Every transformational leader wants to do compelling, meaningful great work, and they see their leadership purpose as the starting point for doing this. Yet, they can grind to a halt at a barrier.

Leaders who are successful and satisfied have learned how to address the four most common barriers that inhibit them from accomplishing their purpose. By understanding these leadership barriers, leaders are better prepared to overcome the barriers and lead purposefully rather than accidentally - doing their greatest work.


Additional Support Data

TED talk: the power of Purpose - Ashley M Grice

https://www.ted.com/talks/ashley_m_grice_the_power_of_purpose_in_business?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

We continue our exploration of the principle of Perseverance and look at the "Tortoise and the hare" within organisations.

The tortoise represents that part of our work and  professional lives that can only be accomplished with perseverance and a protective outer shell. The destination is clear and in focus, but it comes forward in baby steps. The hare represents the fast-twitch muscles required to get out of the blocks fast, but that cannot be sustained over long periods of time. You need both capabilities but will remain transactional in your benefits if you try and have your workforce do both.

Let's look at exponential growth!

Additional Resource
Wicked problem Solving
https://youtu.be/6QaVW_nNMaE

I and my colleagues have found in our coaching and consulting work that when it comes to transformational performance, talent is overrated and perseverance is underestimated. 

Perseverance is prominently displayed in the world of politics, business, and sports. Serena Williams once said about success, “Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.”

The Perseverance Principle asks How badly do I want my purpose? Will I overcome all the obstacles that will surely come? Will I not take no for an answer? Will I look through the fear of failure that will likely show up and be courageous anyway? Let's explore.....

Additional Resource

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth
https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance/transcript

This may be the  shortest podcast in our journey exploring transformational leadership. However, it may have the longest shelf life.

The diary grooming process is an ultra-short (five minute) process of reviewing your day as a transformational leader. It is a process of finding the areas of your leadership that are going well and accentuating them, along with the areas that are not going well and reducing or eliminating them. It's all about optimisation, it's about getting your 'flywheel of life' turning as efficiently as possible and maintaing it at peak health.

Diary grooming/optimisation is similar to dressing for work every day. You remove the clothes worn to bed, shower, and put on clean clothes appropriate for the day ahead. Then stepping forward for your bright new day envigerated...

The 'compliment' to  praising is purification - its purpose is to help us identify areas that are negatively impacting performance while building our credibility as leaders. Purification is about removing obstacles and barriers to higher performance, both for the leader as well as for your  Team and  colleagues.
 
Transformational leaders isolate one or two harmful beliefs or behaviours and work to eliminate or remove them.

Empowering Resource

For a deeper understanding of techniques to help change beliefs:

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs with NLP Techniques
https://unleashyourpower.com/blog/overcoming-limiting-beliefs-with-nlp/

Praise will act as a catalyst for even higher levels of success when three praise aspects are present. Stakeholders know if a leader is paying attention to what they’re doing and sincere praise creates a positive feedback loop in which what gets noticed and rewarded gets magnified. 

The three aspects are:

1. sincerity
2. timeliness and
3. specificity

Let's explore in more depth...

More info
Forbes: recognition - the key to 2025 employee engagement?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2024/09/13/why-recognition-could-be-the-key-to-employee-engagement-in-2025/

Praise helps people feel valued, heard, and appreciated. People who feel valued, heard, and appreciated work with more passion, experiment, take risks, and grow at rates far greater than those who don’t.

In every organisation there are pockets of workers/coleagues potential lying dormant. When you ask these people if they could do more the resounding answer is yes.

What’s fascinating is that when you ask people why they don’t accomplish more or what they are capable of accomplishing the number one answer is because they choose not to. They could if they wanted to, they just choose not to. The ability to do more but choosing not to is a massive drain on performance. Let's explore how we can unlock their potential....

Far too many of us live in fear when it comes to our business lives. For some of us, it’s financial fear. For others, it’s emotional. No matter the source or type of fear, fear has a debilitating effect on personal and professional growth over extended periods of time. Fear can be a catalyst for action, but accelerated progress can never be made beneath the shadow of a fearful mindset.

The best way to fight fear is to identify what causes it. If you can determine the cause of fear, you can redirect it and make it less frightening for you and your team. Working with executives as a coach I have discovered eight types of fear that are most common to executives:

1. Fear of holding people accountable.
2. Fear of making mistakes.
3. Fear of leaving a job that sucks the energy out of you.
4. Fear of not being seen as smart and successful.
5. Fear of upsetting your boss or senior leaders.
6. Fear of turning away from current successes in order to have even greater success.
7. Fear of investing in one’s self.
8. Fear of making decisions. 

Let's explore....


More on Mindsets

The Chimp Paradox - a better understanding of your mind.
https://betterwellnessguide.com/the-chimp-paradox/

Let's  talk about how to present your ideas in such a way that people will want to say yes to them.

There are eight strategies for having someone say yes to your requests. Some of the strategies are more mindset related and others are more skill set related. But in each case the strategies are a positive step forward to hearing someone say yes to your ideas.

The 8 strategies are:

1. Put Others First
2. Be Open to Being Persuaded
3. Exude Confidence
4. Be in The Moment
5. Use the If/Then Strategy
6. The Magic of Three Yeses Strategy
7. The Powerful Language Strategy 
8. The Show-Me-the-Money Strategy

More on Mindsets

The Chimp Paradox - a better understanding of your mind.
https://betterwellnessguide.com/the-chimp-paradox/

It has been said that the eyes are the window into the soul. If true, the ears are the doorway to the heart. It is by our ears we listen to what’s important to someone.

We not only hear the words they are using, but hear the tone of voice, inflection, and can distinguish between the emotions expressed and listen for what is hoped for moving forward. Our ears afford us the ability to do so, but all too frequently we don’t take the time to fully hear what's being said.

Let's see, hear and feel waht we can do about that...

Resource
7 essential NLP Techniques for stronger communications
https://nlpyourself.com/7-essential-nlp-techniques-for-better-communication/