest challenges are (a) ensuring that day-to-day decisions are in line with the strategy and (b) allocating resources in a way that really supports the strategy. Half of the executives consider setting a clear and differentiating strategy a significant challenge and most do not feel their company’s strategy will lead to success, saying growth initiatives often lead to waste. The vast majority of executives (82%) say functional departments in their companies get competing demands from different business units.

The most effective targets are clearly aligned with a corporate vision which all staff buy-in to. When everyone is singing off the same song sheet and everyone understands the role they have to play, the right targets can lead to cumulative productivity and success.

2. Communicate the goals.

Many executive teams set goals, but they don’t communicate these goals to the organization. For goals to be effective, they have to be communicated to every employee in the organization. Employees should wake up in the morning thinking about how they’re going to help achieve these goals. It also helps to consider the employees’ or group’s strengths and weaknesses. Determine what targets would encourage strength building directly linked to business goals and the individual’s career development aspirations.

3. Focus and execution

Focus on results AND activity – the latter should lead to the former. Establish a culture of execution. Execution is not an event–a onetime push towards achieving goals. Rather it is a way of life, and this way of life (execution versus non-execution) is set in the early days of the organization. The best way to establish this culture is for the founders, particularly the CEO, to set an example of hitting goals, responding to customers, and heeding and measuring employees. This obsession can go right down to the level of the CEO answering emails and responding to phone calls.

4. Aspirations and milestones.

Drill down into the goal to determine the “One Measure” that clearly determines success. This is often called a ‘Key Performance Indicator’ (KPI). Set a single, discrete measure for each “fundamental” of the business that equates to success. For example In-bound Sales answering each call within 3 rings or following up all conversations within 48 hours.

You can also agree aspirational targets for “Break-through’s”. For example, reducing cost or time by 20% in a key business process.  These types of goals do not have to be performance related, but can act as additional incentives to move the organisation forward at a quicker pace. For example, I worked for a company that introduced a cost saving initiative called ‘1%, 1%, 1%’. The objective was to try to find a way to reduce costs by 3% and share the savings: 1% directly with the member of staff or team who came up with the idea; 1% with the department/division to spend on what they liked and 1% to benefit the organisation.

5. Recognition and reward

Set the standard that employees measure their own progress against targets and report their progress or slippage to you on an agreed-upon time frame. Establish the up-front expectation that when slippage occurs the employee is to report results for the period with a workable and realistic plan to reach the target before the end of the performance period.  Managers need the capability and confidence of Morpheus. Morpheus is the character in the film, The Matrix who gave Neo the choice between the blue pill and the red pill. He was, essentially, the adult supervision. Cold, brutal reality is the ally of execution, so find a Morpheus who distributes the red pills and enables employees to see things as they really are.

Provide routine opportunities for employees to review progress. Teach them how to “brag” about their good performance, results achievement, and help them feel a real sense of achievement as they are reporting progress that will enable target accomplishment.

Make the rewards worth it. Be sure to determine the employee’s aspirations so you know what rewards will create a real enticement. For example, it’s not always about financial reward as this leadership video outlines. Companies like Iceland, recently voted The Times Top 100 Companies to work for in the UK, spend up to £7million every year on Achievers Awards Ceremony’s, holidays, parties and celebrations for their top achievers. Many employees would prefer barriers to be removed so they can really produce. Others want better computers, a better desk, chair or a simple “Well done” from the boss. Too many organizations fail to see the value in giving high performers what they want for fear that the employees are going to want a million dollars each. And – maybe an employee that gets enough business to produce a hundred million in profit should get that million!

And finally…

Goal setting is for winners. It requires self-discipline, engagement and the more fun we can make it the more powerful it can become in unlocking the potential we have within us. Goal setting can create a relentless drive within us, especially when the goal gets closer and closer to being achieved.  Let’s take a look at the film, “Finding Nemo” for example.

