For years, we have been talking about the war for talent. Personally, I don’t like the use of the word war here; we seem to use military and battle metaphors way too much when it comes to people, in my view. These are human beings, whose lives will be affected by the decisions they take
Tag: leaders
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Risk taking and caution
Have you noticed the differences over the past 18 months in the way people take risks or not? It’s right there in front of us in the decisions that our governments have made in whether they have blocked their borders for example, or at what point they have opened up out of lockdowns. The risks
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual Leadership): Self-confidence and confidence in others
As a leader, we need self-confidence. I work with a lot of leaders who lack inner self-confidence, although they put a brave face on it. Some might call it imposter syndrome – thinking you will be found out sooner or later. But much of the time, we are simply facing situations that we have never
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Strategy and Operations
As leaders, we need time to think, to plan, to visualise the future, to strategise. If we have delegated to our people and keep them accountable then we should have ample time to focus on the future. Steven Covey would identify this as a quadrant 2 activity – not urgent, but vitally important. If we don’t get
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Flexible schedule and Structured schedule
This yin and yang of flexible schedule and structured schedule seems to have become more obvious over the past year. People have had so much to contend with, so many other things outside of work to juggle, that the flexible schedule has become more of a thing. We had flexible work policies before, but this
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Unified Team and Diverse Individuals
This yin and yang of leadership calls on you to get better at choosing diverse people for your team when you recruit. There are so many variables to diversity that bring so many unique experiences to decision-making. The more diverse your customer base (or should I say your desired customer base), the more diverse your
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Informal communication and Formal communication
Informal and formal communication gets a little more tricky when we live and work in a virtual world. But it’s by no means insurmountable. When we book meetings into a person’s calendar, it feels more formal. We wouldn’t book a five-minute quick question into the diary, so meetings tend to be longer and tend to
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Hold Accountable and Trust
Your role as a leader is to get work done through others. You can’t do it all yourself, as we discovered in the yin and yang of task and relationship. That means though that you do need to hold them accountable for results. I’ve been coaching one senior legal leader who wanted to figure this
The Yin and Yang of (Virtual) Leadership: Advocacy and Inquiry
I’ve been coaching a senior nurse in the NHS. She has been given feedback that she needs to advocate her point of view more often in senior management meetings, so that they know that she is capable of contributing the perspective that only she is uniquely able to bring to the table due to her
Leading in a Virtual World
What is your mindset about working virtually? Do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? (Carole Dweck) If you have a growth mindset, you are more likely to see working and leading virtually as an opportunity for learning and growth and continuous improvement. A space to try out new ways of doing things
Human-Centred Leadership – your own needs
By writing about you last, I am not saying you are the least important person in this mix. Far from it. If you have not figured out your own needs, desires and context, you will be misfiring and throwing others off balance. Perhaps I can point you to the previous series about leading self during
Human Centred Leadership – your stakeholders’ needs
We’ve addressed your team members’ individual needs and we’ve looked at the team’s needs. We also need to ask stakeholders what they need. It’s no good second guessing what they need or making assumptions. Are you seeing a pattern here? Asking vs assuming And you probably need to have these conversations before you have the
Human Centred Leadership – the team’s needs
You lead individuals and you lead a team. 1-1 conversations are important. And team conversations are just as important. The team is its own entity. Sure, it is made up of individuals, but when they are interconnected, there is a system that needs attention. What does the team need to function at its best? What
Why Human-Centred Leadership matters
The golden rule – do as you would be done by – is not correct. Just because you would like to be treated in a certain way does not mean that everyone else would welcome the same approach. That’s why asking -vs- assuming is so important when it comes to our team members. When we
Leading others through change – Part 1
The first blog in a 3 part series talking to leaders about how they might lead their teams out of the Covid-19 crisis.
Leading others through change – Part 2
In part 2 of this 3 part blog series about leading through change, Clare Norman discusses the conversations leaders might have as lock-down is reversed.
