It’s not uncommon to find individuals, often in senior positions, within organisations who deliver great results but do so in a manner that’s seriously at odds with the values of the organisation.

And truth be told, the behaviours that these people demonstrate can also be lacking in common courtesy and respect towards their colleagues.

The morally strong and empathetic leaders will face directly into these difficult decisions and have the conversations that need to be had. They don’t find these conversations any easier than others, they just know they have to be had.

They know that every single person they lead, whether they report to them directly or not, is the most important person in the world to somebody else. They also know that what happens at work, doesn’t just affect those they employ whilst they are at work.

It has an impact on their lives out of work.

It also has an impact on their loved ones; especially when the bad behaviour of ‘someone who gets the job done’ is causing them stress, anxiety and sadness at work.

And it’s not just the actions of a leader that have such a wide-reaching impact.

It’s also the inaction of a leader. Or put more simply, what they don’t do.

I’ve seen and heard too many examples of someone in a team who delivers a ‘good’ end result, or has great industry knowledge, but has a toxic and damaging attitude accompanying it. And this make me sad.

It makes me sad because I fundamentally believe that the job of a leader is to deliver the results and to look after the people that we have the privilege and responsibility to lead.

The most common response I hear from weaker or less experienced leaders when challenged by other colleagues, or myself, is…

“I know, I know, but they’re good at their job…”

But that’s not enough, and that can never be acceptable.

In failing to act, and avoiding what everyone around you can see, you send out a very clear message. You are saying:

• So long as you get the job done, we really don’t care how you do it.
• Results matter more than people.
• The toxic person’s behaviour is the acceptable standard around here.
• As a leader, I’m not strong enough to make the challenging, morally important decisions.

So please, in a time when many of those that we lead are feeling more pressure, stress and anxiety than ever before, don’t allow your inaction as a leader to makes things worse for them and their loved ones.

Have the courage to make the difficult, right decisions as opposed to the easy, wrong ones.

Your team will reward your actions with their loyalty, hard work and extra discretionary effort.

Read more:
But they’re good at their job…

There was a day last week when I left the office with a real sense of calm, because after weeks of juggling work commitments alongside home-schooling, whilst still trying to find time to exercise and manage all of the essential life-admin, I felt as though I was suddenly back in control.

This happened part by chance, and part by design.

Whilst looking two weeks ahead to plan the coming week, I spotted nirvana! I had a clear day without any calls or virtual meetings.

I knew this was an opportunity to regain control, so I set the intention to launch a metaphorical ‘defensive operation’ to protect that time in my diary. I uncoiled the virtual barbed wire and ring-fenced the day.

When I was in the Army, ‘admin’ was frequently described as ‘not officer’s business’ (you can work out the acronym yourself). For senior leaders in the business world, admin is often viewed in a similar vein; ‘admin’ is not a leader’s business.

And if it is, it’s certainly not a priority.

But I believe that admin should be a priority. From time to time.

We humans have a finite cognitive capacity or ‘bandwidth’ which means our ability to pay attention, make good decisions and prioritise, is limited.

Having a long list of administrative tasks to complete, be that work or home-based, places a load on our mental bandwidth, meaning everything else starts to slow down. And alongside that, the long list of administrative to-dos can start to leave us with a residual sense of underlying anxiety.

In order to avoid this ‘bandwidth depletion’ we need to set time aside for an administrative clear down, or ACD. This might include:

• Clearing down non-urgent and non-priority emails
• Crossing off the essential, yet low priority, tasks on the to-do list
• Tidying files on your computer
• Sorting out your work bag or drawer

There are three distinct, and scientifically supported, benefits of doing this:

1. Crossing simple tasks off the to-do list increases the release of neurotransmitter dopamine, also known as the brain’s ‘pleasure chemical’.
2. Being able to easily locate things and live in a clutter-free environment reduces stress and makes it easier for us to fall asleep.
3. An ACD frees up cognitive bandwidth for those tasks that require more brain power.

Strategic deployment

The secret to success lies in the strategic deployment of this tactic.

In other words, think carefully about the days and times when your cognitive capacity is most limited, and use this time for an ACD. After all, we don’t want to be doing this sort of work when we are at our most alert.

