Shut Up N Lead

Adaptive Leadership in The Face of Uncertainty 

With competitors emerging out of nowhere, breakthrough technologies rendering the most powerful companies irrelevant and customers showing far less loyalty, the business world is growing more volatile and increasingly turbulent. While multibillion-dollar companies may have a much larger financial cushion to withstand sudden cash outflows, the midsized companies seem to be caught in the middle of these winds of ambiguity. 

With change being the only certainty in this world today, it is imperative for people in leadership to do away with traditional management approaches and find innovative ways of dealing with difficult and often complex situations arising every day to ensure success in business. The creation of specialty tools or departments like business intelligence, project management, financial analysis, financial forecasting, and strategic planning may work, but it only means more money for implementing them and hiring specialized talent.

The world is changing and tends toward continuums. We are seeing more leaders who have held significant and powerful positions in their organizations literally crash and burn in part due to lack of knowledge or simply due to many situations beyond the control of even the most capable leader. Whether you are the CEO of a fortune 500 company, a politician, a coach of a university athletic team or a motivational speaker looking to improve your public speaking skills, authentic leaders of today must become clear thinkers, self-assured and seek input from a wide range of resources that will provide a vision that will fuel the engine that propels the organization well beyond established goals.

VUCA is one such concept designed to help leaders who are worried about not living up to their responsibilities and are overwhelmed by challenges and expectations that are almost impossible to meet. VUCA concept focuses on the development of various leadership skills such as mentorship, coaching, leadership training, and management in a business environment characterized by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity – hence the initials VUCA.

VUCA is an excellent strategy for steady leadership where business leaders can begin to see through the chaos to have a clear vision for their organizations in a world where change is inevitable, and everything is more interconnected than ever before. The VUCA environment means that leaders must focus on seeing the possibilities rather than trying to figure out what is most likely. Consider these four key points to develop a leadership team well-equipped to deal with the VUCA world:

Vision - Define the organizations True North

This means having a Vision in place to act as a guide that will take an organization from its current position of volatility to where it needs to be in the future. Opportunities for improvement, leadership training, and team empowerment are endless and having clear outlined mission, values, and strategy to an organization’s personnel have an enormous and competitive advantage. A clear vision not only defines the direction the organization is going, but it also sets the stage for strategic plans, acts as a unifying force if it is motivating and inspiring, it has a positive impact on organizational effectiveness, acts as a guide for employee actions and decision making and illustrates what an organization stands for

Understanding an organization’s capabilities and strategies

Organizational capabilities reinforce a company’s competitive advantages as well as its ability to respond to internal and external change so as to gain an advantage over its competitors. With leadership training, mentorship, and internal training and management programs, companies can avoid replication by competitors and their ability to meet customer demand becomes i...

Leadership training has taken a whole new meaning more so now than it did a few years ago. Those in a leadership role are inundated with academic programs, management training series, white papers, leadership experts, articles, resources and many more approaches that solely focus on understanding this role and what goes into the making of a truly great leader – particularly those who are not only capable of articulating a powerful, positive and compelling vision for organizational and individual growth but those who can breed trust and the support needed to execute on the said vision.

The basic rudiments of leadership training are to help companies thrive and succeed in today’s constantly changing environments as well as help leaders focus on harnessing specific skills such as time-management, budgeting, coaching, mentorship, public speaking, not forgetting team building and management.

Authentic leadership is a concept of leadership training and a vital state of being in control of your own destiny and who you truly are as a person. The idea of authentic leadership dates back to Ancient Greece who based leadership skills on four cardinal virtues: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance. Today, the authentic leadership concept is being used to encourage and emphasize on building a leader’s legitimacy in an effort to improve their inner self and the relationships they have with their subordinates.

Authentic leadership is based on the following virtues:

* Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and values, knowing what you stand for and what you value. Self-awareness, in this case, helps leaders understand their purpose. An authentic leader is also not afraid to admit their mistakes and will often work toward overcoming his or her shortcomings.

* Being genuine, which involves being honest and straightforward in dealing with others. An authentic leader will exercise temperance and prudence when considering all the possible courses of action in a fair-minded manner

* An authentic leader is dedicated to continued personal growth, is compassionate and guided by heart with a sincere interest in empowering his or her employees than they are in money or power

* They will use their life experiences to inspire and grow a company that is a reflection of their personal values.

In today's digital age, it is quite easy for a person to adopt a 'fake it til you make it' persona and appear as kind, genuine, and authentic as they need to be in order to ‘fit’ a given leadership role. However, it takes a considerable amount of energy to be someone you are not. The deceit and the energy needed to maintain a facade and connect the make-believe dots can easily put a strain on your overall well-being.

Whether you are in a position of leadership or not, being trustworthy certainly comes with some challenges, I think we all get that, but an authentic leader is someone whom you can count on to be straightforward and genuine. They will have gone through the process of inventing themselves, achieving internal well-being, and standing strong in who they are. They are genuine with themselves before others because it not only helps in nurturing stronger and more meaningful relationships, but authenticity also breeds trust because the relationships are built on self-respect and belief in other people, and trustworthiness, in essence, helps strengthen both of these relationship essentials.

Becoming an authentic leader involves a degree of selflessness, takes a great deal of self-reflection, and the courage to do the right thing in a world full of morally corrupt and dysfunctional leaders. This journey also involves opening your heart, minds, and souls to the idea of a lifetime of learning and letting ourselves to gradually develop the passions and values that will guide us in building meaningful r...

Wisdom is present in people even in the most humble circumstances, and a good leader is one that never underestimates the wisdom and life experience of those around or below them because of their input matters and plays an important role in molding them into who they are as a leader. 

