HAPPY NEW YEAR

Noble Leadership Message for 2012

We hope you are enjoying a peaceful break from the workplace and that your return in 2012 will be filled with much positive inspiration, success and fulfilment.

A fresh start, a new beginning, the New Year is full of possibilities. With New Year’s resolutions in mind, we have selected some Aspirations that you may care to consider as a Resolution to be implemented in 2012.

Remember that Noble Inspirational Leaders:

ü  Give Hope to Others

ü  Share themselves with others

ü  Clearly demonstrate the Values to which they aspire particularly under the most demanding conditions

We urge you to consider these as your options for a New Year Resolution.

During 2011we expanded our Programs and our delivery options. Our range now includes Self-Leadership workshops and programs for individuals, teams and in-house executive groups. Our new focus for 2012 will be on Change in the Workplace and how individuals can not only survive but also thrive in what is now a constant changing environment.

Within this constancy of change many people will lose their sense of motivation and even lose their sense of belonging in their organisations.

Our Programs can help both organisations and individuals reaffirm their roles and their values and become even more productive than before.

On behalf of Bruno and I and all of us involved in the Noble Leadership Programs we wish you a most Rewarding and Fulfilling New Year.

Anthony Foster & Bruno D’Aprano

Qualities of a Noble Leader-Integrity

There are many qualities of a Noble Inspirational Leader but in this article we are going to focus on only the one quality. This is called Integrity.

It is a much used word in the business world and also the political world but when we want to look at the environment in which we can least find that quality then of course we only have to look into those places. Integrity is often spoken about but not very often practiced.

So where does it begin and how does one get to it. Where can start from various points to achieve any objective and in this case we will start with the ideal of being Authentic.

The basis of Trust can be founded in Authenticity because if one is not truly Authentic then it will be very difficult to generate Trust in the eyes and minds of others. The absence of Trust and the failure to be Authentic will result in the loss of Integrity.

As a Leader you can see that this is a very simple equation and it can be measured in a variety of circumstances. There has been extensive research to show the reasons why most people leave organisations. In simple terms most people leave because of their Boss or their Leader. They do not like their Boss, they do not like the way they work and they do not like the way their Boss makes them feel. The complaints are all about communication and treatment. Failure to be trusted, failure to be accepted as an equal, failure to be respected, failure to become a part of the team, lack of inclusion and lack of understanding. These are just some of the complaints as to why people leave organisations.

If this is the impact of the Leader on their staff what does it then tell us about that Leader. Firstly it shows that they have failed in a number of key ways. Did they chose the right staff member in the beginning. Did they pay careful attention to the qualities, values and professionalism of the staff member. If the staff member was chosen for all the right reasons then the failure falls on the Leader. They have failed to communicate, failed to inspire and failed to lead the staff member. Usually we can see a track record of poor perfomance of staff

The costs of replacing a lost employee can be staggering. Costs can be as much as 3 times base salary for a mid-level manager amd so it is very important that no only are the right staff selected but most importantly that the right Manager or Leader is in place and they are fully equipped with all the necessary skills.

These are now the top 5 reasons why people leave organisations:

1) Employees feel unrecognised and unappreciated. Employees believe they are not only expendable pawns in the greater game, they believe they don’t even receive a simple “Thank You” when they’ve performed admirably. The lack of appreciation is also often displayed in the level of compensation offered.

2) Employees believe there is little hope for career advancement or career growth. Unlike some years ago, they feel that there are distinct “classes” of employees and many jobs offer little opportunity to advance with their employer or with their career while they remain in this job.

3) Employees believe that their current position is not what it was represented to be during the interview phase. Many employees believe they received an unrealistic or incorrect job description when they applied for their position. Many employees have responded that this was a critical reason they began to test the market again as they felt a general lack of trust in their employer.

4) Employees are overworked and totally stressed out at their jobs. Many people perceive an overwhelming lack of respect for themselves and their work/life balance issues. It is ironic that this perception is one of the primary reasons for leaving employers when so many are publicizing the fact that work/life considerations are a priority for them. Employees, apparently, have decided that, in many cases, this is more rhetoric than fact.

5) Employees perceive a serious lack of coaching and/or mentoring from their employers. Some experts believe this is a classic case of a “perfect storm” situation. The rapidity of technological changes and the focus on short-term success has caused increased competition for the best jobs and the requirement for ever more talented employees. This has spurred the increased need for more feedback, training, and mentoring, which many employees feel is lacking at their current employer. A related common employee complaint is that the majority of feedback they receive is negative in content, neither encouraging nor enlightening.

