This article deals with averting the risk of losing talent and organizational knowledge in an increasingly competitive, cut-throat business environment.  If you've missed previous articles in this highly popular series, follow this link.

There is a war on for talent, and your good people are going to be wooed by your competitors, so what could you do? A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Rebecca Knight called “When the Competition Is Trying to Poach Your Top Employee” suggests that you focus on being the employer that no-one wants to leave. Pay attention to the indicators. Apparently people are most inclined to look around for opportunities around particular anniversaries (either work anniversaries or birthdays), so this would be good timing for career discussions and getting them involved in new projects. A great employee who has just had a project they were invested in put on hold or cancelled is likely to be ripe for the picking – so make sure you quickly address their negative feelings and show that you care. If you can, assign them to a new project that will make their pulse race.

Stay connected to your people to make sure you know if they no longer feel challenged or valued. Notice if they suddenly want to do courses and attend conferences – these could be indicators that they are looking around, so check it out. You can ask the question directly – but make sure that they would feel safe to disclose. You need to tell them that there will be no negative consequence if they are looking around – you just want to know, and you want to know if there is anything you can do to change their minds.

Be alert to opportunities to reduce some of their frustrations. Might flexi-time do the trick? Would working from home twice a week make a difference? Don’t underestimate the impact that these small concessions can make.
Do not allow yourself to be held over a barrel. You are at risk if a single talented individual has knowledge and experience that is crucial to the success of your business. Make sure that you always have alternatives. Ask and answer the bus question: “If this person was taken out by a bus tomorrow, what would I do?” If you struggle to answer the question, you are at risk and need to take action. Make sure these talented people have individual development plans that give them a clear sense that they will benefit by staying.

In the long-run, however, we need to make peace with the fact that there will always be a certain amount of movement – it is natural and sometimes even desirable. For more, read the original article: https://hbr.org/2015/09/when-the-competition-is-trying-to-poach-your-top-employee.

Have you noticed who might be at risk in your team? Any anniversaries? Any big disappointments experienced by key team members? How will you respond to these talented people? Do you have a plan that mitigates any risk attached to having too much intellectual property vested in one individual? Do all your talented people have an inspiring personal development plan? If not, what do you intend doing about it?
 
The next article in this series will look at the concept of development in a broader sense.  If you have any feedback on your progress that you would like to share, email me.  Email me if there is a specific aspect of leadership that you would like me to explore.

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.

We have previously dealt with trust, influence, self-control, discipline, results and hope (or inspiration).  Each article contains suggestions, exercises or approaches that you can implement in order to address these areas. To catch up on the previous articles in this series, follow this link.  In this article, we examine the concepts of pride and humility in the context of the leader and his/her team. 

A leader is a dealer in pride. This is not arrogance. It is based on the understanding that the team that is proud of itself, its achievements and its members will constantly strive to win. He talks up his team and makes sure that they celebrate their successes. He looks for opportunities to give recognition, and focuses on what is right in the team whilst quietly addressing what is wrong or needs fixing. His team has no doubt that he is proud of them and, as a result, they take continued pride in excelling.

Are you proud of your team? How would they know? How do you celebrate successes with your team? What is worth celebrating right now? How will you do it?

A leader is a dealer in humility. She knows that any success that she may achieve is because of the collective effort of the team – and she shares the glory with the team. In fact, very often she will stand back and allow the team to bask in the glory of their success, with little need to have the limelight all to herself. She will acknowledge the collective efforts of the team at every opportunity, and ensure that everyone knows that the team is the key to her success.

What successes have you enjoyed that should have been shared with the team? What will you do now to put it right? What will you do next time? What can you do to make sure that your upline knows how great your team is?

The next article in this series of twelve will look at the concept of power and how to exercise it in a constructive way.  If you have any feedback on your progress that you would like to share, email me.

In the previous article, we looked at the constructive exercising of power.  Another challenge for the leader is to maintain the momentum when times are tough, and this is when clarity of vision is vital.  If you’ve missed previous articles in this series, you can catch up by following this link.

A leader is a dealer in pace. She gets things moving and keeps things moving. She knows that energy and momentum are critical in achieving results. She works fast herself, and she expects her team to also work quickly. She knows that lethargy is a killer, and makes sure to keep things pacey. She knows that gradual improvement is not good enough, and so fosters change and growth at a pace that stretches the team but does not overwhelm them. You know this leader – she walks quickly, thinks quickly, acts and decides quickly and works quickly. She knows that if change is to happen, it must happen quickly – change that is dragged out creates far more pain and resistance than change that is quick – and she keeps it moving until it is done.

Think about changes you wish to make. Are you happy with the pace at which change is happening? If it is slower than you would want, what is the hold up? Is it you? Are you slowing things down on the assumption that this will make it easier for the team? What could you and the team do to pick up the pace?

How are you doing so far?  Send me an email to let me know where you have experienced the most challenges in terms of implementing new practices and approaches.

This is the sixth in a series of leadership articles dealing with those challenging times when inspiration deserts the leader, and the vision seems vague and irrelevant to what is curerntly going on in the business.  To read the previous articles, with their practical advice, hints and tips, click here.

A leader is a dealer in results. This is all about winning, and the leader is the winning captain. She finds a way for the team to win. By producing results and delivering superior performance, this leader ensures that the best people are in the team and stay in the team. She also ensures that the team is constantly pushing for improvements. They harness the collective energy of the team in pursuit of the vision. They pull people together when things get tough. They know that for every problem, there must be a solution – it just takes the collective effort of the team to find that solution. This leader knows that, in order for the team to succeed, it must include a diversity of talents, skills and thinking styles – people who make up for her own gaps and weaknesses. She knows that if she surrounds herself with good people, the team will win.

How do you keep the team focused on results? And when you are not getting the results you are looking for, how do you problem solve? Do you get the team around a table and wrestle with it until you find a solution?

What problems have you and the team been living with because they have been around so long that you came to believe they were unsolvable? What will you do about them?

I trust that you are seeing a difference in yourself, your team and in the organisation after having implemented the exercises and approaches that I have suggested.  Send me an email to let me know how you’re doing.

In previous articles, we have dealt with the impact of hope (inspiration), discipline, influence, and self-control on a leader’s ability to re-connect with the vision and to be an inspirational leader.  If you would like to read these articles, please follow this link.

A leader is a dealer in trust. It is through the actions of the leader that an organisation becomes a safe place to be –safe enough for team members to take risks and push the boat out. The team needs to know that the leader has their back. Only if they know this will they put themselves on the line, take tough decisions and push the limits of their creativity and innovation. In a safe environment, where team members are acting in unison, guided by a compelling vision, and supported by a trustworthy leader, people will drop their guard and suspend their need to cover their backs – only when this is true will they dig really deep and give their all. If they believe that they may be hung out to dry, they will inevitably play it safe – and sure fire guarantee of mediocrity.

When was the last time a really big idea came from your team? When was the last time your team challenged you or disagreed vigorously with you? Or do they play it safe and remain polite? Not a good sign. Without vigorous discussion and wrestling with challenges and ideas, nothing truly great will ever come from your team. The best you can expect is vanilla. It’s up to you.

When did your team last bring you bad news? How did you respond? Do you hear everything you need to hear or do you sometimes get nasty surprises? What have you done to contribute to distrust in the team? What have you done to make it safe to tell it like it is? It is up to you.

Creating an environment in which trust is implicit is incredibly challenging and the success of this rests on consistency.  Let me know what impact these exercises have on establishing, building and increasing trust within your team.