Posts Tagged "Leadership"

How Your Leadership Style is Perceived: Leader, Imposter, Enemy or Loser?

May 9th, 2017 |no comments

The way others perceive you and the way you think about yourself will determine why people follow you.

Leadership can be looked at from two perspectives. The first is you – do you see yourself as a leader? The answer is yes or no. The second is your followers (staff, superiors, market etc). Do they see you as a leader? Again it’s yes or no.

If your followers see you as a leader, and you carry yourself as one, they will perceive you as a Leader. It’s a case of your followers saying that they want someone else to take control and make decisions. You see yourself as that someone and fill the need they have. This is what everyone wants.

If you’re not in the Leader quadrant you will have trouble.

If your followers see you as a leader, but you don’t carry yourself as one, they will perceive you as an Imposter. It’s like the team leader who has been promoted from within but won’t take charge for fear of not being liked. The Imposter is the sales person who goes to see a customer but won’t lead the sales call. The customer is not interested in doing the sales person’s job and won’t see them the next time they come back.

Where you have real problems is when the followers don’t see you as a leader.

When the followers don’t see the person in charge as a leader, but that person carries on as though they are, then they are seen as the Enemy. It’s the motivational speaker who comes out after lunch and says, ‘We’re having a great time – let’s do some star-jumps’ and the audience thinks, ‘No – you’re a tool!” It’s the sales manager who declares, ‘This month we’re going to get budget! Why? Because we’re just going to get it!’ There is no grounding in reality and you get lots of push-back. This is the most dangerous place to be.

The final place is where no one sees the person in charge as a leader. Here they are simply perceived as a Loser. It’s a case of the followers saying “I don’t want to listen to a message you don’t want to give’.

Levels of Engagement

The Loser has to deal with disengagement. No one is listening – but that’s not usually a problem as the person in charge is not speaking.

The Enemy has to deal with disinterest. They could be giving out next week’s PowerBall numbers but the followers don’t care because they think the leader is an idiot.

The Imposter is dealing with disillusionment. The followers want to follow or buy but are not getting the guidance and leadership they want. This is why good staff leave poor managers and reliable customers start looking elsewhere.

It is only when you are perceived as the Leader that you get engagement. Here people want to listen to what you have to say. In this position you have influence and can sell more. This makes your life easier. You’re happy because you’re getting budget. Your superiors are happy because you’re doing your job. Your followers are happy because they are getting the leadership they want.

From Imposter to Leader

Over the last dozen years of working with senior managers I have seen that about 90% of people hold themselves in the Imposter position. They want to be the leader, but are afraid that if they step up they will be seen as the enemy.

The key to stepping up from Imposter to Leader is courage. Do you have the courage to take the next step in the process? Don’t look for confidence and that is often too far down the track. Have a plan to follow and have the courage to take just the next step in the process.

How have you found working for Leaders, Imposters, Enemies and Losers? Leave your comments below.

Cheers

Darren

Superannuation: What members want to know about this weeks bloodbath.

September 30th, 2015 |no comments

With over $55 Billion wiped from the markets this week, what is the one thing that your members are thinking as they go into workplace presentations regarding Superannuation?

Are your planners equipped to explain what has happened and why it happened? Will they be able to offer insight into the likely knock-on effect of the fall, and what it means for the wider economy?

Or will they continue to run the same presentation they ran on Monday – explaining the returns achieved over the last 12 months, and asking for appointments for financial planning sessions?

If your planners are not focused on discussing, and explaining this week’s news, then you know why your members are not engaged with their super. Members are more engaged with what has happened this week, over what it will mean for three decades down the track.

To have the ability to ditch the standard presentation, and speak on the current movements, your planners need three things:

Insight from your investment team. Not just data, but insight – what will all this mean for today, and my retirement savings.
Ability to explain. Your planners need the ability to ditch the slides, and explain what has happened. If all your planners can do is read slides, they are just a talking brochure. They need to be leaders within their field of expertise.
Reassurance. Showing that your fund understands the machinations of this massive movement. They need to relay how your fund is set up to handle these shocks, and how they are prepared to make even better returns off the back of it.

At the base of this, is your planners ability to share their message without a powerpoint slide deck. If they cannot, they will never be relevant to the member and what is engaging them today. This entrenches member disengagement and their connection to your fund and their Super.

I show financial planners how to get an extra 2-10 financial planning appointments per week to generate an additional $5,000 to $15,000 per month in fees.

Political Leadership – This Is The Problem

March 2nd, 2015 |no comments

Political Leadership – It’s really not that hard.

In Australia we have disengaged with our political leaders. We have voted out first term governments at a State level and it is not looking good for the current Federal Government. Our political leadership is at scary lows, and it is hurting our country.

