Soul-Inspired-Leadership

It's a defining point in one's life. It's a painful moment that leaves an everlasting impression of the experience felt. It changes who you are as a person after the event.

Such an experience brings up questions about purpose. 

Understanding the event is a defining moment is where one starts with regards to purpose. The question is does that experience define who you are as a person?

It gives you two choices. One to become the victim and lose your path. The other is to take the lesson and decide to that learning into action.

In discovering your purpose, it starts with understand what makes you, you. The way you've been designed. This goes into knowing and accepting your values and beliefs. In crucible we say the 'keys of your vision are in the ashes of your pain'. It points out what you really and truly enjoy doing. Picking that up and turning that into a career brings living your purpose.

 Which will take your to craft your vision. Doing that, you need to be aligned with your beliefs and purpose and be very passionate about it. Simply put, your vision will become your driving force and matter to you as it's how you are delivering your purpose and creating impact. 

Speaking of impact, its where you need the right people around you who help you to deliver. From a self, point of view, you have be in touch with your beliefs and values. From an external point of view, you discuss with trusted advisors like coaches, or close family members or a mentor to get a perspective. Doing this allows you to take a objective decision and drive the impact you wish to achieve.

Warwick can be contacted at https://crucibleleadership.com

Leaders leading under pressure is a much discussed topic currently. With the world under pressure leading through to getting back to some form of construct for business.

What's the key when, as a leader, you're leading and are under pressure?

Inspite of the best plans, things do go wrong. They do so because technology can play up, key people may have personal emergencies and not be able to be at work. Such unexpected gaps occur. What helps is the training and the experience one has in managing the pressure.

In addition to the work related pressure leaders often have pressures from the social recognition they get for their leadership. A certain expectation is created about leadership performance. 

The key here is to ensure that your mind is focused. Then the pressure acts as a driver of efficiency. It acts positively in one's performance. Being focused comes from loving what you do. It becomes a part of your self and what you do. 

Pressure comes in different forms and it's about how, as a leader, you process the information and where you keep your focus. Focusing on the event helps ease the pressure.

Inderjit can be contacted at

[email protected]

What does trust mean in business?

At a foundational emotive level humans react in the same way to the world. So, trust is actually an emotion. Lot of people think of it as a moral or ethics as it gets rationalised in that way. However, as a deciding factor it is an emotion.

What this means is that trust is shaping our lives just as other emotions are also shaping our lives. The hint here is that emotions are very important in our social lives and so is trust because it is allowing us to create connection, cooperation and as a result of that collaboration.

Trust is the social foundation of the magic of humanity.

Whether they show that in their behaviour or not people want to be trusted. We are wired to trust. 

The question is how much trust is too much?

The reality is that there is a sort of balance that needs to be achieved. We seek reciprocity in our relationships, and it applies to trust as well. Trust is a very strong variable of influence, and it can be used in various forms. 

Trust is a catalyst for change.

It's the required ingredient in innovating, changing, and transforming. Trust here relates to our own abilities and in the abilities and competencies of others.

As humans we are geared for equitable distribution. However, when you make it all about just an interaction then the equitable bit goes out. This is currently playing out in the global economy as we can see.

As an individual we often think what difference can I make. This is where self-trust becomes important. The act of trusting ourselves can and does have a huge influence on the lives of people around us and we're not even aware of it. 

Trust is a beautiful force of self-actualisation and the foundation of a fulfilled existence.

Our emotions are very strong drivers and at times we don't even know or realise why they are driving us. Then there's rationalisation. With trust the rationalisation is about doing the right thing. Leading to being trustworthy. That's a cognitive process. Being trusted is an emotive process.

Trust is not an absolute. It operates on a spectrum. Everyone starts a different point where trust is concerned. It comes down to balancing that feeling in relevance to the context of what one needs trust. Often, without realising, as people we are at the mercy of our emotions. 

The new book 'Reset' is a story about how businesses can now be embracing a different scenario. It's about two types of companies. The type A kind of company who realises this is a moment of opportunity with regards to understanding there is an urgency driving important transformations. Where there's urgency these types of companies are making necessary changes and in 5-10 years these companies will be thriving. The other is the type B company. This type of company sees the pandemic as an inconvenience. Ending up doing the bare minimum to wait out and go back to what and how they were operating before. These kinds of companies are missing out on reinvention and delivering on innovation and transformation that they have been talking about. These types of companies will be seeing a drop all around in the next 5-10 years’ time.

Philipp can be contacted at https://philippkristian.com/

What is strategy and does it differ with the size and type of organization?

Speaking of strategy, the size and type of an organization does not impact on the strategy it has. The difference is how long it takes to design and implement the strategy. Strategy is the way to get to the vision. It's the priorities and focus areas that an organization manages on a daily basis in order to reach to its vision. 

A commonality of strategy, across all types of organizations, for its leadership is the daily struggle of balancing the long-term goals with the situations occurring. Understanding if it's a crisis or a change that impacts the strategic plan and being able to be flexible in adapting accordingly. This is where leadership comes into play. Identifying the pathway that will take the organization through to its goal.