The father clownfish character of Marlin goes through a transformation from an over-protective father to a problem-solving parent in the animated film. His goals are clearly defined – to find his son, Nemo. During his journey, Marlin makes several changes solely on the problems that he is faced with and the way he chooses to handle them. Throughout the film, he battles the ocean’s obstacles and the choices that he makes to react to those problems change his entire view on life and ultimately help him achieve his goal of bringing his son back home.

So, as a leader I encourage you to adopt a goal-setting mind-set. I will leave you with my five golden nugget ingredients to success – plan it, execute it, reflect on it, call on a coach and know when to celebrate your accomplishments.

 

If you enjoyed this article:

• please LIKE Leadership-Expert™ on Facebook, 
• subscribe here
• Sign up to learn many more leadership tips at The International Leadership Conference, London 2012
  
• Leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

 

Next week we will take a look at the how to develop the leadership skill of being a good listener.

This article was written by Simon Teague with extracts and references from the following sources:

http://sumasubramaniam.blogspot.com/2010/06/setting-goals-and-meeting-them.html

http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2011/10/13-tips-for-setting-performance.html

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/remember_the_sc.html#ixzz1oz1ECGyR

http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/executives-say-theyre-pulled-in-too-many-directions

Thomson, P. (1998) The Pinnacle Principle. Simon & Schuster. London

Mckenna, P. (2007) I Can Make You Rich. Transworld Publishers. London

Hill, N (2007) Think and Grow Rich. Wilder Publications. Radford

Johnson, S (2004) The One Minute Sales Person. Harper Collins. London

Covey, S (2004) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Simon & Schuster. London

Leadership Toolkit

 

Over the past four years I have had the pleasure and privilege to work either directly or indirectly with some of the world leading authors and experts on leadership. Between them all they have sold over 50 million leadership books world-wide to satisfy our thirst to become great leaders.

Why these hand-picked 30 or so experts? Well because I read a lot of leadership books and study many leadership programmes and many are, in essence, a regurgitation of these people’s ideas. Hence I thought I would go straight to the source of those original ideas and bring them all together in one leadership compendium. This ‘toolkit’ takes you straight to the heart of the key principles of the following authors and experts and what they have to say about leadership:

 

 

• Dr Stephen Covey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Joseph Luft & Harry Ingham – The Johari Window
• Kurt Lewin – The Force Field Analysis
• Henry Minzberg – Strategic Thinking
• Andy Bounds – The Jelly Effect
• Andy Lopata and Peter Roper – And Death Came Third
• Dale Carnegie – Remembering Names
• Prof. Robert B Cialdini – The Power of Influence
• Jim Collins – Good to Great
• Rudolph Giuliani – Leadership
• Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatis – The New Leaders
• David Whitaker – Grow Coaching model
• Max Landsberg – The Tao of Coaching & The Tao of Motivation
• Jinny Ditzler – Your Best Year Yet
• Charterhouse Learning – FISH
• Douglas McGregor – X-Y Theory
• Profiles International – 360 degree feedback
• Mike Woodcock – Team Building Blocks
• Dr Bruce Tuckman – Team development
• Alex Osborne – Brainstorming
• Dr Spencer Johnson & Associates – Who Moved My Cheese?
• Tony Buzan – Mind Maps

All these concepts are brought together in one handy desktop guide, edited by Simon Teague and is available in both a hardback and an electronic version.

It is one of the best ways for managers to learn the leadership ‘trade’ and have a portfolio of powerful tools, tips and techniques at their fingertips.  It is the perfect supplement to leadership training and the perfect solution for managers who find they have been thrown into positions of responsibility before getting any formal training.

Entitled The Ultimate Leadership Guide – Secrets to Success at Work and in Business it is available at Amazon and  Waterstones. It can be also obtained directly from the principal authors website for a discounted price using the code LE001.

You can get your own personal copy right now at:

 

Other related posts:

Leadership Development Training

Leadership Coaching Programmes

 

The facts are compelling. An organisation filled with great leaders benefits from a high performance; high value culture where people thrive and levels of achievement, support and fun are at a premium. Recent studies by organisations such as Hay Group, KPMG and Hewitt Associates find that companies and individuals with stronger leadership practices are outperforming their peers in long term measures such as progression and financial growth.