Worldwide Leadership Problems

Your Hidden Bias in Public Speaking Skills and Conversations

May 22nd, 2014 |no comments

Bias

In general, people believe they are ‘rational’ and that they make decisions based on facts, which will lead to effective solutions. However this is simply not the case. We are all prone to making decisions that are far from rational. Knowing how this affects your client, staff and boss can help you influence them. Further, it can help you question if you are introducing any bias into your own decision making.

This is super important for any public speaking situation.

Cognitive bias is one of the reasons why we don’t always make the best decisions. Cognitive bias comes in many forms and can be characterised by the tendency to make a decision and take action on insufficient information, overconfidence or reliance on past experience.

In business this can be a mistake. The wrong decision can cost your business financially and compromise your market position. An awareness of the types of bias that exist can help you overcome them.

Here are three of the most common cognitive biases prevalent in the business world:

An Unusual Request – Public Speaking tip

April 9th, 2014 |1 comment

There are times in public speaking when you know making a request will only result in a refusal. It almost doesn’t matter what you want, it seems the answer is pre-programmed to come out as ’No’. It’s a killer for sales presentations, managers and anyone needing to influence at work.

But there is a way around this. You can bypass the automated answer and get the answer you need. You just need to think a few steps ahead.

Reciprocity In Business – Public speaking Skills

March 19th, 2014 |no comments

Leadership Reciprocity

The law of reciprocity is a widely acknowledged psychological principle, and it goes like this: when somebody does something nice for, you have an instinctive, deep-seated desire to do something nice for them in return. Of course, this can go the other way as well—when somebody does something harmful to you, your instinct is to harm them in return.

The law of reciprocity is not limited to psychology. It is a principle used to explain behavior in a range of social science; it is applicable to pretty much all day-to-day human interactions, and that includes business interactions and public speaking situations as well.

Why Kerry Packer Would Still Be Successful Today

March 5th, 2014 |no comments

Image: news.com.au

Though he has been dead for almost a decade, the legend of media mogul Kerry Packer, the risk-taking, larger-than-life billionaire business tycoon, still lives on today. The way he lived his life and ran his business should resonate with today’s business executives.

Kerry Packer was born 1937 into an already-successful media dynasty. His father, Frank Packer, controlled Australian Consolidated Press and Nine Network. All of this—an estimated net worth of $100 million—was passed on to Kerry upon his father’s death in 1974.

Packer established the World Series Cricket, but the interesting aspect of that story was how he developed the league.

How To Use Flattery to Influence People

November 27th, 2013 |1 comment

Business Flattery

We are all familiar with the warm, pleasant feeling that comes with receiving a genuine compliment. When someone recognises something about us that deserves to be praised it makes us feel good about ourselves and it gives us that much-needed burst of confidence.

For the most part, we can tell the difference between a genuine compliment and one that is somewhat less sincere; and if we recognise the insincerity of a compliment, we won’t to respond to it positively—right?

Compliments can serve a strategic purpose, but are they effective if they are not based in sincerity?

How To Use The Uniqueness Principle To Become A Better Leader

November 20th, 2013 |1 comment

People want to be part of something unique. Use this desire to your advantage.

People like to feel special.

We like to believe that we are individuals—that we are not one of seven billion but one in seven billion, that we possess certain qualities that set us apart from the rest of our fellow humans.

As a business leader, the desire to be unique can be used to your advantage. For purposes of leadership and communication this is known as The Uniqueness Principle.

This principle states that people are more likely to do something if they view the idea, concept or themselves as unique. (tweet this)

As consumers, we are attracted to products that we see as exclusive, special, limited in quantity.

In a business setting, employees are drawn to leaders perceived to be unique or to leaders that make the employees feel unique.

As a business executive, succeeding as a leader requires using The Uniqueness Principle to motivate employees. You want each individual on your team to feel that they are going to be contributing to something truly unique, something that will set them apart.

There are many ways to accomplish this. Let’s review a few.

How Romantic Comedies Can Help Improve Your Leadership Skills

October 23rd, 2013 |3 comments

What can romantic comedies teach you about leadership? For one, emotion plays a role in both.

The title of this might sound silly to you, but take a moment to think about it. There is a time-tested formula for the making of a romantic comedy—and it works every time. Whatever each particular story arc happens to be about, rom-coms work because they drag people in, on an emotional level, and force them to care.

As a business leader, your job is so much easier when you get your clients, your customers, your employees, etc. to truly care about what you have to say. Once you have people invested at an emotional level, they will actively want to follow you, to help you, to listen to you.

So what’s the secret of the romantic comedy, and how can it be applied to your business world? Well, let’s break out down step by step.

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