This weekend I watched a magician enthral an audience with his art. As he performed his sleight of hand and misdirection I wondered at the thousands of hours he must have invested to achieve mastery.
Mastery involves focus, concentration, passion, intention, commitment, and discipline. We can’t achieve mastery in everything in fact most people are unlikely to achieve mastery in anything as they dabble in this and hack about at that. Continue Reading »
I recently conducted ‘Critical Skills for Leaders and Senior Managers’ in Singapore and Malaysia; during these programs I surveyed the participants for their desired take-aways – 80% of the attendees wanted to know how to influence their boss.
Research has shown that the inability to build a successful relationship with the boss is a significant reason for managers failing or not reaching their full potential.
When I approach this topic I encounter a number of mindsets that lead to an inability to effectively influence, these include:
A common fear of public speaking is forgetting your words and yet we all grapple to find the right word from time to time. In this short YouTube video I talk about some of the strategies I use to speak fluently and overcome the occasional ‘brain freeze’.
I was recently speaking to the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the topic of ‘Professionalism’; practice these techniques and soon you will be speaking like a professional.
Learn from my good friend and colleague, Ian Berry, Alexander Blass and myself about how doing good is great for your business and your life – Singapore, August 17, 2010. (click the image for details).
How do you know when your employees are feeling disengaged or demotivated?
The following behavioural markers should give you a clue:
Following the letter of the instruction rather than the spirit as evidenced by, ‘But you didn’t tell me to do X” when X was implied by the instruction and necessary to the completion of the task.
Going early and coming late, using up all sick days and even taking unpaid leave days. Days off are mostly on a Monday or Friday.
Increase use of social media, youtube and instant messaging at work.
Silence – not contributing to discussions or dialogues.
When I am conducting workshopswithin an organisation I hear the following complaints from dis-empowered of demotivated employees:
“My boss doesn’t listen.”
“Why isn’t my boss here as he needs to hear this stuff?”
“Why don’t senior management do what it says in the value statement?”
“I can’t influence head office in USA/Europe and they make unreasonable demand on my time and resources.”
Motivated and enaged employees are more creative and productive; disengaged employees will lose customers, money and have more accidents at work. Therefore to re-engage employees you should talk to your staff and listen to the answers. Ask questions like;
“What do you like best about working here?”
“What do you like least about working here?”
“What would you change if you could?”
Of course if you ask these questions you must be prepared to do something about the answers otherwise it will increase cynicism.
And what if you are feeling de-motivated and disengaged? Then get back in touch with what your work means to you above and beyond the paycheck. What about your work gives you an intrinsic sense of achievement? Ask yourself, “if this was my company, how would I behaving?” Above all look for the fun and pride in what you do because your work is an extension of who you are (see posts on Self Leadership).
In Australia, almost one half of organisations are not effective in finding and developing leaders, which identifies some critical challenges for employers if they are to take advantage of the economic recovery – this situation has been revealed in a recent study by Drake International.
The report, Gearing up for Growth, found that 44% of organisations rated themselves not effective in finding and developing leaders. Furthermore, improving retention of skilled employees was the most important people challenge facing employers in a growing economy. This was mirrored in the report’s findings that 72% of organisations expect to face skills shortages this year at the same time as accelerating staff turnover, with one-quarter of employees expecting to move employers in 2010. “With economic recovery now gathering pace, as further evidenced by the IMF forecast, employers are recognising that they have a critical challenge to remotivate and engage their workforces [and] leadership will be one of the key drivers behind the growth that corporate Australia and businesses will have to focus on.”
Improving the retention of skilled employees was also top of the list of people management priorities for employers (94%). Whilst this is an Australian study, the same could be said of countries such as Singapore. This situation is partly caused by cutting back on leadership development during the downturn and so the wisdom of a strategic approach to leadership development is now evident.
As a Leo/Ox I don’t believe much in hororscopes but with Chinese New Year celebrations in full swing I cannot ignore the current zeitgeist.
According to the Chinese Zodiac, the tiger is a symbol of power and authority and therefore leadership; unfortunately the style of leadership represented is poor on relationship.
Poor people leadership is something I encounter on a daily basis; just recently I was conducting a Coaching for Managers program and one senior manager told me his boss had refused to attend saying, “I don’t believe in that s#!t”
On the flip side I have been working with some great people, recently, who really believe in developing people-skills and are seeing the business results to confirm their belief.
If this is your first or fiftieth time reading this blog, I hope my posts, in some small way, make the Year of the Tiger profitable, productive and harmonious for you.
2009 could be associated with many negative emotion; fear, anxiety, uncertainty, regret etc. This is not all bad because emotions have ‘motivational consequences’. If we view our emotions as a feedback system, we can use the information to change our behaviours or make better choices. Continue Reading »
As Christmas approaches we get time to reflect upon what we have learned from 2009; here are a few things that come to my mind.
It has undoubtedly been a tough year with a global financial meltdown and H1N1 amongst the challenges we have all faced – so what have we learned? Continue Reading »
In a previous blog on professional development, I shared that I had submitted my paperwork for the designation of Certified Speaking Professional (CSP); well I am proud to announce that my application was successful.
The Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, conferred by the National Speakers Association (USA and Australia) and the International Federation for Professional Speakers, is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform skills. There are less than 600 CSP’s in the world and only 3 currently in Singapore.
If you are a meeting planner or planning a meeting, hiring a professional speaker who has achieved CSP means that you have insured that your event will be a success because the speaker has demonstrated competency in:
Professional platform skills
Professional business management
Professional education
Professional association
In addition the speaker has received excellent ratings from past clients on performance evaluations.
If you are a speaker or want to become a professional speaker I highly recommend that you join an IFFPS association, I am a member of the Asian Professional Speakers Singapore and you can read my blog post on presentation skills.
See you on the platform, Andrew Bryant CSP an expert who speaks on Self Leadership, Coaching and People Development.
This weekend I watched a magician enthral an audience with his art. As he performed his sleight of hand and misdirection I wondered at the thousands of hours he must have invested to achieve mastery.
In Australia, almost one half of organisations are not effective in finding and developing leaders, which identifies some critical challenges for employers if they are to take advantage of the economic recovery – this situation has been revealed in a recent study 
As a Leo/Ox I don’t believe much in hororscopes 
but with Chinese New Year celebrations in full swing I cannot ignore the current zeitgeist.
In a previous blog on 