One practice specifically separating the Top Companies and Individuals from all the others is the use of management and executive coaching. Leadership expert studies find that 47% of the Top 20 Companies for Leaders regularly assign coaches to their high potential employees, whilst only 10% of another 300 firms surveyed made a similar claim.  There is compelling evidence that the Top 20 companies know that management and executive coaching provides powerful tools to accelerate the performance of the most talented people they have within their organisation.

As a consequence, there has been an explosion in coaching over recent months. In a year when most of us watch in awe at the incredible achievements of some of the world’s greatest athletes as they compete for Gold; more and more layers of managers, from junior through to high flying executives and entrepreneurs, are seeking the support of reputable coaches to enable them to excel in their field.

Coaching can take many different forms and it is important to distinguish between coaches who help leaders become more effective individual leaders and coaches who help leaders and organisations develop leaders. It is also important to identify the dominant area of coaching need; whether it be coaching for organisational change; strategy coaching; cultural and diversity coaching; career progression; behavioural coaching; or people development to name a few.

What is clear is that there are some generic requirements depending on where you are in the organisation and where you want to get to. For example, at the early managerial stages, individuals often need more general, behavioural and career orientated coaching, and generalist coaching is an ideal solution. Whereas, at CEO level, more specific areas are identified. In this respect, top executives want to deal with expert coaches with knowledge of specific issues.

Whatever coaching need you have, there is no doubt that coaching plays a critical role in driving performance improvement and in enabling individuals to unlock the potential they have within.

In today’s fast moving, dynamic, commercial environment, another phenomenon of coaching is taking root. More and more individuals are choosing to arrange their own external coaching outside of any leadership training they receive in their organisation. Increasing numbers of people want to arrange coaching at their own personal expense and without the knowledge of their employer or peers. These ambitious, forward thinking individuals are self-developers wanting to develop winning strategies to give them the edge over all their peers and ‘competitors’. They don’t always know what they what or how to get there, but they have a determination and desire for success and understand the benefits a coach bring in helping them to formulate the right plan for the future.

If this is you, read on.

Leadership expert, Simon Teague is helping increasing numbers of people to reach their full potential through coaching. Well educated and experienced in the corporate and business arena, he has helped CEO’s of Blue Chip organisations and medium sized companies to develop visionary leadership styles and help take their companies from good to great performance levels. He has also helped hundreds of junior, middle and senior managers to learn new skills, become more effective leaders and progress rapidly in their careers and ultimately to experience their best year yet, year after year.

A qualified Best Year Yet® Coach, successful businessman and author of The Ultimate Leadership Guide, Simon is also amongst the world’s newest leadership thinkers and experts. Consequently he has access to some of the world’s best coaches and can match your needs with the right coaching skills to create a winning formula between you.

Coaches enter engagements as experts and sometimes as saviours. A strong relationship of trust and mutual respect is an essential ingredient of success. But most of all, people who desire a better future have to understand (and accept) that it’s not the coaches job to do it for them or give them a comfortable ride. Quite the opposite is true. The best coaches will be asking the most uncomfortable questions. Steering, guiding and nurturing your talent is a challenging but rewarding experience for both coach and coachee.

I often get asked to recommend coaches and be employed as a coach. It’s not unheard of for top-flight executives to pay up to £60,000 a year for top-flight coaches. However, I believe much more affordable and yet still as effective coaching programmes can be designed for each person’s individuals requirements.

What is true is that in EVERY case where good quality coaching has played its part, individuals have gone on to earn at least five-fold the amount of money they invested in the coaching within only a couple of years. What is also true, from my own experience and research into highly effective coaching, is that it cannot be a one hit wonder. Coaching only works over a period of time – (preferably a minimum of 1 year), when new habits, behaviours and skills can be learned, applied and measured.

I have therefore designed three ‘Olympic style’ coaching programmes to suit the majority of people’s needs. If you are serious about your future, I commend the silver programme to you:

Bronze 12 month New Manager Coaching Programme:

Who would benefit?

Junior to middle managers; managers who are new to role; getting ready for your first management role; aspiring leaders

What do you get for your money?