What helps is perspective. In a large organization, as a leader, one might be in charge of a strategic project that's part of a 3-5 years of change. Giving one's best to ensure that project milestones are achieved well and trusting that the other interconnected projects will occur as well helps in keeping to the vision and the plan. Doing this involves empowering the team in order to ensure everyone gives their best.

Getting this done involves clear two-way communication that's more of a conversation. Aimed at ensuring each person understands the value of what they do and how it helps another colleague. Once that understanding occurs it creates value to self in terms of the benefit of the daily tasks and work one does. Which results in motivation and impacts productivity and engagement.

This leads us into understanding how purpose and profits connect. 

For this discussion we'll describe purpose as solving an issue that society has. Be it individually or as an organization. Patagonia is a great example of leading through purpose. As an entrepreneur or a start-up, looking back at the need that birthed the business provides purpose. When purpose is lived and acted upon daily it becomes the culture and that brings in the profits simply because customers and clients relate and resonate with the purpose of that organization.

Today business has moved or been pushed to address purpose from the ESG (environmental, social and governance) requirements. The large organizations are representatives of and for people and have to take this into account in order for investors to acknowledge their value. This shift is driving organizations to now be more focused on creating profits with purpose.

Alex Brueckmann can be contacted at

https://www.linkedin.com/company/brueckmann-executive-consulting/

There's a growing body of knowledge that recognises the interconnectivity of the mind and body. Many people spend a lot of time in their own heads thinking rationally, logically in order to deliver results and be happy. What one misses out in this thinking is the whole other part they can utilise. Simply because they aren't conscious about it. It holds one back. It's important for leaders to have their mind, body and spirit aligned so that one can act in the best interest of self.

It's about understanding what is driving one's feelings and emotions. As that then drives the behaviour they show. We don't recognise that it's we, ourselves, who get in our way and sabotage ourselves.

20% of change comes through becoming aware and having greater consciousness. 80% happens through practice which helps to develop core mental muscles. Building mental strength helps us to intercept our hardwired mental response of flight, fight or freeze. Acknowledge them and let them go and then shift the mind to the sensation in the body. Taking it forward means being more empathetic with ourselves and then exploring and innovating around what are the options and ideas that we could use to help with the situation.

Here's where we often mistake sympathy as empathy. Empathy helps you to have a positive feeling about yourself and move forward. Whereas sympathy is feeling sad or agreeing with your feelings. What is critical in understanding all of this is judgement. As humans our biggest saboteur is that we tend to judge. We judge everything starting with ourselves. Using discernment helps take into concern factors to look at the issue at hand.

All of this stems from the mindset one has. A growth mindset enables one to be open or secure in being vulnerable to explore and move forward.

Lesz can be contacted at https://www.lifelurn.com/

A key issue amongst corporate professionals is that of self-leadership. Often led by ego they swing erratically and miss out on leading themselves properly. If one is unable to lead self then, as a leader, how can one lead others?

To lead oneself there has to be clarity in terms of what one wants. It starts with who are you and what kind of leader do you want to be and what kind of life do you want to lead. It's absolutely necessary to have a strong vision for oneself. Without purpose it's hard to stay motivated and to be able to get up when knocked down. The purpose is the motivation to try and go forward. It helps knowing how one wants to be perceived as a leader. That then brings up the required behaviour which helps in creating that perception.

The starting point is with defining self. Often professionals define their identity as their job function or designation. Which is not them as a person. 

Two key behaviour traits help in defining oneself. Tenacity & grit which help one to stay focused all the way, through thick and thin, to reach their goals. Here it's important to remember that the body, mind and emotions are all inter-connected. What happens to one is going to affect the other. Starting with the words you use and the thoughts you have. Our thoughts and words translate into action which then shape your outcomes.

The next is understanding and controlling your emotions. As humans we experience a range of emotions. When those are negative you should be able to recognise it as such and then cap the time on that emotion. Without that it has the ability to impact your action.

Then comes movement or how you carry yourself. Posture impacts moods and thoughts. When one is mindful and aware of how posture plays and makes an effort to use the right postures, it impacts emotion and behaviour. With time this becomes a practiced habit that shows up as a behaviour.

Try this quick exercise-- put your head down and talk about your week. Hear the tone of your voice and the words you use. Then do the opposite. Look up and repeat exactly the same words describing your week and hear the tone and the words. Hear the difference! Listen to this in exercise in the podcast.

We can't speak the same negative words in a downcast tone whilst looking up simply because that's how our body and mind is wired. When we look down and speak, we are closing ourselves out. Whereas when we look up and speak, we're opening ourselves up. This is part of our body language. Doing this is actually connecting with yourself. 

Lastly celebrate yourself. It can be as small as just giving yourself a piece of chocolate. Celebrate who you are and always reward yourself.  

You can contact Elizabeth at

https://lizleecoaching.com/

People hold people accountable. Yet it's more of a checklist and not quality accountability.

What does that mean?

People try to show how effective a leader they are by being hard on the people they lead. Not realising they are never going to meet the goals of the strategic plan if people aren't buying in. People don't buy-in when they don't feel supported, understood, and appreciated. Certainly, holding people accountable is good but not in a way that makes people want to quit their jobs. 

