People come to leadership coaching for many reasons but almost all are looking to build their confidence so that they can make more impact.

This reminds me of a motivational talk given by the great Oprah Winfrey where she reflects on the 35000 people sheâ€s interviewed including Presidents, housewives, criminals and celebrities and remarks that everyone, after finishing their interview, turns to her and asks in their own way, … ‘was I ok?â€

We all have doubts, fears and uncertainties that plague us and coaching not only helps reassure us that we are indeed ok but, further than that, it helps us build that vital confidence that is essential when we are trying to make a difference.  

Let me tell you a quick story about Martin, a commercial director  who I was working with a few years ago. . 

“Iâ€m feeling a bit frustrated at work” I remember him saying. “Iâ€ve just started working in a new senior leadership team but I just canâ€t seem to get any airtime. I know Iâ€m coming across as very quiet but I just donâ€t want to compete with all the alpha males who always seem to dominate.  I come out of all these meetings feeling demotivated and feel that Iâ€m adding very little value.”

Martin and I talked about what was holding him back and began to work on him being more energising  – but then an event occurred that changed everything.

“I had a great SLT meeting today” Martin told me. “It was a breakthrough.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Well just before the meeting my boss called me over and told me that my division had recorded its best ever result. And when I went into the SLT a few minutes later I felt  brilliant and somehow found it much easier to talk. And people asked questions and seemed genuinely interested and pleased for me and for the first time I feel I know my place in that team.”

And this highlights to me one of the important secrets about confidence. Sometimes itâ€s really helpful to work on yourself and tackle your personal blockers but alongside this you also need people around you who totally believe in you and have absolutely no problem in telling you how great you are.

For leadership coaching that can help you with your confidence, impact, self-belief contact anthonylandale@aol.com or call 07791 564763

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He said “I need leadership help and I intend to get it”, a sentiment Iâ€d like to hear said a lot more often.

I say this because the world needs many more people in senior leadership positions committing themselves to developing themselves as leaders. For the last twenty years Iâ€ve coached over 50 CEOâ€s and hundreds of other senior leaders and one number from DDI research that helps me get out of bed each morning is that only 38% of people in organisations worldwide say that the leadership of their organisation is ‘very good†or better.

This is a terrible number! This topic of leadership has been around for thousands of years but man has only developed to the point that only slightly more than one third of organisations are being very well led. But there have been thousands of books and conferences on leadership and billions spent on its development. So whatâ€s going on?

A big part of the answer is that I see many senior leaders having applied themselves wholeheartedly to learning their trade as a marketeer, accountant, scientist or whatever it may be but then spending a lot less time learning about leading even though it might be through their leadership that they make the biggest difference to their own and others†success. Think about this for yourself for a moment. How many years have you spent learning your technical expertise and how much time have you spent learning about leading? Most people Iâ€ve explored this with say theyâ€ve spent a lot less time consciously growing as a leader.

So hereâ€s what Iâ€d like to see: a world in which everyone in a leadership position – and for me thatâ€s everyone – has thoughtful answers to three questions. They are:

• What aspects of your leadership are you actively developing?
• What kind of help are you getting to support you?
• Who do you have around you giving you feedback on the progress youâ€re making?

Your organisation has an improved chance of succeeding in these challenging times if the people in it have solid answers to these questions. So at the very least get clear on your answers. And if you want to help make an even bigger difference send the questions to your senior leaders and especially your CEO. Tell them that you want them to be the best leaders they can be and ask them for their answers. This way, you can help more leaders on the planet say in a strong and confident way, “I need leadership help and I intend to get it”.

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The Influencers: Steve Radcliffe

Great marketers stand out because of their “energies”, says the leadership tutor.

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Many people of course love being busy and for the clients I work with who have drive and ambition I would expect nothing less. But are they being busy with the right things?

Perhaps one of the key obstacles for leaders who want to make a big difference is the difficulty they find in stepping back and assessing on a regular basis whether they are in touch with the Future they are trying to pull off. It’s not that they can’t do this but they get caught by the existing culture and the everyday pressures.

Take the case of Andrew, a big leader in the civil service who suggested he just didn’t have time to step back, that the demands from above were unrelenting, that he had no choice but to endlessly plug the gaps. But when we talked more about whether he would find it valuable to stop and think about the big picture a different answer emerged. He felt It might throw up some very uncomfortable questions.