• 10 questions detailing your accomplishments, limitations, ambitions and goals.
• 12 month online goal setting and tracking programme
• Coaching from Simon Teague LLP by conference call four times a year (3 hour coaching sessions)
• Monthly leadership skills audio programmes.
• Monthly behavioural skills learning toolkit

Amazing value:

Bronze Leadership Coaching

New Manager (1 hour per month) : £498.00GBP – yearly

 

Bronze Leadership Coaching

New Manager (1 hour per month) : £48.00GBP – monthly

 

Silver 12 month Manager to Leader Coaching Programme:

Who would benefit?

Middle to Senior Managers; identified as talent within your organisation; ambitious managers looking to gain a competitive edge over the competition; aspiring leaders.

What do you get for your money?

• Initial assessment of your hopes, dreams and aspirations.
• 10 questions detailing your accomplishments, limitations, ambitions and goals.
• Detailed SWOT analysis
• 12 month online goal setting and tracking programme
• Coaching from Simon Teague LLP by audio/conference call and/or face to face every month (3 hour coaching sessions)
• Monthly leadership skills audio programmes.
• Monthly behavioural skills learning toolkit

Amazing value:

Silver Leadership Coaching

Manager to Leader (3 hours per month) : £2,498.00GBP – yearly

 

Silver Leadership Coaching

Manager to Leader (3 hours per month) : £248.00GBP – monthly

 

Gold 12 month Executive 1 to 1 Coaching Programme:

Who would benefit?

Senior managers identified as talent and aspiring to be executives in the short to medium term. Executives who are looking to lead transformational change. Dynamic executives with their own agenda.

What do you get for your money?

• Initial assessment of your vision and values.
• 10 questions detailing your accomplishments, limitations, ambitions and goals.
• Analysis of your strategic awareness, management awareness and personal agenda.
• 12 month online goal setting and tracking programme
• Coaching from an expert in your field face to face every month (whole day coaching sessions)
• Access to corporate mentoring scheme
• Monthly leadership skills audio programmes.
• Executive resources pack.

Amazing value:

£9,998 (for full details email simon@simonteague.com

 

Gold Leadership Coaching

Executive Coaching (7 hours per month) : £987.00GBP – monthly

 

Testimonials:

The mark of a good coach is measured through the success of the people they coach. If you would like this to be you then make your selection above and let’s get going on your new journey to becoming an outstanding leader and enjoying a successful career. Here are just a few of the hundreds of testimonials I have.

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY – TESTIMONIALS

 

So begin your journey to coaching right here. Select the best easy payment option for you and I or a member of my team will be in touch within the next 12 hours (allowing for global timescales).

As a great Olympic athlete once said “If it’s to be; it’s up to me”

 

How can I become a better leader? Part 1 – Self-Awareness

You have within you the skills to become an accomplished leader. It is not true that leaders are just born and not made. Take a moment to think about who in your life has influenced you greatly? Who do you admire? Who would you follow? That person is a leader.  My guess is that they had to work hard all their life to earn that position.

The difference between managers and leaders is that managers have employees; leaders have followers. Managers often get given the role; leaders have to earn it. Moreover, there is no fixed formula for great leadership, but there are many paths to excellence.

Over the course of 2012 I want to share with you how you can become a highly respected, successful and accomplished leader. My thoughts are based on 26 years of experience, but these insights will not just come from me. I will be pooling many great minds and asking many renowned authors and authorities on leadership to share their thoughts with you to. Together we want to build a community of great leaders who live fulfilling and enjoyable lives, learn how to build winning teams of people and build within their organisations a sustainable high value, high performance culture.  This programme of learning will be entirely free. Why? Because so many companies have stopped investing in the development of their people, I thought I would give them and you a helping hand. So if you would like to join us, all you need to do is subscribe and get as many people in your team to join in too.

The plan:

Every week, for the next 20 weeks I will post:

• Tried and tested methods of leadership philosophy
• Fresh insights into how you can lead your teams differently and make a difference
• We will hear what some of the world’s greatest leaders have to say. Sometimes indirectly, others directly.
• I will provide you with practical, highly effective leadership tools to do your job better and begin a journey of lifelong learning and self-improvement.
• For all intents and purposes I will be your on-line coach.

