Posts Tagged ‘leadership lessons’

Being a politician might seem like an easy life and at the same time, just like leading in organisations, there are some major challenges.

So what can we learn about leadership from politics?

Lesson 1: Putting Up Counter Arguments Is Easy

• Ever notice how politicians are always full of counter arguments and highly critical when in opposition? Yet when they get into power it is a very different story. The truth is that, for any leader, it is easier to come up with problems than solutions.

Lesson 2: Achieving Change Is Tough

• Here in the UK there is a massive drive to reform public services. While everyone wants the best from public services, there are very different views on the best ways to achieve this. Ultimately, achieving change is tough and about changing hearts and minds.

Lesson 3: Chopping And Changing Creates Doubt

• Of course you cannot be rigid in your plans. At the same time, if you keep chopping and changing you create doubt whether you know what you are doing.

Lesson 4: You Can Quickly Lose Raving Fans

• Leaders need followers and a fair proportion of them need to be major supporters or raving fans. Sometimes when you take bold action and things don’t work out just as you had hoped, people accelerate at pace in the opposite direction.

Lesson 5: Listen Before You Take Big Decisions

• From time to time you are going to have to take big decisions. The key is to seek views, opinions and really listen before you take major decisions.

Lesson 6: It Is All About Choices

• Any leader, whatever area they work in, has to make choices. Sometimes your choices will be fully embraced and other times they will be opposed. This is just reality as people see things from their own perspective. Your challenge is to make what you consider to be the best choices and then stand firm when the going gets tough.

The Bottom Line: Leading, whether in business or in politics, is a major challenge.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to take advantage of his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

In week six of The Apprentice UK 2011, the teams were given the challenge of making money from other people’s rubbish.  It was a tough task but despite this both teams turned in a profit and there was only a few pounds between the winning and losing team.

So what can we learn about business and leading from this episode?

Sometimes You Have To Take Risk

One of the teams gambled on the two appointments set up by Lord Sugar and offered to clear for free.  It was a big gamble and just paid off.  Nevertheless it showed the willingness to take risk, an essential ingredient in business and leadership.

Make Sure Everyone Has Clarity On Tasks

One of the team members on Zoe’s team Susan seemed to be lacking clarity on the commercial appointments.  Perhaps this was a communication breakdown.  As a leader you need to make sure everyone has clarity.

Admit Mistakes

We all make them from time to time and Zoe showed she was willing to admit her mistakes.  The reality is that if we are never making mistakes we are probably playing it safe.  The issue is not making mistakes, it is learning from them when we do and deciding what we would do differently.

Team Working Is Tough

We saw this in the boardroom where people on the losing team were arguing over who was the person who closed deals.  The natural tendency of most people is to focus on themselves.  The challenge is to get people seeing the benefits of team working as being more important than being the lone ranger.

Determination and Focus Produces Results

Zoe’s team looked dead in the water at the end of day one.  Yet they stepped into the second day determined and almost pulled it off.  Sometimes real determination and focus can make a huge difference to the results and success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To get access to his free audio e-course Leadership Success click here

In the second episode of The Apprentice UK 2011 it was boys versus girls once again.

This time the challenge was to develop a mobile phone app.  The team with the most downloads were deemed to be the winners.  Once again the girls triumphed.

So what could we learn from episode 2 about business and leadership?

Don’t Limit Your Thinking

After 6 hours the boys were well ahead in terms of downloads but got slaughtered when the global market kicked in.  Perhaps this was because they were thinking in terms of a UK market rather than a much bigger global market.

Build Some Challenge Into Brainstorming

One of the things that surprised me was that no one seemed to be asking the basic but challenging questions when brainstorming.  Things like who the target market was, the interests of the target market or even the geographical area to be served.

Hold Your Hands Up When Your Judgement Was Wrong

It was interesting watching the girls in the boardroom. They were all distancing themselves from the app choice.  Yet I did not hear any of them acknowledge that their judgement calls about the app was wrong when they romped to victory.

Be Decisive

The Project Manager on the boys team was looking for someone else to take the decision  for him on who to bring back into the boardroom.  Not a great quality in a leader.

Don’t Be A Bystander

The person who got fired ultimately lost out because they did not show what they had to offer in any of the first two tasks.  This strategy might work when it is a job that people are trying to get but not when seeking investment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly successful managers and leaders.  He invites you to sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success here

In seven days time, Britain will go to the polls and vote on who should lead the country over the next 5 years.

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