Finally, remember the adage ‘what gets scheduled, gets done’. Once you’ve identified the best time and frequency (an hour a week, two hours every two weeks, etc) then block it out in your diary and circle it with the virtual razor wire

#LeadOn

Read more:
Why you need to prioritise admin to regain control

“I feel brain dead by the end of the day”

“I’ve got so much stuff whirring around inside my head, it’s making me feel anxious.”

“By mid-afternoon I’m mentally drained from the back-to-back calls; I need a coffee just to get me through the last few hours of the day.”

These are just some of the things that I’ve heard leaders saying to me over the past few days; and I can relate to all of them.

Many of us are bouncing from one online meeting to next with little or no time in between. Or perhaps as soon as we click hang-up, we’re straight into answering a question about our teenage son or daughter’s algebra lesson, or trying to teach prime numbers to eight-year-old, as I was last week.

The relentless nature of attempting to work from home during a global pandemic has a significant impact on our cognitive bandwidth. We’ve all felt it.

Harvard describes cognitive capacity as our ability to pay attention, make good decisions, stick with plans and resist temptations; which are all perhaps more important now than ever before.

If we place too much demand on the home Internet connection that’s enabling our virtual meetings, we eventually hit the upper limit of its bandwidth and things start to slow down.

Our cognitive bandwidth has an upper limit too. When we hit that limit, things start to slow down for us. We start to feel ‘brain-dead’, anxious and in need of another shot of caffeine or sugar hit. The benefits of which are short lived and add to the tiredness and mental fog.

When this happens, we start missing things.

We make poorer decisions.

Our patience is compromised, and our tempers become frayed.

We’re less effective team members.

We’re compromised as leaders.

But maybe none of this applies to you.

Perhaps you don’t have children, or your partner doesn’t work, so the home-schooling and work juggle is a challenge you’re not faced with.

And maybe you’ve got brilliant discipline around taking regular breaks throughout the day and giving yourself at least 10 minutes between calls as a virtual transition period; a strategy that allows things to settle and gives our brains time to process information from the last meeting.

But there will be many in your team and many attending your meetings who are being impacted by bandwidth depletion every day.

People will be leaving meetings with different views about what was agreed.

Some actions will be missed.

Others will be recorded, and then lost amongst the scrawl of notes from a day of back to back meetings that never got reviewed because there simply wasn’t the time to stop and think.

But it doesn’t need to be this way. There are a number of simple things that we can do to help ourselves and our teams be much more effective amidst the fog that can easily cloud our days.

One tactic is to become unapologetically relentless about clarifying actions and commitments.

At the end of each major topic of discussion, simply ask one person to recount all of the actions. This does a number of things:

• It provides a moment of reflection.
• It allows everyone to listen and confirm their understanding of the actions.
• It gives you confidence that all actions have been captured accurately.

It’s a very simple thing to do and one that can often feel embarrassingly basic. You may even find yourself saying:

“Really? At our level? Do we really need to be asking someone to recount the actions out loud?”

A lesson I took from my time in the military is this:

“Leaders do not test for understanding by asking for questions. Leaders ensure understanding by asking questions.”

So, my answer is yes. We really do need to focus on the basics because it’s what all of the great teams do.

Great teams focus on doing the basics brilliantly well, with ruthless consistency.

Do you?

#LeadOn

Read more:
Leading through the 3pm fog

I’ve had the privilege of working with some truly great teams throughout my career.

But there’s one particular executive team that I’m supporting right now that really stands out, by a country mile.

(If you’re trying to guess who they are, not they’re not listed on my website!)

They are living proof that I’m a realist. Not an idealist.

They don’t view team development as something to be done once or twice a year at a nice hotel. They’re investing serious amounts of time to ‘work on the team’ every quarter regardless of COVID-19 and any other challenges they face.

If ever there was a team that could find legitimate reasons (excuses) for not having time to focus on the continued development their own leadership and teamwork capabilities, then this would be that team. Trust me.

But they’ve never de-prioritised it.

They’ve never cancelled or postponed an offsite.

Finding the Secret Sauce

Having focused heavily on their own leadership capability and teamwork, they are now turning their attention to the layer above them.

‘The layer above them?’, I hear you say.

Yes. But they’re not talking about their bosses.

They’re talking about those they lead. They refer to them as the ‘layer above’ because the idea of inverting the traditional, top-down organisational chart spoke to them on a deeply profound level.

