Leadership or Leadersh£@!
Enough is Enough
We are living in a world that is changing and evolving constantly.
Yet has leadership? Has your leadership evolved?
Every year the information overload gets quicker and becomes more accessible, the rhythm increases, and the pace varies repeatedly. There is a dangerous need to label people by their age, generation, colour, ethnicity, creed, religion and much more to the detriment of leadership, business and the individuals. The merger of continents and world business centres such as the global trade agreements, European markets and middle east powerhouses has led to smaller global business communities with vast gulfs in products, industries, talent, investment, wealth, and health issues stability.
Politics in the last ten years alone at the time of writing has changed dramatically in all corners of the world. The world is crying out for change, for something different for someone to say, stop, enough is enough. RLC is proud to be part of the self-help industry, the leading school of insight, impact and purpose-led living. Yet we live in a world that is more out of date than ever before.
Leadership affects every aspect of a business including teams, individuals, customers, growth, futureproofing, strategy, tactics, culture for recruiting the right people, retaining skill, protecting your people and business.
We use the 7 RLC Daily Leadership Principles and the Eight Faces of Leadership (in the book Leadership or Leadersh£@!)
Just for a moment, stop for a second and think about your customers of tomorrow.
Whatever your industry is.
Who are they?
Do you know?
Do your business and teams represent this diverse customer population?
I'd like to ask you to come with me on a journey with a client of mine. Like many clients in my book, Leadership or Leaders£@! - we will look at real examples. Each example we share from real lessons and business relation hips we had with them may not use the people's real names through their request.
ABC Home Improvements have had one of the most profitable businesses of the last 40 years in their industry. Their reputation and product range are one of the most sought after in their industry. The workforce as a whole has been around for the same amount of time. In most cases, some colleagues have left and come back again. The adage that the grass is always greener and in most cases is not. ABC Home Improvements Sales Director “John Double-Glaze” had a canny knack of anticipating change before it arrived.
One day he and his team of started talking about the performance across the business.
They started looking at their customers: demographics, a typical avatar. One of the team commented on the fact the customers were getting younger. The homeowners are changing; families are evolving.
As the leader, John stopped for a moment and started to ask questions about this observation. The business was still doing well; the firm's practices were robust. He knew that if the markets were changing in this way, it would be a matter of time before their market share could potentially suffer. He was aware that the brand was known more to an older demographic and not the younger one. He started to ask questions like he would solving any buying and selling situation:
What if the customers buy differently?
What if customers look for business differently?
Where do the customers look?
Customers seem to know social media, do we?
Are we present in the world our potential future customers are?
Our future customers seem to spend their time liking things, are we liked?
What is it about us that attracts customers?
Do we connect to the future customer's world?
There were many more questions you could also ask. ABC Home Improvements had to re-think its strategy to have any hope of building a client base for the future.
Real Leadership is no different to this.
We teach lessons invented in 1971 to an audience born in 1991, 2001, 2011. Dan Pink argues in his book Drive, that if people weren't around when Windows 1998 was invented, can we blame them if they don't care what it is. Leadership is the same in the book; we will ask you several times which side of the line you fall on is Leadership or Leadersh£@!?
There are only two types in the world today. At RLC, we put a lot of emphasis on the word REAL. It is an acronym that we use time and time again whether it is in leadership, coaching, presenting, business planning, future mapping, your personal brand and much more.
REAL leadership is built on four key things.
REALITY 1st
What is your leadership?
AUTHENTICITY
Are you what you say you are? What is your leadership?
EDGE
Do you know what makes you who you are?
What you stand for?
The difference, impact and value you bring?
LEADERSHIP
Using an absolute commitment to the 7 Leadership RLC principles that stand the test of time, today, tomorrow and in years to come.
Our test is simple, which side of the leadership line are you?
Real Leadership future proof, continuously evolving, willing and connected to clients, customers and teams
OR
Leadersh£@! are you a disciple of disappointment?
Disappointment Discipleship takes time to build, and people tell you how they feel afterwards, through people engagement surveys—anonymous research and customer status report. You are always wondering what it is that is not working. Why are people not doing things? What is stopping them progress, missing all the time the issue is actually you.
Leadersh£@! Is demonstrated easily -YOUR PEOPLE DONT BELIEVE YOU and probably tell you what you want to hear.
Having more understanding between the differences in more detail between Leadership or Leadersh£@! And the paradigms that still exist for leadership.
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Wherever you go around the world even some of the best course's money can buy, the debate is still built on situational leadership. Whilst this has a great platform to begin your leadership, it is not quite what it once was. Leadersh£@! Falls naturally into situational leadership as it can become prescriptive, copy rather than Real Leadership learns and adapts the skills from situational experiences.
COACHING MODELS
There are people today who are being asked to document everything in the world of coaching. There are contradicting arguments over what works and what does not work. There are people today who are being asked to document everything in the world of coaching. There are contradicting arguments over what works and what does not work. Leadership must survive this type of challenge; we all have to recognise that this is the start of Leadersh£@! and real Leadership is still built on great human relationships.
AUTHENTICITY
The challenge with this word in leadership fits really well; it is as clear as a pane of glass. Once you say it, claim it, start to apply it to yourself you are essentially putting yourself on show. You are saying to those around you that you are authentic. You are original and being true to you.
It is a challenging word. It demands the very best of you. What is even scarier is the source of the phrase and word. It is from the inside. It takes place on the inside of your mind, your brain, your head. A thought is one of the most powerful things we possess as a human.
It shapes every facet of who we are today, who we were in the past and how we represent ourselves in the future. Authenticity is a great goal, a great movement, a brilliant way of being intentional. Over time, you can hope to become more authentic. The challenge with the word authentic for most of us, we say it without giving it the definition the word deserves. In that single moment, of deciding not to bring meaning to you, your brand, and your life, you immediately create a void and incomplete part of your striving to be authentic.
An excellent example of assessing Real Leadership and Leadersh£@! We can consider the two leader’s story. Imagine meeting two types of people at the same event who claim they are really authentic or significant to them- who would you choose to connect with?
LEADER 1
This person is a Leadership guru, has run a business for 20 years and done all there is to do, is wealthy, is confident, is full of how they got there. They talk to you calmly, and they show an interest, talk about all the things they do, have done and are going to do. You sit there listening to them, liking them by choice and muttering to yourself 'how much longer, do I have to speak to this person?'. Eventually, the burden becomes too much, and you find another person to engage with and break away from them. As you break away, you meet many of the guru’s people, employees or clients. They begin to tell you about the real personality behind the person at this event. You are mildly alarmed at this point as the Leader had been superb so far, yet you are wondering how someone can say they are a certain way yet behave in another way.
LEADER 2
Let's imagine person two. You begin talking to the Leadership Guru, they are respectful, caring and shows a deep desire to look after the family, the relationships in the room and the clients. They offer a real interest in you, your background and take things seriously whatever you talk about.
Whilst both these examples seem trite maybe, even if you read it and thought, come on. This happens all the time at networking worldwide, where the rapport, a connection is unauthentic from the start, and we devalue authenticity by default yet we get stuck with the least authentic through choice?
If you are a leader who talks up authenticity and then does something else, do not be a fool. If your people want to tell you in ways that are not to your face, high attrition, low retention, lacking culture, inconsistent results, gossip, talking out of meetings rather than in. To build your authenticity, you will you have to listen to it and put up with you find the space for somewhere else.
Real Leadership is built on the tools and techniques, principles that counter this inauthentic behaviour. Start to set the example to share daily inspiration through positive actions in what you do and inspire others to do it.
Hollywood Style Leadership
The other challenges in the world of Leadersh£@! Vs. Leadership can be found in Hollywood Leadership-there is a perceived need to act as a wizard or strive to be a guru or “thought leader”. Leadership is not status, self and you may become confused between what made you start on the journey and discover a lack of direction. You become consumed or lost in the moment where you are acting out your leadership rather than being it.
Many years ago, I had a boss who had asked me to focus on my listening skills, I would take part in a meeting, and I would feel obliged to be respectful, and because he gave me a shot at the right role, I gave him much respect and time. I would find myself arguing in my head about everything he said that I disagreed with. The mistake I was making I did not tell him. Can you imagine what my face looked like, displaying all my thoughts, angst, emotion? I must have been so easy to read and work out. What is the point to all of this? Once after a lengthy review, the advice he gave me was, I needed to learn how to act, how to be what I was telling people. This made sense at the time, yet I disagreed with his version of it, the whole idea of acting is ridiculous.
Hollywood Leadership learnings. A learning and development lady called Jill that I met in another role aided positively in my career. She was very high-energy and not afraid of tough conversations. She had come and talked to me about my development plan, she had taken the responsibility to change the way I saw that I was doing and acting out. Jill gave me some feedback I will never forget, she said.
Stop focussing on acting like you're listening and start working out what is getting in the way and with who.
