Focus on what you want

My dad, in his time, has uttered some wise words to me.  Whilst teaching me the finer points of driving he said that, should I ever get in to trouble, always focus on where you want your car to end up (ideally in a car sized space), rather than do what seems to come natural and have your attention glued to the object you’re hoping to miss, because if you do that you’ll hit it.

It works – I used to live in Yorkshire, where there are sheep on the loose, snow drifts to contend with, aside from other cars on the road.  And so far I’ve always managed to find a space the size of my car to ‘park’ in.

Now in the conversations I have with my clients there is one that looks a bit like this..

Client “This is what I don’t want to happen…. and I’ve been thinking about how I make sure it doesn’t happen….”

Me “Do you know what you do want to happen and how you can make that happen?”

Client “Yes, but I’m concerned because I really don’t want blah to a happen…”

When you know what you want or where you want to be – then focus on that.  You’ll be significantly more productive.

Right now that holds true when we’re bombarded with stuff on the credit crunch.  I’m not suggesting ostrich maneuvers here.  However if you obsess about your business not making any money, guess what.  Then again if you ask yourself a different question, like how can I make more money? Then you’ll find over time more and more ideas or opportunities coming to you around that subject.

Managers v Leaders

Management and leadership are two different concepts and not all managers make good leaders.  It is important to know the difference between the two so your business runs smoothly and you don’t make costly promotion mistakes.

The challenge for some organizations is that they often place managers in leadership positions when they are not ready or not able to lead.  When this happens, there can be a slow down in business and a need for a reorganization.  Worse still if the manager has no leadership skill, they can be difficult to work with, and are unable to see the big picture and handle uncertainty.

Growing from a manager to a leader means developing both hard and soft skills.  It’s not just about expanding your knowledge of business processes and systems.  Basic leadership soft skills include understanding motivation and coping with uncertainty.

It’s not about leaders being born or made, great leaders are the one who continually developed themselves, and we’re not just talking hard skills.  It’s this continuous investment that pays dividends.  In 99% of cases the rate limiting factor to someones ability to perform lies within themselves.  Great leaders just happen to work harder at reducing these limiting factors.

To paraphrase the Learning and Skills council – “Your future is in your hands.”

When seeking advice…things to remember

When was the last time you sought advice?

Who did you ask? and why did you ask them?

Sometimes we seek advice because we really haven’t got a clue.  We’re usually looking for an expert then.  Someone who can give us some specifics, preferably this expert has also been there, done that and got the t’shirt.  That way they can also tell us of some pitfalls to avoid.

Sometimes we seek advice becuase we want to test our ideas or thoughts.  So we’re looking for a sounding board.  Someone we trust who’ll give us honest constructive feedback without massacring our ideas or making us feel really stupid.

Other times we seek advice because we want the strokes, we want someone to tell us we’re doing good.  Now clearly here we don’t want any advice, but we ask away looking for and expecting the praise….and when they give us some constructive feedback we’re amazed / hurt/ offended / angry * delete as appropriate.

So what can you do to be a great advice taker?

- avoid being reflexive / defensive / closed minded.  Putting it another way be open to new ideas, points of view and suggestions.

- ideally seek advice when you’re calm.  When you’re stressed you ability to judge and make decisions is very different, and for many of us that means less effective.

- learn to listen and I mean really listen, pay full attention to all that’s been said.  That includes body language as well as tonality of voice.

- have a network of advisers already established.  The investment in establishing these relationships means that a) you know the best person to ask based on your needs and b) if you’re in a crisis then they’ll be more inclined to respond in a time frame that helps you out as well as the advice.

- Lastly know you’re own end point, as in the goal, the outcome, the purpose.  If you go seeking advice without this then you make it harder for them to help you.  Very often the advice they give you is context specific.

Are you all a Twitter?

To Twitter or not to Twitter; that is very much becoming THE question.

Well one of the best ways of working this out for yourself is to dive in and do it.  As I recently described to one of my clients, discussing social media and the merits / distractions of without actually partaking, is rather like discussing whether steak and kidney in a pie works as a food combination without actually tasting it.

