Leadership is about Context & Connection

Companies strive to create accountability, ownership and leadership at all levels...

There is a perception that there are people who decide and others that execute... Relationships tend to be unbalanced, communications mainly one way... Connection between deciders and doers is low...

With what consequences?

Collaborators have low levels of motivation, commitment and engagement. Quality and service standards are average. In difficult economical environments levels of tension and stress build up and paralyse teams further more...

In reality neither the managers nor the collaborators feel happy about the situation...

The former don’t feel confident and trusting with their teams and people.

The latter don’t feel listened to nor taken into account and develop automated and routine attitudes.

Well. You know what: This could change!

Leadership is about creating the Connection and Context that enable change and that deliver performance. 

A level of Connection that enhances open and closer communications and develops intimacy, credibility, relationships, trust.

A Context that is open, not judgemental and inspiring and that makes it possible to negotiate alliances with collaborators and teams with a shared commitment on common objectives.

Context & Connection.

Work on these two key drivers and you will create the team engagement and support you've always dreamt of!

The dream team at an arm’s reach! Think about it!

Any thoughts?

Conflicts : Should we accept them or ban them ?

Are conflicts useful?

Do conflicts in a company emphasize its dynamism or its disorganization ?

Should managers accept or ban conflicts?

Behind conflict there are unidentified, unaddressed needs... there are perspectives and views that have not yet been taken into account.

Beyond conflict there possibly are new ideas for improvement, new business opportunities or areas for the organization's development.

Conflict is a proof that there is motivation, commitment, dynamism.

The problem is that conflictive situations appeal to emotions . They are uncomfortable. They create tension. They are therefore difficult to handle.

They push people into uncertainty, into danger. They generate adrenaline, create urgency, connect us with our most animal side, with stress, possibly pushing us towards paralysis, aggression or flight.

They bring out our emotions, our vulnerability, our fragility.

At the same time a conflict is the evidence that this is important, that this is serious. That this is worth fighting for.

A company without conflict is a dormant, somnolent, numb company.

Are there conflicts in your business?

Do you handle them? Do you avoid them?
How do you feel about them?

Take advantage of conflicts. Learn to manage them and you'll get extraordinary results.

To achieve this, create a different context, which takes height, gives meaning, connects with the mission of the organization, the vision of the business.

What do you think?

#Leadership : Are you in a Demanding or in a Forgiving #CorporateCulture?

In most companies the challenges are so high in terms of competitiveness and profitability that they can affect the levels of confidence and efficiency of collaborators.

It is when companies need the most to be able to fight or innovate that the context encourages collaborators to be cautious and conservative in their attitudes.

All companies have systems that deal with objectives, duty, commitment ... and punishment ... In trying to organize and systematize procedures, they kill diversity and individuality, they muzzle initiative and innovation.

A powerful management value can balance the situation: the ability to forgive.

Forgiveness is not that present in companies because success is an obligation, a requirement. Success is not negotiable. Accepting forgiveness would open the door to error, to failure. Unacceptable!

The ability to forgive is the foundation of trust. And growth!

Forgiving mistakes or failures gives the opportunity to learn in order to improve, to miss in order to succeed.

The best professionals are not those who never make mistakes. They are those who fail and learn their lessons.

Do you give your team a chance?

Do you create an environment of trust that allows novelty, difference?

Can you forgive?

  

Leadership: make an opinion, not a judgment.

Society brings us to judging everything. Every detail, every posture, appearances, expressions can be interpreted and used in favour or against.
The criteria are infinite. Appearance, fashion, external signs of wealth, everything is perceived, observed, dissected, used...
Used to go down the fast lane towards express and limiting judgments that enclose, that limit communication and relationships to pre-established frameworks.  
We catalogue people... do not try to know more... We are no longer curious or really open for more.
We judge with few elements and no longer have neither openness nor curiosity for more. 

