leadership development

What values should a leader demonstrate during challenging times?

One of the most significant things that I know a leader can do is be really really truly clear about where they're taking the company. If they do not have a clear vision and a clear direction, not only can people in the company and the organization sense it and feel it, but all the way down to the customers there's an energy that people can know. So being really clear - and not being wavered or being distracted by misperceptions of how the outer world is running - and steady on the aim is crucial.

People look to leaders for steadiness and firm direction. When we waver as leaders, it infiltrates down the ranks all the way to the customer, and people wait and hesitate because we're hesitating. The world on the outside definitely reflects the world on the inside. So, firm, clear, concise direction must be articulated.

The way you know your vision is clear is that you can articulate it to someone else so smoothly, clearly, and without hesitation that they can see it when you say it. When you've got that much clarity of direction, people want to rally around and assist in building it. So, clear vision is a key value leaders must demonstrate.

Another thing to consider is whether people are enthused and inspired by what your actions are. Again, that filters down through the ranks. If you're not inspired to get up in the morning to fulfil your direction, are enthusiastically working on it, nor doing something you love to do and want to accomplish, people can pick that up. You can't delegate enthusiasm away from you; you have to start with enthusiasm within you.

So, being clear and concise on your vision and your direction, and being enthused by it so you look forward to it, sets you on fire - and people come around to watch it burn. They want to see things in action and they follow it. The overall energy of the company has a lot to do with that. But do not confuse enthusiasm is being hyped up, overly excited, and manic. Enthusiasm is a poised, present, powerful, purposeful, and steady aim that you are committed to doing. No matter what happens, you're inspired to get up and do it, and you get the outcome. You're results oriented, focused on ... even if you get sidetracked and have setbacks, you find ways. You see the setbacks as opportunities to come up with alternative ways and refine what you're doing - because the aim, nothing will stop you from.

When I was about 18 years old I had a moment where I just about given up on a vision that I had dreamed about, and all of a sudden I got re-catalyzed by something my mother said. I said to myself: "I will do whatever it takes, I will travel whatever distance, I will pay whatever price to give my service of love on this planet." That was 36 years ago and I've been focused ever since. So, a person who's really inspired and really clear and really concise, they lead the pack. People want to work around somebody who's that clear.

That's what a leader is. Somebody who's absolutely certain and clear about where they're going. And even if they get sidetracked as I said, they return to that mission. That's why it's important to define that mission precisely, make sure it's truly inspired and not just words and social idealisms. It's got to be from the heart. It's got to be true to you. And it's got to be something that you are really dedicated to. A mission like that, that you return to, will keep you steady.

That steadiness, clarity, vision and enthusiasm makes a huge difference in a company.

What is the most effective method to keep staff motivated during and after a significant downsizing program?

"The next question I have been commonly asked is what is the most effective method to keep my staff or employees motivated during or after layoffs, retrenchments, redundancies, downsizing ... whatever you want to call it.

One thing that I'm certain of, I've had the blessing of actually working with people who've been laid-off, and in fact I worked with one this week. There was a gentleman who had basically lost his livelihood. He lost his income, lost his company, lost his house, lost everything. Nobody (in the room) was sitting there asking 'what are the blessings, what are the upsides to that?'. There was only focus on the downsides.

If you are about to downsize or lay people off, and you don't give them the benefits and help them find the benefits of what's going to happen in life, they're going to be angry, reactive, depressed, and their energy is going to go down. But in actuality, there is never a crisis without a blessing. There's never a loss without a gain. There is never a negative without a positive. And with the gentleman I worked with this week, when we got through in 45 minutes he was actually inspired by the downsizing he went through and actually had the opportunity to go and start something, and do what he really wanted to. He was now looking forward to his future.

So, just know that every human being is living by a set of values, a set of priorities, and any time you communicate with them as a leader it is essential to know what they are to best of your ability. You must communicate whatever you're intending, whether it be layoffs or whether it be promotions, whatever that intention is make sure it's in their value system. And think out how it will help them and serve them because if you don't see it and they don't see it, they're going to react. Your responsibility if you are going to lay them off is to think of how they will benefit, so that when you communicate it to them it will be in a way that they can win.