Most people at their jobs know what they are doing. If they are given certain parameters and allowed to do what one has to do to make it work, they are going to make mistakes. That has to be looked at not with malice but with the perspective what was the effort and intent in that activity. The reaction and feedback should be based on that.

Leadership is giving everyone the same opportunities, treating them fairly and helping them succeed. It's about knowing your people and knowing them well. 

From a leadership perspective it's about remembering the good leaders and what they did in order to be a better leader yourself. The flip side is bad leadership. If you approach that with a learning mindset you get to know what to avoid as a leader.

Reflecting on your leadership helps understand that you're leading people. Understanding how you are leading yourself helps in knowing how you can get the best out of your team. With that comes the communication with regards to thinking about what and how your people will take the message and think of. That helps in judging your communication style and words accordingly. Focusing on communication to the middle management and spending the time on ensuring the message was communicated as intended helps in getting the team buy-in.

You can find Chris at https://www.lighthouseleadershipservices.com/

What's the correlation between high-performance sport and leadership in an organization?

It's about being authentic and being yourself. Which translates as being honest and true with yourself. Related to that is the area of personal discipline around hard work, passion, drive and application. They all form the DNA. These can't be taught. However they can be improved upon. People can achieve goals provided they are honest in putting in the hard work to be the best version of themselves and not try be someone else.

In corporate this comes through a lot as comparisons. All of which is in one's head. It's key to know how to be oneself. Simply because, be it sport or work activity, it has to be done by oneself without help from anyone else. Which means being able to know one's strengths in order to play well. That's the critical aspect. Being yourself and being true to your potential without comparing with others mentally. 

Taking the analogy from cricket, as in going out to bat in front of a huge crowd, you are just you. All you have is your partner and yourself and the ability to leverage of that teamwork. However, at the end of that day when you get back. It's only you and the person you see in the mirror. Which is yourself. That's where accountability to self comes in. You know your game best and you know if you have really applied yourself and given it 110% through effort and application and committed to the opportunity. It's about taking ownership of what you do and don't do and being accountable for that.

The learning from sport that really applies in corporate environment is in the focus. As a great leader you've got be focused on giving the credit to the team when things go great and when they don't take personal responsibility for that. The other learning is that of taking care of the process. Doing that ensures the outcomes are achieved. 

Feedback is another area that helps performance. In feedback it's key to remember to accept all feedback and not to pre-judge. Then deciding which bits of the feedback to keep, which to discard and which to feed-forward. This last bit is about specific feedback around what they person wants to do. This is where opinions are cast aside and constructive inputs are provided on what one is working on so as to be of help.

The key takeaway in all this is about knowing what is it that I need to be doing and knowing to be better, at what I do, each day. In this process the self-discipline aspect plays a huge role and is what can be taken from sports into corporate leadership performance. 

Simon's details

http://integrityvaluesleadership.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Gaps-Simon-Taufel/dp/9389109256

It starts with recognizing that wellness is a journey in self-leadership. Asking oneself the question of how we are going to live our life. Understanding and appreciating our own strengths and weaknesses. Once one understands this, then comes the question, do we understand how we live a healthy life. It starts with having an open mindset and being a life-long learner.

This is also an important part of being a leader of people.

As a leader it's important to accept vulnerability. It's okay to not have all the answers and none of us do. The best CEOs can talk to anybody. To be human is the most important aspect of great leadership. Showing the sincerity through what one is doing. Expressing oneself authentically and vulnerability with it.

When one shows how one is fitting in their lifestyle wellness program it goes a long way in encouraging others. That authenticity creates transparency and makes the leader seem human.

When one leads through authenticity one creates an environment of trust. That engages and gets interaction and participation and helps in seeking solutions. Trust starts with trusting and believing In yourself. It then follows on to trusting and believing others. To be a great leader it's important to have belief in others. To be able to see the innate good that is there in each one of us.

When we focus on diversity often, we end up highlighting what's different between us more than celebrating the diverse perspectives that come through that diversity.

Each one of us approaches diversity through our own cultural lens and experience. A way that's helped is through the cultural acclimatization sessions. These interactive sessions help people to share about their cultural experiences and learnings and in turn become helpful knowledge for people running cross-functional diverse teams.

Learning about the differences is helpful in many ways. Such as punctuality. Keeping time on the dot is valued greatly by some. Whereas in other cultural setting being 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late is still being punctual. So, when you understand this, you're able to see the perspective through the lens of the other person's cultural make up. What this does is create an acceptance space to take on board other points of views and perspectives. 

A simple act of wishing someone in their language creates a bridge of familiarity. As leader having self-awareness and humility helps in creating space for acceptance of diversity. One thing that helps in this is undertaking training in recognizing unconscious bias. 

When we accept diversity, it helps business growth. Having the same lens or understanding leads to discovering common areas which leads to arriving at consensus easily. Most importantly senior leadership needs to be seen walking the talk i.e., showing acceptance of diversity through inclusiveness. 

Lorraine can be contacted at

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorrainelee8/

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