This post is short. What is the most inspiring thing you heard from your boss? Watch this hilarious video that changed this person’s life.

Well… I can’t argue with that logic… hehehehe

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In my previous blog post, I asked people to define “what is leadership to you?”

There were a lot of great definitions and answers that were contributed and allow me to share with you mine.

Leadership is all about INFLUENCE. It is about who listens to you when you speak and how much influence you have over them. People who have higher influencing ability tend to have a larger group of people following them. If you want to know whether you have strong leadership ability, it is pretty simple. Just look behind and check if anyone is following you.

Most people tend to find leaders by their titles given to them, eg. he’s the group leader or she’s the director of this department. However, I want to caution you that this is the lowest level of leadership. This is because you can be a leader by position, but that does not mean that you will be able to lead people by their hearts. A higher form of leadership exists where people follow you simply because of what you say, stand for and believe in, rather than your position.

So, how do you influence more people? I would like to suggest that there are many ways, but I will list down a few principles:

1.    Move in integrity. When you are integral in your life (meaning, your thoughts, actions and speech are coherent), people will have more faith and trust in you.

2.    Willing to spend time and invest in people. When you develop a person’s life in some area, whether through coaching. mentoring or teaching, you are demonstrating that you are truly interested in their growth.

3.    Establish clear communications. Everyone knows exactly what you mean and will not misinterpret your message. To have less communication breakdown, you will need to spend time with people (point 2).

4.    Lead themselves well. A great leader leads himself or herself well, with or without people around them. They understand that their credibility and consistency is important before people listens to them.

It is in my firm belief that anyone can develop in their leadership ability, since it is an observable behaviour. However, to be a great leader, you must have outstanding character and talent as well. Before you lead others, lead yourself first!

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Everything rises and falls with leadership.

Without great leadership, great organisations can fall.

Before I talk more on leadership, let’s define what is leadership to you?

Please post your comments! I want to hear from you right now!

I will give you my definition in the following days.

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When it comes to working in teams, most people often hesitate in asking for help. In fact, some leaders often think of the many reasons why their staff do not want to take up certain projects or additional work.

In my work with people, my experience tells me that unless I can share the reason for doing things with other people and delegate work out, I can never truly be transformational in what I do. The role of a leader is to create a team and galvanize them towards an objective. However, in most cases, whenever we think of the people we need to spearhead certain initiatives or even join our team, we can sometimes give a lot of reasons why he/she is not willing to take it on. We say NO for them.

Statements like the following:

“I’m sure that she will be great for this role, however she has just completed a major project and I don’t think she will take up a new role right now.”

“It will be great to have him on our team, but there’s just no way he will come in. Our remunerations will never be close to what he’s getting.”

I understand that those above are real concerns, but if we do not ask, we will have totally closed the door for that person to work with us. In fact, there are many instances when I am surprised over and over again that people do want to give more of their time, money or effort to something they believe in.

Here’s a conversation I had with whom someone I wanted on my team:

“Glad to have been able to know what you are passionate about and the marvellous skills that you possess. Right now our aim is to develop and mentor new members. Personally, they are a great bunch. However, if I have you helping out in the mentoring process, I know they will surely soar in their work scope. There’s no promise of more incentives, but I can guarantee that this will be an extremely fulfilling work because you will be able to teach and impact lives.”

Guess what? This lady with superb counselling skills joined us and played a pivotal role in building the team.

Never say NO for other people. Give them a reason, share with them your vision and they might just surprise you with a big resounding “YES, I’m willing to be involved!”

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Have you ever made your staff, the Rock Stars of your company? People idolise stars for their accomplishments and talents, so why not highlight your staff and make them the centre of attention?

Here’s how Intel made one of their staff into a Rock Star! A simple gesture, but it goes a long way in staff recognition, excitement within the staff, and knowledge that their company is doing something great! All this at a little cost and creativity.

Here are some Themes that I suggest you can try out: Print posters on certain people you want to highlight and make them into…

• Super Heros! (Have you watched the series: Heros?) Eg, Melissa, aka Storm, she can tune down the storms in peoples’ lives.
• Boy Bands (Yes, form your own band with the males)
• Star Trek Characters

So.. when are you going to celebrate your staff?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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All companies go through tough times and some go through the pits of hell and back to Earth again. How do you steer your organisation in the right direction even things look bleak?

1. Show them Your Resolve to Make it the Tough Times

In tough times, most people always look at the situation and assume its worst. Morale is usually down and people are even afraid to lose their jobs. Leaders have to constantly share with their followers that there is still a silver lining in the clouds. He has to constantly show them there is a way and in order to weather through the hard times. A leader is constantly optimistic, and yet realistic to the actual situation around him/her.

Consider Winston Churchill when he was fighting against the Nazis in a one-front war.

“We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi Regime. From this, nothing will turn to us. Nothing! We will never parley. We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land. We shall fight him by sea. We shall fight him in the air. Until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow.”