Trust and rapport with employees is something that takes time to develop. This is especially true if there have been problems in the past. In these instances, the manager must operate while experiencing open and unconcealed mistrust of his or her words and actions. However, trust and rapport can be established, and in certain cases reestablished, by using the guidelines below.

So how can Integrity be established by using the above formula?

A Leader's behavior must be consistent. If they don’t want their motivations questioned, they must treat all of their people equally. Developing consistency can be achieved through:

Setting and Uniformly Applying Equitable Standards

Leader's must establish consistent performance standards that apply to each individual member of their team. The standards must be applied equally to all without favoritism, and all must be evaluated without bias.

Communicating and Providing Feedback

Leader's should be openly and frequently communicating with their employees, sharing insights and expertise and helping them achieve their goals. They must provide frequent feedback regarding their individual performance. Feedback should be based upon facts and free of subjective judgments regarding personal behaviors or attitudes.

Recognizing Performance

Leader's should use the standards they have established as a benchmark and openly recognize the performance of the members of their unit or department. A simple word of acknowledgement and appreciation can go an extremely long way towards maintaining enthusiasm and motivation.

Keeping Commitments

When dealing with subordinates, it is easy to let commitments slide. While many Leader's feel there are no consequences to such actions, if they cannot be counted on to keep their commitments, they cannot be trusted. Their employees’ motivation will suffer, which will then foster a negative and unacceptable atmosphere. Leaders creating these problems for themselves can use the following techniques to help overcome them:

1. Leaders should think very carefully about each commitment they intend to make. They should make sure adequate time and resources are available to meet the commitment.
2. Once a commitment is made, Leaders should make sure it is completed both as and when promised.
3. If a commitment cannot be completed when promised, the Leader should not wait until the last minute but let their employee know as quickly as possible and revise the schedule accordingly.

Developing an Open Management Style

Developing an open and trusting management style might require a shift in thinking and attitude on the part of many managers. This includes:

Remaining Impartial

Before a Leader deals with any employee or situation, they must avoid making rash judgments, eliminate all emotion and gather all pertinent facts.

Trusting Others

Leaders must learn to take employees at their word until the facts prove otherwise. A Leader who cannot trust either his people or customers will in turn fail to earn their trust.

Listening and Being Open

Leaders must be able to listen—not only to gather facts and information, but to hear issues and concerns that may arise with their employees and customers. Listening includes empathizing and showing care and concern about their problems. They must be open to new ideas, concepts, feedback and criticism. Trust is earned when employees and customers understand that the Leader is available and responsive to them.

By following the above Managers and Leaders can be welldevelopment, practice and cultivation of Integrity.

The Hardest Hurdle

After many many years of research and thinking I have come to a conclusion that possibly that hardest hurdle for most people is to truly be themselves. What do you think?

Are you really yourself or do you try and play roles in the various aspects of your life. When you think about it we can all see that we do play roles -we play the role of being someones employee, someones employer, someones husband or wife, someones son or daughter, someones friend or colleague. With each of the characters or broad personalities that we adopt to fulfil the expectations in each of these roles we also draw on a range of differing emotions which will dictate our level of involvement.

You could say that in many respects we are like a Chameleon. For some this way of being can be dramatically different in each role but for others the differences may still be very subtle but essentially we are all changing our roles depending on the circumstances and environment.

What happens therefore when we are alone? Do you like being alone and are you comfortable or do you need the company of others to give you a sense of identification?

Many people suffer from emotional loneliness and so they turn to their workplace and their role to provide that meaning in their life. In fact they need to be recognised for the job that they hold. This for them serves as a constant reminder as to who they are. For many people this is very important and it is recognised that in the longer term this may cause psychological difficulties. Why? Because what we do is not who we are and until we find who we are then we will always feel ultimately a lack of self understanding and fulfilment.

So what does it mean to be truly yourself and how do you get there?

One of the first issues to contend is the ability to find self acceptance. Self acceptance is one of the main criteria in finding oneself. When you consider your own self talk or the internal dialogue in which we all indulge you need to watch the words you are saying about yourself. Considering the fact that you are the only listener and it is coming from within you these words can have a very powerful impact because they effect the way you think and feel and essentially you may believe that in spite of what others tell you the fact is that you know yourself better. 

Self acceptance is the first step.

