Positive Leadership: How to Write a Successful Elevator Pitch
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Positive Leadership: Mental Toughness
Whether you are an athlete in the Olympics or someone in the
boardroom, a certain quality is always found in those who remain standing when
the storm winds blow. When rejection
hits these people it bounces off them like hailstones. They bounce back quickly from setbacks. They feel energised to try even harder after
a defeat. That special quality these
warriors are showing is something called “mental toughness”.
Wikipedia defines this as “a term commonly
used by coaches, sport psychologists, sport commentators, and business leaders
– generally describes a collection of attributes that allow a person to
persevere through difficult circumstances (such as difficult training or
difficult competitive situations in games) and emerge without losing
confidence.”
Each of us will receive a hit at some point in our lives
that knocks the wind right out of us. Rather
than sitting around complaining when we are being pelted by chunks of hail the
size of golf balls, we can put on a suit of armour to deflect whatever life
throws as us. That suit of armour is
your mental toughness.
You can’t measure mental toughness; you measure its
effect. You can’t measure what’s going
on inside a leader’s head, but you sure can measure their behaviour! You can see mental toughness when someone is
running a marathon and they are gasping for breath, and the only thing keeping
them putting one painful footstep in front of the next is their strength of
will. You see it when someone is totally
exhausted, yet they keep throwing hundreds of shots into the basketball hoop to
perfect their free throw. Mental toughness is courage in action. When you’ve got it, you cope better than your
opponents with the demands you face.
How do we develop mental toughness? Here are a few principles to get you started:
Principle #1: Realise Mental Toughness Can Be Developed.
Some people might be born with a certain personality that
seems to handle adversity a little more effectively than others. But that’s not always the case, and either
way, anyone can develop this side of their personality. Don’t avoid the issue by selling yourself any
victim thinking, like “That’s just the way I am.” How do you build mental toughness? The same way you build muscles in the gym: by
pushing yourself to new limits and increasing the pressure or resistance you
are pushing against.
Principle #2: Mental Toughness in the Gym Correlates to
Mental Toughness in Life.
The gym is the ultimate proving ground for “tough guys”. You
really find out what you’re made of in the gym.
You don’t become successful at anything by letting your foot
off of the pedal when the going gets tough.
This includes the gym and your business.
When it hurts to do even one more rep of an exercise, that’s when the real
muscle development starts! If you throw in the towel on the bench press, you
train your brain to quit when things get tough.
When you force yourself to keep pushing the weight even when you want to
give up, you are training your brain to keep pushing.
Principle #3: Champions Fall in Love with Discomfort.
Winners know that the path to success is steep and rocky,
and the path to defeat is like a sign pointing at a waterslide that says,
“Slippery, Fun and Easy to Reach the Bottom in a Jiffy!” Bad habits are easy to slip into, like a warm
bed when you’re exhausted. Good habits
are pretty much guaranteed to feel tough for most people because you end up
denying yourself luxuries and pleasures. You must learn to do what is
uncomfortable for you. To develop the psychological edge, you must have extreme
discipline to give up the comfort zone that you train and live in. Delaying
immediate satisfaction is the ultimate sacrifice that all warriors must choose.
Monday, September 03, 2012
Positive Leadership: 9 Attributes That Differentiate CEOs
Becoming a CEO is the greatest leap that an executive can
make in his or her career. What makes it such an extraordinary transition, of
course, is the complexity of the role and the skill that is required to manage
that complexity successfully. So, what exactly do CEOs have that other leaders
don’t?
To answer that question—and, by doing so, help aspiring CEOs
optimise their trajectories and assist current CEOs and boards in making better
CEO succession planning decisions—Russell Reynolds Associates analysed its database of nearly 4,000
executive assessments, including over 130 CEOs. These tests measure a number of
competencies, such as relationship skills, communication skills and
decision-making approaches.
Their findings reaffirm with quantitative
evidence what is perceived to be true about the capabilities that differentiate
CEOs from non-CEOs.
For more, see: http://www.russellreynolds.com/content/making-it-top-nine-attributes-differentiate-ceos
Friday, August 31, 2012
Positive Leadership: Finding the Power Within
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Positive Leadership: Unleashing Collective Genius
As business leaders, each of us is faced with a similar
dilemma today. How do we need to change to stay effective despite the rapid and
continuous change we are faced with in the business environment today?
Linda A. Hill, Professor of Business Administration at
Harvard Business School, a widely read author, and the Faculty Chair of the
Leadership Initiative, discusses how leaders need to be value creators and game
changers.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Positve Leadership: #UsainBolt - The Art of Winning
Positive Leadership: Team Turnarounds
In today’s uncertain economic environment, teams are asked
to do more with less. With resources stretched thin, turning around a
struggling team has never been harder, and managers must work to identify and
maximise whatever potential strengths a team already has. As sports fans
already know, behind every great underdog story is a leader who roots out the
competitive advantage that will propel the team to victory. In their excellent book, Team Turnarounds, Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl share how this fine art of the
turnaround really works, from how to inspire the team to the actual tools for
change.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Lost Culture of the Financial Services Industry
Culture is everything when it comes to responsible,
long-term business success.
Culture is what exists before any given leader
shows up, and it is what exists after any given leader moves on. Culture is in
the DNA of an organisation. It is not something that a leader necessarily goes
out and creates. A leader’s job is to discover, communicate and reinforce
culture. If you don’t get culture right, nothing else matters.
Many of the financial services organisations that have gone
astray recently have done so because they lost touch with their culture. They lost touch
with their stewardship mission, purpose, values and responsibilities; core elements of the historic culture of the financial services industry.
What we need to do today is not so much invent or create a
new culture for the industry but find the way back to the culture that should have
been there all along.
Most financial services firms have a culture that at some
point, somewhere, was about serving the needs of their clients. It was not just
about making money. It was about helping clients achieve their objectives,
promoting economic growth and performing a social good. Chances are the people
at the firm came to the firm because of the chance to make a positive
difference in the world. That ethic is used to be embedded in most financial
institutions. Unfortunately we have just lost touch with it in too many cases
recently.
As Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, said recently: "Motivation does not come from financial incentives alone. Again, the financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals".
As Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, said recently: "Motivation does not come from financial incentives alone. Again, the financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals".
Restoring the culture of financial institutions to what it
ought to be is the number one leadership challenge right now in the financial
services industry. Regulatory reform is not enough. If we are going to keep
future financial crises from happening, we have to address cultural failings at
the heart of the financial services industry.
Whether or not we get it right will be a case study in leadership for years to come.
Whether or not we get it right will be a case study in leadership for years to come.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Positive Leadership: A Leadership Skills Gap
Fortune 1000 companies do not have enough leaders coming up
through the ranks to fill open and future leadership positions, according to a
survey by The CARA Group, Inc.
To remedy the current lack of leadership skills
and limited talent pipeline, caused in part by recession cuts to critical
leadership programmes, the survey reveals there is an emerging renewed commitment
to leadership development among companies of all sizes.
Key findings of the 2012 CARA survey include:
- More than half—62% of respondents—say their organisations face a leadership skills gap
- 84% of respondents say their organisations have increased leadership development focus in the last two to three years
- Only 9% of respondents say their current leadership development programmes are “very effective,” while 56% describe their programmes as only “somewhat effective” or “ineffective”
- The top three most critical skill gaps of leaders-in-training are leading others (54%), managing change (43%) and strategic planning/vision development (40%)
- Online learning and development (66%) is the number one way companies are leveraging technology in their leadership development programmes.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Positive Leadership: How Priming Impacts Your Performance
Monday, August 20, 2012
Positive Leadership: There Is an I in Team
Mark de Rond is a professor of Strategy and Organisation at
Cambridge University's Judge Business School, where was CEO in Residence for
several years.