Are you willing to tell your staff, “We will never give up. It might take a long time to get there, but we shall prevail!”

2. Acknowledge the Brutal Facts

In all great companies, the leadership is always willing to acknowledge that they do not know all the answers and there is a harsh reality facing the existence of the organization. They know that even being in leadership, they still need feedback from their staff. Even when the times are turbulent, they will make consistent efforts to look at their profit and loss statements and acknowledge there are problems. They do not hide between the “Oh, aren’t we great?” mentality.

Even Churchill consistently relied on facts and data from the statistical office to provide him with clear facts of reality. Even when the Nazis were winning the war in Europe, he mentioned that “I… had no need for cheering dreams… Facts are better than dreams.”

3. Show them the Law Of Sacrifice

It continues to amaze me to see that whenever there are pay cuts in the companies, most companies cut down-up, meaning lower levels of employees’ salaries are usually cut first before senior management are affected. To get people to respect and follow us, we have to first take the lead.  Senior management are always willing to sacrifice their pay.

I read a story of a company during the hard times, cut the CEO’s pay by 70%, Middle managers by 50% and the workers by 20%. Everyone in the company knew that if anyone was affected, it was always the management first.I’m not advocating that pay must always be cut during tough times, but management always led by example and are willing to sacrifice for their staff.

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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In all great organisations, people are able to speak their minds and also share the truth with compassion. The worst organisations are those where staff consistently agrees with their bosses. If truth is not readily accepted within the organisation, discontentment will usually be the result. And when discontentment grows to hatred, no amount of team building can save the organisation.

When some of these organisations engage me to help them in their team building programs, I will usually tell them that the problem lies beneath the surface and needs them to have a heart to heart talk with their staff. Some activities just simply do not change the matters of the heart.

How do you create a work climate where truth is heard and accepted? Allow me to share a few suggestions:

1. Ask Questions And Encourage Your Staff To Do The Same

Questions should not be seen as being disobedient, intrusive or disloyal but a way of asking ourselves whether present processes work or what we do better? Great leaders use informal sessions where they ask innocent questions like: “What’s on your mind?” “Do you think it works?” “Can you help me understand?” “If you were making the decision, what would you do?” Great leaders use this to gain understanding about their staff and are not threatened when they give feedback. Once you have asked questions, encourage them to ask you back the same questions.

2. Engage Their Questions

Leaders always engage their staff when they ask questions. It is also important to acknowledge all questions as good questions. They also constantly encourage their staff by acknowledging their boldness when asking questions.

If your staff point out that things are not working out, just agree with them in humility. There is no point justifying when the end results show for themselves. Doing so will only aggravate your staff. However, it is important to all agree that once they have shared their point of view, everyone puts the matter behind them and move on.

Another useful method is to engage in a debate. Engage people in debating to and fro; allowing all to express their views. I have often been humbled by the quality of suggestions and improvements when a rigorous debate has taken place. Sometimes debates do get heated up, but it is necessary to allow them to express themselves to a certain limit. At the end of the session, all great leaders have to ensure that they have reached a solid conclusion.

3. Evaluate without pointing fingers

It is so easily to pin-point who makes the mistake. A lot of time is wasted when we start identifying which particular person made the mistake. When Philip Morris acquired 7-UP in 1978, they sold it eight years later at a loss. In one of the interviews with CEO Joe Cullman, he took personal responsibility for the loss, rather than blame his executives. In fact, he dedicated 5 pages in his book, I’m a lucky guy, to analysing how bad his decision was. It analysed the mistake, its implications and lessons. Joe went on to say that if he only listened to people who opposed his plan at that time, the disaster might have been averted. He also made sure that the media knew that it was another Joe Cullman plan that didn’t work.

He said “I will take personal responsibility for the bad decision. But we will all take responsibility for extracting the maximum learning from the tuition that they have paid.”

Conclusion

When leaders start asking questions and encouraging their staff to do the same, it is inevitable that they will start asking good questions that will steer the organisation. If we support this openness and without pointing fingers when things go wrong, we will inevitably have a group of staff that will have no fear and consistently speak the truth.

I rather surround myself with people who sharpen me and speak the truth, would you agree?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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Recently I had the privilege to attend a Resilient Leadership Seminar in Singapore and there were a few great speakers there. Allow me to share with you in humility what I have gleaned from the great minds of three people:

1. Samuel Lock, MD of Clarion Consultants
2. Professor Chow Gan Moog, Head of Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore
3. Boyd Au, Founding Member of Public Listed Singapore Company, Enzer Corporation.

On providing Effective Leadership:

Here are the DOs:
• Do the best and right thing for the organisation and not for self gain.
• Dare to Dream and communicate your vision to others.
• Provide Exemplary Leadership- Integrity, Caring for others and a Willingness to sacrifice. 
• Admit mistakes when I am wrong and sincerely apologise for it.
• Take responsibility when things go wrong and credit others when things go well.