One of the major obstacles in finding self acceptance is the view that we have of ourselves which of often tainted by our past thoughts, actions and failures. We all fail-we all do things the wrong way, we all say the wrong thing at the wrong time and we all do things that we don't really mean. We all hurt others who are often the ones that mean the most to us. Essentially we are not perfect and yet our own internal dialogue delights in the constant reminder that it is because of these things we either do not deserve what we have or in some way we are a fraud.

The first step then to self acceptance is to forgive oneself and to recognise that we are all the same-everyone is the same and no one is really different. We all carry emotional baggage and our internal assassin will not let us forget it. We need therefore to constantly forgive ourselves and every time we find ourselves indulging in this kind of negative self talk we need to stop -breathe in and then clearly in our mind forgive ourselves. Maybe we will need to do this thousands of times but in the end we are becoming the master of our mind and refusing to allow such self talk to influence the way we are.

Rather than constantly tell ourselves that we are a fraud or a failure we need to pay attention to forgiving ourselves because we are human and as such we are all the same. The big secret is that we are all the same and that we all have doubts and uncertainties and now that we know this information we can get on with our lives and become our own Leader by taking the first step towards self acceptance.

With Self Acceptance being the first step then we can move on to the aspect of Forgiveness. Who better to forgive ourselves than us. If we are the one that is constantly self talking in a negative destructive way then we need to change this habit and then this can be achieved by constant forgiveness. By forgiving ourselves we are then creating the environment for greater Self Acceptance.

Having practised Self Acceptance through forgiveness and our deeper understanding as to how to control our self talk we can then begin to see the impact that this has had in the past on our emotions and our lives. We can now turn this around so that instead of our way of being and thinking having a detrimental effect on us we can now use the same methodology to improve our lives and to therefore begin to see a bit more clearly the way to be truly our self.

When we can accept ourselves for what we truly are in this fashion then we are well on the way to overcoming this first great hurdle to better self awareness.

Effective Mind Management for Leaders

How many people truly know how to use their mind effectively? Firstly in this demanding World today most people are reactive. Something happens to us and we instantly react either in a negative or positive way. We feel disappointment when things don't go our way, or we even feel angry or hurt and this impacts our mind and in turn impacts our attitudes, our efficiency, effectiveness and performance. Every negative or self destructive thought or feeling or action creates an obstacle that hinders the true capability of the Mind. The more we react to circumstances around us in this kind of way then we are very effectively training our Mind to go down this reactive negative and self destructive path.

By following this mental process we are creating habits. When it is a habit then it just happens automatically and so the damage continually expands in our Mind and interrupts our capability to be a truly Noble Inspirational Leader.

A true Leader should be unaffected by such things-they should have the capability to rise above all the circumstances that can drag one down. Their role is to give hope and encouragement to others and this can never happen if the Leader is constantly being negatively affected in their mind.

So let us look at the way this can be achieved. Most people would of course say that they are not like this-that they have some destructive thoughts towards themselves or towards others but this does not affect their work performance. It is easy to say it but logically it just does not happen. It is in the nature of humans to be negative and destructive mentally. This is why stress, anxiety and depression is constantly rising throughout the World. If this is unbelievable to you then please just look at any aspect of the media and the truth of negativity sits clearly there. We are constantly bombarded with destructive news and information. The media machine seems to feed on anxiety, disasters, terrorist threats and celebrity gossip.

So what can a leader do to keep their mind free of all the external information and all the internal self destructive ways of thinking and yet, at the same time keep their mind healthy and logical?

This is one of many ways:

Imagine yourself to be the kind of leader that you would admire. Someone who is calm in all circumstances. Someone who is respected by all. Someone who holds themselves with poise and dignity and who is free of all discriminatory ways of thinking. In other words visualise your ideal Leader filled with integrity and authenticity. This then is your ideal.

Everyday you must visualise in absolute clarity that this is your goal-this kind of Leader is the way you want to be. Practice the art of watching your mind. See the kind of words that you use in your self talk. Patiently remove all the negative self talk and replace it with your own creation words and phrases that epitomize the leadership characteristics that you want. Don't try to adopt too many at once -be patient and select 2 or 3 only. As you repeat these words and phrases to yourself you must be calm and relaxed and really focused on those words and the meaning of them for you. This is critical -you have to give your mind the time to listen and understand the objective. Remember that you are breaking well practiced thought patterns which are habitual and so this will take time.