To be sure not to miss all 20 articles in the series, you can do these four things:

1. Subscribe and bookmark this site
2. Make a diary note to spend up to an hour a week here over the next 12 weeks
3. Like us on Facebook and Twitter to receive notifications of when the material is released.
4. Tell me what you think by leaving a comment – what else would you like to see in this series?

Are you ready to start your journey. Well here we go…

Leadership qualities

Before you can start acting like a leader, you need to understand what leadership traits you need to develop, in order to become like a great leader. I will repeat this because its important. You can develop the skills you need to become a successful leader, no matter what field you are in.

In the table below I have listed two groups of leadership traits and I want you to give each one a score between 1 and 20. But you can only use each number once. I.E. no trait must have the same number (basically you are placing them in an order of what you feel your strongest verses your weakest traits are. I am happy for you to cut and paste the table onto a word document – you might want to keep a track of your scores over time.

Although I have separated the boxes with the left hand box representing more junior leadership qualities and the right hand box representative of a strong and accomplished leader it is important that you score both boxes. This is called self-assessment. It only works if you are truly honest with yourself. Especially the more senior you are in the organisation – as Fred Goodwin, ex Chief Executive of RBS will testify. ‘The higher you get, the further you have to fall’. Understanding your current skill set, by being honest with yourself, will enable you to gain a real insight into your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Before you go ahead and self-assess, I would like to share with you a really powerful poem written in 1934 by Dale Wimbrow:

The Guy In The Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father or Mother or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

©Dale Wimbrow, 1934.

Ok lets score:

Junior Leader Traits	Score	Senior Leader traits	Score
Self-awareness		Energy
Enthusiasm		Passion
Goal orientated		Tough minded
Good listener		Confidence and self-belief
Creative		Competitive
Attention to detail		Visionary
Influence		Inspirational
People developer		Strategic thinker
Collaborative		Emotionally and culturally intelligent.
Solution orientated		Change catalyst

 

(This list is not exhaustive, but it’s a great start)

Interesting? I would encourage you to share this table to your team and get them to score you anonymously – you may get a whole new perspective.

Now, I am going to introduce you to two tried and tested leadership development models which will help you to re-evaluate by taking a good long hard look in the mirror.

The first is called a SWOT analysis. You may have heard of it being used by companies to develop their business strategy, but it can be equally powerful as a tool for individuals to identify their Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities and Threats (S.W.O.T.).

Originated by Albert Humphrey in the 1960’s SWOT remains a powerful and relevant tool for you to use in today’s increasingly competitive world to give you an edge over your competition.  It helps you to define your current situation (your strengths and weaknesses) and plan for self-improvement to give you a better future (your opportunities and potential threats). I recommend you spend at least half an hour alone writing out (in bullet points) everything you can possibly think of that might fit into any one of the four boxes below. I have given you some pointers to get you started. A good SWOT will have at least 10 areas identified in each box – so dig deep…

Strengths	Weaknesses
What are your dominant personality traits and emotions that help you to get on in life?What do you do well?What resources do you have at your disposal?What do other people see as your strengths?	What are your limiting paradigms/beliefs?What areas of your life do you struggle with most?Where do you have fewer resources than others?What are others likely to see as a weakness in you?
Opportunities	Threats
What opportunities are open to you?What trends could you take advantage of?How can you turn your strengths into opportunities?	What threats could harm you?Where does your competition have the edge?What threats do your weaknesses expose you to?

 

The SWOT analysis then becomes an excellent planning and goal setting tool (more to come on goal setting in article no. 3) in order to keep you one step ahead of the competition.

Here’s a great thought provoking Japanese proverb: ‘When you are thirsty, it’s too late to start digging a well.’

Useful? See what the guys at MindTools™ have to say about SWOT. Have a look at their video and check again – have you covered everything in your own personal SWOT analysis?