Here are the DON’Ts:
• Lead decisively. Do not lead from behind the line.
• Be Willing to be misunderstood and do not feel sorry for yourself.
• Don’t be a YES man. Disagree reasonably without being disagreeable.

Kenneth’s comments: A leader has to lead from the front. I am actually dismayed when I hear leaders asking more from their employees when they have not lived up the standards they have set. Even simple things like coming on time for work and meetings, if the leader cannot fulfil the requirements, he/she has no right to ask from their staff. Leaders have to be integral in everything they say and do, this is so that their followers will know that they mean what they say and say what they mean.

Another major point highlighted is that a leader should give credit to others when things go well and take responsibility when things fail. This is an act of humility that lifts our team higher that the leader itself; I feel that this is a fine example of servant leadership.

On creating a Strong Vision:

“A leadership has to have a clear mental picture of what is the future state of the organisation. It is a definite goal about what you see in 10 years time… It not only has to be clear, but it has to be consistently articulated and pursued.” Boyd Au

Kenneth’s comments: A compelling vision is constantly important for leaders to rally their troops. It has to be exciting and yet realistic. I personally feel that the leader’s main role is to constantly provide clarity of vision and a strong will to pursue it. Most organisations fail because they have not remained true to the vision that first created the organisation.

My challenge to you: As a leader, what is my organisation’s vision and how is it clearly translated to all levels of the staff? Am I constantly leading from the front and provide exemplary conduct for my staff to follow? 

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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I recently went to Malacca, Malaysia to conduct a recce on a particular hotel for a huge convention slated in end 2009. The experience of being able to visit all the suites and rooms was rather pleasant and it gave me a good impression of the quality and services offered by the hotel.

At the end of the recce, I sat down with my companions to discuss our observations. Just before we left the hotel, I realised that my parking coupon was not validated yet. I approached the front desk staff and asked them to help me with it and this is how the conversation went:

“Excuse me, I was with your Sales Manager Azizah, just now (pointing to the front lobby) and after such a wonderful conversation, I forgot to ask her to validate my parking coupon. Is there any way you could do that for me?” I asked politely.

“I’m sorry Sir, but this is only for our hotel guests only.” The frontdesk lady replied… surprised by my request.

“I understand, but its only a small ticket and I’m sure that Azizah will it be able to handle it.” I retorted.

“I see, but still….. it is strictly reserved for our hotel guests.” The frontdesk lady stood unwavering.

“Ok, then can you please call Azizah and tell her its me. I request for her to do this… “. I was feeling a little frustrated because it was going no where and we just discussed a deal that is worth over hundreds of thousands of ringgit (Malayisan Dollars). A parking coupon was not a big deal at all, compared to what the negotiations we discussed earlier.

While I stood there waiting for Azizah to respond, I was wondering why the frontdesk personnel were so rigid in their policies. Imagine how things will be if they were just empowered to make decisions that will make their guests (or potential clients like me) happy? What if their managers told them that they could do anything to please a guest as long as it does not cost more than $50? I am very sure that decision making will be really quick and people like me will be impressed by how their management trust them to do things.

Isn’t great if staff are empowered to make decisions? Wouldn’t a lot of unneccessary distractions be reduced for their managers? However, when I look some managers or employers , particularly entrepreneurs, this is still not the case. There is still a lot micro-managing; which unfortunately demands time and attention.

The role of a good boss is to give their staff a good framework of the desired results, empower them to make decisions and tell them that he/she trusts them. Once this is achieved, people tend to take a more pro-active approach in their work because they now know that they are responsible for the decisions they make. They will also feel a sense of empowerment that their boss really trust them to do what it takes to make their clients happy.

Back to my situation, I finally got my ticket validated by Azizah… I smiled knowing that a small thing like this made a customer happy.

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Deadly Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”.

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This is really a tough question. There are many incidents when leaders are always tempted to show their followers that they are the best in what they do and they can never fail. We all like to support people who are always decisive and confident in what they do. However, when leaders fail in certain areas of their lives, should they reveal it?

In one of the leadership seminars given by the no. 1 Leadership Guru, John Maxwelll was asked the above question. One of the participants was concerned that if leaders are not placed in a good light, they will lose their respect and authority in the organisation.

John asked back a question, “You mean to say that your followers already do not know that you have these flaws? Every single day they are in contact with you and yet they cannot see it?” How gullible am I if I still think that my team members do not know my short-comings.

One of lessons that I have learnt as a Leader in my organisation is to be quick in acknowledging my flaws. I must admit that pride and ego do occassionally scream out loud telling me that I should not do it. Despite of this, I went ahead and shared with the rest of my team. It made a BIG difference. They saw that I was transparent and am willing to make amends. Not only that, they knew that I was humble enough to acknowledge my mistakes. This resulted in creating trust and accountability on my part to the team.

So the next time you make a mistake, what will you do?

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