Leadership Archives - The Career Success Doctor

Career Success And Your Area Of Expertise

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Nicola Cairncross for her podcast ‘The Business Success Factory, which you can listen to here. Nicola is an outstanding example of someone who uses podcasting (and other social media) to expand her authority as an expert.

Whether your aim is to get to the top of your profession, or to get out and start your own business, having a reputation as an authority, an expert, or the ‘go-to’ person on a particular subject is SO important. I have two areas: career success and spiritually minded business leadership. Peresonal authority, expertise and reputation is something I’m looking forward to interviewing Dan Priestley about for our upcoming Career Sizzle Summit.

Dan is a master of the art of creating that go-to presence: something he calls becoming a ‘Key Person Of Influence’.

His approach is highly structured, but if you want to start the quick and dirty way, the first step is to decide what your chosen area of expertise is. It may already be glaringly obvious, but if it isn’t, then it’s time to look inside yourself, and find out what it is. The Strengths and Weaknesses exercise in my free download, ‘How To Get The Success And Recognition You Deserve’ is an excellent starting point.

Once you have your area of expertise, it’s time to decide how to bottle it, package it, and let people know about it, and you. As women we’re terribly good at hiding our light under a bushel, but from a career perspective this doesn’t actually serve us.

Time to get started!

Thinking Of Entrepreneurship? 10 Facts You Didn’t Know

Written by Natalia

When we are thinking of entrepreneurship -either in terms of thinking to start our own business, or in terms of thinking the real people behind companies- we tend to have some specific stereotypes in mind. Did you know that it’s not always the case?

For example, one of the most common stereotypes has to do with age. Almost everyone thinks that you have to be in your mid-twenties to be an entrepreneur, but we have already discussed that there’s no such thing as “too old to be an entrepreneur”.

A Kauffman Foundation report called “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur” proves that almost everything we think we know about entrepreneurship and holds us back, isn’t (completely) true; but it’s mostly based on stereotypes. Facebook, Apple and Google were all started at a college student’s garage after all!

According to this survey, the most common barrier to entrepreneurial success is not age, time, or work-life balance. It is the lack of willingness and/or ability to take risks (98% of respondents).

I saw on social media today a very interesting article by Jeff Haden on Inc., which is based on this report.

” Picture the average entrepreneur and you probably think of someone young, living the ramen noodles lifestyle, working a crazy number of hours — and often sleeping under the desk.
(…)
And, if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the report also offers hope that there’s still a time – and a place – for you. “

Read the whole article here: “10 Facts About Entrepreneurs That May Surprise You”

Are you thinking of entrepreneurship? What holds you back?

Great Leaders Make You Feel Safe

Written by Natalia

We recently talked about how the altruistic leadership model impacts employees’ performance and a company’s success. But apart from being humble, great leaders make you feel safe.

According to management theorist Simon Sinek, in a recent TED Talk “Why good leaders make you feel safe“, leaders should make employees feel safe in the organisation in order to trigger the feelings of trust and cooperation.

“You see, if the conditions are wrong, we are forced to expend our own time and energy to protect ourselves from each other, and that inherently weakens the organization. When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally combine our talents and our strengths and work tirelessly to face the dangers outside and seize the opportunities.”

Good leaders make you feel safe by putting their interests aside for the greater good; by wanting you to achieve more; by helping you when you need it. As he puts it, “Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people”. Isn’t this altruistic?

As he analyses the importance of feeling safe at your job, he gives examples of how some organisations provide safety to their employees and what results they produced. He compares leadership to parenthood, but what stood out to me was the likeness to military life.

In the video below you can watch his whole speech. And in my opinion, these are 12 minutes well spent.

Leadership is a choice; not a rank. Leadership means courage and taking risks. Do not confuse leadership with authority. We never follow authorities, we obey because there’s the element of fear. We follow leaders. And great leaders create trust and make you feel safe.

Isn’t that the organization we would all like to work in?

A Humble Leader Is The Best Leader

Written by Natalia

The dictionary defines humility as modesty, not being arrogant, having a feeling of insignificance, not believing that you are superior to others and being courteously respectful. But what humility has to do with leadership? Why being a humble leader is so important?

A recent study by Catalyst (“Inclusive Leadership: The View From Six Countries“) shows that when employees feel more included in their work groups, they are more innovative in their jobs (identifying opportunities for new products and processes and trying out new ideas and approaches to problems) and more engaged in team citizenship behaviours (going above and beyond the “call of duty” to help other team members and meet work group objectives).

According to the study, in order to create an environment where employees feel included, managers need to follow the altruistic leadership model. The four attributes of altruistic leadership are empowerment (empower employees to learn, develop and excel), humility (such as learning from criticism, admitting mistakes, and seeking contributors), courage (such as putting personal interests aside for the general good and taking personal risks), and accountability (showing confidence to employees by holding them responsible for results).

Being a humble leader was the second most important behaviour in this study (humility was right after empowerment), although it might be a little unusual to link humility with leadership. When we think of leadership, we often think attributes like self-promotion. But, as the study shows, being and altruistic leader -thus, a humble leader- will help your employees create the sense of belonging and uniqueness; the key elements of feeling included.

How to be a humble leader?

Admit your mistakes, learn from them and share them so that others can learn too
Listen, engage in dialogues and learn from others’ point of view
When uncertain, or lacking certain skills and/or knowledge, admit it and seek the right people who can contribute to the team

Erica Bell, in her article in talentzoo.com, provides some good tips on how to be a humble leader.

” If you want to be a CEO, COO, or hold any leadership position, you’ll have to manage others effectively. Part of being an effective leader is remaining humble. While you may be able to request major adjustments within the company as whole or your customer call center department, you won’t be successful unless you have the respect of those who are executing the projects you’ve planned. Humble leaders make others feel important and valued. Being humble isn’t always easy after working hard to get to a leadership position. Here’s what you can do to stay more grounded… “

Read the whole article here: “How to Be a Humble Leader”

What The Pope Can Teach Us About Leadership

Written by The Career Success Doctor

My PhD is in spirituality and leadership, so I was really interested to read an article this morning discussing what the Pope can teach us about leadership. I’m not a Catholic, but I have been really impressed by some of the actions Pope Francis has taken. He is clearly living in accordance with his beliefs – starting with the washing of the feet of some of the most alienated people in society – and, as this article shows, he walks his talk.

The research on leadership shows clearly that people look for leaders they can trust, and authenticity (walking the talk, living by your beliefs and being willing to stand up and stand out for what you believe in) is an important element in creating that trust. So is the ability to trust others through delegation. The best leaders give opportunities to their people, they stretch them, they rejoice in their development. And they recognise that, to be a truly successful leader you cannot do it on your own.

As a student of what makes a good leader, I have looked at many leadership models, including authentic leadership and servant leadership, and the Pope incorporates many of these models into his leadership style.

If you are in a leadership role, or you aspire to move into a leadership role, then the current Pope is a powerful example of what good leadership looks like, irrespective of whether or not you support his religious views.

You can read the full article on the 7 management lessons of Pope Francis here, and if you’re interested in seeing a copy of a paper I wrote on the subject of leadership and spirituality, leave a comment in the comments box below.

How to be a humble leader?

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg