Good leadership is making balanced choices between wellbeing, health and productivity, guest Moira Lethbridge

Good leadership is knowing by being conscious of your reality you are stepping into the driver’s seat of your life. Podcast guest mindset coach, Michaela Smith

We create our own reality. We either do it consciously or unconsciously.

Michaela says " By being conscious you are stepping into the driver's seat of your life and no longer simply be a passenger in someone else's car."

Purpose in our lives comes about slowly. At times it just creeps up on you and reaches a crescendo and brings you to making a choice. Some choose knowingly and others are not awake or conscious to be able to read the signs.

It’s about self-leadership. It's you driving your own car. That's self-leadership.

You can't drive a bus with others in it unless you can drive the bus.

Conscious leadership starts with understanding that it is our own responsibility. to understand how we function and basically take the responsibility for our responses to situations and the way how we process situations.

It's easier said than done because we very often feel that we are self-aware and we are taking responsibility. But when we start digging into it becomes somebody else's fault or we start blaming people for what is happening in our life. So taking responsibility is based on self-awareness. And awareness of how we function.

Another big thing is understanding the difference between the context that we come from and the content that we work with. What that means is– what is my place of being that I'm proud that I am approaching things from? I can be approaching things from, for example, being angry, or being in that place of victimhood, or being in that place of aggressiveness. Understanding that if I am approaching a meeting situation with my team. From that kind of place, I am only going to create an atmosphere of aggression or more victimhood, Its understanding that.

The core of who I am when I show up in these situations is going to create my results. So if I know that I'm going to go into a meeting then I need to be conscious of how I put myself into this place . Its not just show up with whatever energy its I want to show up being confident, whether it is loving, whether it is understanding, whether it is in a state of collaboration. I need to be conscious of it.

So I want to be intentional about what place that I'm coming from approaching the situations. That is a big part of being conscious and understanding that context, how we show up who we are when we are approaching situations is really key to what we're going to create.

You've got to consciously step up and say, I want to be the leader, but I want to be and include these five or six behaviours that I must do day in and day out.

Another big part of being self-aware is, what is going on in your head.

What is the chatter?

That is beating you up or have you got an inner coach that is there to help you? Really understanding what is going on in your mind is another big part of being conscious and functioning from the place of being self-aware and more sitting in your center.

How the process within us goes, when we are creating our result is, we have got a sense of belief, which is very often subconscious from this belief, we think certain things, so beliefs thoughts, then thoughts create emotions. And we know when we get anxious, when we get nervous, and when we get angry. We feel it in our bodies, right? So emotions come up and then we are triggered.

 And then from emotions, which are affecting our behaviour, of course, and then our behaviour creates the result, right? That's why we say that we consciously or unconsciously create our reality because beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and actions drive results, 

Michaela Smith can be found at

michaela-smith.com 

linkedin.com/in/smith-michaela

Good #leadership is daring to be authentic, guest Mireille Toulekima

Business is all about facts and data. Whereas great leadership occurs from the authenticity reflected in actions a leader takes. That authenticity occurs when, as a leader, one leads from their heart and not only take decisions based on the data. Authenticity is showing who you are through your actions by leading from your inner being.

Authenticity is our individual greatness. Which is our gift of being unique as human beings.

Up until we understand this and know how to express it in our behaviour we're not being authentic. On the contrary, we're existing through an imposter syndrome scenario.

It requires going within yourself and discovering what one is really passionate about and then using that in being intentional in every aspect of one's life.

'Be the best version of yourself' is an oft-heard phrase. What authenticity truly means is continually learning and growing every day.

So how do you bring about exploring and finding your authenticity?

The 'Greatness Engineering' way has a simple process called 'DARE'

D- Decide

A- Action

R- Review

E- Expand

In leadership authenticity, it all starts with the decisions we make. That decision leads us to take action. Which either brings us results that we planned to achieve or not. That's where one needs to review the results. This is the stage where learning for improvement occurs. And from that learning one expands to decide the next course of action.

What this process does, it helps you be more effective in your communication with others by establishing clarity in all actions. It puts forth your attitude which sets the tone of the relationships. Which then helps the leadership and oneself to be valued and appreciated.

 Mireille can be contacted at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mireille-toulekima/

https://twitter.com/MToulekima

Good leadership is leading from the heart, guest, author Mark C. Crowley

The world has changed and with it the way leaders lead also needs to change.

We've moved from the era of manufacturing to being knowledge-based. This impacts leadership. As such there's a critical gap as leadership hasn't quite bridged how to lead in a knowledge-based environment. And using tools prevalent in the manufacturing times simply don't work anymore. Coupled with this is the fact that employees, as people, have and are changing.

The gap as we see it in leadership presently stems from the perspective of how leaders view their teams. What matters is viewing them as people and their development as a priority. However what happens is that leaders tend to defer to shareholders and shareholders aren't into leadership. Their interest is the bottom-line. And shareholders believe caring about workers is going to cost them money. Instead of understanding that there is a better way of managing people that's behavioral based and one that would get them better returns.

Now we see change in leadership coming through, not top-down, but bottom up. Employees are not sticking around when they aren't getting respected and appreciated.

This is the catalyst that brings forth the need to lead from the heart.

And the heart has a mind!

As an author, I reflected back on what I had done in leading people and the insight was that I was touching hearts.

That validation happened when speaking to a world-renowned cardiologist who confirmed the science of communication between the heart and the mind. The research shows up that the heart has it own form of intelligence and is responsible for the feelings we feel and drives our behaviour.

A key research fact in the book talks about 75% of employees stating their stress is from the interaction with their boss. Whilst the same group states they like the work they do. So the interaction bit gets isolated and is identified as the cause. Looking at this objectively, leaders don't take into account how they make employees feel. This is a lack of sensitivity. Secondly, it's often perceived that the role of a manager is to find fault. Which results in an employee feeling horrible.

These two examples highlight the necessity of having a new orientation. One where the leader or manager is more of a coach. When one sees oneself as a coach one becomes an advocate for people and doesn't criticize.

This brings forth the bit about having positive energy. It's what helps one be more productive. In summary, if the attitude is right, it creates a happier feeling that drives productivity. Human beings are hardwired to thrive on positive energy.

The tip here is to listen more to your heart and not stay with the thoughts in your mind. Now when we hire people we're looking for brain smarts and nothing about the heart or feelings. We are now learning that there are two forms of intelligence. The heart is where intuition comes from. And the heart always looks out for what's good for you.

Find Mark https://markccrowley.com/lead-from-the-heart-duh/

Good leadership is making balanced choices between wellbeing, health and productivity, guest Moira Lethbridge

As professionals how do we get the balance between our wellbeing, health, and productivity?

It starts with being aware of the unconscious thoughts and beliefs that are affecting these three areas. And with getting clear on what's driving oneself. That's when choices materialise and from those choices, one can make changes. So if one believes that our thoughts and beliefs create our experiences, then if one changes the thoughts, one has different experiences.

The problem is that most don't know that their thoughts and beliefs are getting in the way. And the impact of this is significant. Overworking, over-functioning, and neglecting our health.

Digging into my own unconscious thoughts and beliefs helped me learn how they were blocking me and how I could change them.

An example-- is asking one the question to write down what they want to have a year from now. And that's where clarity happens as most focus on time. Time to take care of their health, time with family, and time to make an impact in the workplace.

From this one learns why they are doing what they are doing. That throws up choices. And those choices are then turned into action by putting a timeline to it.

This example highlights how important it is for one to get and be in touch with their inner self.

When we get clarity on what's important and the values that are dear, how to choose who I choose to be given the external pressures of what success looks like. It comes down to the choices one makes and gets to a point where all aspects of self are in balance.

Doing this requires having grounded confidence. Which is being comfortable with being uncomfortable and building skills and tolerance of taking the discomfort. This is the bit that helps with productivity. By identifying a set of activities that one is good at and one enjoys doing, and doing it more incrementally one increases their productivity.

As leaders when we operate from a place of deep self-content, even when we get triggered or have an emotional reaction, it's the grounded confidence that allows us to see the opportunities in the situation. People tend to gravitate to the calmness a leader shows in hard situations as that's an attractive quality. 

You can contact Moira at

www.moiralethbridge.com

[email protected]

Good leadership is emotionally connecting through stories, special guest Elinor Stutz

How we grow up affects our personality and affects how we think and what we do. There are a lot of things that impact us without us realising the effects those have. They become what we could call limiting beliefs. When we are able to reflect on those, take the lessons and forge them into our vision is when we end up leading ourselves from within. It's what led to my summation of believe, become and empower.

 Moving on to jobseekers specifically, the one thing should do is try and give smart answers to what might seem to be a ridiculously polite question. For example, in sales interviews, one is asked what animal would you be if you could choose to be so? And this gives an insight to the interviewer about how you think. In order to make an impression, you've got to answer this from the perspective of the interviewer.

 Going on to leadership what is your view on leading from within?

Leading from within is the ability to share stories that help you connect emotionally. It's the bit that connects hearts and minds. It helps encourage people to take the learning from the sharing of experience and then adapt and use it to their benefit in their way. This is the bit that all great leaders do.

 In being a great salesperson one has to develop the ability to listen, ask lots of questions so that the client's perspective comes through, and then walk the client through as to how the service or product is useful.

 The one takeaway for listeners is this-- believe in yourself and doing that comes from within you.