Our sense of Self is first created by our early care-givers; ideally we develop Self-esteem and Self-efficacy as we grow into adults and choose what we believe in and what is worth striving for. Obviously if individuals are born into poverty and with perceived limited opportunities they can choose to make this mean that life is hopeless. Hopelessness is a choice, you have to give your hope away; Victor Frankl did not give his hope away when he was a prisoner in a concentration camp and Nelson Mendela did not give away his hope when he was imprisoned on Robben Island.

The behaviour I am observing is not individuals but groups of people who have been caught up in a wave of frustration and criminal elements that have taken advantage of the situation. The Police were initially overwhelmed and so these groups gained early successes which validated their amoral behaviour. Self-leaders are Self-motivated and Self-regulated; the riot behaviour seems to be motivated by greed for “free stuff” and characterised by a complete lack of Self-regulation.

Politicians and ‘experts’ are now debating why London’s youth lack any moral code – is it the fault of a liberal government who has failed to educate or the break down in parental responsibility or some other coctail of causes? From my perspective I see the current crisis as an extreme  example of what can happen when people are not encouraged to take Self-responsibility in alignment with their own and their communities best interest.

Self-leadership

It should be no surprise that as the author of a Self Leadership blog that I think it is critical that Senior Managers begin to master their Self-leadership. Self-motivation, Self-direction and Self-regulation enable the manager to ‘walk the talk’ and be a positive influence to those that they lead.

Transformational Leadership

Much of management is transactional; setting goals, giving feedback and achieving business objectives. A senior manager must continue to do these things whilst also being transformational. Transformational leadership is about creating and communicating a vision of “What can be”. Transformational leaders focus on people and the environment (culture) to achieve extraordinary results.

People Leadership

Senior Managers realise that they can’t get the job done without hiring, retaining and developing the right people. As a manager this is often handed off to HR but critical skills include coaching and mentoring as well as a deep understanding of what drives people and how to motivate them. Effective leaders know how to “read” people and use this skill to positively influence outcomes.

Creating a Positive Performing Culture

We are strongly influenced by our environment and the people around us, it is therefore critical that the Senior Leader understands how to create a positive performing culture. Cultures can be subtle or obvious but we usually know what counts for success in any situation. By purposefully acknowledging and validating the behaviours that count, the senior manager can create high performing teams and an environment where people want to work and exercise Self-leadership.

Obviously these ideas are just a broad overview, if you would like to take a deeper dive, why not contact Self Leadership International or attend our program in Singapore on October 12-14, 2011.

Culminating in last Saturday’s election, Singaporeans from all walks of life, representing the full range of political views and associations, have recently taken part in an unprecedentedly open and passionate debate about who their leaders would be. While the PAP won a clear majority of votes, it’s also clear that many people aren’t happy with the status quo.

In short: Singaporeans may not yet be ready to change their leaders, but they are ready for their leaders to change.
As coaches to corporate executives across Asia, we have seen this played out many times before. Of course, the context is a bit different: employees don’t get to vote for their CEOs. But their voice is still heard, through the strength (or lack) of their commitment to the leadership team’s strategy and vision. In our experience, when employees don’t commit, it’s usually because they lack a strong connection to their leaders – not because they think the strategy is wrong.

When an organisation’s leaders aren’t competent, then of course they need to be changed – time to call in the headhunters. But what to do when competent leaders are no longer connecting with their key stakeholders? Who helps leaders make that change?

Change is always difficult, but a core premise of coaching is that people are capable of changing and growing, usually more than they suspect. And while coaches don’t know much about politics, we do understand the process that leaders typically go through to create this change. In our experience five steps apply:

1. Awareness: Leaders need to be made aware of their effectiveness with key stakeholders through regular feedback. Politicians do this through research polls and, ultimately, elections. In the corporate world this takes place through stakeholder interviews and 360 degree reviews. Like the ballot box, this process needs to be confidential to allow for genuine and honest input. External agents such as coaches are more likely to confront an executive with the hard realities than are employees who depend on the executive’s continuing support to keep their jobs.
2. Insight: Habitual behaviours that were once a source of success can, in a different context, become problematic. For example, some CEOs see every meeting as a chance for them to show how smart they are – which may have worked well enough on their way up the ladder. But they may not realise the negative impact this has on their senior leadership team. Until they can get insight into their own motivations for acting this way, and can change a core belief (e.g. from “I add value by being the smartest guy in the room” to “I add value by bringing out the best from my team”), they will stay locked into the old way of behaving.
3. Action: People don’t acquire new leadership styles overnight. But most people are able to consciously make small if important changes to how they act. If these lead to better results then these small changes can become stepping stones to a more lasting change.
4. Commitment: Changing behaviour is a lot like losing weight: it’s easy to sustain a diet for a week or two, much harder to create a whole new way of eating. To achieve lasting change leaders need both a deep internal commitment and the committed support of key people around them.
5. Mastering the art of Change: As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus noted, “nothing endures but change…” Today’s corporate leaders are faced with a dizzying array of challenges and a constantly-shifting business environment. So even as they successfully master one behavioural change, new situations arise that challenge them to change in other ways. The truly successful leaders are those who can apply what they’ve learned through the process of adapting and changing to the next set of issues. This is true self-leadership.

