In 2002, a personal mastery teacher named Gita Bellin taught me a mediation practice called the ‘Dynamic Mind Practice’, which is definitely one of the best things I do for myself each day. There are so many benefits including relaxation, rejuvenation, being more present, managing emotions, clarity of thought, creativity, intuition, ability to focus the mind, as well as getting a good night’s sleep. The DMP App is free and explains it all, including Gita leading you in and out of the mindfulness practice. Enjoy!
Uncovering your 'immunity' to change
People and organisations resist change in different ways. Harvard University professors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey have analysed the sources of resistance and explained the methods to overcome them in their book “Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organisation.”
Kegan and Lahey start the book by referring to a recent study which showed that when doctors told heart patients they would die if they didn’t change their habits, only one in seven patients was able to follow the changes successfully.
The authors explain that everybody with immunity to change has two types of commitment: visible commitment and hidden commitment. Visible commitment is what we express as our commitment, while the hidden commitment is our inner desires and our assumptions that support these desires. The third element is the behavior that is working against the change. The authors define this as doing, or sometimes not doing, something. The simplest example to illustrate this theory is weight loss. The visible commitment of somebody is to lose weight. The behavior requiring change is overeating or eating when the person isn’t hungry. If the person wants to lose weight, why does he behave in the opposite way? Because there is a hidden commitment. The person may want to be full of energy, may believe that eating is fun or doesn’t give value to being physically attractive.
The authors argue that people cannot change because of their hidden commitments: If we can think and talk about our hidden commitments and supporting assumptions then, we can keep up with our visible commitments.
This book is definitely worth a read.
The importance of culture
Culture can be a significant competitive advantage and it is not easily replicable. However, most organisations are not investing in culture at the level that will set them apart from their competitors. To build the case for investing in cultural improvement requires a thorough understanding of the cost of the current culture. The business case is strong in the areas of speed, accountability, rigour, collaboration and attractiveness to customers and employees, and it is in these areas that the link between culture and performance is most easily demonstrated. Carolyn Taylor’s (author of ‘Walking the talk’) definition of culture is the result of messages that are received about what is really valued - so, culture management is about message management. People align their behaviour to these messages in order to fit in. Changing a culture requires a systematic and planned change to these messages, whose sources are behaviours, symbols and systems - so that the desired culture can be created and sustained.
Some tips for changing the culture….
Culture is about messages received about what is important - change the messages and you change the culture.
Find out what people believe is really valued - not what it says in your values statement.
Build the business case for culture change specific to your organisation.
Problems with speed, rigour, accountability, silos and insensitivity to customers or employees are particularly suitable to a cultural solution.
Focus you efforts - pick one element of a great culture and use it to pull the rest along.
Build off your existing natural cultural strengths.
Spend most of your investment on changing mindsets - when these change, the rest will follow.
Don’t embark on this process unless you are confident you can get some of the top team to change how they think.
Playing to your strengths
Utilising our strengths in whatever we do is critical to achieving the results you desire - and it positively impacts our base level of happiness, as we are applying our unique strengths to our day-to-day situations. A very valuable exercise is to find out what your signature strengths are. Martin Seligman is the founder of Positive Psychology, a new branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions. His research has demonstrated that it is possible to be happier — to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances.
Log into his website www.authentichappiness.com and register to complete the VIA Signature Strengths Questionaire. Once you find out what your top strengths are, think of ways of how you can build them into your day-to-day activities. This will have an impact on both the results you get, and the level of engagement and happiness you experience.
Bringing your purpose to life
It’s important to stop and reflect on your purpose and how you can bring it more to life. Whether it’s to be a better parent, or a more inspiring leader, or to play your role in your organisation living its purpose – the key is to think about what you can do differently to bring it even more to life every day.
I always loved the story of a housekeeper at the New York Ritz-Carlton living the company purpose ‘enlivening the senses’ - rather than simply cleaning up a room. As I heard it told….
A customer wrote to the Ritz-Carlton expressing his astonishment at the behaviour of the housekeeper during a stay in New York with his wife and daughter. After a day sight-seeing in the city, they returned to their room, only for the daughter to complain that her teddy bear was missing. After a quick search, they found it hidden in the towel cupboard, with a foil-wrapped chocolate clasped in its paws. The next day, the bear had disappeared again; the daughter found it under the bed with another chocolate in its paws. At the end of each day, for the duration of their stay, the daughter couldn’t wait to get back to the room to play ‘find the teddy’ with a housekeeping maid she never actually met. The customer wrote “it was the best part of her stay, and I’ll always remember that holiday fondly for one thing - the look on my daughter’s face of sheer delight every time we got back to our room.”
What can you do (even if it’s the smallest things) to help bring your personal, professional and/or organisation’s purpose more to life?
Stopping the blame game
Events such as the massive Gulf oil spill have demonstrated an extremely murky game of blame. Playing the blame game never works. Research shows that people who blame others for their mistakes lose status, learn less, and perform worse relative to those who own up to their mistakes – and organisations with a rampant culture of blame have a serious disadvantage when it comes to creativity, learning, innovation, and productive risk-taking.
That’s why creating a culture of psychological safety is one of the most important things a leader can do. A recent study by the Stanford Graduate School of Business (published in the Harvard Business Review) showed that merely being exposed to someone else making a blame attribution for a mistake was enough to cause people to turn around and blame others for completely unrelated failures. The findings mean that blame can spread virally, and it appears that all you have to do to “catch” the blame virus is to be exposed to someone else passing the buck.
