Posts Tagged ‘leadership tips’
6 Leadership Lessons From The World of Politics
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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Lesson 1: Putting Up Counter Arguments Is Easy
Lesson 2: Achieving Change Is Tough
Lesson 3: Chopping And Changing Creates Doubt
Lesson 4: You Can Quickly Lose Raving Fans
Lesson 5: Listen Before You Take Big Decisions
Lesson 6: It Is All About Choices
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
Business and Leadership Lessons From The Apprentice 2011: Episode 4
It was week 4 of The Apprentice here in the UK. The task this week was to source and sell beauty products.
Unlike last week there was a clear winner. And as always there were lessons to be learned too.
Be Passionate About A Product You Want To Sell
Both teams wanted to offer the spray tan treatment. The one who got the chance to do it was more enthusiastic about the product so got the opportunity.
Track Progress
It was obvious that sales of the treatments were not happening on the losing team. In truth the Project Manager seemed to be more interested in selling than managing so no one was doing the tracking.
Don’t Promise If You Can’t Deliver
One of the team members on the winning team was in the beauty industry and was making all sorts of claims about volumes she could sell. Unfortunately results did not match up to promises.
Don’t Ignore The Data You Collected
One of the team members had done a great job at working out margins on everything. When it came to selling this key data seemed to get lost.
Have A Plan Of Action
Especially if you have a limited time to get a result.
Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly effective leaders and managers. You can sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success here
Video Blog Post: Thrive As A Leader
Leaders are operating in challenging times right now. In this short video blog post I share some thoughts on how to thrive as a leader.
Please leave your thoughts and insights on thriving as a leader and let’s share our insights. Just enter your comments in the box below.
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5 Top Tips For New Leaders
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Top Tip 1
- Recognize that it is a big step and going to be challenging.
- Don’t make change just for the sake of it.
- Take time to do some fact finding before doing anything significant.
- Don’t pre-judge anyone before you have given them a chance.
- Remember it is a marathon and not a sprint.
Top Tip 2
Top Tip 3
Top Tip 4
Top Tip 5
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
Video Blog Post: Five Traps For New Leaders
As a new leader you want to deliver great results. However, there are some traps to avoid if you want to deliver as a leader.
Find out what in this short video. As always, if there are traps of your own that you think others should avoid, please leave a comment.
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Successfully Transitioning To Leadership
One of the biggest transitions that you will face in your career is successfully transitioning to a leadership role.
In this short video I will be sharing my tips on successfully transitioning to leadership.
If you have some great tips to add to make the transition successful please go ahead and leave a comment.
A To Z Of Leadership Success – I Is For:
- INITIATING change.
- INDUCTING new members of the team successfully.
- INTEGRATING new acquisitions into the organisation.
- INVESTIGATING problems fully before taking decisions.
- INCLUDING people in developing your vision and strategy.
What else would you add?
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
A To Z Of Leadership Success – H Is For:
- HELPING others to achieve success in their careers.
- HOLDING people to account for what they have agreed to deliver.
- HAVING clear outcomes that you want to achieve.
- Managing the HAZARDS that stop the organisation from moving forward.
- HONESTY in the way you communicate with others.
What else would you add?
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
Leadership Lessons From The Upcoming UK Election
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
A to Z of Leadership Success
I am starting a brand new series of blog posts on the A to Z of Leadership Success.
So what about the letter A? For me it is about:
- Action focus
- Acknowledging the contribution of others
- Acting with integrity
- Applying what you learn
- Accepting that you cannot be great at everything
What else would you add?
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
