Is leadership born or bred? It is my understanding that it is a process, much like our own personal development. It requires creativity, which is essentially problem solving, and a compelling vision for the future. In order to lead, we must be able to articulate our ideas with clarity and enthusiasm in order to inspire others to action.

It is not enough to be compliant in today’s economy. Compromising our values to keep the peace may have short term benefit but long term consequences both fiscally and emotionally. So while this necessitates an appetite for risk, it also highlights the need for authenticity. It is only until we are prepared to speak up and face the possibility of judgement that we claim our identity.

From a competitive standpoint, this also gives us a point of difference. As manufactured as it sounds, integrity becomes a part of our brand identity as an individual and leader. Rather than being a poorly molded copy of our neighbour, we stand to gain so much more by being ourselves.

The ability to accept criticism is part of the job at the top. Leaders understand that they are not going to please everyone and they are entirely fallible. Keeping an eye on our ultimate vision for ourselves or an organisation allows our ego to take a back seat. Dare I say it, there is no failure, only feedback. The sooner we manage our internal dialogue, the faster we attain external results. Humility allows us to gain awareness of challenges and leadership drives us to make changes that will keep us on course.

It can be lonely at the top. You are the conduit between employees and a client, which means that you must take responsibility if things go pear shaped. Maintaining communication is essential at all levels of a company. If people are engaged and committed to your vision, they will follow your lead. Loyalty can be nurtured by honoring their contribution as a valued member of the company. So often we focus on the negative aspects of performance, without reinforcing gratitude and praise for a high functioning individual and a cohesive team.

Leadership requires a significant number of skills and is only for those who have the courage to live their truth. Expect the best of yourself and take fear off the table, it’s unbecoming.

If you would like to understand more about the art of leadership, contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au

If you would like to hone your leadership skills, contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au

When mutual reliance is absent, people prefer to work as individuals, protecting themselves from perceived attack. If work is seen as a transaction, relationships between people suffer.

Empathy isn’t always a natural emotion but it can be developed.

Now more than ever, the value of social capital must be recognised. I have worked in creative fields where people communicate via instant messaging. Everyone walks in at the beginning of their day, sits down and puts their headphones on. Some employees came in wearing them.

To establish more of a sense of community in one of my companies, we encouraged everyone to have lunch together on a Friday. Even the most introverted began to share stories of work and life experiences. Other companies that I know down tools on Friday afternoon to hear people talk about who they are and what they do. It’s our responsibility as leaders to create an environment of communication, where people are more than commodities.

Employee satisfaction and productivity can be improved by teams having their coffee break together. While this might sound inefficient at first glance, a call center improved their bottom line by $15 million when they implemented this idea.

A sense of mutual respect grows and empathy thrives in an environment where human value is honoured. Individual skill, intelligence and personality aside, shared experiences between people make a measurable difference in productivity.

We spend so much of our lives at work. Building a culture of connected individuals is vital for our success in a company as well as our mental health.

Time compounds the benefits of investing in strong relationships. If a team is cohesive and mutually loyal, it reduces risk and increases stability.

All of this isn’t to say that you have to become best friends with work colleagues. Many highly functional teams are impatient with one another because they won’t accept anything less than the best. Disagreement is a sign of emotional investment, rather than being dangerous. Ideas need to be pressure tested, which means that a culture of honesty is essential.

None of this occurs without commitment and courage.

If you would like to become better at handling conflict with grace and integrity, contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au

We can do one of three things:

• Avoid them.
• Face them and handle them badly.
• Face them and handle them well.

Each option has its own consequence. Even the best intentions become squashed in the face of conflict. Quite often, these interactions are spontaneous so there is no time to prepare. You just have to be ready. Even a planned conversation can go awry.

In the best companies, everyone holds everyone else accountable, regardless of position. The path to high productivity relies on skills for dealing with conversations that relate to certain topics, such as….

• Safety. When someone violates a certain procedure or acts in a way that is unsafe for others.
• Productivity. If an employee under performs, or fails to live up to expectations.
• When someone feels offended, or threatened.
• Quality.
• Every other challenging topic. Innovation, teamwork or change management.

When it comes to risky, controversial and emotional conversations, skilled people find a way to get all information out in the open, even when their ideas are controversial or unpopular.