He has just released the book There Is an I in Team: What EliteAthletes and Coaches Really Know About High Performance that looks at what business can learn from the world of professional sport and how
focusing on individual potential elevates team performance. The book is readable,
teachable, innovative and insightful.
According to the author, there are six ways to raise your team
performance:
- The best teams are made up of individuals.
- Know your limits. How much are you willing to tolerate – even from your most talented team members?
- “Star performers” are great but be mindful that everyone has their unique strengths. Amazing talent is not transferable.
- Team players need to be aware that what may work for them as individuals does not necessarily work in a group.
- Tension within the team may be uncomfortable, but that is not the same as dysfunctional.
- Create an open environment where people can have their say.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Positive Leadership: Helping Your Followers Succeed
How can you as a leader get work done through others with
their commitment and their contagious enthusiasm?
Here are a few ways you can provide followers with what they
need to succeed:
- Maintain an “Open Door.” Encourage them to come to you with their problems and concerns. Listen and respond appropriately.
- Be accessible and available. Unless you’re on personal leave, make sure they can contact you for any needed clarification or guidance.
- Allow reasonable schedule flexibility to accommodate their personal needs.
- Think and plan before assigning work and implementing projects so you can minimise unnecessary changes and extra work.
- Keep the environment respectful and “safe.” Do not allow derogatory humour, destructive feedback, or the criticising of input and ideas. Take immediate action to stop them if they occur.
- Back their decisions and act on their recommendations whenever possible and appropriate.
- Run interference. Be a “go-between” to help team members get any required senior management approvals and interdepartmental cooperation.
- Minimise obstacles. Identify any organisational factors (including your behaviours) that inhibit team member success. Eliminate or minimise those obstacles as best you can.
Lead well ... LEAD RIGHT!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Positive Leadership: What Winning Means!
Positive Leadership: The Education Olympics
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Positive Leadership: London 2012: The Importance of Sport Psychology
BBC Sport journalist Matthew Syed, author of Bounce, explains how
important psychology among athletes is in the battle between success and
failure.
Each and every competitor has their own routine,
superstition and ritual before their sport, which can make a massive difference
in their attempt to win gold.
This is what performing under pressure is all about!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Positive Leadership: Support Networks and Success
A great Olympic advert!
Positive Leadership: Inspired Leadership - The Historical Perspective on the London 2012 Olympics
In January 2003, a storm was gathering in Washington,
Whitehall and Baghdad when the then Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell went to the
cabinet with the idea that London should bid for the 2012 Olympics.
“We started
with no votes around the Cabinet Table,” she said. She went round the
departments one by one, to Health, Education and Transport, and told them what
the Olympics could do for everyone. Tony Blair, whose last minute lobbying
later proved so crucial, dismissed the idea at first.
Tony Blair was much more preoccupied with Iraq, and rightly
so. I said to him, “How are you going to answer this question. We’re the fourth
largest economy in the world, London is the greatest city in the world, we
would like to think. What will you say to someone who asks you ‘Why didn’t you
dare bid to host the games?’ I’ve never forgotten the way he looked at me.
In his memoir, Blair recalls that Jowell lectured him to man
up:
“I really didn’t think that was your attitude to leadership.
I thought you were prepared to take a risk. And it is a big risk. Of course we
may not win but at least we will have had the courage to try.” When Tessa says
this, you feel a complete wimp and rather ashamed. You know she is manipulating
you, but you also know it’s a successful manipulation.
I
got a call the next morning from his Principle Private Secretary saying ‘The
Prime Minister will support your recommendation.”
Two years later, the American businesswoman appointed to
lead the bid Barbara Cassani resigned, because she didn’t think an American bid
leader would win the games. “She deserves great credit,” said Dame Tessa
Jowell.” She said the person who could win it is Seb Coe.
It was only six months later that the double Olympic gold
medallist stood on stage in Singapore and said:
”To make an Olympic champion it takes eight Olympic finalists. To make
Olympic finalists, it takes 80 Olympians. To make 80 Olympians it takes 202
national champions, to make national champions it takes thousands of athletes.