And there is the rub. Leadership isn’t hard to understand but to stay in touch with what matters and what adds value requires leaders to exercise a very different muscle. We may complain about being busy but frequently it’s our way of staying in our comfort zone. Leadership in contrast requires us to interrupt our habits and exercise choice!

Nudge. Who could you talk to about your busyness and how how you can stay in touch with leading for the things that matter?

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Very best wishes to you from the FED team for a happy new year. And we also wish you a conscious one! Why do I say this?

I was reading the other day that only around 8% of New Year’s Resolutions are achieved and it was a quote from my friend, Tony’s blog http://tonyreiss.com/2014/01/02/business-development-training-in-law-firms-isnt-working/ that had me thinking about why this is and how we can live today more of the life we want.

Tony quotes David Maister who writes in the oddly titled book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker:

The primary reason we do not work at areas in which we know we need to improve is that the rewards are in the future; the disruption, discomfort and discipline needed to get there are immediate.

To reach our goals, we must first change our daily habits now. Then we have to have the courage to keep up the new habits and not yield to all the old familiar temptations. Then, and only then, we get the benefits later.

My steer is, yes, work at those resolutions that give ‘rewards in the future’. But also think about how you can have more rewards now by being more the person you want to be each day, now, today.

You can do this by being more conscious each day in this new year, being conscious of ‘am I being now who I want to be?’, conscious of ‘am I up to something now?’, conscious of ‘am I getting the job done and also building relationships in this encounter now?’, and so on. You could check in each day on your way home; ‘have I been who I want to be?’ and if I’ve not fully, ‘how could I be before the end of the day?’

There are rewards available today as well as in the future. Be conscious and have them now.

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1. What makes a good leader?
2. Are leaders made or born?
3. What are the different types of leaders?
4. Who stands out?

Given that I only had thirty minutes, and remembering that often ‘first thoughts are best thoughts†I set about answering question one.  Weâ€d love to hear your thoughts to any or all of the four questions – do get in touch.  Here is what I wrote followed by the link to the METRO article:

Good leaders know what they really care about, their values and beliefs. They know what they stand for and have given this thought and are able to embody their values and their beliefs in their behaviour, in their actions.

Leaders who truly value people and are relationship centred make good leaders they not only know what they themselves care about but they also genuinely care about others, are interested in them. Those leaders who truly excel in this are really curious in their people. They are curious about what makes people tick, they want to know what matters to them and how they can help them to be and to bring their best to work and to succeed.

Good leaders are keen to not only develop themselves, to be more self aware, and conscious of who they are being but they are also committed to developing others – as leaders. They believe in developing people, in developing their potential, even when sometimes people themselves may not believe it.

Good leaders are great at seeing possibilities and creating them, they are good at thinking positive. They are great at creating a vision, and of engaging people in that vision – of creating with their people a future that matters and that people want to co-create together. They know the difference that they want to make through their leadership – they know why they are doing what they are doing! They are clear on their purpose and are good at engaging others in and together creating a shared purpose, a common vision.

Good leaders build big relationships with people, this is not about being ‘best friends’ but about being able to have courageous conversations with people. They create an environment in which people feel safe enough to have these kinds of conversations, and in which people feel able to give, receive and ask for feedback.

They are encouraging of innovation, of possibilities, of thinking big – and when people stumble and, or make mistakes they are forgiving at the same time as helping people to learn and grow from them. They themselves take responsibility for their own mistakes, they are humble at the same time as confident in themselves.

Good leaders are good at appreciating people, at acknowledging them for their contribution and they do this regularly! They are good at asking for feedback from others, indeed they are keen to know what impact they have on people as they want to have a positive impact and the only way they can really find out is if they ask for feedback! This in and of itself helps build trust, and openness, it helps build big relationships in which people feel not only supported but also challenged. They are good at building a great support network and helping others to do the same.

