Category: Leadership

MANAGER TOOL KIT # 1  

This post kicks off a sequence of blogs on Management Skills to equip you with knowledge and capabilities to lead teams well into the future. To take the leadership deep-dive courses, sign up for our Training and Events facilitated by Australia’s leading management coaches.

How would you characterise someone possessing a “global mindset”? If we go by the definition of Dr Gary Ranker, the father of executive coaching, a global mindset means – “the ability to step outside one’s base culture and to understand there is no universally correct way to do things”.     

In an increasingly connected world, where working for a company is no longer restricted to a 2x2m cubicle in an office building, being able to manage employees working from across the globe is vital to success. Remote working is taking off as companies explore new ways of finding the ideal employee, so being able to understand cultural differences is vtial to your success as a leader. 

What are the key behaviours of someone with a global mindset?  

•  People with a global mindset seek out diversity because they have an innate curiosity for new and exciting ways of experiencing the world.   
•  They don’t mind the initial discomfort of stepping into new environments if it means they are better, and smarter for it.   
• They are great at cultivating relationships with anyone different from them because they show respect and humility.  

Translating a global mindset into organisational success  

You need to bring a global perspective to the table to be considered valuable as a manager. For there are real career and business benefits to having a worldwide network of peers, partners and team members. Here are a few examples – 

• Acquire best practice information, skills and tools to stay ahead of the competition  
• Scale by employing highly skilled staff from developing countries  
• Operate smarter, faster and at a lower cost by leveraging products and technologies from other countries 

Businesses of all sizes need to operate with a global strategy, and this includes a team of managers with a strong ability to influence across all cultures, functions and geographic locations. How else would you be able to lead a diverse, multi-national network of direct reports, supply chain partners, client organisations, and government agencies?  

The 4 Core Competencies of Managing with a Global Mindset  

While you may already have these skills under your belt, think about how you can retool them in the context of leading a complex, multi-cultural, professional network.  

1. Communicating  

Managers who communicate effectively can cut through barriers and get all subsidiaries to support the HQ’s agenda. They are fully taking advantage of various communication channels, from digital to interpersonal, to make sure the message is consistent and heard loud and clear across the organisation.  

2. Collaborating  

Collaborating across countries can be difficult, especially if you’re a  manager from a developed country because of an innate perception of arrogance. Considerable effort needs to go into adapting your work style, language and tone to get your teammates from another culture to trust and support you.  

3. Networking  

Great managers can extend their influence beyond their immediate circle by sharing ideas and best practices. Connecting with people from across cultures through knowledge-sharing enables you to cultivate relationships which could lead to strategic and lucrative partnerships.  

4. Engaging  

Getting teams from different cultures to share your commitment and passion for the business is the most challenging job of a manager. You can change attitudes and maybe even develop great relationships with colleagues from another country by listening and having open conversations. 

Build your Manager Tool kit by signing up for our Training and Events and acquire the skills to succeed in the competitive corporate world. 

Check out these related posts — 

Executive Tool kit #1 Influencing  

Executive Tool kit #2 Navigating 

Developing Your Executive Tool kit by Dana Lightbody   

Values. The word is now such a part of the work vernacular that it’s almost hard to recall a time without it being at the top of the list as a question (what are your values?), a characteristic (are values important to you?), and a demonstrated quality (will you be bringing your values to your role?) when employees look to hire quality, key people for their company.

You may have even come across a survey on values, designed to uncover what makes you tick, what drives you, where and how you see the delineation between personal and work worlds, and quite simply: what makes you happy in all areas of your life based on your core belief systems.

And here’s the thing: values are based on your personal beliefs about what’s important in a workplace, and the varying degrees of what makes you tick is what you’ll then demonstrate in your role.

Values can include: a strong work ethic, how adaptable you are, your loyalty level, your honesty and integrity, how self-motivated you are, your professionalism, and your willingness to learn, and your positivity levels.

It’s little wonder then that core values are as important as your education and where you’ve worked, because values are what keep you churning through your workday with clarity and enthusiasm and energy.