To make athletes it takes millions of children around the world to be inspired
to choose sport.” Jacques Rogge was up not long later, opening his envelope and
reading out the word “London.”
From the very start, the London 2012 Olympic bid has been characterised by the single-minded passion, persistence, vision and determination of all those involved in hosting the Games. Congratulations!
For more background into the bid process for the London 2012 Olympic Games, see: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/06/international-olympic-committee-london-summer-olympics)
Monday, August 13, 2012
Positive Leadership: Lessons from the Games
Bank of England Governor, Sir Mervyn King said recently that
the British economy could learn a number of key lessons from the Olympic Games.
"First, and most important, we have been reminded that
an objective that is worth attaining, like a gold medal, requires years of hard
work. Success does not come overnight," he said.
"That is as true of our economy as it is of sport. It
means reforming our banking system so that banks focus less on making money in
the short term, and more on building businesses to serve their customers'
interests over the longer term."
The Bank of England boss also said bankers should focus less
on money and more on their customers.
He added: "The financial sector has done us all a
disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is
necessary to motivate individuals."
The Olympic Games show us that supreme human achievement is the result of a commitment to excellence; nothing more, nothing less.
Positive Leadership: The Legacy of London 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Positive Leadership: Thinking Like a Gold Medallist
Elite athletes encounter many of the same mental challenges
that successful entrepreneurs face on a daily basis, according to JoAnn
Dahlkoetter, a sports and performance psychologist in San Carlo, Calif. She
should know. In addition to coaching business leaders, Dahlkoetter currently
counts five Olympic gold medallists as her clients. She finds that many of the
same strategies athletes use to outwit mental obstacles work in business as
well. Here's her advice for overcoming three of the most vexing psychological
challenges, whether you're a start up or established entrepreneur looking to
grow.
Challenge No. 1 -
Negative thinking. Slumps happen in athletics, business, and life. Start
asking positive questions when you find yourself thinking: I'm not good enough.
I can't do this. Nothing is going right. Try: What's good about this situation?
What tools and resources do I need to move in the direction I want to go?
Asking yourself better questions can help you move forward. Perhaps the big
client you lost wasn't the best fit anyway, and now you have the bandwidth to
service a bigger, better customer. The more you actively turn around negative
thinking, the easier it gets to see opportunities in adversity, Dahlkoetter
says.
Challenge No. 2 -
Exhaustion. Just as athletes experience injuries and burnout, even the most
resilient business owners can get fatigued from putting so much into their
businesses. In addition to the sage advice of eating healthfully and getting
enough sleep, Dahlkoetter says it's critical to plan breaks ranging from a few
hours where you disconnect to a few days away. If that's not possible, take a
"mental vacation." Get to a place where you'll be uninterrupted for
five or 10 minutes. Breathe deeply and visualise yourself relaxing in a
beautiful setting, like at the beach. Sound weird? Research has long shown the
positive effects of meditation on stress levels and health. In fact, a new
study from the University of Washington found that regular meditation can
increase concentration and make you more productive.
Challenge No. 3 -
Fear. During the Olympic Games, a decade or more of preparation and
training can lead to a single competition. Entrepreneurs have that kind of
pressure when they encounter business-threatening obstacles or setbacks. When
fear becomes paralysing, you've got to go back to the basics, Dahlkoetter says.
"Remind yourself of the skills and talents that got you to the level of
success where you are now," she says. "Visualise yourself having the
outcome you want over and over and over again." Then, focus on the moment.
Don't think about the past or worry about the future. Instead, determine the
very next thing you have to do to get the outcome you want. If you're worried
about closing a big deal, make a list of the tasks that will give you the best
possible advantage--studying competitors' strengths and weaknesses, writing a winning
proposal, polishing your presentation--and then tackle those to-dos one by one.
Taking positive action is a strong way to dissolve fear, she says.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)