"Expanding your Career Horizon"-Expressions of Interest

Why Meditation can lead to good Leadership

There are many types of meditation available for us to explore and in fact the practice of Meditation is many thousands of years old. It has progressed its way through a variety of cultures, religions and philosophies. Essentially it has little to do with religion but more to do with the development of a sense of spirituality and self awareness.

We can begin the process for ourselves very easily by accepting the need and the advantages of reflection. Reflection is a practice which we can develop on a regular basis. I always advise clients to use this practice as a key component in leadership development. Mostly and tragically we seem to be too busy to spend the time each day with ourselves and to review the day's activities. It is not a complicated process but it is one in which we need to be relaxed, be on our own and to be enjoying our surroundings-we should be in a place of tranquility. Driving our car from the office to our home is NOT such a place. A park, a beach or just a quiet place in our home or garden is usually very suitable.

In the process of reflection we can look back at the key activities of our day. We should approach these activities with humility and certainly without judgement. We can calmly reflect on what we have learnt about ourselves and about others in the course of this reflection-remembering it is not about judgement and not about our ego. We should practice the art of being impartial.

The more we practice reflection in this kind of environment then the more we will develop a healthy perspective of ourselves. We can learn much about our nature and our approach to life. From this we will see how we can develop our wisdom and in so doing we are then on the path to great leadership of both ourselves and ultimately of others. When this is done with no self-interest then the results can be profound.

I am sure that we all have much to learn from our reflections and in particular from those reflections on what we call our mistakes. If we only could see the value in learning from these mistakes via reflection rather than by denying them then we would live in a much better World.

In our next blog I will detail the steps and the processes to achieve this but largely it should be up to each one of us to determine our way forward in the development of this art and practice.

The Legacy of Australian Political Leadership

Julia Gillard was Minister for Education in Australia from 3rd December 2007 to 28th June 2010. The highlight of her Ministry was the creation and the overseeing of the "Building the Education Revolution" (BER). This was a $16.2 Billion Program.The program attracted much criticism for alleged misappropriation of public funds and for not delivering value-for-money outcomes. Many instances of inflated quotes or new buildings that were not particularly useful to schools were reported. The Leader of the Opposition called for a judicial inquiry into this Program and the failed Home Insulation Program-they were described as "failed programs" and a "waste of public money". Ultimately it was proven that BER projects in NSW, QLD and VIC overpaid for buildings by more than 25% on average compared to Catholic schools and more than 55% compared to Independent schools. The wastage on this program was estimated at around $1.5Billion.

Although Gillard denied her leadership aspirations it was not long after this that she sought to depose Kevin Rudd. This began the background to the legacy of a new wave of political leadership. What followed has been a series of lies, deception, conflict and corruption. It began with the Rudd lie, the carbon tax, the economic surplus promise and the allegations surrounding her years as a labor lawyer.

Whilst Kevin Rudd lacked leadership and effectiveness skills Julia Gillard has taken poor leadership too even lower depths.

Her legacy tells us that it is appropriate and acceptable to lie and deceive and to use every opportunity to discredit others around you. It is generally accepted that she has been the most disliked and untrusted Prime Minister in the history of Australia.

Integrity is one of the hallmarks of good leadership. Integrity and honesty is the basis upon which to build trust and confidence. The example given to the youth and people of this Country portrays only deception, lies, corruption and dishonesty and this is all packaged up as being "acceptable".

 

What has been demonstrated over recent years has been the lack of any Noble Leadership qualities from either Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard. It is obvious in the way that they present there is a lack of sincerity and authenticity which are key elements in the ability to positively influence those around them. Kevin Rudd had the worst staff turnover probably in the history of politics and Julia Gillard has achieved the worst ratings of any Prime Minister in the history of Australia. These outcomes clearly indicate the lack of sincerity, authenticity and any ability to positively inspire those around them. The legacy of such people is detrimental to the moral and spiritual health of Australia.

The Mind of Noble Leadership-Expectations and Outcomes

The Book about Noble Leadership

Several years ago I decided to write a book about the concept and philosophy of Noble Leadership. Writing a book is similar to many of the activities that we begin in life and tragically like most of them they can remain unfinished.

 

I persisted with the book and it is true to say that I had many friends and colleagues who were applying some degree of pressure on me to write and then finish this book. After 2 years I had it almost finished. It was a large book and one very much aligned with the full Noble Leader Program. It had taken a long time and I did not feel truly connected with it. It was complex and analytical and I was doing it with other objectives. One such objective was for my Doctorate in Philosophy.

 

Some good friends in Malaysia started to read my draft and their immediate feedback was most critical and I guess they were disappointed both in the book and maybe also in me. In short they did not like the way the book had been written and presented.

 

I went away disillusioned. After a few days I recovered enough to see that what they were offering was in fact very constructive. One of the key elements of the Noble Leader philosophy is "simplicity" and in this book I had failed miserably. It was anything but simple.

 

I sat down and wrote the book again but this time in the most simplistic way that I could imagine. The book was finished in less than 3 weeks. I showed this book then to some other friends in Melbourne who were amazed at it. They were amazed at it's size. They said -"this is okay but where is the rest of it?" They were expecting much more.

 

So this situation leads me now to the subject. Everything in life is shaped by expectations. In this instance we had my expectations of myself, the perceived Malaysian expectation of the book and myself, the Australian expectation of the book and myself. There were so many expectations and along the way I was attempting to meet many expectations, least of all my own. Added to this of course were the expectations of a distraught publisher.

 

We live in a World of expectations. We create them and we are affected by our perceived expectations of others. This is a complex environment for us to operate within. Expectations and outcomes and the fact that all too often they do not match.

 

The same can be applied within the Workplace. Everyone has expectations and most are unfulfilled. We have to learn to manage our own expectations and our reactions to the expectations of others. We need to be realistic and to learn to overcome self doubt and our desire to meet the expectations of others. Our expectations about others is only our self perception and in many cases we can be so wrong.

 

There are a number of ways in which we can assess this situation. One such way is to strive to ensure that our expectations of others will be no greater than the expectations that we have of ourselves. What does this tell us about our own expectations regarding ourselves? We need to ensure that we have realistic and achievable self expectations. If we do not have this then we will be very unfulfilled. We will be struggling to live a life with disappointment because we could not meet our own expectations.

 

Expect nothing from others that you would not expect from yourself.

THE 3 MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE

These questions come from parts of the Noble Leader Program. The interesting thing about these 3 simple questions is how you answer them. If you are not sincere and truthful to yourself then you will not see the benefit of the questions and may continue to be disillusioned.

If you answer them with your Heart then the results and your decision will be obvious. If you answer them immediately with 3 positive “YES’s” then you should be grateful but if not then the choice and decision will rest with you.

My research finds very few people who can answer each question with a immediate positive response.

Question 1:

Are you proud of the work that you do?

Question 2:

Are you proud of your Boss?

Question 3:

Are you proud of your Company?

These are such simple questions but the impact of them is felt strongly in the workplace today with an increasing lack of engagement by people at all levels.

Beyond Employee Disengagement

WORK DISENGAGEMENT LEADS TO MORAL DISENGAGEMENT LEADING TO MORAL DISINTEGRATION 

It is clear that there is a lot of employee disengagement in the workplace today. This is not only in Australia but seems to be a global trend.

We think it is largely due to the unprecedented pressure placed on organisations and employees to improve performance and financial outcomes with less resources, less money and a declining sense of human value.

Towers Watson, 2010 Global Workforce Survey

reveals the following:

• 69% of employees believe their senior managers do not communicate openly and honestly
• 97% thought their managers did not treat them as key parts of the organisation and no fewer than 60% felt their senior managers treated them as just another organisational asset to be managed.
•  61% of employees in the US feel senior management does not exhibit attitudes and behaviours that reflect they care about the well-being of their employees. (71% of employees for UK)
• Only 47% think their leaders are trustworthy
• Only 42% think their leaders inspire and engage them
• 61% question whether their leaders deal effectively with poor performers
• Only 42% think senior management encourages development of talent

Clearly there is a strong emphasis on Disengagement in the workplace, however this with other factors leads to a far worse problem-Moral Disengagement!~

Moral Disengagement occurs and has occurred in Australia at the highest levels throughout the political spectrum, religion, care of aged population and unemployment to name a few. Why do humans have the ability to rationalise moral disengagement and then to be able to manipulate their actions to suit their purpose. At this level Disengagement becomes Disintegration.

A typical example of this has occurred at the highest levels of Australian politics and it seems unfortunately to have become an acceptable practise: Quotes from our Prime Minister in 2010 and then only 6 months later shows the following level of Moral Disintegration.

 

"There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead."
-- Ms Gillard, August 16, 2010 

"I'm determined to price carbon. History teaches us that the countries and the economies who prosper at times of historic change are those who get in and shape and manage the changes. The time is right and the time is now."
-- Ms Gillard announces her Government's plan for a carbon tax, February 24, 2011

This is not an isolated case of Moral Disengagement but it is one that shows the character not only of the person but also of what we see as rapidly becoming acceptable standards of morality. How can we allow our own complacency to become so disengaged that we now expect corruption and deceit within Government leadership-it is enough that we understand that it is within the corporate world but it now seems to becoming more obvious in the highest levels of politics. So shameful!!

As Employee Disengagement increases in the workplace we can expect increases in Moral Disengagement thus leading rapidly to Moral Social Disintegration.

Suffice to say what is happening around us is the infestation caused by the lack of Noble Virtues and Noble Intentions where self sacrifice has now been replaced by self interest and then acceptably justified.

THE FALLACY OF TRAINING

There are a number of aspects about training that do not seem to add up.

My personal view from many years of experience is that most training does not work. It does not work despite the fact that most training organisations can claim that their specific program will produce results. To be honest in some instances it does but only for the short term. Usually it is a waste of money. Let us look at the reasons why and we begin at the senior leadership of an organisation.

The Leader feels that there is something wrong within the workforce and determines that the staff need some kind of training -let us say it is in the area of improving customer relations and personal efficiency. The Leader then instructs the HR Manager to investigate and recommend a suitable program. The HR Manager then researches to find a suitable program at usually the best price and may even do some elements of confirming testimonials of the training provider and then makes the recommendation to the Leader.

At this stage we could have already developed the first problem which would be potentially a communication problem between the Leader and the HR Manager. HR people are usually not renowned for appropriate decision making. In fact in most organisations the HR Manager is not in a decisive or creative role however in this instance they have made a recommendation based on a level of judgement that may never have been truly tested. Usually they are not leaders, they may be good performers but only within a very restrictive capacity. However the decision is finally made by the Leader and so the training program begins.

The training provider is excellent and produces compelling reasons and methodology to improve customer relations and the personal efficiency of the staff. Results and outcomes of the training are very good and all staff receive a Certificate of Attendance. All is well. The trainer has done a good job, the HR Manager has fulfilled their obligation and we can assume that the Leader has received value for the investment.

However this is often not the case. Superficially all is well but the results are only very short term. Why is this?

The answer lies within the psychology of the individual staff member. People are driven by their habits-both good and bad. Essentially we have all spent many years developing routine ways of dealing with all kinds of situations. As an example take work place change. When confronted with change most people react in a very negative way. Fear of change sets in quickly. We do not like to have our habits and routines threatened.

So we can attend the most brilliant of training programs but the impact on our personal psychology will be limited. The reason why it is limited goes right back to the Leader instructing the HR Manager. People may recognise the need for skills and attitude improvement but this is important and discussion should begin with the Leader and directly to all the staff including the HR Manager.  By placing a HR Manager in the middle only results in a loss of trust by the staff in the Leadership. Considerations may even go to the level of lack of trust by the staff in the HR Manager and the way the reason for the training is communicated.

If it is so important then all communication should be from and with the Leader of the Organisation. If the Leader truly wants to engage all the Staff then they need to be seen as taking this proactive step of encouragement. Once the function has been moved down the line to the HR Manager the level of importance has also been moved down the line in the psychology of everyone involved.

Let us look at the two ends of the spectrum regarding the impact on staff. Assume that I am very effective in what I do and I have truly wonderful customer relationships and I receive the email or the instruction from the HR Manager telling me that I have to attend training to improve what I thought were my perfect skills. My initial reaction is going to be one of disbelief which may then turn into anger to think that I am being treated this way. Should I attend the Program you can be very sure that I will not be supportive and will not really listen - my skeptical attitude will ensure that money has been wasted on me. The other end of the spectrum happens if I know that I am not that good in my job-I feel embarrassed about my mistakes and my nervousness in dealing with our customers. I am always stressed about this and feel quite low in my self esteem. Then I am told that I have to attend this Program. My initial reaction is one of fear-I know that this Program is all about me because I have failed  and now they want me to become totally embarrassed in front of all my work colleagues. What am I to do? My first thought is that on that day I will be sick and unable to attend. Even if I do relent and attend the Program I will be so nervous, so anxious and so stressed that I will remember nothing. It will be the worst days of my life.

This is how it could very well be for many people in such a situation.

The real issue is not to just provide methodology as to how one can improve customer relationships and personal efficiency. There are many text books and videos on this subject and they all represent the "outside-in " approach. The trainer presents and the audience listen and may even be encouraged to participate. The training can last from 1 hour to 3 days but it will be useless unless the mind of the individual attendee is changed in a profound way. This change of mind could take place in the first hour but usually this does not happen-the staff members turn up, appear to be listening and even appear to be participating but in truth they are not. They are sleeping and they do not wish to change their behaviours and habits.

Unless the mind of person is ready to be opened to change then they will consciously and subconsciously fail to accept anything that is being offered. The same rationale applies to a habitual smoker-they know they should not do it-they know it is unhealthy-they know that it may kill them-but still they smoke.

If we want to truly get people to do something different then no amount of conventional "training" will work. It only works when their mind is ready and this only comes when they recognise and understand themselves better. This is where it begins.

The 3 Key Questions

This is a photo from my garden. I spend a lot of time in my garden as I believe that this is the perfect place for reflection.

If we want to truly develop the essential qualities of Noble Leadership then we must devote the time to reflection because it is from this that we can develop Wisdom.

As we all know this is a quality which is in short supply today!!

Within a workplace environment I believe that there are 3 Key Questions that can help us to determine the health of our relationship with our employer-both the individual and the Organisation.

We can also ask of ourselves these 3 Questions to determine our view of our Political leadership. It seems to me that such simple questions can reveal so much.

The first question to ask oneself is this:

Am I proud of the work I do?

The second question to ask oneself is this:

Am I proud of the organisation that employs me?

The last question is this:

Am I proud of my boss or my leader?

We should have a non discriminatory answer to each of these questions. Each answer should only be "yes" or "no". Our responses can be objective if we answer in this fashion but if we start to add more information into our answers such as "I would be proud of my work if only..........." or "I would be proud of my leader if only they would .............."then such answers become very subjective.

Clearly our answers should be a simple "yes" or "no".

Now, if we fail to answer each question with a positive "yes" then we will see that we are becoming disengaged from either our role, our boss or our organisation. If we answer a positive "no" to each question then we have clearly disengaged ourselves from our workplace and the longer that we stay there then the more at risk we become of developing an unhealthy level of stress or anxiety.

Ask yourself these questions and thereby determine your own level of honest integrity regarding your role and your employer.

If you would care to confidentially advise me as to your responses I will be very happy to include the final results in our Workshops.

 Anthony

Consultants for Melbourne and Victoria

CONSULTANTS

The Role:

Noble Leadership Programs and The Neoma Institute are currently looking for Consultants to represent a respected brand, service and product within the Melbourne and Victorian Region.

In conjunction with us you will need to setup appointments for our Principals to attend. We will finalize all arrangements at the appointment and the more proactive the Consultant is the more money will be earned. The role requires the Consultants to simply market our services and to set appointments in and around Victoria – areas can be negotiated depending on your location.

Because of your outstanding customer service, influencing skills and attention to detail you will also benefit from having a referral network from past and current customers.

The Person:

We seek the services of Consultants who are motivated and proactive in securing business. If you possess the following we want to hear from you:

·       Motivated & Proactive

·       Desire to earn good money!

·       Good communication and influencing skills

·       Good at setting appointments

·       Attention to detail

If this sounds like you or would like to find out more please send in your resume and we will contact you for a personal interview.

Please contact us at:

The nobleleader@gmail.com

The 3 Ps of Success

Success and the 3 P's.

Of course these are only words and words will give each of us our own idea of that which someone else is trying to explain or suggest or clarify for us. Even when we read a book we are still internally translating the words on the pages and the combination of a series of those words creates a mental picture unique to each of us. And so it is with these words "Success and the P's".

Much has been written about success and what it means and how to achieve it. After a long time of research and reflection I have come to a conclusion that when we use the words "success" mostly we create a specific image of what others tell us that success looks like. Riches, fame and fortune??

Is that what it is or is it something more lasting? Surely these material objects that represent success are very tangible but not lasting. New cars, bigger homes, bigger TVs, more prestigious titles, promotions etc etc etc-and the list goes on.

But none of this is success which is why I have decided to redefine the meaning but to a different word. A word that creates a different image in our minds. This word is fulfilment. Fulfilment makes us feel a different sense of achievement-a different feeling in so many ways.

So therefore we are now looking at the 3 P's that will give us the true lasting meaning of the word success which is really "fulfilment".

These 3 words are:

Pro-activity-if we are not proactive and move in the right direction towards our goals whatever they may be then nothing will happen. Nothing happens unless we can visualise it first. Absolutely everything comes from visualisation from within.

Persistence-we will find  many obstructions along the way but if we believe in ourselves and our vision and personal mission-our Noble Cause-with only Noble Intent then we can always find our way for we only have to persist.

Patience-with patience all things can be realised. We learn to understand with wisdom that things of value take time to mature. These things of value are our thoughts, our plans and intentions. It is always easy for others to discredit our intentions regardless of how Noble we think we are. With Patience all things come at the right time. If we rush something then we will diminish its value-all things need time to mature until it is ready. This comes from Patience.

Summary:

Consequently we are really looking for "fulfilment" in our lives and we can achieve this by being 'Pro-active" with our intentions and plans-showing Persistence in our attempts and our self belief-and practising Patience to allow the maturity of our Noble Intentions.

All of the above should then be practised with a particular mental attitude and a way of looking and treating oneself. This is the way of Dignity. Treat ourselves with dignity and always treat others with even greater dignity.

This is the Way to True Fulfilment.

What did I learn today?

What did I learn today? Tonight I had the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful evening with some equally beautiful friends and in the course of the evening I started to reflect on something that was taught to me many years ago by my father. At the end of the school day my family would all sit around the dinner table and my father would ask me- "so what did you learn today?". Usually my face would be a blank and this would of course reflect my mind. I could remember nothing! I would say "I don't know' and then my father would ask me "how could that be-you were only there a few hours ago and yet you cannot remember anything that you did in the whole day-was there anything really important that you discovered?"- Another blank stare from me with the answer -" I don't know!

Eventually I came to understand that I had to remember things during my school day so when asked at the end of the day this question I would have something to answer. I could not just make it up because it had to be the truth and if it was a lie then I know that he would know and that would become even worse. So I had to remember.

As I became older I discovered the real value in this question and today in some of our Programs we feature the personal exercise called "What did I learn yesterday?". We remind people that at the end of each day we should all find time to reflect on the most important learning of that day. Reflect on it and think about it. Because as we continue doing this we start to learn more about our self and we can see that this is not only a part of our own self development but also self awareness and from this greater emerging self understanding we find wisdom.

When you practise this exercise you will then start to see a few benefits on the path to wisdom.

Firstly we begin to understand ourselves better
Secondly we learn that by understanding ourselves better we can then understand others better
Thirdly we learn that regardless of how different we all look we all basically are the same-we share the same deep doubts and uncertainties within life. By understanding ourselves better in turn we can see how all things and all people fit together.

In doing this exercise on a regular basis we therefore commence the development of self wisdom and this is one of the key elements of being a Noble Leader. Learn about yourself by asking this question:

"What did I learn today?"

After this very pleasant evening I returned to my home and went for a walk and in so doing I began to reflect on this question and this is what I discovered:

"Let me tell you about Sasha-he is always happy -very happy-happy to be with me-happy to be with others-happy to meet new people -happy to go walking and happy to go for a drive in the car. When he is busy doing things that he sees as important then he is very focused but still happy-when he is hungry he eats and when he is tired then he sleeps-when he wants just to sit then he just sits. He knows the value of drinking plenty of water each day and also the benefits of a long walk each day. He is very health conscious.

He is always very welcoming to all guests -he truly greets them and makes them all feel special as if they are the only person in the room. When they leave he always makes them feel that their presence has truly made his day. He loves everybody unconditionally-he is not prejudiced at all. At the start of each day he runs to me and greets me like we have not seen each other for such a long time. I love Sasha very much and although he seems also to love everyone else I do hope that he loves me the most.

Sasha is my dog and so I can ask myself "What did I learn today".

Sasha taught me the value of being happy regardless of the circumstances. He taught me just to be myself and to be spontaneous. He reminded me of the importance and benefits of the simple things in life. He is indeed a Noble Dog and in his way a wonderful Noble Leader.

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.