Self Leadership and
The New Leadership Playbook
Blog by Andrew Bryant

Times of Crisis can bring out the best and the worst in people. Charles Dickens begins his Tale of Two Cities with:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Living in a post-pandemic world with a war in Europe, it certainly feels like the worst of times, so, how do we avoid it becoming, “the winter of despair”?

Behaviors in Times of Crisis

People respond to the stress of crisis in different ways, typical behaviors that let you know that you, or someone you know, is not coping include:

• Disbelief or Denial
• Emotional numbness
• Increased use of alcohol and drugs
• Anger, moodiness, and irritability
• Nightmares and other sleep disturbances
• Panic attacks
• Isolation or withdrawal from others
• Disinterest in previous activities
• Sleeping too much

Primed, Paralyzed, or Prepared

Why are some people more easily triggered by tough times, some just freeze whilst others are calm and rational.

The answer is that your response to external events is dependent on how well you ...

If you want to be a better leader, presenter, or influencer then you must embrace diagrams or models to amplify your message.

The human brain is brilliant at pattern recognition but has a limited capacity for language or numerical manipulation.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” 

When it comes to ideas and information, a diagram or model communicates much more effectively than words. Here are seven of the many diagrams that I use in my leadership coaching, and keynote speeches. 

1. Find your Sweet Spot

Success in life and career is a Venn diagram. You must find your passion, but passion alone is not enough, you must develop your talent and find a market for your skills. 

Jim Collins used this diagram in his book, 'Good to Great'. The Japanese have a concept, Ikigai which means reason for being. The Japanese diagram has a fourth circle, what the world needs. Imagine doing what you love, doing what you are good at, and being paid for it, and it makes a difference in the worl...

Some years ago, the head of Learning and Development for one of my clients told me that I was too loud on social media, specifically, LinkedIn.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“You are always posting success stories and ideas, but you are already coaching our leaders so you don’t need to do that”.

I understood her conservatism, but I was acutely aware of the impact of not having a voice or presence.

Can you be too loud on LinkedIn?

A year later the same person came to me to ask if I could deliver a workshop on social media for her company’s leaders, to increase their visibility. Her conservative outlook had given way to the realization that:

• No visibility, no credibility
• No credibility, no influence
• No influence, nothing changes

The Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde said;

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

This concept is uncomfortable for the more introverted and those who come from cul...

A manned trip to Mars within our lifetimes is a high probability. Billionaire, Elon Musk has his heart set on it, and there’s a modern-day space race between nations to get there first.

Just as the race to the moon gave us more down-to-earth technological advancements, like sneakers, digital photography, and wireless headsets, preparation for the moon is revealing how teams will function remotely.

Before I share some recent findings from Long Mars Simulations, let’s review what a Mars shot has in common with leading a team.

Leading Teams

1. Vision: Going to Mars is a bold and ambitious goal that requires a clear and compelling vision. The same is valid for leading a team. A great leader has a clear and inspiring vision for their team and knows how to communicate this as a ‘Why’ that motivates and excites others.
2. Strategy: To go to Mars, a lot of planning, resources, and expertise are required. The same is true for leading a team. An effective leader has a well-thought-out strategy
...

Effective leaders have developed a variety of traits that contribute to their success. Strong self-awareness and the capacity to use it to lead by example are among the most crucial of these leadership traits. 

In addition to self-awareness, developing self-regulation and self-learning will greatly enhance your personal and professional life. When you do this, you are practicing self-leadership. 

With self-leadership, you take charge of your life and move toward your goals. Your self-esteem will increase and you will become better at decision-making and problem-solving. 

Furthermore, self-leadership builds resilience and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. This article explains the meaning of self-leadership and its significance.

Understanding Self-Leadership

 Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your own thinking, feeling, and action toward achieving personal and professional goals and objectives (Bryant & Kazan 2012).  Self-leadership simultan...

Who is the best motivational speaker and do motivational speakers even work?

These questions get asked each year when organizing the company conference or offsite. Whether leaders and employees are grappling with change, dealing with disruption, or setting some ambitious targets, everyone needs a dose of motivation.

Do Motivational Speakers Even Work?

With inspirational quotes on LinkedIn and Instagram, every manager or social influencer can consider themselves a motivational speaker, which raises some legitimate cynicism about the effectiveness of hiring a motivational speaker.

Here are some common themes that might make people feel good for a few minutes but have no lasting impact:

1. I did it so you can too

   I climbed a mountain, beat cancer, or some other trauma so you can too. As inspiring as these stories are, they ignore survivor bias and can lack practical takeaways for achieving this quarter’s goals.

2. Mindset is all that matters

   Yes, being aware of your current frame
...

Leadership is a complex and multi-faceted topic. To be an effective leader requires awareness of the context in which you are leading, the motivation and skills of the people you are leading, and your own leadership style. Despite the complexity, there are some do's and don'ts that can help you become a more efficient and effective leader. In this guide, we'll cover five of the most important leadership do's and don'ts.

Leadership Do's

1. Communicate Openly and Frequently

One of the most important things a leader can do is keep lines of communication open. This means being accessible to your team and encouraging two-way communication. Leaders should make it safe to ask questions and be available to address concerns (psychological safety). Being responsive to feedback builds trust and engagement.

2. Be Decisive

Leaders must be able to make decisions quickly and confidently. Indecision breeds confusion and causes morale to suffer. Sharing why and how a decision was made creates buy-...

"Oh No, Not another Leadership Seminar!"  is the punchline of a story I share when I speak at conferences or events.

The incident happened 20 years ago when I was on my way to conduct a 2-day leadership development program for an international client and I overheard two managers talking before it started.

As humbling as the experience was, it was also a wake-up call to make leadership education relevant and practical. Everyone you talk to will likely agree that effective leadership is essential but few will agree that they lack the skill.

Twenty years after that incident, I have coached hundreds of C-level leaders and facilitated countless leadership sessions. I am the author of two books on self-leadership as well as The New Leadership Playbook: Being Human Whilst Successfully Delivering Accelerated Results. My conclusion from this experience is:

"𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏"

 

The Leadership Accelerator

Leadership is a one-to-one or one-to-many conversation that results in the ri...

Collaboration is the behavior of working with others, in-person or virtually, to produce something. It is the nature of business and a key factor for success, yet it is often lacking.

Some years ago, I was asked to run a conflict management training for a software company in Singapore, I explained to the client that giving people conflict management strategies is a great idea, but the conflict would remain unless the underlying causes of the conflict were addressed. I asked:

"Who is in conflict with whom, and about what?’"

With more gentle probing, I discovered that the engineering team was motivated and rewarded to keep the servers online and secure. The innovation team was motivated and rewarded for developing new solutions and selling them to market.

‘I’m curious,’ I probed further. ‘Does the innovation team need to test their beta software on the engineering team’s servers?’

The answer was ‘yes’, and this was the source of the conflict because if the innovation team’s product ...

You might think that after the pandemic-induced remote and hybrid work leaders would have embraced social collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Yammer, or Facebook Workplace.

A recent report by Knowman showed that the effect of the pandemic has been that 64% of organizations indicate an increase in leadership activity on their chosen social platform but only 18% of leaders use the platform to create dialogue around important topics, and only 8% have a structured approach for doing so. 

When I was researching for 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 (Ocean Reeve Publishing 2022), I spoke to many leaders who were looking forward to putting the pandemic behind them, getting everyone back to work, and returning to traditional management techniques. This traditional mindset ignores, at great cost, the gains made through collaboration, team performance, and employee engagement that mature use of social collaboration can deli...