They truly believe they are at the bottom, supporting and enabling everyone else to do their job. They see themselves as being in the service of those they lead.

Bravo, I say.

This particular leadership team’s aspiration is to move quickly towards shaping the future business and develop the ‘layer above’ to run today’s business.

There’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about that vision, except for the fact that I have no doubt whatsoever they will succeed where so many others fail.

In order to get there, I’m helping them deconstruct and codify their approach to leadership and teamwork.

They are doing what so few teams do. They are looking to do a deep dive into the things that are going well so they can optimise them for continued, sustained success.

Bravo, I say again.

In other words, we’re looking for the secret sauce. And whilst we’ve not found their particular recipe yet, we’re starting to get clear on some of the ingredients. We know it includes:

• Talking to each other, a lot.
• Speaking frankly.
• Caring deeply about people.
• Being challenging, supportive and kind.
• Having a goal that could only be achieved together.

Once again, there’s nothing earth-shatteringly different in that list to hit you like a bolt from the blue.

But that’s the point. They are a team that is relentlessly focused on doing the basics brilliantly well.

#LeadOn

Read more:
The highest performing team

There is a lot of talk about Exit Strategies in relation to COVID19 right now.

Whilst the UK Government hasn’t communicated their plan yet, they will have been working on it for a long time in parallel with their initial response strategy for controlling the pandemic.

In crisis management theory, response is one of four key areas of focus; the other three being preparation, (response) recovery and mitigation.

For many businesses the response phase will have included the rapid deployment of workers to home, stabilising operations and financial positions whilst quickly establishing new ways of working.

With this initial response now complete, leaders can begin shifting some of their focus to what comes next and the recovery phase; otherwise known as an exit strategy.

From a human performance and cultural perspective, there are three ‘recovery areas’ which I encourage you to start thinking about.

#1 Knowledge Capture

Lockdown and home-working has forced us all to work in drastically different ways. It has disproved many myths about home-working, productivity and communication. And at the very same time it has opened our minds to different ways of working that we’d never considered.

Whilst many of us may have thought ‘things will never be the same again’, that’s probably not going to be entirely true. Unless we make a conscious effort to identify, capture and reflect on all the lessons we’re learning, we’ll simply slip back into our old ways of working.

In some instances that will be fine. In others it would be akin to trying to put the genie back in the lamp.

#2 Embed

Once we’ve captured the lessons, we must think about how to embed them into our culture. How do we ensure they become a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the future that improves the performance and wellbeing of those we lead?

One thing is for sure, this won’t happen all by itself, as if by magic. It will take smart, forward-thinking leaders to make this happen. And if we don’t make this happen, we gradually slip back to how things were before.

#3 Reintegration

This embedding process will be easier for those who continued working within our organisations throughout the lockdown period than for those who were furloughed (stopped working).

Research conducted at UCL tells us that it takes around 66 days for a new habit to form (for most people). The upside is that if we’re forced into working from home for anything near this timeframe, that will be a huge help in terms of establishing those new SOPs. The downside is we may also have started to embed some new unhealthy habits too.

But what about our furloughed colleagues? They will be returning to a business, department or team that may bear little resemblance to the one they left. Processes, customers, suppliers, ways of working, products and services could all have changed.

This being the case, we must start thinking about how we quickly reintegrate them back into the business. We would be negligent in our duty as leaders if we simply allowed them to come back in at 9am on Monday morning and crack on.

We need to be working on the reintegration plan for our colleagues now. And in doing so we should consider their wellbeing as well as their performance and productivity.

Stay safe, stay well and #LeadOn.

Read more:
Coming out the other side

A few weeks ago, I was confronted with a tough decision around my core values.

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal, but that didn’t stop it playing on my mind for 24 hours. Deep down I instinctively knew what the right decision was, but I still wrestled with two choices; the easy wrong one or the tough right one?

I’ve just taken on a new project with a new client. As with every piece of work I do, my goal is to be of total service to the client and deliver 10 times more value than they expected. We’re in the very early stages of the project, which is not dissimilar to those giddy first few weeks when you’re dating somebody new; you’re keen to impress and show your very best side.

Basically, I screwed up my diary management and missed one of the project calls.