They also, thankfully, offer some insight into how to prevent the spread of blame in organisations. Here are a few practical steps you can take:
• Don’t blame others for your mistakes. The temptation is huge to point the finger elsewhere when you make a mistake. Resist it. Not only will you gain respect and loyalty from your followers, you’ll also help to prevent a culture of blame from emerging.
• When you do blame, do so constructively. There are times when people’s mistakes really do need to be surfaced in public. In these cases, make sure to highlight that the goal is to learn from mistakes, not to publicly humiliate those who make them.
• Set an example by confidently taking ownership for failures. Our findings showed that blame was contagious, but not among those who felt psychologically secure. So try to foster a strong sense of inner security in order to reduce the chances that you’ll lash out at others.
• Always focus on learning. Creating a culture where learning - rather than avoiding mistakes - is the top priority, will help to ensure that people feel free to talk about and learn from their errors.
• Reward people for making mistakes. Some companies are actually starting to incentivise employees to make mistakes, so long as the mistakes can teach valuable lessons that lead to future innovation.
Seeing what is possible
I love this old story…
Two shoe salesmen were sent on a mission to Africa in the 1900’s to find out if there were any opportunities for selling shoes. They both wrote telegrams back to their head office in Manchester. One wrote “Situation hopeless. Stop. They don’t wear shoes.” The other one wrote “Glorious opportunity. Stop. They don’t have any shoes yet.”
No matter situation you find yourself in, notice what your mindset is. Ask yourself: “am I looking for what is possible?”
Building your resilience
Resilience is emerging as the seminal skill for leaders in tough economic environments. The American Psychological Association defines it as ‘the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, and from sources of stress such as work pressures, health, family or relationship problems’.
A resilient person is not only able to handle such experiences in the moment, but also to bounce back afterward. The good news is that leaders can develop resilience by managing their thoughts, behaviours and actions. The APA’s guide to developing individual resilience, sets out 10 steps which every leader should take time to study:
1. Develop supportive and caring relationships at home, among friends and colleagues. Accept help and support and help others when they need it.
2. Remember that some crises are beyond your control. You can’t change events but you can change the way you interpret and react to them. Try to accept this and look ahead.
3. Accept that change is part of life and that you will have to adapt to changing circumstances.
4. Set some realistic goals and take regular small steps towards achieving them. Ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I can accomplish today?” rather than focusing on the overarching goal.
5. Be decisive. Do as much as you can rather than avoiding problems and hoping they will go away.
6. Try to understand your own experiences of dealing with loss, hardship or emotional problems. Appreciate what you have learned from these events.
7. Develop a positive view about yourself and be confident in your strengths and abilities.
8. Try to take a longer-term perspective and don’t blow the significance of the event out of proportion.
9. Stay hopeful and optimistic. Visualise what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear.
10. Look after yourself - your health, fitness and need for relaxation and peace. This will give you the strength and balance to deal with difficult situations.
Rule Number 6
Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologises, and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: “Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.” Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: “My dear friend, I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?” “Very simple,” replies the resident prime minister. “Rule Number 6 is ‘Don’t take yourself so damn seriously.’” “Ah,” says his visitor, “that is a fine rule.” After a moment of pondering, he inquires, “And what, may I ask, are the other rules?” “There aren’t any.”
This comes from “The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life” by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. It’s worth a read….and it’s a rule worth remembering!
Attributes of inspirational leadership
In a recent survey of more than 1500 managers, people were asked what they would most like to see in their leaders. The most popular answer, mentioned by over 55% of people, was ‘inspiration’. When asked if they would describe their current leader as ‘inspiring’, only 11% said yes.”
Inspirational leadership is the purest expression of leadership because it creates a sense of intrinsic motivation within the follower. Being inspirational is more than just a vision, speech, or event. It’s more of an attitude, a mindset, and a process that needs to be honed and committed to with everything you do. Author John C Maxwell suggests there are five key attributes of an inspirational leader:
1. Attitude of service To be an inspirational leader, you must adopt an attitude of service toward those you lead. This requires laying aside selfish interests to add value to another person. When you serve, you awaken something magnetic inside of you. People are drawn to follow you because they know you’ll find ways to make them better.
2. Affirmation To inspire means to have a positive view of others. If we’re not careful, we become fault-finders, magnifying the flaws in everyone around us. Instead, leaders ought to search for the best traits within a person and commit to uncovering them.
3. Attentiveness Great inspirers know the desires of those they lead. As much as people respect the knowledge and ability of their leaders, these are secondary concerns for them. They don’t care how much their leaders know until they know how much their leaders care. When leaders attend to the deeply felt needs of their team, the determination and commitment of each team member is unleashed.
4. Availability Leaders inspire by intentionally investing time in the people they lead. They make themselves available. People cannot be nurtured from a distance or by infrequent spurts of attention. They need a leader to spend time with them - planned time, not just a conversation in passing.
5. Authenticity To inspire, leaders have to be genuine. More than anything else, followers want to believe in and trust their leaders. However, when leaders break promises or fail to honor commitments, they reveal themselves as being inauthentic, and they lose credibility. Trust rests upon a foundation of authenticity. To gain trust, a leader must consistently align words and deeds, while showing a degree of transparency.
I think these key attributes serve as a great self-check and framework for personal development in this area.