Category: Leadership Insights

Are you using your stuff?

My first blog here was about doing your own dirty work. I was talking to a colleague recently and we agreed that everyone seems to have too much stuff. So many things that at the time we need but really, over time, they just seem to fill the house up without purpose. Our stuff.

Then there is the other sort of stuff that we deliberately don’t use. The china cabinet full of the crockery that is just too good to use. Probably it didn’t start out that way – we wanted a good set for those special occasions – but over time it’s got pretty well stuck in the cabinet to look at, but not touch. Imagine if it got damaged!

Is that like us? Do we have a shield around a perfect image that cannot be explored for risk of breakage? What is so important about the image? Is it more important than knowing the real, authentic person? Should we risk exposing ourselves to a little breakage to allow people to get to know us properly?

Do we go through our leadership journey more concerned with image than with reality? Why?

None of us is a perfect image. There are cracks, imperfections, but in amongst the grittiness and rough edges is the real leader – the leader that those around us can relate to – and join in the journey knowing that real hands will draw the team together.


View Stephen Drain's profile on LinkedIn

What does our ancestry have to do with leadership?

Over the last year or so I have been exploring my family tree.  It’s been a great journey and I started out thinking I would create a “tree” and be satisfied. What has happened, though, is that I have uncovered a richness in stories that I could never have hoped for.  Finding out where I have come from has been for me, very therapeutic. 

This afternoon I received a paper written by Colin Knox entitled “Maori Leadership in Te Ao Maori”:  “The most important difference [between Maori and Pakeha leadership models] is its source of inspiration and motivation, which is its common ancestry and history…..Another difference is the relative importance of family over individuality”. 

The concept of Whakapapa is relating to “people with whom we have a common ancestry, cherishing places such as marae as the symbolic home and sharing on the basis of kinship rather than legal responsibility or ownership, acknowledging the importance of our ancestors”.

I couldn’t help but relate what I read here with my own journey.  Appreciating where I have come from, learning the family stories and history has, I am certain, made me feel more authentic.  Whether I appear that way is for others of course.  Something switched in me when I read Colin’s paper: an instantly deeper appreciation of what Maori mean when they say Whakapapa. Why had I not grasped this previously? Secondly, the relationship between our ancestry – where do I come from? – and our own journey is stark. 

In my desire to develop authenticity, there is only one place to start – myself – and my ancestry has been, as I am certain it is for others, a deep and valuable part of that journey. My insights have come from my own work and, as is often the case, from an unexpected source, adding richness and depth all round.


View Stephen Drain's profile on LinkedIn

Is there really such a thing as Leadership?

The other day I was the Airport. Looking through the various management/leadership/inspiration books there is a book by Bob Jones – Jones on Management – with a section on Leadership. Jones, as many will know is one of New Zealand’s most successful property developers and investors with a lifetime of experience. His proposition is that Leadership is all fluff; that all you need is a general manager who does a good job managing and other people will see this, and if they are properly rewarded, will also perform well. He suggests that many of the so-called great leaders were managers who happened to be in the senior position at the right time – Churchill and Mandela are two examples given. Could Jones be right? Could it all be spin? I do know that there are many who are attracted to such a proposition. So what defines leadership against its practical and straightforward brother management? Jones is at least partly right. A good manager can do a good job if properly resourced and in the right position – this is what his proposition is – that positional power is really what leadership is. Really? Do we all need to have “position” to lead others – is leading necessarily just being “the boss”? Do you lead because of what your title is? Or do you lead because of other things? I know there are what I would call leaders amongst us who can drive their team’s performance though their energy, their deep understanding of colleagues, and appreciating their unique differences. Of course such people can become the boss and probably rightly so.

What meaning will I bring to those that I lead? How will my leadership help? Will performance improve because of me? Why should anyone be led by me?

Have you been making deposits in your Trust Bank?

I recently attended my Uncle Stan’s 80th birthday in Christchurch.  My cousins of a similar age to me who I had had virtually nothing to do with for over 30 years were there.   I suddenly became aware that we had gone from the usual pleasantries to something much deeper and more meaningful – in about two minutes flat.  The amazing thing was that it was entirely nature and, for us all, safe.  Why?  Could it be more than just a family connection I asked myself?  Tucked away in Stephen Covey’s books is the concept of the trust bank.  We make deposits of trust through our own actions in any relationship.  Sometimes, regrettably, we make withdrawals, but it’s the balance that counts.  There is no visible central banking record to check your balance with anyone – as we practice and work on our trust banks a growing awareness of whether the balance is healthy or not is clear.  In fact, we all know it don’t we?  “I trust her” or “I feel safe with”, “I wouldn’t say too much to him”.  It’s not complicated but unlike the banks and finance companies of the current global crisis, those deposits stay there.  Sometimes for years.  Thanks Cousins!

We can have all the flash leadership theories, smart looking degrees and positions, but where are we without a trust and its close relative safety?  What are you doing to look after your account?