I’d been to my office super early to prepare for and run a team development session for an executive team on Zoom, before heading home around 10:30 to take over from my wife with home schooling our daughter. Like many working parents, we’ve both got really busy jobs so life’s a real juggle during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Whilst I was busily working on some maths with my eight-year-old daughter I completely missed the call and only realised when my colleague called to check if I was ok.

She’d covered for me on the call saying that the session I was running must have run over, which the client was totally fine with. It still made me feel a little sick though, to be honest. I pride myself on my timekeeping and organisational skills.

We agreed that I didn’t need to apologise to the client or do anything else. It was ‘no biggy’.

It continued to run through my mind for the rest of the day though, because not acting was at odds with one of my core values. Integrity, or doing the right thing even when nobody is watching, is fundamental to me.

In the end, I ‘fessed-up’.

I emailed the client to apologise for missing the meeting, explaining that whilst I had been running a session for another client, that wasn’t why I missed the meeting. I’m pretty sure they appreciated my honesty.

I’m no saint though and I certainly don’t get this right all the time. My values are there to guide me and exist as the standard that I strive to live up to. My experience tells me that by working hard to stay true to my values and make the right calls when there’s little at stake, I’m able to strengthen my mental muscles for the big moral decisions when they come.

This is why I believe getting clear on our core values is some of the most important work we can do as a leader. Having clarity around our core values is the essential precursor to consistency of action.

And without consistency, people will not trust or follow us.

#LeadOn

Read more:
Fessing Up: Choosing Integrity Over the Easy Way Out

I’ve written about task and communication overload in the modern workplace many times before.

I call it Corporate Whack-Attack. It often feels as though we’re playing the Whack-a-Mole game that you see at fair grounds and amusement parks.

COVID-19, and the sudden shift to mass homeworking, has just created Extreme Whack-Attack.

In the past few days, I’ve noticed people getting over-whelmed with the sheer volume of messages that are coming at us through multiple channels. You’re probably a member of more WhatsApp groups than ever before, and they’re probably busier than they were two weeks ago.

Your inbox is probably getting busier. You’ve no doubt got more instant messages, MS Teams notifications, Trello notifications, Zoom invites etc, etc.

It’s hard to keep up with everything, right?

And whilst we feel like we’re drowning in this sea of communication overload, we perpetuate the problem by sending more and more messages ourselves.

Where are you up to on X? Can I get a status update on Y? Hey, check out this funny video someone just sent me on WhatsApp…

And then we get frustrated when people don’t respond to us as quickly as we’d like, on what’s important to us, at that moment in time.

A friend and supplier to my business made a very generous offer to everyone in a particular WhatsApp group that I’m a member of last week. He essentially offered to help us for free, or defer payment, on anything that would help us or help us better serve our clients.

I completely missed his message, as did everyone else in the group. I only spotted it days later, completely buried in the conversation thread; and I felt really bad. It felt like I’d just been completely ignorant and kicked sand in his face.

What was worse, was that everyone else in the group missed the message too.

As leaders, we need to be aware of this and take action. We need to demonstrate Communication Empathy by focusing on three key areas.

Communicating mindfully

Ensuring our teams feel connected whilst working remotely in these uncertain times is critically important, so yes, we do need to communicate more. (Watch my video about leading remote teams in uncertain times here.)

It’s also important to maintain morale, have fun and occasionally share some of those amusing memes that we’re seeing. And at the same time, we must be mindful of not sending so many messages that we add to people’s stress and anxiety.

Be patient…not demanding

Everyone has a lot going on right now.

Our team members may be self-isolating or shopping for friends and family who are. They may be worried about their health or that of a loved one. They may be juggling their work, their partner’s work and trying to home school their children (that’s my particular reality right now).

All of this means that people may not respond to us as quickly as we would like them to. It also means that the emails and messages will get missed.

Be patient. Give people time.

Be empathetic…not angry

If you offer to help someone and they don’t respond, it can feel like they’ve kicked sand in your face. When we’re feeling anxious and stressed ourselves the natural, instinctive response can so easily be “well screw you, that’s the last time I offer to help”.

But that person may be just like me…and you. They may have just missed your message due to communication overwhelm. Or they may have read it, planning to respond later but got side-tracked by something else.

In all of these circumstances, stay empathetic.

Be understanding.

Be a leader.

Read more:
Communication Empathy

As a former Captain in the British Army, I have led people in life or death situations.

Now as a leadership mentor and performance coach I have put together some strategies to help you lead your teams better as we all adapt our way of working.

Rise Early

The way we start our day determines how our days unfold. Rise early and create your own, personal morning routine that will set you up for success. It could be running, a few stretches or yoga poses, mindfulness, journaling or simply planning your day before others start placing demands upon your time.

Exercise

Research tells us that the optimal amount of exercise for maintaining good mental health is just three or four sessions of 45 minutes per week. This could be a jog, virtual yoga, a HIIT session or just a brisk walk.

Routine and structure

Every decision that we take during the day draws upon our limited cognitive bandwidth. Having a routine reduces decision fatigue, thus allowing us to apply our full decision making abilities to the most important challenges. It will also help us adjust when the world goes back to normal, whatever and whenever that will be.

Shop well, eat well

Will power is like cognitive bandwidth in that it’s a limited resource. The more we exercise it, the weaker it becomes. If our cupboards are full of crisps, biscuits and chocolate we’ll eat them (and feel more tired). If the junk food isn’t there, we can’t eat it.

Turn off notifications

You’ve probably never had so many messages coming at you as you do during the COVID-19 lockdown. There are WhatsApp groups for work, friends, family and school. Then there’s MS Teams, Email, Slack, Trello, Messenger, Zoom calls etc. It’s a communication tidal wave. Turn off as many notifications as you possibly can and check them on your terms.

Limit your news

The Media Psychology effect describes how the media we consume impacts on our mental health, well-being and productivity. With that in mind, limit the amount of media that you consume each day and ensure you’re only paying attention to credible sources.

Audit your social media

There are some truly heart-warming stories about acts of service and human kindness on social media right now. There is also a lot of scaremongering and fake news. The solution is to avoid the channels and people that drain your energy and seek out those that lift you up.

Clear you desk

The start and end of the working day can be a little fuzzy right now, which has an impact on our productivity and well-being. Where possible, close the door to the home office or clear your work things off the dining room table. Having the laptop out of sight really does help get work out of mind for a few hours.

Re-calibrate

Everyone’s COVID-19 experience is a little different. Whilst some are finding that they have more time, I’m finding that juggling my work, my wife’s work and looking after out daughter means we have less time. Everything seems to take a little bit longer and feels a little bit harder. I’m trying to re-calibrate my expectations as opposed to fighting them.

Pause to plan

This has never been so important. Back to back Zoom calls and the communications tidal wave mean that if we don’t start each day with fifteen minutes of planning, we’ll simply spend the entire day reacting to everyone else’s priorities.

Mono-task

Multi-tasking isn’t actually possible. When we think we’re multi-tasking, we’re actually in a process of continual task switching, and every time we switch task we leave a little of our attention and energy on the previous task. It’s called attention residue.

(Try to) be fully present

This one is tough, but it’s worth trying. Do your best to be fully present in each moment. When you need to work, do all you can to be fully focused on the work. When you’re with your children or partner, do all that you can to close the laptop and put the phone away so that you can be fully present with them. When you do, you’ll experience some wonderful moments that would otherwise be missed.

Have a digital sunset

Replicate the setting of the sun each day with your technology. Close the laptop when your work is done. Put the mobile and tablet away an hour before you go to sleep. Turn off the television. Relax, read and enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Wobble freely

We’re all human. We’ll all have bad days. We’ll all have a wobble from time to time. We’ll all snap at our children, partners or work colleagues. We’ll feel that lockdown life is getting on top of us. And that’s ok… because we’re all human beings navigating a totally new way of life.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Read more:
14 Strategies for leading in lockdown

The current environment is probably the most volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) that many leaders and managers have ever experienced.

In the UK, Corona Virus has come along just as we’re seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the long Brexit Tunnel.

This article is an updated version of one that I wrote back in December 2019. Whilst I had no insider information on COVID-19, it seems more relevant now than ever.

The term VUCA could have been created to describe the environment created by the Corona Virus outbreak. But the acronym and world it describes isn’t a wholly new phenomenon. Armed forces all around the globe have been training their leaders to operate in this environment for hundreds of years. This has been their ‘normal’ working environment.

But the world has suddenly got a whole lot more VUCA and people are looking to leaders for direction and inspiration more now than ever. Those that we lead are worried about their future and their ability to provide for their loved ones. Conversations that were once whispered in the corridors, are now being had out loud and in the open. You can’t escape them.

Prior to Corona Virus I wrote about two strategies I’d seen leaders and organisations adopting.

Strategy one – Survival: This strategy is about battening down the hatches and trying to weather the storm. Companies adopting this strategy are narrowing their focus whilst tightening control of both people and budgets. They have accepted that they are going to be severely battered by external forces for an unknown period of time and hope that by locking everything down, they can come out the other side with minimal damage. And once the storm has passed, they will reset and go again, racing all the other ships to the nearest port where they hope to sell their wares.

Strategy two – Re-calibrated growth:  This strategy is about turning fully into the storm and continuing to push forwards, with some adjustments to the plan. It may be about heading in a slightly different direction, to an alternative port or continuing in the same destination but accepting that you will arrive later than planned. Instead of battening down all the hatches, we batten down the critical hatches.

Perhaps the most critical element of this strategy is that of leadership. The captains of these ships increase communication because they know people can respond more quickly and effectively when they have the most up-to-date information.

They also ensure every member of their crew is 100% focused on the most critical elements of their job and that they are doing them brilliantly well, day in, day out.

And in doing so they emerge from the storm into a blue ocean full of opportunity, whilst their competitors are competing in the choppy waters of their wake.

Turning theory into practice

 It sounds easy in theory, but how can we adopt elements of this strategy to help us through the current Corona Virus storm?

The answer is to learn from the military and adopt John Adair’s tried and tested model of Functional Leadership. Just as the leaders adopting strategy two ensure every member of the team is doing the basics brilliantly well, they are ensuring they focus on the basics of effective leadership.

They are continually looking to balance the needs of the Task, the Team and the Individual, which will frequently be in direct conflict with one another.

The Task

It is often said that one of the traits of a genius is the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in their mind at any one time. In a similar vein, one of the traits of an effective leader is that they must be able to operate up and down the spectrum in nearly every aspect of their role.

• They have a clearly articulated strategy for the organisation and ensure that it is executed with laser-like precision – until it has to be changed. And they know all plans will change.
• They think about the big picture but stay close to the front-line and detail as and when required.
• They step back to assess the situation but step in to provide support where it is most needed.
• They act swiftly and decisively when required but know there is always time to pause before responding.

The Team

Teams are one the fundamental building blocks of any organisation. And whilst every team is critically important, there is a case to be made that says the senior team is the most important, albeit by a very slim margin.

Those that we lead are paying close attention to what those of us in the senior teams are doing and what we are spending our time on. The behaviours of the executive team dictate how every team in the organisation operates.  When they are working well and being role models of best practice, this ripples out slowly to every corner of the organisation. But the impact of a dysfunctional senior team spreads much faster; more akin to a flood washing over the entire organisation causing untold damage.

If people in your organisation see nervousness, mixed messages or even fear within the senior team, that will spread through your company faster than the virus itself ever could.

A strategy of re-calibrated growth requires us to:

• Increase communication, ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date information and is focused on the top priorities.
• Combat fear and worry by ensuring that people feel more connected than ever before. As we encourage people to work remotely – staying connected becomes even more critical.
• Focus even more on celebrating success and marking milestones, big and small, in order to spread positivity and build success upon success.
• Focus more heavily on team development activities so that people pull together, instead of allowing them to entrench and protect their own silo.

The Individual

As leaders it is our job to provide support to the individual members of our team which include considerations such as helping them perform their key tasks and right now, being even more understanding and empathetic of their out-of-work concerns.

But there is one other ‘individual’ that often gets forgotten, us.

We’ve all been on an airplane and been told that in the case of cabin depressurisation oxygen masks will drop form the overhead lockers and that we should secure our own mask before helping anybody else… even our children.

We cannot lead our organisations through the stormy times if we have no energy and we certainly can’t lead effectively from our sick bed. I consider looking after your own health and wellbeing to be a strategic imperative of any leader, and all too often it is the first thing that we sacrifice.

If ever there was a time for leaders to focus on their health and well-being, it is now.