OK, so what next I hear you say? I want you to focus on your strengths and opportunities. Far too many companies nowadays keep getting people to draw up Personal Development Plans based on addressing their weaknesses. I don’t agree with this strategy. Nor does  Susan Tardanico from Forbes Magazine who reports:

“Business culture has long focused on weakness prevention, with managers and leaders spending untold time and energy trying to address deficits in themselves and their employees. It becomes a quest to fill the gaps where one doesn’t have natural capability. Taken to the extreme, it attempts to make people someone they’re not.

While we’re busy trying to fix ourselves and others, we often minimize or completely overlook our most powerful asset–our strengths. Strengths are a person’s innate talents, things they do well naturally. Every person has them, and when identified, nurtured and channeled appropriately, they can have a dramatic effect on job satisfaction and bottom-line performance.

Indeed, research suggests that the most successful people start with a dominant talent and then add skills, knowledge and practice into the mix. In other words, we stand a greater chance of success if we build on our authentic selves–who we already are–beginning with our innate strengths. Perhaps even more significantly for employers, a powerful connection exists between employees’ levels of engagement and the extent to which they maximize their strengths on the job.”

So, develop a plan which focuses on honing your strengths and realising your opportunities. For now I want you to let the weaknesses take care of themselves. By the end of this 20 week programme, I will be asking you to re-write your SWOT – you will be amazed at how far you have come and how many weaknesses simply won’t exist or matter anymore.

Now think about combining what you have learnt about yourself so far with the next model.

The Johari Window:

The Johari Window was originally developed by two American psychologists called Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. They named the model by combining their first names, Joe and Harry. (Johari). The Johari Window model is used by leaders seeking to become more self-aware. It represents information – feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, motivation, etc – within or about a person in relation to their group/team, from four perspectives.

The diagram shows how others can see into our ‘window’. It is their perception of who you are.  The public arena changes the more you communicate about yourself, e.g. ‘what I know about me and what you know about me = larger window’.

                                              Johari Window

	Known by Self	Unknown by self
Known by others	Open/ free area	Blind area
Unknown by others	Hidden area	Unknown area

A great deal of information has been published about the Johari Window on the Businessballs website. Click here for more information.

Open/Free Area		Blind Area
Hidden Area	Unknown Area

 

The essence of the Johari model is that the size of each area changes to reflect what you know about yourself and what other know and are saying about you. This is very important for leaders as the more you know about your own strengths and limitations, the more you are able to play to your strengths. You may decide to address your limitations or build a team of people around you who have the expertise you may lack. The late Steve Jobs was a master at recognising peoples talents and bringing them into his team to plug gaps in his or the teams knowledge. The late great Andrew Carnegie who despite being regarded as the second most richest man in history (1835-1919), had words to this effect on his tombstone “Here lies a man who knew how to get around him, people who were cleverer than he“.

Leaders who consciously display a larger open/free area have strong self belief and make it their purpose in life to communicate with the people around them, sharing both their personal vision and aspirations and those of the business. They can relate to their team, engage in banter, socialising (to a degree) and open discussion. Their door is always open, but their mind is also open to new ideas. They are considered approachable and they know what motivates their team. Such leaders practice self-reflection and have their own agenda of continuous personal improvement through self discovery. As such they demand high standards of their people, but they set and live by those standards themselves. Consequently they can be challenging and difficult to work for, but inspirational at the same time. You will find the more you can share with your team and lead by example, the more they will learn about your values and what makes you tick; the larger the top left window. Often this larger window leads to a greater degree of respect for the leader as the risks of the other windows recede – backbiting and undermining in the blind area; assumptions and avoidance in the hidden area; lack of trust and respect in the unknown area.

Leaders can also increase the size of the open/free area through a process of disclosure and 360 degree feedback from the people they interact with. Getting people to share (anonymously) what they really think about your style and what you could do to improve and get the best out of your team can be enormously enlightening.

Here’s a useful exercise. If you were to describe yourself to your team/boss and could only do it in the form of a picture, what would you draw?

What does your window look like?

What picture do you want people to see when they look inside?