Let’s take 3 of the most common media sites – Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.  All serve a different purpose but if you don’t get in there and interact, you’re never going to know which one suits you the most and brings the most rewards.

Here are 50 ideas on using Twitter for business. In a nutshell Twitter gives you 140 characters to say what you’re up to.  Yes you can promote your business directly, and the opportunities are so much more.  You can share what’s caught your eye.  You can ask for help, no there isn’t always a reply but because of the 140 limit people often do cos it’s quick.  You can help others, again it’s real quick.  You get to see what’s going viral, what’s really catching on, or bugging people.  It’s not just the traditional sources of media and their opinions and commentary, you’re seeing it at a grass roots level.  If these people are representative of your customer base, you really get to see what’s important for them right now.  Lastly you also have the opportunity to share what you are or have been up to.  In other words people get to connect with you at the level of ‘normal human being’ rather than face of the company.   You follow those who interest you, people follow you, and you start to make connections and relationships which otherwise may never have come about.  In the noise of the internet we love hooking up with people who share similar interests.  You’ll also find there are more and more guides on how to use things like Twitter being written and published, but even without them it’s very straightforward.

Facebook is a little different, whereas people can opt to follow you on Twitter (you can of course block them if you want), on Facebook you have to actively accept the invitation to connect.  Again it’s a great opportunity to show your whole self, rather than the corporate version.  For anyone other than Generation Y it’s probably a lot less intuitive to use Facebook.  Well OK speaking for myself it’s less intuitive, so for me Facebook is still work in progress.  Having said that it’s been great to hook up with old school friends.

Lastly LinkedIn – Your profile is there for all to see, but people have to connect with you (and you have to accept) before they can see who you’re connected to.  It’s always been about connection, this just happens to be one way of doing it.  I know of recruitment companies who use this to find suitable candidates – so if you’re not there, where else can they find out about you?

All of them to varying degrees work when you’re being authentic, rather than pretending to be something you’re not.  Yes follow some business leaders on Twitter for a while and you do wonder who’s writing their tweets, and if it’s them, have they had a personality bypass as it all seems too scripted, too…well just not quite right.

One of the challenges as a leader is to remain connected.  The above are new routes that are taking hold, no passing fancy anymore, and before long the learning curve on working out how to use them and how you want to use them will be very short indeed.  The recession calls for us to be more creative, and that means exploring options that maybe in the past you’ve ignored or shrugged off.

Here’s were you’ll find me

Twitter

Facebook- you’ll have to search for me, cos I can’t work out how to give you a link, yes like I said not intuitive, either that or I’m having a thick moment.

Linkedin

The Crucibles of Leadership

What is it about great leaders which make them great?   Well one aspect is that they’ve been through the mill more than once.  Going through these difficult experiences and coming out of the other side wiser, stronger and more resilient is what Robert Thomas calls Crucible Experiences.

Many of us experience these crucible moments, but how many of us really extract the value from them and learn what we need to learn?  Very often because of the pain we can be tempted to put the event in a black bag, seal it up and get back on with life.  As a short term approach it can keep us sane, as a long term approach it means we’re missing the gift in what we went through.  It’s as if we had the pain but couldn’t be bothered to hang around for the pleasure.  This may sound odd, but one of the universal laws is the law of polarity.  You can’t have hot without cold, up with out down.  If there is only a small risk, then there is only a small reward.

In this book Crucibles of Leadership Robert describes 3 kinds of crucible moments:-

New Territory – Dealing with a totally unexpected event.

Reversal – Something not going according to plan.

Suspension – The in-between state, rather like transition.

He then goes on to help you discover your Personal Learning Strategy.  This includes what kind of leader you’d like to be, why you want to be a leader and your learning style and approach.

The past is the past and as they say in financial circles, it’s no indicator of the future as investments can go down as well as up.  However mining your past to uncover hidden resources and become more self aware is invaluable.  Being an authentic leader is a warts and all affair.  Right now given the current economic climate many people will be embarking on another crucible experience, what better way to equip yourself and extract as much juice from it than to read this book.