Category: Wise Leadership

Totara

There’s a large Totara in the forest that we visit during the Authentic Leadership Course. It’s been there for longer than any human being and will probably be there for much longer than any of us. It feeds the smaller trees, provides shelter, oxygen for all of us and not to forget, a great leadership conversation. The AUT Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack has described the death of our Chancellor Sir Paul Reeves as a mighty Totara fallen (if you’re not a Kiwi and aren’t sure check this out for what a Totara is).

A friend and former colleague visited me yesterday to talk about his new business venture that we might be able to connect together on. We caught up on events of the last year or so including a story he had of a client, who imagining that my friend was talking bad of him, demanded that the business conducted with the firm be handled by others, or else! Knowing all those involved as we both do, we laughed at the absurdity and paranoia displayed.

There couldn’t be a more stark contrast in events from a fallen Totara, to, well how do you similarly describe a small-minded petty person without offending any plant life?! Sometimes these comparisons are helpful to recognise that not everyone is suited to leadership and the big-mindedness that goes with it. I met Paul Reeves last at the opening of the AUT Manukau Campus and I know him by reputation within AUT to have been a mentor, friend and true leader for the institution.

This Friday I’m going to talk to 300 school prefects. That feels good, not only  because I never was a prefect (!), but because as young leaders, the opportunities are endless and I find the hope and energy of youth refreshing and energy-giving. I find inspiration in the success of younger people  – my son Tim was never a prefect either, in fact school wasn’t always the best time for him but now, studying a topic he’s passionate about his success is inspirational to me and makes me very proud too. I hope that the prefects are inspired by the mighty Totara Sir Paul, and that they carve their way in the world as leaders, not copying Sir Paul, but through their own authenticity and innovation making a difference in their own way.  They’ll take from Sir Paul a life of service which is a word often forgotten in leadership.  I’m not sure what I’ll say but it’ll be something alone those lines and I hope that in my 30 minutes we hear from some of them too. Afterall, if you’re a leader, you need to be seen with head held high.

Stephen

The price of leadership

My interview on TVNZ Breakfast. I started the week on Sunday night saying I wanted to do more video. I didn’t realise TVNZ would be involved!

http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/thursday-july-7-4289762/video?vid=4289869

My previous blog covers this topic too.

Stephen

What will you do now?

We want leaders, we demand leadership and we expect a lot from leaders. But sometimes leadership fails. Unless you’re able to exercise coercive power, when followers lose confidence for whatever reason, then your leadership is probably over in that role. And that’s what happened to the CEO of the EMA this week.

Being a leader is like being a fish in a bowl – you’re magnified – everyone is watching, but very little information is getting into the fish. The fish doesn’t even know it’s wet I guess! My experience is that the bigger the role, the harder it is for leaders to get feedback from those in their organisation. As you gain more freedom, more profile and access to more people, you are told less by those that support you. If leadership is there to serve then isn’t that wrong? Don’t we all have a responsibility to our leaders to ensure that they are fully informed by what we notice?

The political price of leadership is the greater standard that gets applied. Authentic leaders don’t switch their leadership on and off – they are what they are 24/7. Which must mean at times being wrong, being vulnerable and stuffing up. The higher the standard the easier it is to make a hash of something and that’s what’s happened here. Which disenfranchised so many who need to be connected for that leadership to thrive. And so it ended.

Let’s learn something. What I’d like to ask of you is this: Do you have a leader where you notice things where you could help with feedback? Are you doing anything about it? Or are you sitting there waiting for failure? If you are, I say that’s wrong. Leadership is a relationship. A leader exists not for him or herself, but for a community, a team or a group and serves for that group. In every relationship there is a responsibility to empower and grow each other. Leaders don’t have all the answers and don’t always get it right. When leadership fails, so do the followers and the organisation.

I’m not saying this is the case with the EMA, but it strikes me that there’s a lot of people wanting blood. Wanting blood is a sign of failure for everyone. Those in a relationship don’t want blood. There’s a feeling of no winners in this leadership failure. Which is a shame, as leadership is so important.

Learn something from all of this and do your bit in Leadership Week by supporting your leader. We all have one somewhere. I’ll be on TVNZ Breakfast at 7.10am in the morning talking about this. Hope I make sense!

Stephen

Not our fault

A teenager died in the weekend after attending the King’s College Winter Ball. Much has and will be said about this tragedy, but three things said by leaders from King’s caught my eye: We can’t babysit the students 24 hours a day. True. We don’t need an inquiry to see how the Balls are run. Mmmm. They weren’t drunk and there were no drugs. Right.

A letter to the editor in one of the Sunday newspapers caught my eye too. The writer, a mother from Masterton, said that she didn’t try to be friends with her children when they were growing up, that she saw her parenting role to role-model behaviours that she wanted to instil into her children. Continue reading “Not our fault” →