The exercises I have shared with you are designed to open up neurological pathways in your brain and tap into your emotional intelligence (much more to come on EI in article 19). Ultimately the most accomplished leaders, who create resonance within their organisation, have been shown to have very high levels of emotional intelligence.  Developing strong emotional intelligence begins with developing self-awareness. Daniel Goleman writes in The New Leaders (a MUST have in your portfolio):

“Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, as well as one’s strengths and limitations and one’s values and motives. People with strong self-awareness are realistic – neither overly self-critical nor naively hopeful. Rather, they are honest with themselves about themselves. And they are honest about themselves with others, even to the point of being able to laugh at their own foibles.

Self-aware leaders also understand their values, goals and dreams. They know where they’re headed and why. They’re attuned to what “feels right” to them. .. Because the decision of self-aware people mesh with their values, they more often find their work energising”

Perhaps the most telling (although least visible) sign of self-awareness is a propensity for self-reflection and thoughtfulness. Self-aware people typically find time to reflect quietly, often by themselves, which allows them to think things over rather than react impulsively.

Summary

I hope you have found this first article of great help at the start of your journey. As Lao-tzu (tao te Ching 6^th Century BC) once said “He who knows others is learned. He who knows himself is wise”

I encourage you to spend the next 7 days really analysing yourself.

What do you want out of life? How ambitious are you? What motivates you? What is your dominant strength and primary motivator? What do you want to be remembered most for? Is your Johari an open or closed window?

If you can answer all these burning questions, you will be well on the road to becoming an authentic leader. Next week we will look at one of the core leadership traits – that of Enthusiasm. Here’s what Henry Ford had to say about that:

“Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eye; it is the swing in your gait; the grip of your hand; the irresistible surge of your will and your energy to execute your ideas. Enthusiasts are fighters. They have fortitude. They have staying qualities. Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress – with it there is accomplishment, without it there are only alibis.”

If you enjoyed this article don’t forget to follow these four steps:

1. Subscribe and bookmark this site
2. Make a diary note to spend up to an hour a week here over the next 12 weeks
3. Like us on Facebook and Twitter to receive notifications of when the material is released.
4. Tell me what you think by leaving a comment – what else would you like to see in this series?

 

Unlocking The Leader in You in 2012

With the onset of an Olympic Year in 2012, I have spent the ‘quiet’ days over Christmas contemplating how I can best serve you throughout 2012. From comments, feedback and discussions with many aspiring leaders who visit Leadership Expert™, it is clear that you all want me to ensure I retain the ethics of researching, testing and reporting on leadership tips, techniques and tools that actually work in the workplace, business environment, schools and across communities as a whole.

I am committed to offering you independent, meaningful and useful information for you to be able to understand and apply whichever environment you work in and whatever position you hold. Within our leadership community we have top CEO’s, entrepreneurs, senior managers, middle management, junior managers, team leaders and many ambitious people who are seeking their first management position.

I am committed to serving you all. In many cases your companies have stopped investing in leadership and management training and development. Its my goal to access that training and legitimately provide you with the content for you to be able to build into your own personal development plan.

Over the course of 2012, I am therefore planning to research and distill programmes in:

• Self-awareness – looking at models such as the Johari window
• Self-management techniques – how top performing people profess to the application of certain ‘habits’ that make them successful
• Planning – strategic thinking and how to plan and increase your chances of success as a leader
• The art of communication. Influencing techniques, particularly the one I stumbled across recently which makes people say yes, when otherwise they would have said no!
• Leadership traits, leadership styles and leadership skills to make you into an authentic and accomplished leader in 2012.
• How the best leaders are also highly effective coaches and how they make use of coaches themselves.
• How to use certain programmes and techniques to motivate and inspire your teams.
• Skills to enable you to create and build winning teams.
• Problem solving techniques – enabling you to think laterally and literally and be one step ahead of the game.

Within all these topics will be a plethora of material you can use to help you have the winning edge and for 2012 to be your best year ever.

Its my mission in 2012 for you to reach your hopes, dreams and aspirations. To help me do this I also propose to seek your views by way of a questionnaire early in the new year, so I can be sure I am fully meeting your needs. So, if you dont already, then feel free to subscribe – I promise I won’t be bombarding you with ‘useless’ marketing information.

