Anthony Landale

I’ve been with a few teams recently where the topIc of ‘asking for help’ has caused a bit of a stir.

Regular readers will know how much emphasis we place on the need for leaders to have a great support network. We believe you simply can’t grow and develop on your own. So why the debate?

To start with, of course, many people aren’t clear either on what aspect of their leadership they want to work on or indeed what opportunities there are to try out and practise their leadership skills. But what really seems to block people is their willingness to tell colleagues – in advance – what they are up to.

Take the case of Andrew, a senior leader who told me he’d been practising his leadership, but who also said he hadn’t told anyone else what it was he was doing. When I asked him why not he said it felt a bit awkward and he feared it might show up his weakness! But the best way to grow as a leader is to get people enrolled in your development so that they can both acknowledge your qualities and help you spot areas where you haven’t quite made the impact you want. Far from seeing it as weakness, people are generally delighted to be asked for their feedback – and a request for such support can massively enhance a relationship too.

So build your support network today. Go and enrol two or three people in your leadership journey. Tell them what you are looking to improve, invite them to notice how you are doing and ask them to be ready to give you feedback over the next few weeks. It’s the fastest way to grow.

By Anthony Landale

Learn more about Anthony Landale, the author of this article.

Listening and watching very carefully

Let’s cut to the chase. If you want to engage me and have me come with you, I have to feel valued by you. I may not articulate whether I do, but I’ll be feeling it. This is another way of saying that for engagement to happen the relationship between us has to be big enough.

In the last few weeks I’ve seen two separate instances of where the energy of people being up to something eventually worked against them in terms of leaving others feeling valued and so engaged. The problem was that both of them put so much energy into talking about what they were up to that they left absolutely no room for anyone else to speak. Their ‘engaging’ turned into ‘communicating at’ and ‘telling’; people tried to speak but the leaders just kept on talking. I watched as people were less and less listened to and eventually withdrew.

So this week, yes please bring your energy for what you care about but just check are you also giving people a jolly good ‘listening to’!

By Steve Radcliffe

Anni Townend

Years ago I can remember being on holiday with my family and my Dad ‘chomping at the bit’ to get back to work after the first few days. A week was, by his own admission, about all he could manage and even then it was a huge challenge for him to switch off completely. He’d be with us physically – well sort of, as on walks he would stride ahead into the distance as if getting ahead and getting to wherever we were heading would bring him closer to being able to pack up the car and return back home and to work. He was always on the go, never quite able to stop and to stand still. Indeed I think that he had lost the knack of switching off and even feared that if he did switch off he might never get switched on again, and so he kept on going.

And this was in the days before the internet, blackberries, and the like! I can only imagine how, had they been to hand then as they are now, we would have seen even less of him. Even if he had been with us he would have undoubtedly been somewhere else.

Some leaders are really good at switching off and on. Or so it seems. What I have noticed is that they are in fact switched on all the time – but with a difference. They are switched on to wherever they are and who they are with. In conversation with these leaders they tell me that they are really good at managing their energy, and that this is key to their being switched on – they are switched on to their energy.

Leadership nudge: How switched on are you to your energy and to really being present wherever you are? What is the one thing that you could do this week that would help you manage your energy? Who could you enlist to support you in managing your energy and what benefits might there be to them, as well as to you?

By Anni Townend

Learn more about the author of this article, Anni Townend

Tamsin Rycroft

“What can you do to be more ‘up to something’ and going for it this week?”

This is one of my favourites! I work as a speech and language therapist in the NHS and colleagues (and my husband) have previously commented that I’m always up to something. Sometimes, the large workload and limited hours in the day can beat this out of me but the weekly FED posts help to re-motivate and drive me forwards again. So much so I write down my favourite FED questions on Post-it notes and stick them in the front of my diary. The questions are so motivational and useful that I have had to get even bigger ‘Post-its’!

“How are you supporting others to be bold, daring, courageous and curious?”

This is another great question that has got me thinking about my leadership and being up to something with others. I’m not a manager but there are many opportunities for me to lead and to develop my leadership skills. It is not always easy but it is something that I want to do and something that I personally benefit from. I need to be challenged and am willing to volunteer to take on projects that I can get my teeth into and will ultimately make a difference to the teams that I work within and to my profession. This can be difficult to do on your own but teamwork makes us much more efficient and it’s way more fun being up to something with others!