In the past 12 months I have met with leaders who’ve been absent from work due to Bell’s Palsy and serious back and hip conditions as a direct result of sitting at their desks for too long, and the more common issue of putting on huge amounts of weight and soaring blood pressure.

All of this stems from a major misunderstanding of the term resilience. We’ve come to believe that resilience is about ‘pushing on through’ and getting the job done. It has become a badge of honour to boast about how busy we are, how long we work and how few hours’ sleep we are getting. But this isn’t resilience.

Resilience is about looking after ourselves so that we can push on through. One of the mantras I share with my clients is this; the times when I think I don’t have time to exercise, are the times that I most need to exercise.

But it isn’t just about physical health. We also need to work on our mental and emotional wellbeing.

Going back to basics

It is undeniable that the world in which we are living and leading in just got a lot more complex. Things are changing rapidly and there are huge amounts of uncertainty.

But as we’ve seen, these are by no means uncharted waters. Whilst the term VUCA feels like a new concept in the business world, the military have been training their leaders to operate in this environment for hundreds of years.

So instead of searching for an entirely new leadership approach, I encourage you to pause and recalibrate. Just as we need every single person in our organisations to focus on doing the basics brilliantly well, with ruthless consistency, we to need to go back to the basics of leadership.

And above all else, as we navigate the rough seas ahead, please remember what it truly means to be a leader.

A leader’s job is to deliver the numbers or objectives, AND to look after those that we have the privilege and responsibility to lead. Because after all, every person that we lead is the most important person in the world to somebody else.

Read more:
Leading your business in these uncertain times

Focus is a fascinating and powerful thing when paired with the regular discipline of conscious reflection or review, it becomes a super-power for individuals and a potent performance-enhancer for teams.

Simply put, focus means that we see more of what we choose to pay attention to, and less of what we don’t.

I’ve been working ‘on-site’ with several different teams, attending some of their meetings and live-coaching them. I’ve also been asking lots of leaders about the last meeting they attended.

Doing this work and focusing on running great meetings myself has led me to notice an interesting, yet not entirely surprising, pattern.

So, what’s the pattern?

Most people think that their meetings are ok but could be a lot better.

Perhaps the agenda wasn’t well defined, and it wasn’t shared in advance. Perhaps there was too much on the agenda and not enough time. Perhaps the team regularly veered off topic, a few people dominated the discussion, next steps weren’t all clear etc, etc.

The most significant thing that I’ve noticed though, is that nobody, even in senior leadership teams, tends to do much about it. Nobody actually takes accountability for making it better.

Perhaps that’s not surprising either. There is always so much to get done which means once we’re out of the room, we are understandably focused on the next task or meeting at hand.

But that means we continue to operate sub-optimally. We continue to waste unnecessary time and effort.

Pausing to review

The alternative is to assign the last five minutes of your meeting for a review and debrief.

This is to review the process of the meeting. Not the content or output.

It’s about asking questions such as:

• Was the agenda and timing realistic?
• Did we stay on topic?
• What worked well?
• What must we focus on and do better next time we meet?

It’s a simple tactic that delivers a significant return on the time invested.

It’s also easier said than done. Embedding this as a new team protocol takes focus, effort and discipline.

But that’s exactly what is required to become a High-Performing Team. And as Jim Rohn once said:

“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.”

#LeadOn

Read more:
Pausing to review – a cost or an investment?

“Rome wasn’t built in a day” is the widely used adage attesting to the need for time to create great things.

I’ve worked with many teams and organisations over the past ten years, who wanted to create great, high-performing teams. And whilst none have wanted to do it in a day, many have asked me to facilitate a two-day, team development offsite.

But Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor are high-performing teams.

I blame the books about highly successful businesses and elite sports teams myself. You know the ones:

• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Winning by Clive Woodward
• Will it Make the Boat Go Faster? by Ben Hunt-Davies and Harriet Beveridge
• Winning by Jack and Suzy Welch

…and the list goes on.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all truly fantastic books.

The issue is they are the retrospective narrative of a journey that these teams and organisations went on over many years. They are not the agenda for our next two-day, team development offsite.

Rome wasn’t even built in two-days, and nor are high-performing teams.

Time and again teams try to build a high-performing team with short term tactics and interventions.

Building a great team isn’t a tactical activity. It’s a strategic activity.