We truly believe uncovering your value system is best done in discussion, or at least in an environment which requires introspection.

The Executive Leadership Summit 2019 lays the perfect foundation to have that conversation with yourself.

Back for its second year, the Summit will focus on the core learnings of an MBA with practical, experience-based keynotes and case studies from the leaders of Australia’s most successful companies.

Core values are front and centre too, and this Summit will help you discover what that means to you.

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

What keeps most leaders up at night is the possibility of doom and gloom from external forces. Disruptive change has never been so swift and far-reaching in today’s connected world. 

While your instincts are sharp, and your experience and knowledge has enabled you to remove blind spots, no one has a clear vision of the future.  

A multitude of factors can still ruin your business. 

Welcome to the VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) where the biggest threats that could take you out are the ones you won’t see coming.  

If you don’t know what VUCA threats are, here are some examples:
 

• Macro-economic events that can impact national and global economies, for example — natural disasters, political unrest, foreign trade policies, market recessions, data breach, and fuel prices. 

• Micro-economic events that affect individuals, markets, and communities where you operate, for example — emerging technologies, demand, supply, product pricing, and government policy changes. 

But it’s not all bad. Some disruptions may turn out for the best. Nevertheless, a rational framework can help you process all your fears, hopes and expectations and make the best decisions.  

Introducing the 4 Ds of VUCA

Use this mind tool to help you plan to navigate and mitigate the negative impact of VUCA. 

Discern. Challenge your assumptions about the future by imagining a range of business outcomes from best to worst. 

Determine.  Identify all the issues and problems that could arise with each scenario. 

Decide.  Choose the way forward or the strategic response with each scenario using this formula — “If (X) then (Y)” 

Do.  Communicate the strategy to the team for implementation. 

This is not about fear mongering. This is about smart navigating – looking out for all kinds of scenarios that could harm your business. More importantly, it is about being prepared with better ideas to move your way around VUCA and head towards success. 

Check out these related posts on building your Executive Skills —

Executive Toolkit #1 Influencing

Developing Your Executive Toolkit by Dana Lightbody 

What got you here, won’t get you there.

The leadership skills that got you to this point of success need to be retooled as you ramp up your business.

Scaling up your organisation demands that you lead leaders who will be responsible for your growing team’s outcomes. And this means you can’t be across all projects and workstreams. Decisions are made without your stamp on it. And things will just get done differently.

Presenting The Executive Toolkit –

“An executive toolkit equips leaders and teams with knowledge, capabilities and tools to drive strategy, organisation and processes for a better and more efficient framework for work life.”

– Dana Lightbody

Here is the first of a series of blogs that will highlight individual “tools” – skills, knowledge and expertise – to complete your powerful arsenal of leadership abilities.

So how will you retool your Executive Toolkit so that you empower your people and get out of the way of good work? The most challenging thing about scaling up is finding the balance between ensuring that your team stays on-course and stepping aside to watch them work their magic.

Leadership Tool #1 – INFLUENCING

Your job as a leader is to get everyone on the same page. Simple enough, but not as easy as your organisation grows. When you are past the point of knowing the names of all the people who work for you, how can you get all of them in-sync with the company’s goals?

Influencing means getting your values and principles to spread so that your entire team operates as one mind, body and spirit. Sounds like leading a cult, but that’s mostly what a company is.

And like any good cult leader with sharp influencing skills, you should be able to move your team with a light touch. Here’s a quick 4-way test to assess how good you are at influencing —

1. Psychological Safety

Does your team seek you out for honest feedback?

2. Inspired Excellence

Does your team consistently deliver beyond expectation WITHOUT your involvement?

3. Code of Discipline

Does your team get projects done without you having to follow them up?

4. Active Engagement

Does your team regularly come forward with great ideas?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all four questions, congratulations, your team understands the company values from which your mighty power of influence is built on.

Next on the Leadership Tool Kit Series #2 – Navigating

Read more about Developing Your Executive Toolkit by Dana Lightbody

Unleash your leadership potential and learn the skills to thrive in an evolving global economy. Reserve your spot for Executive Leadership Summit 2019

Leadership comes from the top, but what if you’re still examining your own leadership style?

