How Bad is Your Leadership?

Have you ever stopped to think about your own leadership and if you are falling into traps that make your leadership 'bad'?

This can take your breath away if and when you stop to think about here.

Take a moment and consider this....as a leader are you focused on others or are you focused on self-preservation?  With the challenges that come at leaders daily, it is possible to stop thinking about the former and focusing on the latter...especially if the job (and the title) is on the line.

Here are a few ways to stop this:

• self-preservation leads to no longer changing...this is the downfall of leaders and companies all over the place
• analyse why you are in self-preservation mode - what is threatening you?  What are you afraid of?
• remove the obstacles by confronting them - whether they are in your head of physical you will have to move beyond them to feel safe and ready to grow again (getting a coach to help you sort this out will do wonders)
• look at why you are doing what you do...is it still aligned (and is the company still aligned) to your own personal values.  If it is not, is it time to make a change?

Remember, the leadership you provide influences the attitudes of those who follow you. That influence can be either positive or negative.

This free download can help you examine the leadership you are receiving and maybe even highlight some traps that you could fall into if you are not careful.  How to Survive Poor Leadership - click to download.

Simplify

Today I am providing you with a link that says it all.

Desperately Seeking Simplicity is truly the way 2012 needs to be.  As leaders peel away more obstacles and begin to focus on what they are good at, others will develop around them to pick up where needed.  Whether in government or business or even family and schools, this needs to happen for complex problems to be resolved - the force of simplicity can equal the force of collaboration, creating huge headway in results and people development.

Thanks Chris Zook for the insight and discussion launchpad.

The New Year

The New Year is right around the corner.
Are you ready to get it started on the right foot?

You have already taken some time to review 2010...what was good, what worked, the challenges you overcame, the obstacles that got thrown in your way, the new things you tried, the new people you met, the old friends you got to catch up with...and so much more!  It's definitely a time to celebrate.

Sometimes I will sit back and try to review everything all at once...it can be hard to do - I can easily skip or gloss over things that were really impactful at the time, but because they are now a part of me, I don't give them the importance or reflection time they deserve...kind of like the fireworks in the image above - exciting when it happens and then they are gone only to be a memory I recall in the future.

The whole key is to keep the important events, people and goals front and centre.  By using the 100 DAY START UP, you can do this.  Click here for more details.

Getting Change In Motion

Easy Steps....

The change has 'come down' from command central. Your job is the make sure it gets implemented. What do you do ?

1..start the conversation with your group

2..explain the change or new process...you need to get buy in

3..get the group working in the new way.  You will need to encourage, follow up, answer questions and most importantly, work in the new way.  You need to model the change, be the example everyday so that your team will see how important the change is to you, their leader.

4...ask questions of the team to find out how it's going? What are the obstacles? How can you remove them?

5..provide the feedback to others. This will help your team be heard as well as provide new insights for the change-developers...possibly helping others eliminate obstacles along the way to implementing the same change.

6..celebrate successes. Build milestones into the change process so that the team can see progress along the way.

7..move on to the next one!

What's Next? Time to Think About It

If you have not taken a few moment this week to think about what is next, you need to stop everything you are doing and get to it!

Why?

1. You need to consistently look at the future to see where you are going. 
2. Understand if there is a gap between where you are now and how you are going to get to your vision of the future.
3. Determine if you are focusing on the appropriate tasks to get you there.
4. Look at the obstacles that could creep up, and think about some ways to overcome them
5. Pat yourself on the back - looking at the future means you have a plan

Get back to work!  You are on your way:)