This mechanism is human. We cannot avoid interpreting, thinking, simplifying, making an opinion... But let us avoid judging.
Yes. let's have an opinion. We need and have the right to have and give our opinion... but let's not judge, let's not close ourselves up, let's not emprison ourselves. 
Give your opinion and be open to others. Open yourself to what you don't know, to what you don't know you don't know...

Judging speaks of you, not of the other.

To judge can be to despise, to put oneself on top of the other. It is assuming that you have the truth...the only truth.
It's closing yourself off from other ways of thinking, of living, of understanding. It is about denying diversity, differences....
Only differences enrich, not similarities...
To judge members of your team is to see them with their shortcomings, not with their wealth. It's taking away their potential. 

To express an opinion is to express yourself, to be assertive, courageous, open to debate, it is to build in order to achieve results. 
Speaking out your opinion is sharing in order to understand, give feedback, challenge, accompany and help your team to reach their potential.

Speak up and don't judge. Accept, enrich yourself with diversity.
What do you think?

Are you making an opinion or a judgment?

How to handle conflictive negotiations?

Effective negotiations occur when both parties are able to look at the problem from all possible angles to be open, flexible and creative when building a
solution.

Sometimes the problem is so important, what is at stake is so great that without noticing it people slowly become part of the problem.

When you are the problem, how you want to step back, not get caught , vary perspectives to propose options .... No way!

You are stuck on the issue ... you feel bad ... you take it personally ... you do not flow .

What is the problem? What do you want? What are you looking for?

Are you willing to be flexible , to listen, interact , build a solution with the other?

Or are you tense , rigid , pissed off, overwhelmed, angry...

Are you able to look at the issue with all its components,  all its potential benefits , all its possible limitations?

Breathe.

Put aside the labels, judgments.

See the other part as able, human, responsible.

Work on your flexibility, on your curiosity with the other.

Be aware of what is happening, of their body language, of what is said or untold.

Open yourself , go beyond appearances , be curious, listen ...

Free yourself , be creative, agile. Dance with the moment.

Do not block yourself emotionally.

Lead the negotiation , drive the conversation , manage the relationship with intuition and expertise .... The results depend on it.

Are you part of the problem or are you ready to co - construct a solution?

From top performer to average leader

Developing and promoting top performers is key. It enhances employee loyalty, increases the chances of keeping high potentials in house and contributes to building a performance and trust driven company culture.

Surpringly it also has many possible drawbacks.

The first is taking away top contributors from their Expertise, where they create most value to the business.

The second is that what makes collaborators be high performers can often be what makes them be mediocre managers, unaware of the Process of managing teams.

The third is that as a consequence the company culture may be damaged by unadapted Leadership styles.

1. Expertise

When your way of doing things works it's great.

You've been reviewing and improving it for many years to make it effective..

But don't transform it in THE one and only WAY of doing things.

When you get to manage, take a step back and support your team members in finding their own way to outperform.

2. Process

Leadership is not only about being an expert in your field, on the area, on the content. It can help but it can also sabotage you.

Leadership is about process, about creating and maintaining the most adequate context for the team to be inspired, motivated, challenged and for them to overdeliver.

Don’t struggle to be right. Fight for results.

3. Leadership

Give your team what they need. A safe but challenging environment where they can express themselves, help them find their way of doing things, learn and improve.

Enhance team spirit and values.

Promote discipline

Share and work closely

Adapt to each team member.

Management and Leadership are not innate.

Give your management team the means to learn to become authentic leaders.

Wisdom

He who knows others is wise,

He who knows himself is enlightened,

He who defeats others is strong,

He who defeats himself is powerful,


He who knows joy is rich,

He who preserves his way is determined.


Be humble, and you will remain entire,

Bend over, and you'll stand up straight,


Empty yourself, and you'll stay filled up, 

Wear yourself out, and you'll stay new.

The wise do not exhibit themselves, and so they shine,

They do not make themselves noticeable, and that is why they are noticed,

They are not praised, and that's why they have merit,

And because they' re not competing, no one in the world
can compete with them.

Lao Tse