I feel like I’ve only just started really thinking about my leadership as something of a journey that I am on. What’s great about the FED posts is that they have me stop and think bigger on a weekly basis. I am sure that this process will be ongoing and will change along with my experiences and career path.

Leadership nudge: What can you do this week to support and encourage the teams you work in to be more up to something together and to be bold, daring, courageous and curious?

By Tamsin Rycroft

Learn more about Tamsin Rycroft, the author of this article.

Alan Humphries

Last year to celebrate a particularly “big” birthday I booked my ski-ing holiday of a lifetime and set off with my son to North America. We duly arrived in Denver. However in the melee of recovering hand luggage from the overhead lockers, I was pushed over and all my body weight went onto my left knee. I sat down again believing I would just walk this off going to the terminal.  Not so.

The next morning I sought medical help and on the advice of the hotel receptionist headed over to the clinic. The service was prompt and professional and when we got to the critical question: “Can I ski?” The doctor said: “Sorry sir, you have torn your meniscus and I cannot advise you to ski. In fact as this area is poorly vacillated it will take up to 6 months to heal.”

Imagine how I felt! I hobbled morosely back to the hotel wondering how to re-book the flight home.

But I hadn’t allowed for the upbeat, Playing to Win receptionist! She brightly inquired: “How is the knee?”  “No good” I replied, “torn meniscus.” “Happens all the time” she said “What you need is a leg brace and you’ll be fine!” Instantly she was on the phone to the sports shop confirming they had one.

The brace was fitted, I got on the skis and because of her totally different perspective I had the memorable holiday I had planned. Yo!

Leadership nudge: Every so often leaders need to shape how they see events and bring new and different perspectives for their people.  In this case, changing disaster and no holiday to possibility and a great holiday.

Do you have an example for yourself at work right now? Maybe a set back or disappointment that you could see as an opportunity or a difficulty that might be a great learning experience.

By Alan Humphries

Learn more about the author of this article, Alan Humphries, FED consultant and coach

In this post regular FED contributor Steve Holliday writes about asking for help, getting it and the difference a support team can make. Perhaps there’s more support for you out there than you think?

Steve Holliday

I was recently in Brighton and being near the sea, and my training well underway for a team relay swim of the English Channel in 2014, I posted a request to the Outdoor Swimming Society on Facebook, to see who was up for an early morning sea dip. I’m a novice open water sea swimmer and needed some experienced company.

To my surprise and delight, a lady called “Kim” said “she’d be keen to hook up”.

What was great is that I hadn’t met her before. Something in her was just so unconditionally supportive of me, a complete stranger, connected only by our love for open water swimming.

We met at the pier that morning at 07:30 am, where I was greeted by Kim’s mate, Heather. Wow, here was ANOTHER amazing person, happy to support me.

I had a great swim with them both, alongside the pier, and some great conversation too. Kim was off back to South Africa and said “if ever you are in Cape Town, Steve, let’s swim!” whilst Heather said “bring your channel relay team down and we’ll swim together – it’ll be great”.

Leadership Nudge: So who’s in your support team? How often do you ask them for help? Who’s support team are you in or could you be in, if you offered your support, unconditionally? What might be possible in your leadership, and someone else’s too, as a result of being in a great support network?

By Steve Holliday

Learn more about Steve Holliday, the author of this article.

Professor Rob Wilson

“For me, the big heads symbolize children: new, uncorrupted, their heads full of endless possibility open to whatever comes their way. It is only as we grow older that we become narrow and closed. Let’s keep our heads as big as possible.” – Mackenzie Thorpe

When I started my current job equipped with “Future Engage Deliver” under one arm and “Leading Clever people” under the other a colleague remarked “Good news! No need to worry about the so-called difficult people – they invariably make good leaders!” This got me thinking: Irrespective of whether I agree with the statement what does ‘difficult’ really mean and is it really about being different?

In our hospitals we have a patron of the arts, the famous painter MacKenzie Thorpe. He was discouraged by his lecturers early in his career because they thought his painting naive. You may have seen his drawings of children with enormous feet and heads. Thorpe tells the story of growing up as one of seven children in a very grounded and supportive family and that this experience shaped his painting. His thinking is that when we are children our minds are open to all sorts of possibilities and that as we get older we become less open to the wide range of options available to us in any given situation. Hence his drawings of children with large heads and big feet and older people with small heads and feet.