These phrases to practice will become your personal corporate mantra and so to attain this level you can practice the following:

"In every possible way throughout every moment of each day I am filled with poise, clarity and calmness".

Practice this often-this should be done hundreds of times each day and slowly over time you will see the nature of your self-talk change as you start to Self Manage your Mind.

The Art of Achieving More by Doing Less

There is an ancient philosophy called Wei Wu Wei and this is generally defined as "achieving without forcing" or "effortless action".

I now want to apply it to some practical elements of work life and so we can now learn how to apply Wu Wei to "achieving more by doing less". Who would not want to learn about this? Apart from doing our Workshop called "The Productive Executive" this article will be the next best option.

So let us begin at the beginning. We can start at either end -either from the Doing Less perspective or the Achieving More perspective but let us decide to begin with Doing Less.

We all want to do less right? So how do we fill up our workday at the moment? I have had the great fortune to speak with hundreds of people over the last few years and hear a litany of very common issues with all of them. "Too many meetings, too many emails, too much demand on my time, never getting a chance to do my own work, taking work home, coming to the office at weekends, etc and etc"

Humans have a great capacity to not only grow work but also to lose perspective of their roles and the important outcomes upon which they will be judged. What happens of course to many of us is that we feel a decreasing sense of fulfillment in the workplace and mostly this is caused by all these obstacles to achieving our goals.

Most people live in a Re-active World and so we need to examine ourselves and our roles and our key job functions to determine ways in which we can become more Pro-active.

This is now a simple introductory check list to "Doing Less"

Review your workplace objectives

Review your KPIs

Prioritise the elements of those KPIs

Calculate the number of hours you need to devote to achieving those objectives each week

Be very diligent and determined to follow those designated hours and achieving those objectives

Allocate those times into your Calendar at the start of each week

Discipline yourself to follow your plan

Eliminate all emails that do not relate to your specific goals or KPIs

Reduce the number of times each day that you look at your inbox

Minimise the number of meetings you have each week and limit the time of the meetings-any meeting that goes longer than 30 minutes will become unproductive and time wasting

Essentially you are creating a Time/Work Schedule and now you need to be strong minded and develop self discipline

Remove everything from your workplace area that does not assist you in achieving the above

Then your mind will be free to focus on the "things that matter"

If you have success in this aspect then you will experience fulfillment-you will have banished the unproductive time wasting parts of your job.

When we are overwhelmed and we become busy we are creating a very unproductive energy around us. Our mind is stressed and even the simplest things will take longer. In many ways we become stifled within ourselves. The simplest things take longer to achieve. We procrastinate and we can often lose our way. We become tired and then overtired and in consequence we become unfulfilled.

But conversely when we are in command of our work and in command of our mind and our direction and our energy then it is different. We can then see that we are in fact Achieving More by Doing Less. We have stopped doing the things that block us from our fulfillment. Essentially we are being Pro-active and no longer Re-active. We are moving from being mastered by our work to mastering our work and from this we can then apply the same principals to our life and in time become the master of our life and of our circumstances and not being mastered by those circumstances.

Many years ago I had the pleasure to watch some great International Professional golfers and I was intrigues to see how they played this difficult game in a vastly different way to the amateurs. The amateur player puts all they have into hitting the golf ball. They attack it with full force and energy-a furious launch at the golf gall with their body driving every aspect of their speed and determination. When I observed the Professionals it was different-they were very slow in the golf swing-they were minimalist in effort and action. It seemed for them that the World and time had slowed down. Consequently they drove the ball longer and straighter. They were achieving more with less.

When we can apply this way to our work and then to our life we too can see how we can achieve more with less.

When we do this then we have arrived -- we are in "Wei Wu Wei".

Cult of the Corporate

Now I have seen it all!!

It begins with this rather strange word and concept "corporate". I remember clearly the first time I heard this word being used. It had a kind of "toiletry" feel about it to me but I acknowledged the fact that this was the word that some people used to describe a Company. It probably began with Corporate Law and the decision that businesses could be incorporated into a legal entity and this would then give that entity the right to sue or be sued. It had the same legal status as a person and would be considered for legal reasons as a person. Therefore it became a separate legal entity.

And so it evolved. Today we can use the expressions such as "corporate culture" or "corporate World" or "corporate life". It has a whole new meaning since it has become a whole new entity-even if it is still an alien entity. Let us look at what this word really means and the impact on us as the "real" entities-you remember us-"the human kind" entities. We are the ones today that apparently have the increasing levels of stress, anxiety and depression in the workplace where 60% of employees really do not like their jobs and their places of work. Let us look at how it evolved.