These leaders inspire people to be their best, through aspiring themselves to be their best – people want to be part of their team and to together as a team achieve great results.

by Anni Townend

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/09/what-does-it-take-to-become-a-great-leader-3916959/

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In our new and inspirational post series, here is a great post from Martin Carter a regular contributor of posts to the FED site. In this post Martin writes about what leadership means to him, his own ‘Leadership Manifestoâ€; weâ€d love to hear from you with what leadership means to you, your own Leadership Manifesto. Please get in touch and have your Leadership Manifesto posted on the site.

What the heck is a leadership manifesto?

Recently a dear friend, coach and, to be honest a bit of a nag, (who I admire greatly) challenged me to write my leadership manifesto. Having first googled ‘Leadership Manifesto’ to find out what the heck one was, I decided I needed to reflect and cogitate on it…although from the outside it may have looked like I had decided that it was way too hard and so was simply prevaricating.

However I was due to meet this friend again so knowing he would ask/nag, I took a deep breath, and was surprised by what I wrote. I had expected a series of action-orientated bullet points. Instead I noticed that I had written about relationship and vision; shared purpose and liberation and how these lead to extraordinary results… Or to put it another way to Future-Engage-Deliver.

An organisation is nothing. Save for its people. Its life, its energy, its culture, its impact come though, via, because and in spite of its people. People matter. People matter most.

Extraordinary things happen when people are liberated to be themselves. This means turning up to work, rest and play with all parts of themselves in tow; their values, their beliefs, their energies, their passions, their creativity, their talents.

A leader brings these things into balance, by creating a team that is driven by a shared purpose, higher than that which the organisation wishes for them. This purpose talks to each of their unique ‘whys†and invites each of them to shackle their individual ‘why†to a collective ‘why’ in a way that is coherent and congruent, honouring and respecting their individuality whilst creating a greater whole that inspires and motivates.

But if the activation energy is vision, then the catalyst is relationship. High performance is founded on deep relationships, where each is heavily invested in the success of the other.

When shared purpose and deep relationships meet, extraordinary things happen. Creating this extraordinary blend and balance is the role of the leader. This is the balance sheet that a wise leader is preoccupied with.

There is no such thing as a heartless leader. Such a person may direct, subjugate or control through position, power or influence, but they do not lead

There is no such thing as a selfish leader. Such a person may deliver results, obtain power or gain riches but they cannot lead

There is no such thing as a fearful leader. Such a person may offer security, be safe to be around, and ensure an uneventful journey, but they dare not lead.

There is no such thing as a meek leader. Such a person may earn respect, love people and be well liked, but they will not lead.

A true leader is fierce; a true leader is courageous; a true leader is authentic. A true leader loves the person we were meant to be. A true leader leads from the heart, a place of beliefs, values and passions. A place of love. A true leader seeks first to serve, not lead, but in so-doing gains followers.

True leadership, then, is measured not by how much you win by, but by how many who follow achieve their personal best… and then better it. A true leader grows beneath them the giants on whose shoulders they stand. Rilke put it best :

“Winning does not tempt that man. This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings”(Rilke)

What is leadership? Simply the act of liberating those who follow to be the people they were made to be.

By Martin Carter

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On the one hand, we are thrilled with the consistent feedback we get about FED and how it’s really helping people in all walks of life to step forward and be much more who they want to be. And at the same time, we are frustrated that we are not reaching lots lots more people with our messages.

So we are going to up our game at getting FED messages out more widely. One aspect of this is the updating of our websites at www.midnightblue-oyster-495392.hostingersite.com and www.steveradcliffe.com so that they are much clearer to newcomers about who we are and what we offer. Please have a look at them and steer other people to them.

At the same time we are going to move from our leadership nudges coming out weekly to every so often. So you’ll still get a nudge now and again but not every week. And as ever, we’d really like it if you wanted to write a nudge. Anni Townend at anni@annitownend.com is still around to help you craft your story. As well as the occasional nudge, we want to create more substantial articles, videos or podcasts that you could pass on to help introduce new people to FED.

There’s already good momentum. Just in the last week, we’ve heard from some people who have handed copies of the book to their bosses and HR partners to help get FED into their organisations; we’ve heard from others who are spreading the word by working through the book with their team; and from others who don’t know us but have been recommended to come and talk to us. Our nudge this week is to ask you what could you do to join us in helping more people know about the magic of FED?

Many thanks for your support.

Best wishes, Steve

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