Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Be the change
Today I was checking out back issues of The Modern Goddess Blog and came across this You Tube Video. Apparently it was made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indian independence - to inspire people to discover their hidden talents and apply them to the bigger good of India. This is a great video with some solid messages for all businesses:
Ingrid Cliff Heart Harmony Putting your business into words Labels: leadership |
Monday, 14 April 2008
The Invisible Leader
| I was reading the Tall Poppy blog where Ann talked about the invisible leader - the person who is not up front leading the troops but staying behind bringing issues into focus, marshalling people and resources and planning for the future. It is similar to the concept of Leader as Servant by Robert Greenleaf "It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons, do they grow while being served, become healthier, wider, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" Through extensive work with Greenleaf, Larry Spears, the director of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristics, which describe the essence of a servant leader. The characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building community. Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierachicalstyle, Servant Leadership instead emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the individual is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement. (Source Wikipedia) This style of leadership naturally suits women - Quentin Bryce who has been just announced Governor-General of Australia epitomizes the servant leader style of leadership. In a workplace the servant leader is often not the nominated "boss" of the company - often it is the Executive Assistant, wife of the boss or some other female role within the company. These women are the real leaders of the company - often invisible, generally under-appreciated and yet without them the company would not be financially successful. At your next meeting look for the traits of the servant leader - see if you can spot the true organisational leader from the one in the role. The results may surprise you. Until next time Ingrid Cliff Heart Harmony Labels: leadership |
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Leadership Lessons from School
| Today my kids go back to school after a long summer break. Last night as we lay talking about their hopes and fears for the year it became clear one fear was quite strong - "would they make a mistake and be embarrassed in front of everyone"? The fear of embarrassment is a fear for people no matter their age. The fear that you will make a mistake and people will laugh at you can paralyse you from doing anything. How can you break that fear? Telling it to go away won't cut it. Sometimes you just need to laugh at the fear and learn from others who have had the very experience you fear the most (and survived). As a leader - sometimes you have to be the one who shares your experiences to your team, to allow yourself to be open and vulnerable to help others to grow. So here is the story of my worst embarrassment - and how I survived. Picture a tall, gangly, pimply 12 year old (me). I had just started a catholic high school in the fringes of Sydney and knew no one at the school when I started. It was about 2 months into the school year - still warm as I was enjoying sitting on the bench outside my classroom in the sunshine. Our classroom had windows that opened up and out and I was sitting beneath one of the open windows. A girl popped her head out of the window and started teasing me - I took it silently for a few minutes before I reached up and started to shut the window to silence her words. The only problem was the girl just at that moment leant even further forward, so the window smashed onto her head - and the glass shattered. I was marched to the office in tears and fear and told by the principal (a very stern nun) that I was to inform my parents that night what I had done and return the next morning with a letter from my parents about what they would do about my error. Fast forward a few hours - I used to catch the bus down to the local library after school. One of the boys at the library from the boys school near us handed me a note. It was a typical teenage love note all full of how much he liked me and asking me to be his girlfriend. The day wasn't a total loss after all! That night I copped a hiding from my parents and was handed a letter to give to the Principal in the morning saying what had been done at home and how they were going to pay for the broken window. The next day I walked with wobbly legs and dry mouth into the Principal's office. I handed the Principal the note - watched her read it and then with growing horror realised that I had given her the note from the boy and not my parents. My heart sank beneath my feet and I grabbed the note and ran out of the office. I wanted to curl up and die from embarassment. ... But I didn't. The Principal never mentioned it again. My parents had a great laugh about it and my friends helped me through it. I didn't die. The world moved on. In a few short weeks it was old news in the school. If you have ever stuffed up ask yourself - what will this really matter in a few weeks time. Will this really make a difference to the world? Yes, there will be times when you are embarrassed - but if you don't stuff up every now and again you aren't human. How do you deal with a team member or colleague that has made a mistake? Do you make it easy on them or do you make their embarrassment harder to deal with? Do you share your stories with your team? Love to hear your thoughts. Until next time Ingrid Cliff Heart Harmony Labels: dealing with embarrassment, leadership, mistakes |