Many years ago we began with another concept in the Workplace called "Human Relations" and thus from this idea we developed the idea of a Human Relations Department with a Human Relations Manager. Apparently this word "relations" did not go down too well and so it evolved into "Resources"- and so we have "Human Resources" Department and Managers and Directors etc etc. Interesting mix of words?? Human Resources -should this be resources for humans to help them at work or is it actually the fact that humans began to be seen as a Resource of the Organisation or in fact of the Corporation. So in fact we ended up then with Human resources to serve the needs of a "Corporation".

In a further indictment of our ever increasing demands to divorce ourselves from humanistic qualities driven by some unknown force from above this concept continued its evolution into "Human Capital". Indeed, like a real Balance Sheet of a Corporation humans had finally arrived in their rightful place-on the Balance Sheet?

And-why not? After all we are only another asset of the Corporation?

The concept of Human Capital was of course widely used in Nazi Germany-this was their way of dehumanizing millions of people who did not fit with their idealized vision.

So as one thing leads to another we can see the way of the Modern World and now why real humans seem to find themselves dehumanized and divorced from the Employer-because the Employer is theoretically without a face-it is the Corporation.

When we look at the Corporation we can find one of the biggest cop-outs in the modern century. How many times have you heard the expression-"we have to talk-we have to restructure and you will be made redundant-understand that it is not personal - it is simply a decision made by the Company".  Decisions made by the Company!!

There is no Company and there is no Corporation. If you do not believe this then just stay home from your workplaces and see what happens. When the entire workforce stays away from the Workplace then nothing happens. There is no one there. No one at home. The place is empty.

Nothing happens unless Humans make it happen.

Of course we lose interest in the Employer-actually we lose the Employer- We have allowed people in organisations to make decisions that negligently effect us in our work efforts. We have replaced human virtues now with the Corporate Values-see them up on the Wall -in our Board Rooms and in our Annual Reports. The Values of the Corporation and the Corporate Vision. Problem is that most employees do not see these values or visions exemplified within their leaders and why should they-people are becoming dehumanized and the outcome of this is a disengagement from the places that we spend most of our lives in -at work. At work we should be engaged, employed and involved with other humans. But we are not. In the interests of clinical efficiency we can use emails from one desk to the next rather than actually speak to another human. People these days receive emails or a message on the phone telling them that their services are no longer needed. True faceless inhumanity has finally arrived and employees at all levels all over the World are crashing.

We have lost our humanity and the Academy Award goes to the Corporation and the vision and the values which can never create a Corporate Culture-only people who belong can create a culture. Forget these disgusting words like "Human Capital"-it is an obscenity. People are forgetting how to relate to each other. Could it be the word "relationships".- even Human Relationships are becoming obsolete as we move further and further away from each other. There in lies the disengagement-the disengagement from each other-the lack of mutual trust-the lack of clearly articulated virtues within the workplaces, mutual care and respect and consideration.

This is what the term "corporatisation" really stands for -the failure to bring humans together. This can only be done by humans having a healthy relationship with each other. Happy people create happy places which create happy productivity and innovation and then profits for all concerned. This is because people interact -they get down and they get personal.

Leadership from the Heart

Many people study books and read endless articles on Leadership, and yet I have seen that this type of study has only a very negligible impact on most of them.

Typical examples of this can be found within the academic area where faculty teachers can lecture only from a theoretical basis because most of them have never run a business or have never been a leader.

So we can return to the question of "Can leadership be taught"?

From  my experience I have learned the following about this question:

Intellectualising as to a way of leadership is little more than an idea. Intellectualising means that we are thinking about it and when we think about a subject then the contents of that thinking are based only on what we have read and what we have been taught. This way of thinking then is mainly what I call "subjective". It has been affected by the way we interpret the words that we have read and the spoken words of the lecturer. Within the context of what we have read or heard it means little-it all remains in our mind as a theory upon which we then add our own assumptions and expectations based on prior thinking. In other words within this context we have little opportunity to move from "subjective" to "objective".

It is the application of this new knowledge that is important and the application only comes from practice and when we practice something we are then developing ways of changing our behavior and thus move from "subjective" to "objective".

