Tag: Personal Development

Are you having a good laugh!!?

“What makes you a leader?” is the question posed on my Centre’s promotional card. I have it proudly affixed to the whiteboard in the office kitchen area so my colleagues can see that we’re making progress. It can be pretty serious stuff at times, this developing ourselves, and at times there’s nothing like a good laugh. Next to my proudly placed card now reads a series of “on the wall” comments starting with “It’s about how much time you can have off”, “It’s the pay!” and “the ability to hunt down and destroy anonymous comment writers” (not me I promise!).

Is it okay to laugh? Does a sense of humour have a role in leadership? I would say YES!, most definitely. As we navigate our way through our team’s challenges, aren’t there times when a great leader can bring the group instantly together with a short sharp dose of irony or joke?

What are your experiences of humour in leadership? What makes a sense of humour?


View Stephen Drain's profile on LinkedIn

What sort of leader is or was your father?

It’s Father’s Day in New Zealand this Sunday 6 September. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Many of our mental models in life come from our childhood and it seems to me that our fathers will have had an influence on our leadership journey. What sort of leader is or was your father? I’d love to hear your stories.

Credit where credit is due: My thinking started in this area from Mike Rogers, someone also passionate about leadership who posed the same question at the time of the USA Father’s Day in June. Thanks Mike. www.secondg.net/fathers

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

Where is the peace?

Front page of the NZ Herald today features a story about the Peace Foundation. It seems that anything other than peace is reigning at an organisation dedicated to promoting peace – internal fighting, resignations at the top and public excluded from meetings. For some time, I have been helping someone with a significant and painful dispute. Today an important and public step was made to resolve the dispute by my friend. There will be consequences for him (and more work still to be done), but he has been left with a sense of lightness and hope for the future. As I looked to the other party I wondered as did others: Will they have peace? Will what my friend has done pave the way for them to be peaceful. We all hope so, but we’re not sure.

Today was a beautiful day in Auckland. The sun shone and it felt like spring was close. As the sun set out the west side of my home I reflected on the day. Would what my friend has done bring down this painful dispute for everyone. I sincerely hope so as does he. Could he have done more? Not really, but actually I realised a truth that I already knew.

Peace is internal. No person or thing can give it to us. Lotto, a new job, a new house or car are great but will they give us peace? It might feel like it, for a moment. But the place to go is for many a scary and less travelled place than the lotto shop or the lawyer. It’s inside. Have a go. It’s got all the answers for you.

That will be the real Foundation of Peace.