Formium Development

Tag: success

  • “Being a leader is not about you.” How leaders can achieve performance success

    “Being a leader is not about you.” How leaders can achieve performance success

    You’re a leader with a great organisational business strategy, operational plan and team objectives. So now the big question is – how do you get your team to perform and deliver success?

    One approach I encounter is focused on command and control. Some industries, companies, leaders and team members seem to favour a directive model of leadership. While a preference for instruction over facilitation may be appropriate in some circumstances, there is a risk it leads to a vicious cycle of micro-management and disempowered staff.

    But there is another way.

    “Being a leader is not about you. It’s about the people that are on your team and how you can help them to be successful.”

    Susan Vobejda

    Everything we know about performance shows that the greatest success is achieved by those people who are empowered and trusted, who are given both the tools and the autonomy.

    For me the key element in Susan Vobejda’s excellent advice is “how you can help” – the leader’s role is not to provide ‘one size fits all’ support. The challenge is to find out what each person needs to deliver the performance the leader needs.

    How can leaders do this? When I’m working with leaders and managers I recommend they develop individualised support for their team members by asking the following questions:

    1. What are your motivations and aspirations?

    Purpose prompts performance. Where leaders select or align tasks with people’s aspirations, this energises and encourages people to deliver.

    2. What do you need from me to meet your targets?

    The model of Servant Leadership emphasises the value in the leader helping employees to develop and deliver. By asking them what they want, the leader avoids top-down assumptions and empowers team members to identify their own support needs.

    3. What are your unique strengths and how can you use them best?

    Performance is enhanced by identifying strengths and generating opportunities to leverage them through alignment, selection or re-framing. A strengths focus means doing more of what you are best at and which energises you.

     

    Providing leaders listen and enable, they can achieve business success by helping their team members be successful.

     

    Photo credit: Fauxels on Pexels
  • Use your doubt productively: a new approach

    Use your doubt productively: a new approach

    Conventional wisdom says we want our leaders to be decisive, confident and certain. Whether politician or business leader, we’re reassured by their communication of a clear vision and how it will be achieved.

    But our desire for certainty has drawbacks.

    “We mistake charisma and confidence for competence” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzi in Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It).

    I’m pretty sure you can think of someone whose popularity exceeds their performance, whose presentation outweighs their contribution, and whose over-optimistic confidence leaves no room for nuance and reason.

    So if the opposite of certainty is doubt, can we use it productively?

    This is an area explored by Nicola Reindorp in her blogposts and BBC Four Thought podcast. She argues that doubt has valuable place and should not be seen as the enemy:

    Doubt is at the heart of self-awareness

    Reflecting on how others might see your behaviour and questioning yourself on how can you be better is fundamental to emotional intelligence. This openness to change and other perspectives is driven by accepting self-doubt.

    Doubt is the bedrock of critical thinking

    Daniel Kahnemann’s book Thinking Fast and Slow exposed how the brain takes shortcuts, bamboozled by emotion and looking for easy answers. It takes doubt to question your thinking, to test the evidence and look for alternatives.

    Doubt drives a collaborative approach

    If you think you may not have all the answers, then you’re more likely to be collaborative. If you know your perspective is just one of many, then you’re opening the door to a more diverse and inclusive thinking process.

    Make doubt work for you

    Reindorp stresses that the key is to use a cycle of analysis to work through your doubts and not to get overwhelmed by them. Avoid the negative aspects of doubt by setting a limited time and space for rational exploration of the issues using thought exercises and models.

    This approach of focusing on rational processes can be seen in the following diagram, which I have adapted from The CEO Report – Embracing the paradoxes of leadership and the power of doubt from Said Business School. Avoid the negative factors – Hubris, Myopia, Angst and Paralysis – by focusing on four structured rational processes: Preparation, Challenge, Validation, and Awareness.

     

     

    “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” Voltaire

     

    Photo credit: Bruce Mars on Unsplash
  • The Financial Times Essential Guide to Negotiations

    The Financial Times Essential Guide to Negotiations

    This book provides what it promises on the cover – how to achieve win-win outcomes in each of your business deals.  A straightforward, practical guide that lists what is required to achieve success.

    Geof Cox’s book comes with a great, logical and easy-to-follow structure:

    1.Planning it

    2.Doing it

    3.Reviewing it

    The writer recognises and comments older models for the negotiation process by Chester Karras, Roger Fisher & William Ury, Neil Rackham and others.

    The recommended resources concentrate on prep work and communication skills as well as the effective use of set-piece negotiation models. Novices are warned about tricks and dubious tactics and for advanced negotiators, the author suggests strategies for complex situations, such as negotiating across cultures or with several stakeholders.

    In line with the style of the FT Essential Guides series, Cox uses practical case studies and instances, along with easily adaptable tables and diagrams all throughout his book.

    The task and results-orientated publication’s style is simple, clear and easily interpretable.  Reading Cox’s book itself is not a guarantee of success but following the steps, taking his advice and learning from others’ mistakes will definitely help you to accomplish negotiation success in the long run.

    The book is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.