Category: Leadership Development

Refresh

I hope that the people who interacted with us during Leadership Week both at our workshops or the many that I am grateful passed by this blog and the Centre’s site took something away.  If they did, I hope that something grows. Discovering my leadership happens at many levels as I was reminded again today by my friend Dr Vikram Murthy.  We can now see on MRI examinations much of what we previously estimated through observations and testing. It’s a bit like knowing the world is round by looking at it from space. Not that long ago we humans thought it was flat, but slowly the thinking developed and we established that it was, well you know the rest! These developments in Neuroscience are  incredibly exciting. The neuroscientist Sam Harris has put forward the proposition that the determination of our values can also be from a scientific basis. More on all this another day.

Last week was both exhilarating and tiring. Exhilarating as I watched eyes opened to values, authenticity and leadership discovery. These were eyes that might not ordinarily get to go on a course. Tiring because, I’m proud to say, I gave it all at our workshops. To do less would have just been work. Add shop to work and I’m away!

I see my diary has another authenticity workshop this week at the ATEM Aotearoa Conference. Fortunately for me I was playing around with the AUT HR system and got myself some leave yesterday (strange but true) and I spent time refreshing.  We all need to refresh and now I’m ready for more.

That we can continually discover things about ourselves and our leadership is the most exciting part of it all. When we think it’s done and dusted, then I reckon that’s when we’re done and dusted. But today I feel like it’s just starting again.

Bring it on!

A week of it

Tomorrow morning I’m going to run a workshop about authentic leadership. I’m pretty certain that Mother Teresa, described as Mother of Mercy will get another airing – my mother, in an act of mercy to someone she never knew,  suggested to me “leave the poor woman alone – she can’t defend herself”. Mum’s right (though if Mother Teresa is where she thought she was going then I guess she can!). We’re also going to talk about personal branding and see if we can discover what if anything, the relationship is between that and authenticity.

Two surveys came out today – one was about who the most trusted New Zealander is and the other was about the most trusted brand. Notice that we weren’t asked to decide who the best branded person was? Not that surprising really for me – if you’ve read any of my blogs you’ll know that I go on a bit about trust and its relationship with leadership and authenticity.

So, authenticity and leadership week. This week came about to celebrate Sir Peter Blake. He struck me at times as a bit gruff and someone who didn’t take any nonsense. If you’re big into emotional intelligence you might say there’s some work to be done if you’re gruff.  But then again, you might think it’s authentic to be who you are. The author Christopher Hitchens who got me thinking about Mother Teresa declares in his book Love, Poverty and War (after describing how, objectively, his life is good and satisfying) that “I wake up ever day to a sensation of pervading disgust and annoyance”. The book explains much of this annoyance.

So I ask myself, if I have a sense of irritation or gruffness, should I exhibit my maximum emotional intelligence and restrain myself? Or are there times to let rip at the ignoramus who texts in the movies, or the paper-pushing bureaucratic that spends our taxes justifying a decision?!! My coach says that I need to get mad sometimes. I’m not sure that this is the week to start. After all, I’m putting myself and others I work with out there to be involved in Leadership Week and people might expect…expect what? Caught myself.

Sorry Mother Teresa (and my Mum). If you are just a brand, expect no mercy!

Stephen

Do you get it?

Sometimes when I’m talking to people about leadership courses they ask whether they’ll learn about leadership styles like charismatic, authoritative etc. I know about those things, in fact, I’ve even got texts that discuss those things in quite a lot of detail.

Today we ran a workshop on authentic leadership for a group of managers who knew each other well. This group works with young people. We started off quite late but, hey, it’s Monday and who’s in a hurry. We started off talking about what leadership is about. This was a group of self-aware, switched on managers who knew about trust, disclosure and being vulnerable. After that we hardly mentioned the word leadership.

At the end of the day, I asked if they’d noticed that we hadn’t mentioned leadership much. They agreed but they then talked about all the important facets of authenticity and leadership that we had canvassed. One of the managers talked about diversity – not just accepting diversity – but embracing it as part of an individual’s whole being. Others talked about enjoying their own preferences, having followers because you’re real and personal leadership. It felt humble, yet strong at the end of the day.

So, is there a place for labels of leadership? You be the judge, but I reckon we are what we are and that’s the place to start. I’ve said that many times I know, but when you get a group like we had today it really brings it home. Straight-up, real, embracing and lovin’ diversity and all that it brings to their group. And wanting more.

People starting out on their leadership journey often start with the labels. That’s natural. As leaders we can do so much for those starting out on their leadership journey by modelling our authenticity rather then worrying about labels and styles. I reckon the young people this group looks after are very fortunate. And so was I today. Without hardly even mentioning that word leadership.

Do you?

Stephen

The real story of Bill and me

After a fortnight which included our Authentic Leadership Course and two workshops on Authentic Leadership I was ready for lunch today with the Finance Minister. That sounds very grand for a minion like me and yes, there were about 120 other people there. But sometimes you just get lucky and I arrived in my little panel-beaters loan car about the time the big silver BMW arrived and we walked in together.

Not being one to let an opportunity go amiss, he Continue reading “The real story of Bill and me” →