Let’s face it, it‘s not easy being a good leader, but what most of us do not realize is that, whether or not we have a strong leadership role in our everyday life, each one of us has a certain set of skills and personality traits that can make us a good leader. Things such as the ability to delegate, honesty, the ability to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others, confidence, a sense of humor, commitment, mentorship ability, mastermind creativity, a positive attitude, intuition, the list is endless.

There are many ways to lead, and everyone has the ability to become a good leader particularly one that people respect, listen to, and want to emulate. When it comes to corporate leadership training, individuals who are tasked with leading an organization’s brand toward success and to rally employees to work hard toward their company’s goals must portray certain leadership traits.

While it may seem like some people are simply born leaders and gifted with these skills, the reality is that most leadership traits can be learned and sharpened with time and practice. You can begin by developing these must-have leadership traits of an effective and exemplary leader:

High ethical and moral standards

A leader who demonstrates professional responsibility and accountability will lead to those around them to do the same. Such a leader will recognize the difference between right and wrong and consistently strive to set an example of good conduct through mentorship while applying basic principles such as honesty, fairness to relationships with coworkers as well as treating everyone with whom they come in contact as they would want to be treated themselves. 

This, in turn, creates a positive work environment and guarantees employee retention because they, in turn, want to be part of an organization whose management team is open and fair in their dealings and tells them the truth about what is going on. This also builds trust between coworkers and employees learn to be ethical from the word go.

Empowers others

Through a shared vision and empowerment, employees can experience what self-organization is all about. An exceptional leader has the ability to look into the company’s future and make clear, concrete goals that will benefit the organization and while at it, be confident and optimistic enough to inspire enthusiasm in those around them. Studies show that giving employees freedom, trust, and autonomy yields positive dividends because most high-performance teams are self-organizing teams. 

This can be accomplished when a leader successfully identifies areas of need within the organization, empowers the team to resolve the issue without involving management, and by adopting a mentorship and leadership style that not only improves communication skills, it gives the team a purpose as well.

Nurtures a sense of connection and belonging 

Employees that belong to a team have a sense of purpose, are aligned in values, and work cohesively towards a shared goal. We are seeing more organizations promote team attachments and communities within flexible workplaces in order to make its employees feel that they are part of something more meaningful that contributes to their value at work identity, and self-esteem. 

A good leader will create a sense of belonging through acknowledging employees by their names, interacting with them, recognizing and using their strengths, understanding their weaknesses, and finding ways to strengthen them. This, will, in turn,

The Role of Emotions in Leadership

What have people who have led you done that you admired? Some may say it’s their mental toughness, eloquence in public speaking and resilience under adversity. Maybe it has been their integrity, honesty, and a strong moral compass. Others may agree that a good leader is one that has unpretentious respect for human dignity and genuine concern for others. What are the most valuable qualities a leader should possess?

The ability to understand and manage emotions in others and yourself have been shown to contribute to effective leadership in organizations. The capacity for love, compassion, sensitivity, understanding, and humbleness that is inspiring makes an individual a good leader. Contrary to some conventional ‘wisdom’ which states that strong leaders should be controlling, narcissistic, sometimes psychopathic and at a minimum, dominating. Empathetic and compassionate leaders are strong and courageous, they promote trust and collaboration, they promote a sense of well-being in employees and they have a knack for producing positive results in business, organizations as well as in politics.

There are numerous studies that associate empathy to success in business management and increased sales with user terms such as empathy marketing, empathy selling and user empathy encroaching on the business world. Empathetic leaders do more than sympathize with people around them; they thoughtfully consider employees' feelings while using their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, yet important ways.

While being an emotionally aware leader is an ability that is well-worth cultivating, where does it come from and how can an otherwise apathetic or indifferent, yet strong leader learn this, sometimes an abstract tool that can lead to hard, tangible results? How can leaders better understand what drives employees and how to deal with their feelings? The truth of the matter is that if other strong leadership skills can be learned, refined, and perfected, so can one learn how to be an emotionally aware leader. While being emotionally aware can be pivotal to a company's strategy, it can be tricky to execute because it requires an understanding of different communications and personality styles.

Consider the following:

Understand empathy

Great leadership calls for emotional intelligence in personal and social competence. The ability to resonate and accurately perceive your emotions as well as of those around you is very important. The workplace is composed of people with different personalities, emotions, strengths, and abilities. Everyday decisions employers make, such as hiring, firing, promoting employees, determining leadership potential or who to pass for important growth and training opportunities such as mentorship and coaching programs; all require a higher degree of emotional intelligence.

Giving autonomy

Companies that leverage leadership training, mentorship, and coaching employees programs can develop and maintain the talent they have in-house. But how does a good leader develop and keep the best employee in an organization and maintain the talent they have in-house? The roles and responsibilities of a mentor are to have a vision and a plan and should be able to inspire those around them to believe in themselves; their strengths and weaknesses all while giving them the much-needed elbow room to find their feet. Giving autonomy requires that leaders let go and trust their talented employees to manage and continuously improve their work without micromanagement.

Change your perspective

Where others see a problem, let it to you be an opportunity. This way instead of worrying about jumping headfirst to deliver an outcome, you, instead become committed to solving a problem through establishing a new and face able direction and aligning your ...

This episode describes the breakdown of communication and trust between management and employees due to having the wrong focus. Management focuses too much on the bottom line and not in the employees.

This episode pertains to Leaders who take ownership of not only their own actions but of those on the team as well. This pits the Victor and the Victim mentality against each other for the sake of the team’s growth.

With today's technology, there are literally hundreds of places to do “research” on what it means to be a great Leader, Manager, Mentor or even a Boss if you look hard enough. There are many people out there with the expertise to teach others on how to accomplish the aforementioned goal. The question is, how is that information being used in the workplace and more importantly, how is it being used with the team or employees?