The great thing about a company, the size of business I was part of, is that they had systems, reporting, data and all sorts that we're able to show me how I compared to others. Here are some of the stats:
Solid performance Stats
Good people surveys
Good customer engagement stats
No complaints
On Jill’s advice, I could see the data demonstrated that I was achieving, even exceeding, listening in my day to day, through the KPI’s and expectations of my role. It showed quite quickly that there was a simple issue to deal with—one person who was experiencing poor listening, my boss. The only person that I was demonstrating poor listening to the boss. If I change that, I change his perception, different impact and a much better result.
Situational Leadership, models, Hollywood Leadership, unauthentic behaviours are tired and old school. It is time to progress from a paradigm industry and align yourself to what will make the difference to you, your business, your people, your community and beyond. Margaret Mead said -
'Never doubt a small group of people can change the world; in fact, it is the only thing that ever did!'
As a coach during the last two decades, I have met with countless coachees that have all been attempting to address feedback or comments from bosses based on a moment, or single perception usually formed at a moment that they did not like. Coaching someone with a boss who wants to operate this way is challenging. There is a requirement to enter into the actual perception to manage the boss to see the change they had instructed unless coaching the boss themselves it is pointless—a complete waste of time. To deal with this situation for the coachee who is experiencing the issues, you can coach techniques that deal with self-control, upskill to deal with challenging and conflict conversations. Coach and support the individual ability to override and self-manage. Help assess skills for other roles even to exit the position and find a “better fit” as the business's culture could be mismatched.
We live in an age where people talk about acting like a Leader, which does not work.
Do you remember when you became a Leader for the first time, even if it was your first management position with leadership expectations?
Why did the business choose you in this leadership role?
What did you do to earn the opportunity?
How did you fare, deliver results, exceed, miss, get promoted or demoted?
What were the frustrations or mistakes you made?
Who helped you?
Did anyone help you?
Did you reflect on how you “do” leadership and continue to demonstrate yourself as the example of real leadership, or are you exhibiting leadersh£@!? Do or talk about it? Act like or do live by your values?
Acting out leadership does not work. It does not help, and you cannot act as a Leader; this is straight from the Leadersh£@! school of nonsense. It is a form of Hollywood style Leadersh£@! that enables no deep relationships, no world-class achievements, no movements the list goes on. Even if you are new to leadership being yourself, open, honest, willing to be challenged, questioned, change and grow, adapting to adapt, you will develop real leadership.
To boost the industry's issues and paradigms between Real Leadership and Leadersh£@!, there is a wealth of support from training to books.
SELF HELP BOOK DELUSION
The challenge with self-help, self-coaching, leadership books are still using models from 50 to 60 years ago? Leadership books today are boosting the void of Real Leadership versus Leadersh£@! The industry, we, RLC, are part of is continuously talking about lessons from the past.
We are missing the lessons of today.
Self Help Books keep missing the 'How.' Have you ever read a book, found yourself agreeing with it, and wondered how to start what you have just learned? Ever wondered where the recipe was or is? It happens all too frequently. Our goal is to de-myth this jargon-filled space to give you real tools you can use, and immediately. Myths from the industry are everywhere. The consultant phrase that says let's think outside the 'box'. This was coined and invented in the seventies to establish the idea of thinking creatively and looking at business problems from a different perspective. In its day it was a great idea. Yet now it's time to get rid of the box, it has become a paradigm in itself.
We do not disagree with all. Some great business, leadership, and self-help books ultimately aren’t business books from poetry to philosophy. We need to be more connected to the changes we are experiencing and apply them in the role of leader. Real leadership can be uncomfortable, means we have to deal with conflict and challenge. Having to self-assess and accept that we don’t have all the answers is about removing hierarchical thinking. It’s about perceptual positioning and willingness to see the differences, apply diverse and optional thinking, fail fast, trust first, embrace failure, move forward praise, and reward competence and support.
Leadersh£@! carries its ego openly and negates others, do as I say not as I do and treats others like they are treated with contempt and distrust. It’s not sustainable in an evolving world.
Some timeless leadership principles still stand the test of time and changing leadership perceptions such as Competency, listening and connection.
Some business books we recommend some business and some more unusual ones:
Look at examples of business living through outstanding leadership Patagonia, Lululemon, Do Lectures.
We are set to embrace a changing future world obsessed with ‘ism's that define how leadership is perceived. In the last five years, even the previous 12 months through Covid, things have changed beyond what many thoughts were possible. Organisations are digitalising communication, hybrid working remote contactless life, removing email from day-to-day business. In the next year, five years and ten years, even more, will change.
It is time to say enough and place Real Leadership definition at the heart of what you are as a person, your values and how you care for others first.
Go to www.rlc-global.com and find our business framework to boost your leadership success. Jargon-free and focus on creating leaders of the future