Monday 24 February 2020

Make the most of what you've got

I'm typing this two fingers on a tablet.

Since last Thursday when my computer crashed while preparing my normal Friday podcast this is my plight. There is also a challenge with my backup drive.

All very frustrating. And yet a reminder to make the most of what we've got.

See you soon when services return to normal, and maybe via a new computer.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 19 February 2020

Real leadership is about behaviour and words which is why Trump and those like him are not leaders

"We LOVE our President, whether he is orange, red, if he was black or brown whatever." says someone on Twitter.

A reply I liked
"Yes, I know. You love this president, whether he's being: racist, misogynist, vulgar, perverse, xenophobic, criminal, ignorant, dishonest, disloyal, lazy, impeachable, traitorous, or whatever. You should be so proud..."

Then It dawned on me and I replied
I think this is the point and therefore the wider front no one non republican is yet approaching that is a way that leads to better. People support Trump because he is racist, misogynist etc and a zillion other things I don't support (nor you either I suspect).

I think Trump is unfit to lead anything. My thinking is based on his daily behaviour.

Are you allowing other people's appalling behaviour to excuse your own or in some way give you permission to behave badly?

Or are you a role model of what it means to be a human being fully alive?


Be remarkable.
Ian

Monday 17 February 2020

Real leaders are not focused on growth

Politicians talk all the time about GDP and economic growth as if they are sacrosanct. I think such thinking is idiotic.

GDP in simple terms is the value of a country's economic activity at any given time. Who cares?

Prioritising well-being is far more important as some countries understand and as I have written about before.

Economic activity is an outcome. Well-being is a process. When we take care of processes outcomes take care of themselves.

I have written about processes many times before too. As a reminder they includes policies, procedures, practices, principles, systems and structures.

I'm celebrating 30 years as a business mentor this year. Personal growth stays important to me. Economic growth is as it has always been, a consequence of following proven processes that work for me. Today I work for fee a lot less than I once used to, by design. Growth is no longer important. Thriving is what's important and discretionary time which I regard as wealth.

How about you? Is economic activity for its own sake important to you? Are you focused on growth or well-being? Are you attached to outcomes or committed to proven processes that work for you?

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian

Friday 14 February 2020

Real leaders excel at people leadership

Listen directly to the podcast version of this post here.

People leadership is unearthing, magnifying and enhancing people’s essence (character, uniqueness). We need more of it. People leadership is one of my BIG three in Possibility Leadership.


I believe people leadership is the number one role of leadership overall.

To excel you must be able to see and bring out the best in people, including yourself.

One of the many wonderful insights of quantum science is that we live in a world of infinite possibilities.

When it comes to us humans this is also true.

There are no duplicates. 80 - 100 billion people have walked planet earth. Only one you!

Each one of us is a one-of-a-kind human being. Seeing every person’s essence first and foremost, every time, is the first step into possibility leadership.

Every time you meet someone see their uniqueness, their one-of-a-kind character.

From there inspire and support them to unearth, magnify, and enhance their essence.

I find Goethe’s insight from about 200 years ago timeless: “When we treat man as he is we make him worse than he is. When we treat him as if he already was what he potentially could be we make him what he should be.”

Never judge another person’s intentions, feelings, thoughts or actions, rather help people to be accountable, while being an accountability role model yourself.

I recommend 5 actions to excel at people leadership:


1) Focus on competing with yourself and seek to collaborate with everyone else.

There’s a short online course of mine here to help you. It’s called ‘Reasons, Relationships, and Routines Guarantee Results'.

2) Never ask Who? when something doesn’t go according to plan, instead ask What happened? And then Who do you need to become and what must you do next to get back onto your path?

3) Show appreciation, gratitude, care and compassion in everything you are and do.

4) Help other people to do work that is meaningful for them and highly valuable for others. In the work support people to enhance their essence.

5) Make sure that learning and leadership and talent development have priority in your workplace. Invest in outside experts who can help you.

Do Your Work.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 12 February 2020

Real leaders help others to be remarkable, and to do meaningful valuable work

We have entered a new world of work. The most successful people in this new world are being remarkable and doing work that is meaningful for them and highly valuable for others.

In this new world machines are increasingly taking over the simple, routine and repetitive work.

Real leaders influence others. 

Real leadership requires role modelling and being a shining example of being remarkable, and doing meaningful and valuable work.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian 

Monday 10 February 2020

Real leaders don't have to always know what's best

In my 30 years as a freelancer I've had about 35 mentors. In my 20 year corporate career before that I was blessed with at least another 40. In my work as a mentor I've observed more than 1000 leaders, women and men, in over 40 countries.

No real leader I've ever met always knew what's best!

Why then do we have political and religious leaders, and some business leaders, trying to tell us that they know best? My answer is that for them it's about ego and wanting to control other people.

Don't be one of these people. Instead form relationships with people who have the expertise and can be relied on as trusted advisors. Become a trusted advisor yourself.


A trusted advisor is someone who has exceptional knowledge in a particular area and can provide unbiased advice.


As a real leader your role is to use trusted advisors with care so that you can make informed decisions for the higher good.

Your own opinions are very important yet if you believe you always know best then your arrogance and ignorance will be your undoing, let alone the untold costs of these in the past and their consequences for the future.

Who will be you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian


Friday 7 February 2020

What real leaders do and fake one's don't

Listen directly to the podcast version of this post here.

After a two months break welcome back to my Friday podcast.

I hope 2020 has begun for you and yours as you planned.

From early 2004 to early 2010 I gave more than 700 presentations. About 500 were on the subject What Real Leaders Do and fake one’s don’t. This theme obviously struck a chord, particularly through the global financial crisis period.

After my best friend suffered a heart attach on the 7th April 2010 I took most of the rest of that year off wherever possible. The title never took off again.

In 2005 I published a workbook on the subject and later in a trilogy of books I incorporated many of the insights.

I’m thinking of resurrecting the title What Real Leaders Do and fake one’s don’t. Post-truth and fake news are now every day phrases right? It seems we have lost sight of truth, and trust, ethics and morality along with it.

Referring to lying or being loose with the truth are now Trumpism’s. Here in Australia our Prime Minister personifies this.

He dodges and weave on the run like a game of football and when the government loses, the next day, or even in the next hour the PM is on a broadcast telling us about how they won when everyone knows they lost! And he is very brazen and arrogant about this too.

When will all this nonsense end I ask?

Well I believe is that it’s up to us to set and maintain standards regardless of what politicians do or don’t do.


So here at the beginning of the 2020’s we need to be clear about what real leaders do, and by definition fake one’s don’t.


Below is a list to get you started on making your own list with your family, friends and colleagues. I trust that your list will become a commitment to be and become your words.

Real leaders:

1) Tell the truth regardless of the situation. We see marketing as a series of ‘helpful conversations’ as Bernadette Jiwa so wonderfully describes marketing.

2) We don’t engage in spin or smoke and mirrors.

3) We’re accountable and help other people to be accountable.

4) We’re known for our integrity.

5) Other people regard us as trustworthy.

6) We behave according to agreed ethical and moral standards.

7) We don’t invade the space of others or treat others badly. Instead we’re kind and civil to everyone.



What would you add or change of modify?


Do Your Work.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Monday 3 February 2020

George Monbiot sums up possibility for our world in 2 minutes and 10 seconds

I like George Monbiot. In this video he nails it I reckon. You?



I highly recommend George's book 'Out of the Wreckage A New Politics for an Age of Crisis'.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian