Tag: Leadership Development

Take your time

It’s a crazy time of the year – hot, wet today, busy, traffic is mad. And all the time our planet is hurtling through space at 1m km/h (that’s the relative speed of earth around the sun and our galaxy through our universe I think but I digress!). It’s been a busy couple of weeks. After 12 years of waiting, my son Tim had a replacement cornea graft which is promising for his vision. I was surprised how emotional I felt when he went into surgery. It’s been a long time, or felt it, waiting for his eyes to be in good health for the procedure. Before and after the surgery I’ve been helping lead teams develop their charters and learn about themselves. Which takes time.

The charter is usually just the beginning, but it’s a really important beginning, setting the rules of engagement and developing a vision of what the team would like the future to look like. One exercise that was supposed to take 15 minutes yesterday with one group took an hour and a half. You might ask if that mattered? Well yes it did. It mattered a lot that the team went where it needed to, taking the time. At the end of the session, they said that this first part was the most valuable.

Management requires action. Leadership needs patience. We need both but the best actions are those that follow a patient time of leadership. Professor Charles McGhee, Tim’s masterful surgeon who espouses opportunity and optimism on each encounter knows about patience. He knew not to rush in. But when it was time, he showed the best action you could hope for.  Two hours of careful surgery and Tim’s new cornea was in situ. And all around was a medical team who worked as one, including a theatre nurse who was there for Tim in 1995.

Vision for vision.

Stephen

Are weaknesses back in fashion?

What we have here my friend are your strengths and over here, are what we call your “development opportunities”.  Does that sound like a Tui billboard to you? It’s starting to for me. Feedback surveys, personality profiles, our own development assessments all mention our development opportunities.  What they’re talking about of course are our weaknesses.

Strength-bases approaches to life have been around a while.  I’m reading Marcus Buckingham’s book Go put your strengths to work (actually I’m listening to the audio book in the car – please don’t interupt me Continue reading “Are weaknesses back in fashion?” →

Fire my spirit

So goes the last line of the simple song 75 men and young men at the Essentially Men Pathways to Manhood gathering sang together as we waited to be met by mothers and family yesterday. Sitting here right now there is so much to reflect on that has truly fired the spirit of my son Tim and me too.

This was a gritty, hard, challenging week with men. Great men who shared, endorsed, inspired and challenged us all. Never have I felt so proud and so sad all at once. It took a few days but when Tim found his voice, man, did we hear it. A school life of bullying and being picked on because he wears glasses, because he doesn’t see as well as others, because of this, that and it didn’t matter what. Any bloody excuse will do. Bullying turned to a stone-like resistance built out of fear of failure. Adults then embark ed on their own special form of bullying – bludgeoning into submission,  challenging in his face: What is it Tim? Is it about you only? What is your problem?.

In your 17 years Tim you have faced challenges that few can understand, but I tell you Tim, and you know this, 75 men who love and admire you know.  And they were there for you and are there now for you. When they said sorry on behalf of all the boys and men who have bullied you, they meant it. You stand tall now.  You have greater strength than all of those bullies put together. The boy is gone. You are a young man.  You want more one-on-one with me.  You will have it. You fire my spirit more than you can imagine. I love you.

And let’s reflect on what the men said about you: Strong, a great conservationist who extends the topic, funny, you want to please, courageous, cool to hang out with, a sensational smile, resilient, independent and they said you should cherish your ability to think outside the norm. I could go on and on how they affirmed you.

They want you back next year to help out. And let’s not forget the Golden Pisspot award you won for the the Young Pathways Man (you better explain to the women where pisspot comes from!).

This journey gave me a deep reflective space to get my own life in balance. Thanks to all the men at the gathering. You are special and formed to deliver one of life’s crucibles for me.

All the elements are with you Tim. Stand tall and proud. The men all stand with you. Thank you for taking me.

Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, fire my spirit.

Stephen

What should you ask your leadership development centre?

I’m in the leadership development business and clients sometimes ask me “so what’s different about your offering?”, or “what can you tell us about what you do and how?”.   They are really good questions and so I thought I would list the things I would like to ask if I were looking for some development work – whether that be a course, programme, workshop or other engagement.

AUT Centre for Innovative Leadership (CIL) is setting new standards in transparency and credibility.   CIL aspires to be is authentic. Authentic in the way we conduct ourselves – we facilitate in our own way; we have real and transparent qualifications and accreditations from reputable institutions; we have and embrace diversity in all its forms; we are honest about where we come from – no exaggeration of CVs allowed around here!; we really care about leadership and people; and we want the best for you – which might not be us, that’s ok.  So when you’re assessing who to use:

1.  Who’s behind this business?  A reputable organisation or someone out for the next dollar?

2. Can I talk to some of the folk who might be doing the work?  Are they engaged with the process?

3. Who can vouch that your centre lives the values you espouse? Give me someone who used to work here to talk to please?

4. What tools and instruments do you use? Are they up-to-date?  Will you embrace the tools we have in our organisation and be prepared to use them? Will you have people who can do that?

5. Are all the people who interpret the tools and 360 feedback actually qualified? Or is it just nominated people or the centre?

6. What are the qualifications of the people involved? Are they real?

7. Do you pile in content?  Or is your style experiential?

8. What clients can I talk to about your offerings?  I’d really like a chat because, you know, sometimes you can learn a lot that you can’t read.

There’s a start.  It’s not everything, but I reckon that if you can get good answers to all of the above you’re in a good place.  Then take a close look at the person who’s running the show. Does s/he have the traits you are looking for? If not, would you really be in the right place?  Of are you in the school of theory? Some people say that leadership starts at the top, so check out the top.  Does it fit with you?

Good luck!

Stephen

ps I guess you won’t be surprised to hear me say I think we could give some pretty robust answers to these questions when you’re ready.  The only thing we can’t help you with is talking to someone who has left us!


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