Posts Tagged ‘getting results as a leader’

Moving into a leadership role for the first time should be a time of celebration. Yet often, once the initial excitement dies, it can feel like a real struggle.

So what would I highlight as 10 struggles facing new leaders?

Struggle 1: Making The Mindset Shift

Up until the point where you are in a leadership role, you are probably doing a lot. You measure your success on what you get done. As a leader, you are often spending a lot of time looking long-term and not seeing immediate returns from your efforts. This takes a time to adjust to.

Struggle 2: Accepting You Are At The Bottom Rung Of The Ladder

Just before you became a leader you probably were at the top of your peer group. When you move into the leadership role, you are at the bottom rung of the ladder once again.

Struggle 3: Adjusting To Your New Role

One of the things I found when I first stepped into a leadership role was accepting that I could not physically deliver the same volume when I was spending a lot more time in meetings.

Struggle 4: Feeling Under Pressure

New leaders often feel under real pressure to deliver something of significance quickly because you are under scrutiny. If you doubt this, just tale a look at the business section of a good quality newspaper. Keep in mind though that leading is a marathon, not a sprint.

Struggle 5: Feeling Isolated

Being a leader is very often a lonely existence. You might not have someone who you can speak to and discuss concerns with confidentially. This isolation can be tough and is not always something you appreciate before you become a leader.

Struggle 6: Doing What You Always Did

Being a leader is different to anything else you have done in your career so far, so you need to be willing to work differently.

Struggle 7: Making An Impact

The chances are you are joining an already established leadership team. The challenge is to make an impact without upsetting the balance in the existing team.

Struggle 8: Speaking Up

It is easy to think that, because you are the new kid on the block, your point of view is not valid. You have to speak up and offer your point of view with confidence and the realisation that you might get shot down.

Struggle 9: Getting Out Of The Way

You probably have a highly capable deputy who can pretty much do all of the things you can do but perhaps has chosen not to step up to the next level. Your challenge is to acknowledge this, focus on your role and let your deputy do what they do well.

Struggle 10: Continuing To Develop

You will more than likely find that the biggest constraint you face is time, or the lack of it. When this happens, it is easy to put your development on the back burner even though the need to develop is never greater.

The Bottom Line:

Success as a new leader is never guaranteed but changing your behaviour and getting the right support can really make a difference.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people become great leaders and managers. Sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

I was recently doing some cleaning out of guttering at home and, while doing this, it got me thinking about leading and managing.

We all know that to get the guttering working effectively we need to make sure that it is not blocked or clogged up.

I wonder if we truly give the same thought to what’s blocking us from leading and managing effectively.

Your block might be down to a simple lack of self confidence. Too often leaders and managers let their worries stop them from taking the decisions and actions that lead to results.

Alternatively your block might be that you struggle to get others to buy into your vision, way of working or ideas.

Maybe your block is that you are trying to be the leader or manager who does everything. You know, the person who won’t delegate or empower others to do anything.

Perhaps you are the leader or manager who struggles to listen. You will have come across the type of person who puts being right ahead of getting and acting on the ideas of others who help make huge progress.

The truth is it is rarely one thing that gets in the way of success. However, get aware of your blocks and then clearing the path can really make a huge difference to the results you achieve.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

As a leader you are first and foremost judged on the results that you deliver.

Achieving significant results does not happen by chance.

One of the things that you have to be willing to do is to make the big calls as a leader. Often we see leaders who are good at the talk but are not so great at making the big decisions.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• Fear that it will not work out.
• The focus is on the personal agenda rather than the organisational agenda.
• Playing it safe.

The reality is that making the big calls as a leader takes a lot of courage. If you really want to make your mark as a leader, it’s vital that you have the courage to make those big calls that lead to big results.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

You want to be a successful leader or manager, right?

Of course you do but, despite this, it is surprising just how many people stop themselves from being successful.

So how can you start achieving more success?

Start taking DECISIONS (the ‘D’ in DAR)

We all have lots of choices available to us. Choices are great but it is decisions that get things moving. So if you want to get more success, start taking DECISIONS.

ACT on decisions

Decisions are great and can be hugely invigorating and motivating but the key thing you must do is take ACTION. It is the actions which move you forward, provide the channel for feedback on what is and what is not working. Make a habit of taking ACTION on DECISIONS if you want more success.

REMEMBER: DECISIONS + ACTIONS = RESULTS

RESULTS don’t happen by chance. They are a direct consequence of the decisions and actions you take. If you don’t stop using temporary staff for example, your outlay on salary costs is never going to change. Similarly, if you have a great idea for a product but never take it to the launch stage, you are never going to generate revenues.

The Bottom Line

If you are struggling to deliver as a leader or manager, take time out to review whether you are really taking decisions and then acting on decisions. You might be surprised what a difference simple changes can make.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

As a leader you are ultimately judged on the results that you deliver.  The further you climb the career ladder the more you earn.  This higher level of earning can sometimes lead to complacency which can result in performance going down rather than up.  So how can you transform the results that you deliver and stay on the high performance track?

 

Get clear on the goals

 

What are you ultimately judged on?  Contrary to what many of us believe, we rarely have a crystal clear picture or understanding of what it is we are expected to deliver.  Clear goals allow you to say explicitly whether you have or have not delivered.  They are not vague, fuzzy or a list of activities.  If you are not crystal clear on what you are to deliver or on what your success is to be measured, make a pint of finding out straight away.

 

Allocate your time to things that contribute to results

 

Time is everyone’s ultimate limiting factor.  We can buy more of it even if we wish we could.  Before you can start to decide how to allocate your time, you need to know what the critical things are that contribute to you delivering results.  We can all keep ourselves busy doing stuff but are you doing stuff that contributes to results?  Remember the 80:20 rule.  In essence, 20% of the things that you do contribute to about 80% of the results you achieve.  So what’s your 20% that contributes towards 80% of the results you achieve?

 

Coach your team and provide feedback

 

It does not matter how driven or committed you are, you cannot do it all by yourself.  You need a team around you that you empower, can solve their own problems and make their own decisions so that you deliver.  Invest time coaching your employees and providing feedback on how they are doing and how to get better, so that they become more valuable to you and the organisation.

 

Develop a what’s possible mindset

 

Ask people to come up with 1 solution and chances are that you will get 10 problems.  It is natural to focus attention on the obstacles rather than on what can be done.  When you see yourself falling into this trap, step back and think about what is possible from where you are right now. Even a small step can act as a catalyst for moving forward and once you have momentum you start to make rapid progress.

 

Bottom Line – Leadership is ultimately about results and by having a clear direction, investing your time wisely, equipping others to be more self sufficient and focusing on the possibilities you can make huge steps forward to achieving more success as a leader.

 

 

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