So I believe that leadership can come from the practice of our behavioral skills. An example of this is how we would react to a crisis. If we read or attend lectures about crisis management we would mostly forget the content within a short period of time but if we have the opportunity for the practice of the necessary behavioural skills that one should apply during a crisis then from this we can learn something.

From practice and particularly from failure is how we can move from a "subjective" to an "objective" viewpoint.

I believe that leadership either of oneself or of others comes from the emotional objective experience and that the impact of this has been with our Heart.

Essentially I have learned that true leadership therefore comes from the Heart which can be the centre of our emotional objective experiences. The Heart has little or nothing to do with our intellectual nature and our intellectual responses.

People will follow the person who acts from the Heart because they know that this person reflects honesty and integrity and speaks with truth and when this is combined with real experience, care and compassion then they not only exhibit the qualities of a true leader but others can feel their genuine interest and understanding.

So if you are leader and you have difficulties in being believable to others and you feel that people do not generally trust you or have confidence in you then you should look at your motivations. You should look into your Heart and see if you truly believe all that you say and all that you do. People intuitively understand your motivations and if those motivations  are not honest then you will lose them. There is an old saying which is "you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time".

With the development of greater self awareness and true self understanding we can then honestly begin the process of leadership not from books and not from the lecture theatre but from the Heart.

The Incredible benefits of Failure and Change

Maybe this is a very contradicting title-"The benefits of Failure"? How could failure be a benefit but of course when we start to think about it we then begin to develop a realisation about it and we can see that in fact this is a way of learning for us.

The problem is of course that failure is a little like change-we do not like to "fail" and we do not like "change" and, regretably we see both of these activities in a negative way. To most people we see "failure" as being the opposite of success and of course we all want to be succesful. If we are not a success then clearly we are a failure and it seems that our whole society is built around this concept of success in all that we do or say or think. We are conditioned from a very early age to strive for success and this success is usually in the eyes or the expectations of someone else. Eventually we buy into it because of media and advertising and demands and attitudes of society - but this does not mean that success is all that it aspires in our minds to be.

Therefore let us look at "Failure" from a different perspective. "Failure" is a mental state so let us look at it differently. Because of our background we are conditioned to accept that we need to avoid failure and that we should strive for an expectation of success in our activities but when we look at the World and all its issues mostly we can see only overwhelming failures. Failures on behalf of Governments, Leaders, Politicians, Companies, Infrastructures etc-almost everywhere we look we can find a multitude of "things" that we can describe as being a "failure".

Essentially I believe that we have the wrong attitude and it is this attitude that then psychologically detrimentally affects us in the Workplace when we are confronted by the concept of change.

When we "fail" we have not achieved an expectation and so we feel disappointed and in consequence we then become fearful of trying something new. The more we experience "failure" then the more we can become fearful until we reach a mental state of being in "Procrastination" and when this happens we stagnate and the "failure" becomes worse. When we are then confronted with the concept of "change" our mind moves very fast to the idea of "potential failure" and so we fall into a self imposed psychological trap. In other articles I have written about the "Assassin Within" and it is clear that the "Assassin Within" thrives on the idea of "failure" and its connection to "change".

Essentially if we stay within our self imposed boundaries we can potentially avoid "failure" and thus we can hide from "Change".

But, if we allow ourselves to be this way then we overlook many things which can be of great benefit to us and some of these things are:

• By stretching ourselves into unchartered territory we learn more about ourselves and of course we learn something new about that subject
• Every new experience that we have has an impact on us and gives us the opportunity to see things from a different perspective
• By giving ourselves the opportunity to do something new then we can learn about the potential failure but we can still plan for success but if this is not achieved then we have learned much for our future efforts
• We are building up a sense of our own resilience which is one of the great attributes of a Leader-resilience comes from the knowledge and experience of failure and with this sense of endurance we can develop a greater sense of ourselves
• We learn about the detrimental impact of not extending ourselves beyond the self imposed boundaries because when we can go beyond them we can then truly judge the impact of procrastination
• The combination of failure, determination and resilience will give us both the skills, the virtues and the experience to become great leaders of ourselves and of others. 

By undertaking projects or activities that will stretch us beyond the normal then we give ourselves the chance for greater self understanding and when this is combined with the characteristics of determination and resilience we are then developing the survival skills of true Leadership.

By accepting the inevitability of change the same way then this gives us further opportunity to develop the same attributes.

It is from such things that we are able to truly develop ourselves as human beings and by understanding our own nature, our own fears and senses we can then start the process of understanding others and helping them achieve their own ambitions.