I had a lovely lady who was working in a doctor's office that I worked with many years ago. She had worked there for 19 years. The doctor was getting ready to hire another person for half the price who could do twice as much. He didn't have the heart to let her go, so he asked how do we get her to leave? She's too costly; she's not as productive, etc. I went in there and sat with her, and said to her: 'you know you've been here 19 years. You've got years of experience, you got amazing talent. Why are sitting here working in an office like this when you could be making a lot more doing your own consulting and having your own autonomy working on your own time and everything else. Why you sitting here doing this?'. She said she couldn't do that to him. "He's been my boss all these years I couldn't let him down like that." I said that if I could talk to him into allowing you to go out and do your own consulting and wean off the business, would that be of value to you? She said she'd love to that and that she and her husband had talked about that, but she would feel like she was letting him down because he had been relying on her for so many years. So if I said that I could talk him into it and you have the opportunity to go out and do what you really want to do which is to consult and work part-time, would that be useful to you? She said I'd love to do that but I just don't want to let him down. "Well let me see what I can do."

I went back to him (the doctor) and 15 minutes later came back and said 'well I think we can work something out. We can make a transition for you to move on but we're going to ask you to take us on as the first consult to take care of the new person we are training'. In less than an hour we had her transitioned out where she won out of the whole process of him moving her on. So what I'm saying is, whenever you're having to let someone go, instead of just cutting them off, sometimes it's wise to think in advance: what are their values?, what are their needs?, and see if you can articulate it in a way where they see new possibilities and opportunities in front of them. When you do, they can actually make that transition much more smoothly, without resentment, without feeling so downgraded, and the whole energy of the company stays a little bit more stable. And then you can talk about the new possibilities to the people who are staying.

When you communicate in people's values they become inspired. No one works for a company; they work for their value system. And whenever you can communicate in their values and help them see that they're going to fulfil their values by whatever your intentions are - by communicating in a caring fashion in their values - they work for you and they'll move on to live their values.

Just know, the key is to communicate in their values - what's most important to them. In the segments that will be following, I'm going to be sharing with you how to determined that, so you're more effective at the communication process so everybody moves forward. You deserve to move your company to where you want it to go, but you also deserve to help them go where they want to go. The old cliché - you help other people get where they want to get in life; you get where you want to get in life."

How do leaders drive performance and productivity in their organisation?

Another question that I get from corporate leaders and corporates is 'how do leaders drive performance and productivity in their organization?'.

Okay, let's go back to the basics now because in order to solve this, and get people inspired in their work, we have to go back to the very simple process of human values.

Everybody in the world - every employee, every manager, every leader - has a set of values. In whatever is highest in their values, in whatever's highest in the priorities, in whatever's most important to them - they are disciplined, reliable, and focused.

They bring order and organization, and they even identify themselves by that. They can't wait to get up in the morning because they're so inspired to go and get that done.

In whatever's lower on their values, least important, the lower priorities in their life - they procrastinate, they hesitate, they frustrate, and they need outside motivation to get them to do it.

They have a lot of disorder and disorganization around that, and they just don't get around to doing it. In fact, they even go around saying 'I don't know, I can't, I'm not ...' instead of 'I can, I know, and I am ...'.

So, when you're communicating with people and giving them job descriptions, one of the most crucial things you can do is make sure their job description and the vision of the company are linked to their highest values.

When you're hiring them, I ask a simple question: If I gave you a check for $5 million and you never had to work another day in your life, what would you do with your life? If they don't say something close to that job description, I don't hire them.

If they're looking to do something other than what that job is, I'm going to require motivation, incentives, payment systems, and all kinds of stuff to keep them at work. But when they are inspired, they don't ask for any of that - they just do the job because they love doing it.

When people are doing what they love and loving what they do, they don't ask for that stuff - they're just inspired to go to work. So, make sure you identify what those values are - making sure their highest values are aligned with that job description and the vision of the company.

Now, if for some reason they've slipped through the cracks in the hiring process and they're not quite that inspired, there are other ways of getting them to be motivated and inspired again by asking a simple question.

You have them write down the job description they presently have. You have them write down the mission and vision of the company. Then you have them write down the values that they hold and demonstrate in their life.

What's most important: their child's education, making sure they have enough income, the house that they want ... whenever it might be ... future retirement ...whatever's valuable to them. And then you have to ask, for each 1 of those job descriptions, how is that job description, that portion of their job, specifically going to help them get what's important to them?

