In this post I wanted to acknowledge some of the people in my team who have helped me in my business during 2011.

John Dionysiou

John helps me with all the techinical web and blog stuff as well as running my social media.  The results over the last year have been astounding, especially in terms of social media and list building.

Bernadette Doyle

I was in my second year of being part of Bernadette’s community in 2011 and still get a ton of benefit from listening to her insights on marketing.

Vicky Townshend

Vicky is my local VA who makes sure my blog posts and articles go out like clockwork.  She also helped me with a number of presentations, transcriptions and a big mail shot in the summer.

Deborah Meredith

Deborah helps the team when we are delivering leadership and team working training for doctors in South Wales.

Clare Lee

Clare co-leads with me when training doctors.  She is a real expert in training and development and ensures we continue to strive for excellence in what we deliver.

Joanne Rowley and Tracey Hunter

Who supported us in delivering training in North Wales.

As well as those on the team there are many others who have helped indirectly in moving the business forward in 2011.  These include Amy Harrison,  Robert Middleton, Pete Bennett, Mike Morrison, Sharon Gaskin and Heather Townsend.

So who are you grateful to for helping you moving your business forward in 2011?

What I have noticed is that there are some really useful learning points about team success for managers and leaders in business.

There Has To Be Commitment

It’s interesting to notice the difference between the teams who are doing well and those who are struggling.  Those who are thriving have players who are really proud to be representing their country. 

Great Individuals Don’t Make A Team

England have without doubt some talented individuals but they did not seem to gel as a team.  To get the best from a team you clearly have to bring out the best in each individual and get them all playing to their strengths.

Money Is Not The Motivator

If it was the high earners would be performing the best which has proven not to be the case.

The truth is that team success is largely down to a group of people who are committed to a common purpose and are willing to work collectively and support each other to get the result they desire.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to break through the glass ceiling and realise their professional potential.  You can sign up here for his Weekly Leadership and Management Success Tips

Without doubt whoever wins faces a challenging agenda. The run up to the election has provided some interesting lessons in leadership more generally.  So what are some the key lessons.

The Demands Are Huge

Just look at the amount of time those seeking election have had to put into their campaign and if elected they will be expected to hit the ground running.  Being a leader of an organisation is no different, everyone is looking to you for answers.

It Is Difficult To Please Everyone

I was listening to an interview with Gordon Brown on the radio where listeners of the local radio station were asked to put questions to the current Prime Minister.  What I noticed is that rather than the questions being about general policy, people tended to ask about things that were very specific to them.  If you are a leader in a large organisation, just think about the diverse range of interests you have to meet.  In reality you cannot meet the needs of everyone.

It Takes Courage To Lead

We all have opinions and views about what needs to happen and what should and what should not be done.  Being the observer or commentator is easy but stepping up to lead takes courage and is not for the faint hearted.

You Need To Make Choices

In the ideal world you would do everthing but sadly we don’t live in the ideal world.  Any form of leadership relies on you making choices.  Some of them will be popular whilst some will be unpopular but you need to be willing to make choices.

There Are No Quick Fixes

As a leader you want to be creating long term success.  Sure there may be some quick gains along the way, but when faced with big challenges there really are no quick fixes, it is a long term project.

Bottom Line: Leadership can be both challenging and rewarding and it is key that you take the opportunity to continually learn to achieve long term success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To sign up for his Weekly Leadership and Management Success Tips click here

1. Advises on and supports decision making throughout the organisation.
2. Supports the management of risk and complexity.
3. Is valued by other parts of the organisation for the support it gives to their activities.
4. Is usually involved in the development and implementation of strategy.
5. Always advises managers on the business implications of data it produces.
6. Plays an active role in decisions on the business portfolio.
7. Originates cost reduction strategies for the whole organisation.
8. Is proactive in generating forward looking information to influence business strategy.
9. Directly communicates with external stakeholders concerning business performance.
10. Is involved in the organisation’s environmental, social and governance performance.
11. Initiates and leads change.
12. Leads in the identification and assessment of new business opportunities.
13. Doesn’t focus mainly on financial information.
14. Doesn’t undertake the traditional accounting work.

So if you are in or leading a finance function in a business, how well does your team stack up against these 14 characteristics?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. For more information click here

Let’s look at something that is probably quite topical in organisations right now, which is cost reduction.  One area of commonality is that every individual or group will be thinking what does it me for me or us. 

On the other hand if you asked people for their views on how others might view the issue, you might hear something like the following:

“The accountants will be in their element and finally feel like they are doing something useful”

“At last an opportunity to reign in those rogues in sales and marketing who never pay attention to any financial procedures”

“The CEO is only interested in engaging us to save his or her own skin”

“I hope that they don’t expect us to contribute as we are already cut to the bone in terms of staffing”

“No doubt it will be the lowest paid and least respected that will get a rough deal”

So if you are the leader who is trying to move things forward, how can you utilise these different perspectives?

Listen a lot

The real challenge is to get to the heart of the issue and that requires you to listen.  You often find that what they are presenting as the surface level problem is not the real issue.

Ask questions

Questions are another great way of really understanding the different perspectives.  Combine this with great listening and you are going to be well ahead of most.

Stand back from the detail

It is all too easy when times are tough and difficult choices need to be made to unconsciously become a collaborator.  While you need to listen and understand, don’t let it result in you losing sight of the issue or challenge.

Be open

In organisations, it is often the people closest to the point of delivery that come up with the best solutions.  Be open to these opportunities rather than needing to be right.

Bottom Line – We all to a greater or lesser extent view challenges through one lens. The challenge to be more successful when it comes to team effectiveness is learning to understand and utilise the different perspectives.

Mistake 1: Holding on to things out of habit rather than neccessity.

Mistake 2: Playing at pretend empowerment where you keep interfering and checking up.

Mistake 3: Having to be right and so not listening effectively to others contributions.

Mistake 4: Needing to be liked rather than respected and letting popularity cloud your decision making.

What else would you add to the list?  Go ahead and leave your comment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps orgnisations to get great results through teams.  To find out more click here

Yet study after study tells us that money alone is rarely a motivator in the long term.  So what are the alternatives:

1. Praise people regularly
2. Say thank you when people have gone out of their way to deliver
3. Keep people informed through regular communication
4. Give people challenging and rewarding work

What else would you suggest?

The teams were led by Mona (Empire) and Lorraine (Ignite).  Sir Alan made it crystal clear that he was expecting everybody to sell.  On Ignite only 2 out 5 on the team sold and they generated £1,302 of sales.  They we were convincingly beaten by Empire who clocked up £4,501 of sales.

So what did we learn this week?

1. If you are given a crystal clear goal (in this case to sell) you need to achieve it.
2. If you are a team member who does not rate the team leader it is no use being passive and not pulling your weight.  Philip (who was fired) found this out the hard way.
3. Never lose sight that in any interview situation, the person appointing needs to think about how well or not someone will fit into the organisation as much as their capabilities. 
4. Whenever you go into offer a new product, make sure you have as a minimum some basic information on prices of comparable products.  When asked about how the price of the sleeping bag suit compared to a basic sleeping bag, they could not answer effectively.
5. Calling for appointments to potential retailers is a numbers game.  You need to make a sufficient number of calls to secure appointments.

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday evening at 9pm GMT or on the BBCiplayer.