Introduction to Noble Leadership-A Personal Perspective

EXTRACT FROM A PUBLIC LECTURE IN 2005

"Treat people as if they are already what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being".

Throughout my life I have made a number of self discoveries. Some time ago as a result of unfortunate circumstances I was given the time to investigate myself. I studied myself intently for 2 years and some of my friends said to me that I was very fortunate to have this time to spend on myself. Of course I was fortunate and I agreed with them but some time later I discovered the real meaning of what they had said and I am sure that they did not even realise the implications.

Of course they were implying that they do not have this time to spend getting to know themselves. Can you imagine this? It applies to all of us. We simply do not have the time.

We lead a full life. Usually our life is work, work and more work. We have a family and then we have to find time to squeeze this family into our work life. We do this because we want to be successful in work but why do we really want to do this? What does this mean to be successful? What drives one person to extraordinary lengths to want to be a leader and yet others just work hard with no further ambition other than to keep their jobs and look after their families. And, who is right? Is this what is known as "Work-Life balance"?

Life is hard and we all struggle. When I was younger I wanted to be very successful. I wanted to travel the World, lead an interesting life, be successful in the corporate world, become a CEO or be self employed. I wanted to be admired. I wanted to be somebody important. Do you think this is the reason why we do what we do- just to be important?

So from this period of self examination I have discovered some very interesting truths:

1 I have learnt about time. Time is all we do have. When we are born we unknowingly have a certain amount of time at our disposal. It is similar to buying a phone card where we have a certain number of available minutes to make our calls and then the card expires. Our life is the same. We have a certain number of minutes to do all that we should and then we expire. So time is all we have and so we should use it with wisdom and integrity.

2 The second simple truth I discovered was about all the time I had wasted by not getting to know myself. It seems that I had spent a great portion of my life avoiding myself by trying to become this "something". As an example this "something" which for a while was to be a CEO was a struggle but in the end I achieved my target. I became something but I had avoided the real objective to my life. I had avoided finding myself.

3 The third simple truth is that I had wasted a lot of time in the pursuit of materialistic dreams. If only I had had some teacher in my earlier life who had told me about the importance of finding myself or finding my "Real Nature" then my life would have been more fulfilled much earlier. This is the real secret to personal success. Find yourself and then be the best self you possibly can.

4 The next simple truth for me was about happiness. If you want to be happy then this can only be achieved when you are living with your "Real Nature". You are not trying to be something else. You are only yourself. In order to achieve this and live your life this way then you must understand your values and you must develop virtues and good habits. You must develop your own philosophy of life and this has to be a philosophy of the highest order.

Recently an Article was published in Australia about happiness and this was the result of a survey. The survey showed increased levels of happiness in Australians whereby males had increased up to 28% and women to 32%. The article made this seem to be a success for the Australian population however I was staggered because all I saw was that 72% of men were unhappy and 68% of women were unhappy. This unhappiness is a disease and it can spread and infect everyone because it is the nature of most humans to dwell on the negatives around them.

If you do not believe this then read a newspaper, watch television news and you will see the focus of the world. It is quite possible that this unhappiness is at a pandemic level.

We of course can change this situation. We can start the change within ourselves. If you do not know yourself then you will never be completely happy and if you cannot be completely happy then you will not achieve the success that you want.

To be happy is not something that comes later when you have reached that next promotion or become retired or buy that new car or new house. Happiness is a part of self awareness which comes from knowing yourself.

Are you prepared to confront yourself? Are you prepared to determine the values and virtues by which you should live and then to live your life in accordance. Are you prepared to live your life within this new philosophy because if you are then you are on the Way to go beyond happiness into living with your Real Nature?

When you achieve this then you will become self inspired and in so doing can inspire all others around you. We also need to improve our Self Efficiency and Effectiveness because from the basis of being well organised in all that we do and think then we have created the foundation for greater personal development into self awareness. The absence of this will be an obstacle to us and we will never truly feel that we are the Masters of our life. Naturally this obstacle will also flow into our relationships with all people around us.

Life often is about choices. Sometimes the message is there waiting for us to take it but often we do not see it. Sometimes we see too late and fail to act.