So what has this got to do with leadership? Leadership is a journey of growing into something and sometimes ideas which seem, on first sight or hearing, quite difficult can, if given space and time to grow, be the way forward. Herein lies a key aspect of FED leadership; that of nurturing people and their ideas, encouraging people to think big and to think differently. What I am learning as a leader is what Mackenzie Thorpe experienced as a child; to keep my feet firmly on the ground whilst thinking big, and crucially keeping possibilities alive. As leaders we need to be sure-footed and grounded whilst being open to all possibilities, to new ideas and also to remember that often those ideas which are simple and straightforward are the best. In their turn they will spark new ideas and further possibilities.

Leadership nudge: How open are you to new ideas? What could you do this week to encourage others to think differently and to grow their ideas? How ready are you to try something new and different? What may you need to do differently in order to have people around you think differently and open up to even more possibilities?

By Rob Wilson, Medical Director, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

Learn more about Professor Rob Wilson, the author of this article.

Anthony Landale

We all on occasions face unnerving situations – those moments when we feel ourselves to be on the edge of our comfort zone when, for example, we need to speak up, take a difficult decision or take what feels like a big risk. It isn’t easy. In FED terms this is where you need courage and trust and need to ‘go for it’

This story isn’t about business but it concerns just such a ‘moment of truth’ when the author David Whyte went on a trek in the Himalayas. He was walking on his own for a couple of days and planned to meet up with his friends further up the valley. But at the end of a cliff path David found himself facing a deep black gorge and the only way across was a rotten footbridge swaying dangerously in the wind. He sank to the ground. Below he could hear the distant rush of water. Ahead he could see the crazy state of the bridge and although he wasn’t afraid of heights he felt himself unravelling inside. It was just far too dangerous. There was nothing to do but turn back.

Then, just as he came to this decision an old Nepali woman, shouldering a huge load, shuffled straight past him and without hesitation stepped straight onto that trembling bridge and crossed the gorge. And once across the bridge she turned briefly and smiled mischievously at him. Incredulous, but without stopping to think, David picked up his pack and followed – and in just a few stomach churning strides also cleared the gorge.

Leadership nudge: what are the big opportunities or challenges facing you where you need trust and courage in order to take that first step? Who can fully support you to go for it?

By Anthony Landale

(Original source of this story: The Heart Aroused by David Whyte)

Learn more about Anthony Landale, the author of this article.

Norway August 2011

Last week I had the great pleasure of helping run The Marketing Society’s leadership programme for the eighth year. It is a powerful mix of insights from successful marketing leaders and a large dose of FED. The participants love it.

Fascinatingly all these successful leaders were very different personalities. They were walking proof that there is no one way to be a leader. It’s much more about being the very best you can be.

But while they were all different, there was something consistent about them – they all had been up to something for most of their working lives, it was just how they were. They had me think back to one of my favourite quotes from the great Carl Rogers:

“The process of the good life is not a life for the faint-hearted… it involves stretching and growing… the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.”

Ooh, there’s an interesting thought – what’s involved in the ‘courage to be’?

And this week reflect for a while on how fully ‘launched’ you are in the stream of your life? What can you do to be more up to something and going for it this week?

By Steve Radcliffe

Ian Lock

Senior leaders often tell me that it takes time to build big relationships and it’s not something that can be done quickly. In my work as a leadership consultant, I regularly have to build a big enough relationship with a leader in less than an hour! So how do I do it? Here are the 4 steps that have helped me and may help you:

1, Find out what the other person wants in their life. When we know what someone wants in their life it becomes a lot easier to help them get it.

2, Ask them why they come to work. Understanding what brings someone to work is a powerful step to engaging them.

3, Help them explore what success looks like for them. We all have our own definition of success and when we feel we are being helped toward that success it’s a great feeling that increases our energy and commitment.

4, Get in touch with what the person really cares about. What we care about has a huge bearing on our behaviour and how we show up in pursuit or defence of them.

Leadership enquiry: Ask yourself what you currently know about the people around you from these 4 perspectives. Then pick a couple of people this week with whom you are working and find time to talk with them about some of the above. Notice how they respond and notice what you learn about them. See if their answers help you build big relationships, fast.

By Ian Lock

Learn more about the author of this article, Ian Lock