When leaders take the view that the change that needs to happen is all external to themselves then failure will be the result. Our experience is that personal and organisational change are inextricably linked. Leaders must be part of the change process, and the commitment they make to changing themselves can set off a transformation in their organisations.

Rob Bier & Mark Powell are Directors of 6:30 Partners in Singapore and associate consultants with Self Leadership International.

…the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and behaviors to achieve your objective.

Self-leaders have a drive for autonomy, can make decisions, are more creative and persist, even in the face of adversity.

Some of the intentional behaviours that characterise Self-leadership are; self-awareness, self-goal setting, self-motivation, positive self-talk, assertive communication and the ability to receive and act on feedback.

Becoming a Self-leader and maintaining Self-leadership is a self-development activity; but organizations that encourage Self-leadership reap the benefit.

We (Bryant & Kazan) propose that Self-leadership should be the foundation of any organizational development or program. To skip the Self-leadership piece is to leave out a significant part of the puzzle of developing a learning organization.

As you can see from the above diagram, Self-leadership strategies support all levels of leadership development. If you would like to find out how we can help you develop your Self-leadership feel free to contact us.

NLP for Speakers and Trainers

Workshop in Singapore, June 22-24, 2011

Most of us have experienced a boring speaker or found ourselves wondering at the relevance of a training we  were attending. Conversely when we have been engaged, enthralled and excited by a masterful presentation our minds become curious, ”how did the speaker get to be so good”.

Speaking can change minds and Training can be the most effective way of developing behaviours and skills in an organisation, however when done badly both are a waste of time and money. Download brochure.

Neuro Linguistic Programming

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) allows us to model or understand any human experience or behaviour is constructed and then duplicate or improve upon it. With this knowledge speakers and trainers can strengthen what they do well, eliminate what doesn’t work and incorporate the best practices of the masters in the field. Think about how powerful it will be when you can compress your learning curve and to increase the value you offer to your students or clients.

Imagine stepping in front of your audience feeling confident, relaxed and focused. Picture yourself connecting with individuals, seeing eye to eye and noticing the subtle non-verbal cues that let you know just how to land your message in a way that just makes sense.

With NLP skills you can structure a speech or training in ways to facilitate accelerated learning, reduce resistance and increase buy-in because NLP teaches you how the mind and body really work. Download brochure.

Speaking and Training Skills

If you are a new or seasoned speaker, trainer, coach or lecturer then you will want to develop your skills to positively influence and audience. In the NLP for Speakers and Trainers program you will learn about:

• Training State – how to overcome fear and increase confidence and focus
• Training Design – how to plan your presentation to get maximum learning, engagement and application
• Managing the Audience – how to influence the audience’s thinking and feeling
• Unconscious Learning – how to overcome resistance and create a deeper impact
• Closing the Knowing-doing gap – how to turn ideas into actions

Plus you will be personally coached to the next level in your presentation skills.

If you are in Singapore or can travel then Download the brochure for more details.

What is Self-leadership?

Self-leadership is about intentionally influencing yourself to achieve your objectives.  Self-leaders have the drive for autonomy and so can make thier own descions. Self-leadership Part 1

Self-observation and Resilience

Self-leaders demonstrate resilience and we have discussed Self-observation in a previous blog post. Self-leadership Part 2

Self-leadership and Communication

Self-leaders are intentional about what they say and do; they can communicate assertively and manage thier emotions. Self-leadership Part 3

In October of 1982, Tylenol, the leading pain-killer medicine in the United States at the time, faced a tremendous crisis when seven people in Chicago died after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules. It was reported that an unknown suspect/s put 65 milligrams of deadly cyanide into Tylenol capsules, 10,000 more than what is necessary to kill a human. Tylenol’s manufacturers Johnson & Johnson was faced with the dilemma of the best way to deal with the problem without destroying the reputation of the company and its most profitable product. Even though the Tylenol product itself was not at fault the Johnson & Johnson leadership asked the question, “What is the most ethical action we might take?” They withdrew Tylenol from shelves and made public announcements warning people about consumption of the product. The company then created the industries first tamper proof container and restored the public’s confidence.

A true leader faces facts, presents a situation fully to all stakeholders, and models accountability. A leader does not attempt to minimize the extent of a problem or promise action faster than can be delivered. A true leader sets appropriate expectations and delivers. He or she does not duck responsibility by shifting the bulk of the blame to someone else.

About a week after the 2010 platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico BP’s Chief, Tony Hayward, was quoted in the New York Times as asking his executive team, “What the hell did we do to deserve this?” Then he lost all credibility by declaring, “I want my life back.”

Leaders usually believe that they are being paid for fixing problems rather than for fostering breakthrough thinking. Consider these four questions; “What time is it?””Did you take a shower””What possibilities exist that we haven’t thought of yet?””What does it mean to be ethical?” I think you will agree that the last two questions require a different level of thinking than the first two.

