Retreat or Advance

You are a leader. You have a responsibility to take the right decisions.  The right decisions for your organisation, for your people, for yourself and for our wider society.

So when times are tough, when costs rise and income falls what do you do?  

Do you cut back, conserve what you have and wait it out?

Do you ignore it and hope it won't affect you?

Do you innovate and become even more creative to find alternatives that work under the new conditions?

The first two are quite natural reactions.  When something that frightens us approaches it is quite natural to either retreat or deny (for as long as possible), but the fact that they are natural reactions does not make them the right reactions in business.

A recent study by the University of Cambridge  shows that success leads to greater boldness (and potentially to over reaching), while poor performance can lead to conservativeness.  According to the study these are hormonal responses where success leads to higher levels of testosterone promoting higher levels of risk taking and fear leads to higher levels of cortisol and more caution.

Our hormonal responses evolved over millions of years to help us deal with the conditions we experienced at that time.  When we were hunter gatherers these responses would have been entirely appropriate, but are they still appropriate in our modern society?

If we retreat when conditions are challenging we may actually be increasing the risks rather than reducing them.

For example if many people respond by retreating out of  fear of crisis that alone will create a crisis.

If the market changes and what we have been doing is no longer appropriate for the market, then might it not be better to do something that is appropriate for the market, rather than just less of what is not appropriate.

As leaders our role is to predict and preempt crisis with new strategies for success, not to wait for it to hit and then retreat to a less painful place.

Those who succeed in challenging times are the ones who seek out and create opportunities.

This means investing time and energy in creative meetings to find opportunities that your existing assets can service under new market conditions.  Rather than investing time and energy in meetings to work out who to make redundant.

If you want to have a chat about how to design effective creative meetings give me a call.

nx

neil crofts

authentic transformation

www.authentictransformation.co.uk

neil@authentictransformation.co.uk

+44 7775 658534

New situation, new leadership

Banks found to be profiteering on the back of exploitative lending, leading to a credit crunch and turmoil on the markets, leading to falling property values and making a living becoming more of a challenge.

It is a familiar scenario to anyone over about 35 years.  The question is - how do we respond?

Do we respond the same way as we have before or do we look for a new response?

The trouble with the same response as before is that we know that it leads back in a loop right round to the same place again in a few years time.

The trouble with a new response is that when people are already frightened by challenging situations it is difficult to persuade them to try something new - it is counter cultural.  

The common response is to increase control, to restrain, to limit.

Perhaps a new response would be to advance to authenticity?  To advance to understanding that what we are looking for in life is peace and happiness and to head directly for that, rather than going the long way around through fear and greed.

As authentic leaders it is absolutely our responsibility at this time to provide leadership, at work, at home, in our communities, in the media and in government.

In my new free e-book "What is your purpose, know it live it" there is a map that shows how it is our interpretation of events and experiences that is the key to changing outcomes.  This map is as true for societies as it is for individuals.

If we interpret things negatively we spiral downwards, if we interpret things the same way, we go back around the same loop again.  If we interpret things positively we create an upwards spiral.

To shift away from the downward spiral and the loop and into the upwards spiral we need to see challenges as opportunities.  

Perhaps the banks discrediting themselves creates the opportunity for new financial models and organisations with greater integrity to flourish - like Zopa and Triodos.

Perhaps it is time for you to lead the creation of a new financial model?

For support in your authentic leadership see www.authentictransformation.co.uk.

with love

nx

What is Authentic? What is Leadership?

I am starting this blog as a way of collectively exploring and promoting authentic leadership.

Let's start with a few definitions:

Authenticity - from a personal perspective this is about knowing who you are and being it without fear or compromise in all situations.

From an organisational perspective this is about being true to the purpose of the organisation in a holistic and integrated way. If the organisation is a business, this means generating profit through the pursuit of that purpose.

The simplest definition of leadership is an individual or organisation that has followers.

So authenticity is about being true to your own values and purpose - not necessarily to socially fashionable values. Having said that authenticity contributes to society rather than damages it, because none of us is authentically dysfunctional or destructive (except for some suffering mental illness).

And leadership is about others willingly following without the leader needing to make them.

Therefore Authentic Leadership is about inspiring others to follow your personal or organisational purpose or values.

For a more detailed definition see my free e-book "Authentic Leadership - 8 keys to successfully leading people (without selling your soul)."

Steve Jobs at Apple is an interesting and controversial example of Authentic Leadership - he is by no means easy going, but he is both utterly true to his purpose and values and certainly has followers.  Wired has an interesting article about the Apple and Jobs form of authenticity.

The bit that is missing in this article is that the reason people follow Jobs is that they share his purpose.  And the reason that people leave, voluntarily or otherwise is because they are not or are no longer aligned to that purpose.

Do not mistake the loving and passionate aspects of authenticity for tolerance or being easy going.  Authenticity in business and leadership is also about relentless focus on the purpose.

For more on authenticity in life and business see www.authentictransformation.co.uk