In our Workshops and Programs you can learn about the 3 Principles by which you can transform your life into being a Noble and Inspirational Leader for yourself and for others. You will also learn about the underlying components of these Principles and see how they can be applied successfully into all aspects and situations in your life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_David_Foster

The Endless Source of Inspiration

I am very fortunate to have lived and worked in many parts of the World and experienced many cultures. Throughout this time I have met many leaders and had the opportunity to watch them work and see how they function as human beings. In my own life both personally and professionally I have enjoyed the benefits of both success and failure. In fact I have probably gained the most benefit from failure but along the way I have observed the following characteristics of Inspiration.

Where does it come from and what is the constant source of inspiration that we may look for as leaders? Is it financial? Is it the sense of achievement gained when we see revenue or financial targets being reached? Is it the feeling of success when we attract a new client or customer?

From the many leaders that I have known and observed I can see that in reality it is none of these things. Most of those things are transient and they come and go because they are only "material things". The reaching of financial targets is great but of itself has little to offer in giving me inspiration. Getting new clients are great but have little to do with inspiration although how I interact with those clients may have a lot to do with Inspiration.

Such Inspiration can only come from people and our relationships with them. When one is inspired then you feel good about yourself, you feel renewed, confident and act with a sense of purpose.

When you do something to help someone else then you will feel the same benefits. If you do it well for their benefit, if you give them hope (one of the clear characteristics of a truly Noble Leader) , if you give them confidence to do something which they felt was beyond their capability then you will have inspired them. In so doing you will enjoy the benefits back yourself-you in turn will feel inspired.

If is from our development of others that we can derive this sense of inspiration. When we can see that it is possible to transform people from being what they think they are into something which they would like to be then we can see the possibility in all people. Of course as we go we are all learning the skills of self development and as we learn more about others then we learn more about ourselves and in so doing we create another aspect of Inspiration.

In practicality Inspiration does not come from reading books or articles about Inspiration. It only comes from the practical application of reaching out to others to help them achieve their objectives and helping them to reach their aspirations and this process creates a catalyst for our enduring Self Inspiration.

Tips to stay motivated at work

Most of us from time to time lose our sense of motivation, direction and inspiration. I have studied this changing of mental states for a long time and have started to recognise that all we are experiencing is simply these passing mental states. One moment we feel this way and within a short period of time we move to a different way of feeling. This is what I call the Changing Mental States.

This can of course detrimentally effect our work and performance but how can we manage it more effectively?

Firstly we need to practice a few very simple techniques and they are:

 Devote yourself to using your diary or calendar. Ensure that you have all appointments and all plans within that medium. Do not vary from this practice. As you plan your day within the diary or calendar it is also important to allow yourself time for adequate reflection and to plan forward.

Devote time each day or week to cleaning your workplace and ensuring that all your paperwork and electronic filing is up to date. Build this time also into your Diary or Calendar.

Manage your meetings and ensure that you focus on the issues at hand and keep meeting times to a minimum-particularly those of an inhouse kind.

Ensure that you have an adequate diet and devote time each day to exercise and sleep.

Write down all the good ideas that you have and refer back to them to ensure that you build them into your life. You can be your own greatest teacher and coach so do not overlook this opportunity for greater personal self development.

Remember that joy and happiness does not come from things external to us-they come only from inside us.

Leadership-Beyond a Doubt

Leadership is about giving hope and inspiration to others. In order to do this we have to free of self doubt. This is easy to say but for many people very difficult to put into practice. Self doubt and uncertainty seem to be a part of daily life in this modern World. Many people in fact cover this doubt and uncertainty with arrogance and displayed self importance but by careful observation we can see the extent of their fraud. If the Leader is not sincere then there can be little doubt as to the nature of their real self being portrayed to us.

When we are sincerely and actively giving hope to others then at the same time we are inspiring them. Paradoxically this hope and inspiration comes back to us and then we feel self inspired. The interesting thing that we can note is that it required very little from us-virtually no energy and not much time but the rewards from inspiring others and thus inspiring ourselves are long lasting. The other partner to sincerity is consistency for without it then the hope and inspiration will become confused and misguided.

I have known many leaders who consistently fail to inspire and give hope to others. They confuse the benefits of these two virtues with displays of anger, disappointment and arrogance and this will never inspire their people. People leave organisations because of the failure of the Leader.

So from my many consultations with many leaders at all levels I have seen the benefit of being able to give hope and inspire others. This can come from our own internal attitude towards ourselves by removing the doubt and the uncertainty that often stifles our progress - we have to learn to move forward with confidence and go beyond doubt and uncertainty and in so doing we then learn the benefits of giving hope and consistent inspiration to others.