If they can't see it, they're not coming to work inspired. But if they can see it, and everything is linkable to that, you've just got to ask the question and make them look and make the connections.

When I do that with people, and companies, I spend sometimes 2 hours, 3 hours doing this in a large group. When I'm done, their productivity is automatically heightened. Their performance is more focused.

Then I do the same thing by going to the vision of the company. 'How's working for this company and fulfilling the vision of the company going to help you fulfil your individual values?' If they can't see it, they’re not committed to the company. But if they can see it, they can't wait to go to work and fulfil it, and there is a team spirit there.

So one of the key elements if you want performance and productivity consistently is making sure YOU know what their values are. You also know how to make sure that you're hiring according to those values - and make sure the job description matches it. You also want to make sure that, if they slipped through the cracks, you know how to link those values to that job description so they can't wait to go to work.

I assure you there's a science on how to do that. You can master that science, but you have to care enough about your employees to make sure that's done, because if they can see how they are getting what they want in life, they'll help you get what you want in life.

How do I build staff engagement?

"The next question I've gotten from leaders is 'how do I build staff engagement?'.

First of all - and I use the metaphor of teaching so I'm going to go back to the metaphor - imagine if a teacher is teaching a group of kids a curriculum, a class, that they are not inspired about teaching. And they're having to teach say a class of mathematics when they really don't love mathematics, they love teaching history. But they've been asked to teach mathematics. So they are having to do it, not because they are inspired to do it, because ... well ... they have to do it.

Now imagine, because they're not inspired, they're now teaching it to kids who can't see how learning that is going to apply to their video games or any of the things that are important to them. So now you have a teacher that's not inspired, trying to teach it to a child that's not inspired, trying to get good returns off that educational process. It doesn't work.

If the teacher can't see how what she's teaching or he's teaching is the filling his or her values, and he or she can't communicate it in terms of the children's values, no learning is going to go on - nobody's going to want to perform in the learning process. It's the same thing in companies.

If people are going to work and they're having to do job descriptions that are not inspiring to them, even as a leader, if that leader is not inspired by what they do - clear, concise, and congruent about what they're doing - there's no enthusiasm, there's no vitality, there's no soul in the corporate body (as we say). There's just this kind of 'oh well I've got to do this; this is another project that I have to do'. Whenever you have to do it and you're not inspired to do it, people can pick up on it. They're not really attentive. When somebody comes in as a leader and they're inspired by what they do, and they're basically clear about it and they're really enthused about it, they've already won half the battle because people want to be around that. They want to see something - not hype, real enthusiasm. Not unrealistic expectations - real visions.

Now, if they take the time and care enough to communicate that enthusiasm, and that vision, and the action or project in terms of those people's values - because they've learned what each individual's values are and they're communicating individually in those people's/employees values - now people can't wait to get up and do that project because they're fulfilling their values. Nobody gets up in the morning to do anything but to fulfil their highest values.

The master leader is the one who cares enough about the people that they're leading to find out what those values are and communicate in those values, and make it where they can see how they're going to get their values met doing it. When they do, and they can see how their values are going to be met by doing it, both are inspired, productivity and performance goes up, people are engaged - there's a whole lot of productivity that comes out in a company."

Where can leaders get support?

So where can leaders get support, is the next question. I'd like to share a story about how to empower yourself as a leader to new levels, and how to go beyond even getting support to actually awakening amazing leadership capacities.

Imagine this, because this is a real case story of a person who is waiting to take their company to new levels. Imagine if you were to make a list of the greatest CEOs, the greatest leaders in business, or possibly in government, or any leadership position. Actually write a list down of all the greatest leaders you know of in the world, anywhere in the world. Then actually go and study their biographies and own the traits that you see in these leaders.

What does that mean? It means you go and make a list of every single trait that you see has contributed to their leadership that stands out, that may be unique, and compile a list of the most common traits that these leaders have. Maybe put a spreadsheet together with all the leaders and all the traits. And then go in there and ask yourself this question: where do I have that trait 100% to the same degree as I see in them?

At first you going to deny it and subordinate yourself, and maybe feel intimidated and think that they have more than you, and that's why they are where they are, and that’s why you’re not. But once you go in there and awakening your awareness to the truth that you have that trait, and see the form that it's in, you will discover that you have the power to be on the leading edge and lead just like they are.

