21 Ways To Be Better

Morning Leaders,

Today I wanted to plant some seeds and give you some ideas for things to think about to upgrade yourself and improve as a leader, or whatever journey you are on. So, no messing around, here are not only 21 ways to be a better leader, but also a better person.

1) Be Human - rules, processes, and policies are all in place for normal conditions and business as usual. Life is not as straightforward as that, you have to recognise at times you need to exercise your authority and bend the rules. People go through difficult situations and we need to foster an environment of flexibility and openness to always do right by the individual.

2) Emotional Intelligence - Self Awareness, Self Regulation, Empathy, Social Skills and Internal Motivation are all key areas of Emotional Intelligence. You will grow significantly by working on these areas and developing your awareness. Further reading here.

3) Personal Development - you are either growing or dying. Don’t standstill. If you want to move forward and get more out of your career and your life you have to be open to continually looking to improve yourself. Focus on learning something new or improving every single day, the accumulative daily effort over time leads to astounding improvement and success. My go-to resources are Books, Mentors, and TED Talks.

4) Kaizen - is a Japanese term meaning "change for the better" or "continuous improvement." Always be looking to deliver more and make things better every day. Toyota achieved much of its early success by adopting this philosophy, they maximized quality, reduced waste, and looked for improvements constantly.

5) Develop more Leaders - focus on creating more leaders, not followers. This means inviting people into the ideation, enlisting them in the decision-making process, empowering them to make decisions, and challenging them to think critically. So whether you are present or not, your people can still think for themselves, make effective decisions and march on. A team with too many followers lacks creativity, energy and grinds to a halt when the leader is not present, which is not a great way to run a team or organisation.

6) Self Management - some leaders are exceptional at leading their people and looking after others but don’t do a great job of looking after themselves. Ensure you’re taking good care of your physical and mental health by doing the right things to ensure you can turn up to be your best for your people.

7) Journaling - a really powerful way to facilitate self-awareness. Try it. Journaling consistently will open your mind, your awareness and allow time for reflection and huge gains in perspective. Some other benefits in this article.

8) Thinking Time - find time in your week or when you’re away from your work to just sit and think. Removed from the noise and distractions you’ll find you can think and get creative about improvements or things you need to fix. You cannot achieve this Flow State when you’re in the thick of it.

9) Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck’s Fixed vs Growth Mindset really does have a profound impact on how we lead our lives. A Fixed Mindset is a person that doesn’t learn from their mistakes, they see their skills as fixed, they don’t try and they’ll happily blame other people for their shortcomings. Someone on the other hand with a Growth Mindset sees the opportunity in the face of setback, they know because they’re not there today, it doesn’t mean they cannot gain new experiences, skills, and perspective and be there tomorrow. Growth Mindset people achieve so much more.

10) Giving - the real secret of living? Is Giving. Whether to your community, a random stranger, or people around you. Offer your time, money, or resources to help others. Not only does it provide tremendous value, but it’s also very rewarding and has a funny way of coming back to help you. The real beauty of giving is that it’s not a one-time thing; rather it’s a spirit that you carry with you.

11) Champion - be a champion of change and doing the right things to support the business. Putting your hand up for that new initiative or support the effort of others to make something successful. Help other people to win.

12) Courageous - sometimes you need to disagree, stand up, and go against the grain at times. It’s not easy, but it’s sometimes the right thing to do if it’s what you believe. Do yourself a favour and start building more mental resiliency now, challenge yourself each day to do something uncomfortable.

13) Belief System - what you believe is how you live. Be open to changing what you believe. Your thoughts drive your emotions which impact your decisions. These decisions shape the actions and ultimately the results you see. Some one-off or tough experiences create limiting beliefs that hinder people for years and years and they don’t realise it, it’s just what they believe. Change what you believe, you change your results. Some ideas here around beliefs.

14) Enlist - bring your team and your people along for the ride. Always look to collaborate. Organise team brainstorming meetings to discover ways to improve and overcome challenges. You’ll be amazed at some of the viewpoints and perspectives shared when you just sit and listen. People feel a higher sense of purpose and engagement when they’re contributing to something meaningful.

15) Coaching - spend less time giving advice and telling people what to do, and more time listening and asking questions. As the old saying goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Developing people and giving them the tools and frameworks to solve their own questions or challenges really helps scale a high-performing team based on trust and autonomy.

16) Cheerleader - be your people’s number one fan. Motivate and inspire them to keep going, dig in and improve every day. Encourage them to step up and constantly be looking to level up their skills. Publically praise them for all the good work they’re doing, they’ll appreciate it.

17) Blockers - your team or people will have friction or noise in their environment. Your role is to clear these blockers and at times fight their corner. Ensure you’re always doing right by them and there is nothing stopping them from being successful.

18) Goals - set goals and objectives for what you want to achieve. Leaders have clearly defined goals for what success looks like, and they then map out a plan to get them there. Without goals, we don’t have direction or focus and we end up drowning in the busy work.

19) Communication - exceptional leaders know how to communicate with their team. Spending more time with your team and interacting with them will help you learn so much.

20) Documentation - document your processes, your interactions, your thoughts, your plan, your mistakes, your tasks and your journey. Write stuff down, it helps you remain super organised. A “Second Brain” is a powerful way to build a personal digital repository of your life’s work. See more here.

21) Strategic Planning - having a road map for the next 6 - 12 months is really important so you can plan effectively. Leaders who have a great plan know where they’re going and feel more comfortable with the journey. They know things are not always going to be rosy but they have a plan which can help them navigate the challenges ahead.

Thanks for reading. Hope these ideas help you to think about what you could be improving on and what skills you wish to master.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

• YouTube Video - Jack Welch on Management Style. Jack talks about how to be a great manager and the environment you should be creating.

• Book - 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. This book explores the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. Patrick outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.

• Book - The One Minute Manager. This easily-read story quickly demonstrates three very practical management techniques: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands. The book is brief, the language is simple, and best of all … it works.

Quote of the Week

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