I’d go one step further and say that it is a strategic imperative if you want your business to succeed in the volatile and uncertain future that we are facing.

You will always be faced with competition on price. Your competitors will always be able to replicate your products and services to varying degrees of success.

Competing against a high-performing, closely aligned team is much, much harder.

Where next?

Grab a copy of my Team Development Roadmap to see what the next steps look like and then book a free call here.

Read more:
Rome, high-performing teams & elite sport

Whilst the Rolling Stones, Amazon and the British Red Cross are all very different ‘teams’, they share at least one commonality. But what is it?

They all have clearly-defined decision-making strategies.

Many senior leaders and leadership teams think that they have decision-making strategies in place, yet they struggle to articulate them when asked. Perhaps that is because they don’t actually have any real decision-making strategies.

What’s more, a recent McKinsey report found that 72% of senior executives thought that their companies made bad decisions as often as they made good ones.

The Rolling Stones’ strategy is that Mick Jagger takes the lead on all decisions, having first sought input from the rest of the band and their support team, with Keith Richards maintaining the right to veto. In the rare case of a veto, everyone knows that it is an important decision, so they will discuss until a new decision is reached that everyone can commit to.

At Amazon, Jeff Bezos recommends using the phrase “Disagree and Commit” to guide all decision-making. This was also rumoured to be a decision-making principle at Hewlett Packard for many years.

Bezos suggests that if you have conviction on a particular course of action, but there is no consensus within the team, then it’s helpful to say: “Look, I know we disagree on this, but will you gamble with me on it? Are you willing to disagree yet fully commit to this decision?”

But for this strategy to work, it has to go both ways. The leader must be willing to disagree and commit to decisions that are contrary to theirs. In the same article, Bezos explains how a project team had a completely different opinion from his, and wanted to go ahead. He wrote back saying:

“I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we’ve ever made.”

Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince Bezos rather than simply get his commitment.

When the British Red Cross (BRC) deployed to Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake they immediately established a Society Action Team of SAT. This was a strategic decision-making body whose purpose was to meet twice daily in order to review the current situation and make major decisions on the next series of actions in a complex and fast-moving environment.

The decision-making process that the BRC used was to consult widely, gather information and then restrict the number of people in the decision-making team to the least possible number of people.

Research shows that the effectiveness of teams decreases as membership goes beyond twelve, the tipping point may be as low as nine. As the number of voices increases, it becomes harder to be heard, focus is lost and consensus becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible.

So, what about your team?

Do you have a clearly defined set of decision-making strategies and do those in the team know what they are?

If the answer is no, I recommend allocating 20 minutes of your next meeting to discuss the topic. I guarantee it will be an investment well made on your team’s journey from good to great.

Read more:
The Rolling Stones, Amazon and the British Red Cross

The world of work has never felt quite so volatile and uncertain. Whilst this poses a real threat to some organisations, it also presents a great opportunity for the teams that are able to pull together and work as a highly-effective machine.

All too predictably, the first thing that average teams do when they come under intense pressure is ditch the team meetings and briefings. Whilst this is a common stress response, it is totally counter-productive.

When I was serving in the British Army as an Operations Officer in Iraq we had our fair share of volatile, uncertain and pressured situations. Operating in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world wasn’t a new management term, it was the environment we’d trained relentlessly to operate in.

The VUCA environment was the norm for our entire six-month deployment.

One of the routines that I never allowed to falter, no matter how pressured the situation, was the three briefings every day.

I knew that these were critical in delivering every one of the missions assigned to us and bringing all 180 of our soldiers home safely. If information is the king, timely information is the Ace.

Average teams say they don’t have time for regular briefings.

Great teams know that regular, short, sharp briefings are a critical success factor.

They don’t just maintain their standard meeting schedule when under pressure. They actively increase it.

This ensures that everyone has the most up-to-date, mission-critical information. It means people are totally clear on the priorities and are ready, willing and able to support their colleagues, as and when required.

Team meetings and briefings are one of the mission-critical basics for any team, but how effective are yours?

Are you confident that everyone in your teams has the most up-to-date information?

Can you be sure that everybody is working to the same goals and priorities?

If your answer isn’t 100% yes, then it’s time to act.

Read more:
Fewer meetings, more briefings