Due to the great response to the first 12 articles in the “Leaders are Dealers” series, we have decided to add a few more.  The series of leadership articles deals with those challenging times when inspiration deserts the leader, and the vision seems vague and irrelevant to what is currently going on in the business.  To read the previous articles, with their practical advice, hints and tips, click here.
 
At the very least, a good leader surrounds herself with good people - particularly people who have strengths where she is weak. A leadership team full of clones is a very risky thing – they see things in the same way, they think similarly, they have similar weaknesses and similar blind spots. We seek the kind of diversity that ensures that there are various points of view, thinking and learning styles, approaches to business and life, interests and concerns. In a patriarchal country with a racist past, diversity includes gender, race and ethnicity. When diversity is well managed, it can improve the quality of decision-making as well as enhancing the reputation of the team.

​Perception is everything. The team shows commitment to equal opportunity and inclusion is likely to win the trust of the broadest spectrum of stakeholders – and trust is currency! The leader who stands up for what is right, and makes a deliberate effort to bring into the team good people who represent the diversity of our population, is likely to be trusted, and sets the example to others. See Rosalinde Torres' TED Talk on leadership in the 21st century: http://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader/transcript?language=en and Susan Conantuono's TED Talk on the gender gap: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_colantuono_the_career_advice_you_probably_didn_t_get#t-822011.
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What have you done to broaden the diversity in your own team? Have you given up, claiming that “they are just not out there”? How are you developing people who can bring diversity to the team? How could you do it better? Where could you find likely candidates who could be trained? What industries have the kind of people you are looking for? How could you attract them into your team?
 
Good luck in moulding your team into a powerfully diverse concentration of talent.  As a team leader, you will be leaving a truly invaluable legacy.  Keep tuned for the next article on talent.

This is the final article in the series of twelve articles on developing, regaining and retaining inspirational leadership.  A clear focus on the vision, on what needs to be achieved and how best to go about it, gives the leader the ability to lead calmly, consistently and in a way that reassures the team regardless of internal or external factors.

A leader is a dealer in calm. You need to keep your head while all around you are losing theirs – to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling. Dealing in calm means taking measured, considered decisions. It means staying the course – if it is the right course - even though you are being pressured from all sides to change this or go there. Your people can see when decisions are being made out of panic and desperation – and it does not inspire confidence. Keep your eye on the vision. Stay true to the guiding policy of your strategy – who you are; what you do; what you don’t do – and refuse to be rushed into making rash decisions that create confusion and uncertainty. Keep taking that 20 mile march every single day in the direction of your destination.

Take a long hard look in the mirror. Are you the picture of calm? Or do you exude panic? Do you keep your team calm, or are they also headless chickens. You need to create a calm ocean. If you are not, take this into your coaching and work on it. Your team cannot win if you are in a panic – and you will never be able to hide it.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to tap into the inspirational leader within.  How has coaching, and having a trusted sounding board assisted in developing your ability to remain calm? Email me about your successes.

Advocacy is closely related to the concept of trust.  This article builds on the article on the concept of trust, and deals with being an advocate for your team.  To read previous articles in this series, including the article on trust, follow this link.

A leader is a dealer in advocacy. If you want your team to go into battle with you in tough times, when the market is soft and competition is fierce, they need to know you have their back. If your team expects that you might hang them out to dry, their efforts will be safe and tame. If they know you will protect them from criticism and attacks from your upline, they will push the envelope and make courageous efforts. The greatest destroyer of trust is that you sit back and allow your upline to tear your team to shreds in front of them. You need to cover their backs – either exclude the team from these meetings and take the heat yourself, or be bold and defend them. Definitely not for sissies!

Are you guilty of exposing your team to unhelpful criticisms and attacks? Who do you need to shield them from? What can you do to shield them better? How can you advocate better on their behalf? With whom do you need to have a fireside chat about the negative impact their criticism and attacks has on your team? How do you intend having this conversation? Who can help you to prepare?

Answering these questions and implementing the suggestions requires a high level of self-awareness, and awareness of your impact – as the leader – on the team and its performance.  It is always helpful to revisit the vision so that you can “play the ball and not the man”.  Do you think you can do it?  Let me know how it goes.

Accountability is an over-used and misunderstood concept.  People in leadership positions often bemoan the lack of accountability within their teams, so it is appropriate to examine what accountability really means in relation to responsibility.

A leader is a dealer in accountability. They model what it means to be accountable. Remember, one is responsible for, and we account to. A great leader accounts to his team for progress on commitments he has made to them. He accounts to his upline and shareholders for progress in rolling out the strategy and the impact of that strategy. He understands that every problem that stands in the way of achieving targets and objectives is his problem – he owns it and he must find solutions. He tackles problems and finds solutions rather than just accepting that it is there and working around them. I am amazed at how often I work with clients who have just learned to live with problems that are actually solvable. When I coach them through the possibility that the problem can be solved and situation changed, they realise that they had simply been living with the problem. If something in the environment is working against the team’s efforts, the leader accepts that he is accountable for finding solutions – and he tackles problems one at a time.

In their book, The Four Disciplines of Execution, S.Covey et al advocate that one of the four disciplines is to create a cadence of accountability. This means that team members get together regularly and account to one another for progress they have each made against their strategic goals – they come to the meeting prepared to account to one another. This is so different from “being held accountable”. One is supremely adult, while the latter is far more “parent-child”. How can you replace holding team members accountable with a very adult cadence of accountability? How will you model this cadence of accountability by accounting to the team for your own progress?

Make sure that you haven’t missed out on any of the previous articles with their helpful approaches and methods to build capacity within your team while leading in an inspirational and visionary way.

This series of 12 articles is focussed on assisting leaders to tap into their inspirational, visionary talents when the business environment is tough.  To read previous articles in this series, click here. This articles examines power and looks at ways of establishing and exerting power in a way that builds the team and enables achievement of the vision.

A leader is a dealer in power. Real leaders know that the most damaging thing to any organisation is when people are frustrated by having severe constraints on their power – that is, they feel powerless. Power is very simply “the ability to act”. When a leader shares power, and pushes it down so that people can act within appropriate limits of authority, it assures that appropriate actions are taking quickly in order to solve problems, exploit opportunities and mitigate threats. Power is the organisation’s blood supply – it keeps it moving and energised and gets oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body. However, when the arteries get blocked because of severe power constraints, it causes organisational aneurisms. One of the paradoxes of leadership is that the more the leader shares power, the more power he has – he has the power of many, rather than the power of one.

Using the Levels of Initiative below, decide at what level you want each team member to make decisions. Challenge yourself to make it one level higher than feels natural to you. If you are setting the level lower because a team member is learning, by when do you want them moving up a level? And up two levels? Now discuss your expectations with each team member and agree on how you will support them so that they are able to act with confidence..

Let me know how exercising power in this way empowers your team.  Send me an email.