BREAK THE LEADERSHIP RULES AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS

In short, there are some rules for leadership. Like in many other areas of life, if you break the rules there are consequences.

In my book 'Road Rules for Leadership' I list the 21 rules for leadership.

Rule Number 1 stands alone. It is 'Managing is not enough. You need to lead'. If you just focus on managing you will get the paperwork done but you won't take the organisation and its people forward.

The other 20 rules are grouped under the following broad headings. Here's what happens if you break the rules.

Vision - if you don't have vision as a leader, you focus only on the present. You won't be thinking about the future.

Authenticity - if you are not authentic, you are a cheap fake. People will work that out and won't follow you.

Action - many leaders talk themselves up, but don't follow up and don't get things done. They waste time.

Responsibility - if you don't understand and accept the responsibilities of your job, you'll be looking for others to blame.

Inspiration - if you think it's all about you, your people won't grow and develop.

In summary, settling for just managing, focusing only on the present, faking your way through life, wasting time, dodging responsibility and thinking that it's all about you breaks all the rules of leadership. The results can be catastrophic.

Conversely, living by the 'Road Rules for Leadership' is not that hard and will reap huge rewards for your team, your organisation and you.

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Road Rules for Leadership Poster

WHERE IS YOUR FOCUS - PAPERWORK OR PEOPLE WORK?

Most of us have conflicting priorities and are time poor. How do we get everything done that needs to be done? When we have lots of things demanding our attention, which ones do we do first?

A trap that many of us fall into is to focus on the things that scream loudest. These might include meeting an important deadline, getting a monthly report submitted or general day-to-day operations. While not literally true, I call these things paperwork. They are important, they have become urgent and as leaders we must do them.

The problem is, if we focus only on the paperwork, the people work doesn't get done. Simply walking around your workplace, asking your staff how they are going and what you can do to help them do their job, is people work. Getting to know your staff as people, not just as a way to get the work done, is people work. Building their strengths, lifting their confidence, giving them opportunities to shine, is people work.

There is no escaping the need for paperwork to be done (though many of us make the situation worse by being disorganised). The biggest potential for impact and our most important responsibility as leaders is to grow and develop our people.

Let us know if we can help you focus on your people work.

ARE YOU CHOOSING LEADERSHIP OR 'LIKERSHIP'?

Everyone likes to be liked. Some will say they don't care, but I don't believe them. We feel better when people like us.

One of the biggest challenges of leadership is making the right decisions, even if that means that people won't like us. If you are making decisions primarily so that people will keep liking you, you are most likely making the wrong decisions and losing respect at the same time.

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off'.

US General Colin Powell

Leaders who choose 'likership' will feel warm and fuzzy, that everyone thinks they're a great guy. They will have followers but not for the right reasons. You don't want people to support you only because they like you. You want support because they respect you and what you are doing.

You may not like to hear this, but leadership takes courage, lots of it. The courage to do things, every day, that you don't want to. Like making decisions that you know are right, but you also know that people aren't necessarily going to like them. You make them anyway. You choose leadership.

Go for respect first, like second, every time.

ONE THING THAT YOU SHOULD DO WITH THE LESS THAN 0.3% OF 2014 THAT IS LEFT.

364 days gone, one day of 2014 left. Less than 1% of the year left. It's not too late to do something really valuable that just might set you up for a great 2015.

This is a very powerful reflective exercise that I do with many of my clients who are striving to be the best they can be. It should take no more than 15 minutes. It will set up a great platform for you to launch into 2015.

What are you grateful for? Take an A4 sheet of paper. Write 'What I am grateful for' in the centre. Around it list the things in your life that you are grateful for. Don't think too hard about it, just write.

Family, friends, health, work, living in Australia, opportunities, freedom, safety, your financial position, your own skills and abilities.

Most people who do the exercise are amazed at just how many good things they have in their lives. They also realise that they don't stop to reflect and be thankful for what they have.

Why not take the task just one more step and say "thank you" to the people around you. Let them know that you are grateful for them.

FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR A HAPPIER TEAM IN 2015

Call me weird, but I want people to be happy to go to work. It worries me that what seems to be a majority of us dreads going to work.When you think that most of us spend half of our waking hours at work, it is important that we find work a happy place.

A happy team has less sickies, is more productive, is safer, serves customers better and is more likely to be successful. An unhappy team will have higher turnover, will experience more conflict, and will care less about the organisation.

There is strong evidence that a happy, engaged workforce is more likely do well in terms of profitability, customer satisfaction, quality and many other measures of success.

Here are five things you can do as leader to increase the level of happiness and engagement from your team members.

1. Make your expectations of their performance crystal clear. Don’t expect people to be mind readers. Just be straight about what you want them to do.
2. Give regular and honest feedback on their performance. This can be both formal and informal. The point is it must be frequent and authentic.
3. Share the vision for the organisation with them. Let people know what the big picture is. Where are you taking them?
4. Give them opportunities to grow and develop. People generally want to be the best they can be. Help them to be.
5. Create a team feel so that they feel like they belong. This is a very powerful concept. We all want to feel like we are a part of something.

It really doesn’t have to be much more complex than that. If we can help you to plan or achieve the above, let us know.