DO YOUR PEOPLE FEEL SAFE?

TED Talks are 20 minute long videos. They are about 'ideas worth sharing'. The format ensures that a very important point is made in a relatively short period. They are a great way to expand your thinking and challenge your leadership.

• YOU SIMPLY MUST MAKE 20 MINUTES TO WATCH THIS

Simon Sinek is an author and leadership guru. This TED Talk is called 'Why good leaders make you feel safe'. I'll share a couple of the key points he makes in the talk, but it won't compare to watching it.

• Leaders create 'circles of safety' in their organisations. They make their people feel cared for and that they belong. In return, they show a deep sense of trust and cooperation.

• He says great leaders act like good parents. We all want to give our kids an education, opportunity, discipline when appropriate, but fundamentally a chance to achieve. Great leaders do these things for their employees.

• He shares several compelling stories that illustrate that when leaders put the interests of their people first, they respond with outstanding trust and cooperation.

Thinking about your leadership, do your people feel safe? Do they feel like they belong? Would you like them to feel a deeper sense of trust in you, their leader, and in each other? Would you like them to cooperate more?

Putting them first and thinking about your 'heart count' more than 'head count' is the key (you'll have to watch the TED Talk to fully understand).

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE HAYNE PLANE

Possibly the biggest story in Australian sport this year is about National Rugby League player, Jarryd Hayne, who has just been signed by the San Francisco 49ers to play professional football in the USA. Even if you are not a sports nut there are plenty of leadership lessons to learn from the man they call 'The Hayne Plane'.

He dared to dream. Hayne has said that he has always dreamed of playing NFL. A kid who had a humble upbringing in the south west of Sydney, dreamed of playing professional sport on the other side of the world? Go figure.

He backed himself. Hayne is faster, stronger and more talented than most, but his greatest asset is his self belief. Many people were surprised at his decision to leave NRL and few thought he'd make it (me included). Hayne only needed one person to believe in him - Jarryd Hayne. 

He took a risk. 49ers coach Jim Tomsula talks about the millions and millions of American kids who grow up playing the game, dreaming of making it, but never do. He is amazed that Hayne, who has never played the game, risked everything to make it into NFL.

He's versatile. One of the reasons the 49ers have picked him up is that he can cover several positions and roles. That's rare in NFL. He has worked hard at refining the skills needed for a range of positions and this increased his appeal to the 49ers.

He works hard. One of the things that impressed the 49ers was Hayne's work ethic. Despite being an elite NRL player he had plenty to learn about the highly technical game of NFL and to be fit enough and strong enough to play it. He has been single minded about doing whatever he could to succeed.

I find the story inspiring and can't help but wonder what it might be like if more of us took a leaf out of his book?

THE MOST COMMON ADVICE I GIVE LEADERS - GET CLEAR.

Some years ago I was helping a client work out how to deal with a difficult employee. The client was 'stuck' on how to get the employee to improve her performance. He claimed he had tried everything. I asked a simple question. "Does the employee know your expectations of her performance?" The reply came, "Well, she should".  The situation was resolved by a simple, straightforward conversation where the manager clarified his expectations of the employee's behaviour. Problem solved, but only when the manager got clear.

Here are some other things leaders need to get clear on.
 
Get clear on vision. What do you want your organisation to look like in the future? Create a clear picture and share it with your people.
 
Get clear on strategy and action. Plan the things that you are going to do to achieve the vision. Express them as goals.
 
Get clear on priorities. Decide on the most important things that you need to work on first.
 
Get clear on culture and values. Determine your guiding principles and your expectations of how people will conduct themselves.
 
Get on structure. Make sure everyone knows their responsibilities, expectations, reporting lines and communication lines.
 
Get clear on performance. Give people frequent, honest, relevant feedback.

If it's not clear it's cloudy, foggy, hazy or smudgy. Getting clear most often means simplifying the situation. Blow the clouds or haze away, help the fog to lift, or wipe away the smudges. If you want to lead effectively, get clear.

What sort of a lens are you looking through right now?

THE ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW IS DEAD ... OR IS IT?

The thought of the dreaded annual performance review leaves many with cold sweats. There has been much celebration at the news that one of the world's largest professional services companies, Accenture, will soon stop doing annual performance reviews with its 330,000 employees. Read more here. It is likely that many will follow suit. But before you rush into ditching reviews at your place, let's understand the issue a little more.

Imagine if a meteorologist (weather dude), wandered out of her office on just one day per year, looked at the sky and recorded what was happening. In her report she could say that 2014 was rainy. She would be right because on the day the observation was made, it was indeed raining.  But is she right drawing the conclusion that the whole year was rainy? The same crazy thing happens in many organisations with performance reviews. 

There is nothing wrong with performance reviews if they give meaningful feedback to employees based on agreed criteria and are done fairly and objectively. The problem in most cases is that they are not done in this context. They are usually seen as a chore, a boring administrative task which is rushed and is more about a manager ticking off a KPI. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. No wonder they have a bad name.

Despite Accenture ditching the annual review, the company is now even more concerned about giving meaningful feedback to its employees. What wasn't covered in many of the news reports is that they are moving away from the one-off, annual review to more frequent, more meaningful, more personalised reviews. They understand that providing performance feedback is vital to getting the best from people.

Can you imagine if a footy coach only gave a player feedback on his performance at the end of the year? This would rob the player of the opportunity to do better in every training session and every game.

This has massive implications for leaders.  If you thought you were escaping the dreaded one-off annual process, it is now being replaced with a constant, ongoing expectation that you will watch, evaluate and feedback, every day!
 
What is your experience with performance reviews?

5 THINGS YOU MUST DO WHEN IMPLEMENTING CHANGE

The only constant in life is change. Leading is all about change, so if you want to be an effective leader, you need to be good at change.
 
1. Be the change you want to see in others. With thanks to Gandhi, we need to demonstrate to others that we are not above changing. Often leaders get frustrated that others won't or can't seem to change. My advice is to look in the mirror and start with you.

2. Be really certain that the change is needed and be able to clearly justify why. People won't come with you if they can't see why the change is needed. You need to be able to mount a compelling case in support of the change. Link it to either your strategic direction or adding value to the customer, or both. If you can't, ask yourself why you are doing it. 

3. Describe exactly what success looks like. Before you start, work out what you want. What is your vision once the change is successfully implemented? Use this picture to convince others to come with you.

4. Understand and overcome resistance to the change. Who might resist the change and how might they resist it? How can you overcome this resistance? Usually, if you get the first three steps right (listed above), resistance will be minimal. But as a rule, involving people in designing and implementing the change works better than just announcing it to them.

5. Measure the change and anchor it. What gets measured gets done. Monitor the change and make adjustments if needed. If you take your focus off the change it is likely that things will go back to the old way. Once the change has been proven successful, anchor it. Make it the way you do things.

Bonus Tip: Start small, pilot or test things before completely committing. Chances are you will learn things from the test run. Once it looks like the change will work, ramp it up.