If there are any areas you specifically want us to focus on in 2012, please feel free to comment below. Wishing you an amazing 2012.

Simon Teague, Leadership-Expert

 

If you LIKE this article click here to subscribe to our community for free.

Personal Mentoring – A Blossoming Industry?

Personal Mentoring is an industry undergoing heavy growth in recent years as the reemergence of delegating begins to hit personal development. It’s hard to initially figure out whether this is something we should be lauding or some we should be frowning upon. Should we be encouraging the proactive step of hiring someone who will work with you to develop yourself, or should we see it as a sign of apathy towards personal development?

Well, Loral Langemeier seems to think it’s a good thing. Loral Langemeier has a large presence in the online mentoring field, and her company has grown so large that she now has a team to actually provide coaching classes to clients. Recently she plugged her new book in The Huffington Post:

“In my upcoming book, Put More Cash In Your Pocket, I show you a simple and straightforward approach that will help you put more cash, $1000 or more a month, in your pocket in no time. I’ve helped thousands of people make extra cash fast — people from all different backgrounds, in a variety of situations, all over the world. People just like you. And I do it by helping you to make your life bigger, not smaller.”

This sort of elevator pitch sets Loral Langemeier up as a ‘make $$$ with my book’ “Guru” rather than a considered and professional adviser. However I don’t think that spot truly reflected what Loral is about, and in any case. In fact, a proactive approach to starting a new business, as she recommends to those who buy her book, is a good decision that I recommend to others everyday.

Many have spotted the irony of hiring someone to help you with ‘personal development’, however what I’d say to those people is this: Have you ever read a personal development blog? Have you ever read a personal development book? If so, then in the same way you have allowed others to influence your personal development. And so on consideration, I believe that hiring coaches makes as much sense as reading a good book on the subject. Receiving good knowledge from a mentor can only aid your journey.

What about the fees that these coaches charge? Well, I believe that the decision to hire them is clearly down to the individual. Many people do believe they’re getting good value for money from coaches, and hence the industry has continuing. You cannot really place a value on being inspired, and this means that everyone has a different opinion on how much a life coach should cost.

Ultimately, I don’t see the growth of the life coaching industry as a sign of apathy. In fact, that people are willing to spend up to £100 per hour on a coach to aid them to do so, only reflects the increased importance people have actually placed upon it!

Executive Leadership Training

See Also: Leadership Training.

Why Executive Leadership Training Isn’t The Decision You Thought It Was.

Executive Leadership Training is a clever and indirect way to improve your businesses bottom line. ‘How could an expensive training scheme actually save costs?’ you ask? Well, here’s how:

1. Employee Retention. The costs of rotating staff are dear, the cost of rotating executives are simply frightening. Not only does the new position have to be advertised, and recruitment selection performed, but costs will also be incurred in bringing the senior manager up to the same speed at the previous manager. When an executive leaves your company, a significant chunk of intellectual capital is lost. However, executive leadership training – which can motivate the individual and improve their benefits package, can encourage them to stay.

2. Operational Efficiencies. With a new approach to leadership , comes a new strategy for operations. The enhance decision making that may emerge from the training, will likely reduce the cost profile of many of your products or services.

3. Positive Externalities. Often the benefits of a leadership training programme do not contain themselves to the individual who elected to take the course. Their subordinates may also gain a career advantage. Great leaders learn to delegate effectively, empower their inferiors and inspire them to achieve greater deeds. Middle management could therefore stand to gain greatly from an executive board singing a better tune.

Executive Leadership Training should therefore be seen as a profitable opportunity, rather than a reluctant sacrifice made by the HR or relevant dept. It provides an opportunity for you to gently judge your culture into one that encompasses personal development, openness and learning.

Other Executive Leadership Training Resources

1.  Leadership Coaching , 2. Leadership MBA , 3. Leadership Classes , 4. Leadership Development , 5. Leadership Development Programme , 6. Leadership Development Training

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