A leader’s questions should invite fresh thinking/ feeling. They should be familiar enough to be recognizable and relevant —and different enough to call forward a new response. A leader’s questions should generate hope, imagination, engagement, creative action, and new possibilities -it should not increase focus on past problems and obstacles?

How many leaders today know how to frame strategic questions that open the space for thinking about possibilities rather than solving problems? How many leaders are comfortable with not knowing and can constructively help others bring forth their collective knowledge? Could you be that kind of leader?

Companies are currently facing many problems, not least of which are, “how to restore trust in the leadership and how to engage employees?”

If leadership is getting work done with and through people, whilst gaining their trust and cooperation; is it not time to ask some good questions?

In the words of the wise Lao Tsu, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Not so good when people obey him and acclaim him, and worse when they despise him. Fail to honour people and they will fail to honour you. Of a great leader, when his work is done, people will say, we did it ourselves.”

I have been asked to speak on building an International Speaking Business, which is a topic I know a bit about if you consider the stamps in my passport over the last couple of years. So if you are in Melbourne, Australia at the begining of April and want to talk about the business of speaking or possilbly engaging me for your organisation for leadership development then contact me through the website.

If you want to visit my speaking bureau website feel free to browse and check out the view videos at www.andrew-bryant.com.

Self-leaders have a drive for autonomy, are more creative and persist, even in the face of adversity. Shared-leadership allows team members to influence peers, superiors and sub-ordinates with the objective to lead one another to innovation and the achievement of high performance objectives.

In this video, inspirational speaker, Andrew Bryant shares a contingent model for developing leaders with self-leadership.

The feed-forward and feed-back loops between our selves and the world explains how we program effective or limiting behaviours.

Our existing ‘frames of mind’ (beliefs, values, identity etc) drive how think and feel and therefore our behaviours; what we do and how we do it, what we say and how we say it. This is our output. Simultaneously we receive input from the world around us which includes feedback from our outputs (behaviours). Inputs can confirm or alter our ‘frames of mind’ depending if we are open to the feedback.

Let’s look at some examples. Let’s imagine I have a frame of mind that health and fitness is import to me and so I think and feel I should go to the gym. When I do go to the gym, I give myself self-feedback and think to myself how commiitted I am to exercise; now I reinforce the program of myself as a fit person. Alternatively, perhaps I think I should lose weight but I feel like an ice cream and chocolate, I eat the chocolate, but now I guilt myself for doing it and start to program myself as a lousy at weight loss.

We can take this to another level; maybe you perceive your workplace as hostile and so don’t share your ideas or offer to help colleagues. They respond in kind and make your life difficult – can you see the self-fulfilling prophesy? What if instead you see your work place as an opportunity to contribute and be creative, you give freely of your ideas and assistance to your team members, and they reciprocate and support you with your projects. Now you are a positive influencer to those around you which is a common side-affect of self-leadership.

Of course this doesn’t always hold true. There are influences in the environment that may give us negative feedback even for positive behaviours; for example you may work in an environment that doesn’t value creative behaviour and you may get scolded for attempting such behaviours. When these events happen during our youth they can be very formative.

A journalist I know was quite the artist when she was at school. A temporary teacher encouraged her to let her imagination run wild and draw what she wanted. Following these instructions she created an excellent sketch of young muscular bare chested man. When the regular teacher returned she was shocked at the image, perceiving it as lewd she dragged this young student to the principles offices where she was severely reprimanded. Now this young lady could have decided at this point that art is risky endeavour but instead she exercised self-leadership and used this sense of injustice as an intrinsic motivation to express herself, which has made her successful as an adult.

I had a similar experience when I was in primary school. The music teacher told me I couldn’t sing and should mime when the school sang as a choir. However this did not fire me up to prove her wrong and so even today I am a bit embarrassed to sing in public. Hang on, I hear you say, but as an author on self-leadership shouldn’t you have re-programmed yourself to overcome this? You are probably right, but I have chosen to develop other skills. I do know that if I want to I have could invest the time and energy to do so I can expunge the influence of an inadequate educator who was more interested in her choir than the development of self-esteem and confidence of a 4 year old.

Overcomming Toxic Behavioural Programming

How do we get overcome old behavioural programming? Well first it starts with self-observation.

For example, maybe you think you are mediocre at presenting information to senior managers so you feel a bit anxious but do it anyway. After the presentation you get positive feedback from your boss and peers which builds a frame of mind that you are pretty good at presenting after all. Conversley you might think you are pretty good at report writing but after writing a report you get scolded by you boss and start to doubt youself. The result, you dislike report writing and avoid them where possible.

The crux of Self-leadership is our choice; we choose our thoughts, feelings and behaviours and with Self-observation we can choose our ‘frames of mind’. When we meet challenge or adversity, it is our choices that form either empowering or disempowering ‘Frames of Mind’ which in turn will drive our thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

In my upcommng new book with Dr. Ana Kazan we share strategies for developing your self-leadership and increasing productivity, creativity, innovation and postivive influence.