People who are excellent at dialogue do their best to make it safe for everyone to add their meaning to the shared pool of ideas. As individuals are exposed to more accurate and relevant information, they make better choices. On the other hand, when people purposefully withhold meaning from one another, individually smart people can collectively make poor decisions.

As people sit through an open discussion where ideas are shared, they take part in the free flow of meaning. Eventually they understand why the shared solution is the best and they commit to act.

If people aren’t involved in discussions and take a back seat to challenging conversations, they’re rarely committed to the final decision. Quiet criticism and passive resistance occurs when an idea remains in their head. If others force their ideas into the pool, people have a harder time accepting the information. Without full engagement, ideas can be sabotaged.

The more time you spend establishing a shared pool of meaning, the greater the commitment from participants. We have to develop the tools that make it safe for us to discuss these issues and when we do, our lives change for the better.

If you would like to become better at managing crucial conversations, contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au

As long as people are breathing, they are motivated to do something. People also choose their behaviour and understand that actions have consequences. With that in mind, people want to know ‘what’s in it for them’ before they lift a finger.

Three of the more popular methods of motivation don’t work particularly well. They are charisma, power and perks. They are also rarely sustainable over time.

CHARISMA

This sells movie tickets but has very little to do with leadership. You don’t need this to be enormously influential.

POWER

Hearts and minds are changed through expanded understanding, rather than bitter compliance. While this appears to be the easiest method of getting people to act, the negative consequences are many. In fact, the more we feel the need to apply force, the greater the evidence that our own thoughts are the problem.

A healthy relationship is based on mutual respect and trust. Every time we make others bend to our will, we move further away from this model and it is us who pays the price. Safety and respect are the casualties.

PERKS

If you continually use perks to encourage employees for what should be a routine part of their job, you might undermine the satisfaction that comes from doing it in the first place.

Extrinsic rewards confuse people. They should be reserved for exemplary performance.

Your job is to help make the invisible visible. Concentrate on people’s core values. Your greatest point of leverage will be what they care about the most.

Help the other person to see how their values will be better realised by the course of action you are suggesting. You might be able to describe the unintended and potentially invisible effects their actions are having on others.

Others can be helped if they see that living up to expectations can advance their career, increase their influence or their bank balance..

These articulated consequences are not intended to be threats. Your intention must be to solve a problem in a way that benefits you both.

The reason others aren’t motivated to change occurs as a result of a misuse of power or withholding honest feedback.

Motivation isn’t something you do to someone,they’re motivated by the consequences they anticipate.

If you would like to find out how to bring out the best in yourself and others, contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au

The results are in. Far from being hippy rhetoric, mindfulness and meditation can rewire how the brain responds to stress and develop our emotional intelligence. It also improves working memory, the ability to maintain attention on multiple stimuli and increase executive function. Recent research also suggests that it is good for our immune system and improves our sleep. It’s the ultimate brain hack.

If you’re not quite convinced, emotionally engaged employees are highly productive and tend to stay at their workplaces. More than 1000 employees at Google have been through Inside Yourself Training. They have Neural Self-Hacking classes, mindful lunches and labyrinths for walking meditation. This was an initiative established by Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011.

While this may all seem like another Silicon Valley inspired trend, buddhists have been teaching us for centuries that we are all connected. Rather than being another marketing campaign for Facebook, you could consider it open source mindfulness.

The whole point of mindfulness is conscious observation of your environment. When you are in this heightened state of awareness, you are in the present. This might be something you need to consider before your next board meeting.

We can be under the illusion that we can control things and people around us. Our desired goal of stability is an illusion.

If people do their own thing in a rebellious way, it will result in chaos. If everyone is working together, fully engaged in the present, it culminates in a coordinated success.

When you are present, it is easier to pay attention, be more creative and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. If you are internally obsessing over something that was said to you last week, you are not able to be resourceful in the moment.

Stress is not a function of events. It’s the way you choose to experience them and your resulting judgement. Mindfulness helps you to realise that there are no positive or negative outcomes. When you are emotionally removed from an issue, you gain the benefit of perspective.

In a complex and uncertain economic climate, it makes sense to navigate the chaos using mindfulness. Hardening your resolve in the face of perceived adversity closes your mind to other opportunities.

If everyone could read your mind, would you take more responsibility for your thoughts? Life is just a string of moments and you can choose to be mindful or mindless. So make the moment matter.

If you would like to explore the concept of mindfulness, please contact us on +61 2 9661 5667 or info@leadershipnouveau.com.au