There’s a reason the business mantra of “leadership starting from within” is accurate and relevant, and that is because in order for a team to truly work, a leader needs to begin by looking inwards. That’s the kind of ‘lean in’ that is more relevant than any business buzzword.

Start by looking at how you operate, how you think, and what kind of impression you give to staff. If you don’t know what your employees think about you… Ask them!

Create a forum where it is completely comfortable and acceptable for staff to speak up about what makes them happy and what makes them not look forward to coming to work so much. The results of these sometimes uncomfortable conversations will form the basis of the reshaping of your company’s mindset. You have to go into these conversations with an open mind – you can’t be defensive or aggressive if you don’t like what’s being said, the idea is to listen with an open mind, think about what is said and then decide whether or not to take action.

In doing this it shows that you care about what is important to your staff.

If, when and how you implement changes based on staff feedback, it is demonstrating genuine commitment to positivity in the workplace, showing their happiness is important and in turn boosting morale and no doubt increasing productivity.

I still remember the day I changed my own company’s mindset to reshape our business. It started with a news article which quoted David Hurley (former Chief of the Defence Force) “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept” and it resonated with me. It crystallised the concept of complete ownership for the behaviour of my staff. It made me have the above conversation with our staff, about what behaviour was and was not OK and why. What came out surprised me. It was small things, like the women being asked to get petty cash items from the supermarket or just the men being asked to carry heavy boxes, or comments around casual racism or isms in general. We implemented changes to fix that to make it clear what is and is not OK, and now if I see a behaviour that is not OK, I call it out. Because it starts and stops with me.

Our credo is: what got you here, won’t get you there.

That is, to get there, you need not just the tools but the mindset to constantly change and improve.

Enter the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020.

Back for its fifth year, the Summit will focus on teaching you how to lead with greater purpose in the contemporary business climate.

In this 4-day program, you’ll learn how you can employ its principles in your organisation to drive better business outcomes and make our world a better place at the same time.

Core values, authenticity, strength, innovation and disruption are the key drivers for a successful business, and this Summit will help extrapolate what that means.

In short, you need to discover your true purpose and values as a leader, and the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 will get you there. Check out more information here.

Having an executive toolkit under your shiny corporate belt is seemingly top of the list as ammunition to succeed in the competitive corporate world, and having your team work and create to the best of their ability.

When I started Konnect Learning, at the core of my thinking was that I could create something different ‘out there’.

Seeing as one of my core focuses is to ensure that every single product that is delivered from my company reflects my values, it’s also super important for me to have takeaway tips you can use in your work life – immediately and easily. I don’t mean ‘takeaway’ in the context of UberEats, although Mr Crackles = Winning. I mean tips you can apply immediately.

Hello, the executive toolkit.

An executive toolkit equips leaders and teams with knowledge, capabilities and tools to drive strategy, organisation and processes to lead to a better and more efficient framework for work life.

So how do you create an executive toolkit?

Start with what drives you, what you deem a ‘win’ in your work life, and what you see as a ‘win’ for those you manage. More importantly, what motivates you? And what do you see motivates them?

Motivation – the extent to which people look forward to going to work, and are enthusiastic about the task at hand and are committed to their to do list – is an important part of keeping your team engaged.

In leading a team, a leadership toolkit gives you a way to measure yourself against some of the qualities of an ‘ideal leader’. And it assists your team in measuring themselves in a positive way, which essentially leads them to feel valued, and as a by-product, even more motivated.

For me personally, my executive toolkit includes:

1. Making tough calls is hard, but clear is kind
2. Take risks because fear can be motivating
3. Stay true to your values
4. Let people see who you are, be vulnerable and honest
5. Listen more than you speak

If you feel you need some help in getting your executive toolkit in order, then I suggest you join us for our Executive Leadership Summit. Keynote speakers include Mark Bouris, Todd Sampson, Suzy Nicoletti and Marnie Baker to name a few. Tickets are available here.