When I first started doing this, it was a challenge. I took Nobel Prize winners, great political leaders, great corporate leaders, great financial leaders. And I went in there and identify these traits and asked ‘where do I have these traits?’. I just kept asking…where else…where else…what form…where else…where else...what form…where in my life…in what areas of my life to have this trait? And I found out that every trait I saw in the people that I admired, I found I had in me in a different form, but it was there. Once I identified it, instead of subordinating to people that were above me, and living in their shadows, I stood on the shoulders of these giants. And I had opportunities emerge in my life on levels that I didn't know before.

The real leader, the real support, is actually awakening inside you the realization that you have talents and traits that you may be in denial about and you're holding yourself and the company back because you're not honoring the magnificence of the traits you already have.

So go and find the leaders that have amazing traits, discover where you have them in your own form, honour the uniqueness of the way you express them, see that they're on the same level and don't stop until you see it. Then, I guarantee you, you're going to see opportunities emerge and you're going to act from a different perspective. You're going to take your leadership to a new level because you're not denying the true leader that's within.

What should leaders focus on in these challenging times?

What should leaders focus on in these challenging times? I've been saying for many, many years now that the quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the questions we ask. The key is knowing how to ask the right question during a challenge to find and discover the opportunity. Every crisis has the blessing, every challenge an opportunity - the difference between them is the questions we ask. So let's explore what those questions might be.

The first step when you get a challenge - whether it be an economic challenge, employment challenge, or a product competitive challenge - is to get really clear and concise. What are you defining as the challenge? Nebulous challenges make it hard to come up with great solutions. You've got to get really clear about what it is: are there a multitude of them? Is it one? Are they combinations? Get really clear about what the challenge is.

Once you've defined the challenge or challenges, itemize them and then take each one and ask this question (maybe with a group in the company together to get some brainstorming done): 'how can we use this challenge to get more business, and grow our business further?' You immediately want to think about putting the fire out - and that's good - but you also want to know how to use this to your advantage. The master is the one who can take something that happens to them and use it to their advantage.

Many people want to avoid and get rid of things, but the wise person finds out how they can use it to their advantage. There is no crisis without a blessing and there is no challenge without an opportunity. You have to ask: How is this experience right now strengthening our company? Giving us new innovations? Making us more efficient? Trimming the fat? How is it helping us? If you sit down and ask those questions - don't stop until you have at least 25 to 50 answers - it will blow your mind on how all of a sudden, instead of being emotionally reactive and reacting to solutions, you're actually present and poised and powerfully acting with solutions. You've got to take the emotion out (as this usually makes you do unwise things) and get centred. By finding the benefits - there's always a benefit - you'll automatically come from a different perspective when you're solving the problem. So, go in there and ask: how is this activity serving us?

I worked with a gentleman the other day who was really, really stressed by his company. I mean overly stressed about what was going on - he was having to let people go, he was having to cut things - he was really stressed. So I asked him: by letting them go, how is it serving them and how is it serving his company? He said: 'it's stressful right now and it's really hard to do'. I said I know, I understand and I know you want to dwell on that, but how is it serving them and how is it serving you? 'Well it's not, that's why I'm so stressed.' I said 'no, no, no. How is it serving them and how is it serving you?' And we started coming up with solutions. We started focusing on it. He calmed down and wasn't as reactive. He wasn't feeling guilty about letting people go. He wasn't stressed about the future. He saw solutions. And he actually saw that in a short period of time he might be able to hire some of those people back. He came up with solutions because he asked that question.

The quality of your life, and the quality of your business, is based on the quality of the questions you ask. So, when you get confronted by a challenge, define it really clearly and asked the question: 'how can I use this to my greatest advantage?' In my program called the Breakthrough Experience (a seminar I give to people), I have people come in with the biggest challenges they've ever faced in their lives. I ask them - so it doesn't become baggage - how does this serve their life and how has it catalysed them to grow? At first they want to be victims of their past history instead of masters of their destiny, but once we ask that question... and keep asking the question... and don't get let them get away with being the victim...all of a sudden they come up with solutions and they are thankful for that problem. And once their thankful for it, it dissolves as being a distraction running their mind, and they're able to focus on their mission again.

So, the quality of your life is based on the quality of the questions you ask. A master leader asks themselves questions that keep them centred. They find the blessings in every crisis, and the opportunities in every challenge.