S6 E13 The Future of Leadership- Engaging Your People for Success- Lisa Askwith

Engaging Your People for Success- Ep 13 Season 6 The Future of Leadership
 
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INTRODUCTION
Show Objectives - The Why
Leadership, it’s a hot topic, but what is it really, and where is it going?


In this Episode I really want to look at the modern workforce and how it is evolving, as that in itself dictates the type of leaders who will be successful in developing their companies and their people. Modern leaders need to continually evolve to meet the workforce needs, and this is often a massive mindset shift. In fact many cannot achieve this, and fail to recognise the benefits of continuous learning. Earlier this season I talked about developing a learning culture, this is even more critical for your leaders themselves. They are the ones that will steer your business and if they don't embrace continued learning, both they and your people will fall behind. Leading to your company missing opportunities and developing sustainably into the future.

I will cover some of the key people tips and strategies that you can focus on as you continue to build your people management toolkit. Both in terms of your personal leadership success and supporting your people to build a successful culture. After all, you want to get ahead of the game and go on to be a fantastic people leader, with an extensive people management tool kit that can get you through any situation. As that will make all of the difference to both your success, and that of your business.  People are the glue that holds your business together, without them being engaged and supporting you, your business will constantly be putting out fires and leaking money. You also want to have a business that is sustainable and able to innovate to help achieve this. 

In order for this to be a reality for you, you need a positive culture driven by engaged people who value their roles and care about the success of the company. Then you will find you can really capitalise on your greatest asset- Your People as they will be the ones to take your business to greater levels of success. This session is all about Future proofing your leadership so you can succeed.

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 Key Issues - Owner Perspective:
Don’t let your business suffer, let me help you make your business the best that it can be by utilizing your greatest assets, Your People!!!! 

After an unbelievable 2020 we are now finally firmly into 2021, well done on being here and making it through 2020! No matter what you have endured you are here and listening and that means you have decided to stand up and move forward, well done on making that decision!

I am going to help you make the most of the remainder of 2021. Let's find the good things together, no matter what happens next! I am passionate about exceptional leadership, and I believe you can really only achieve long term sustainable business success by engaging your people to get you there. This episode will focus on helping you achieve a future proof leadership style and skills set. It is an ongoing task but one that will keep you ahead in terms of business and personal success.
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What You Need to Know - The What
Each show this season builds on core knowledge that will help you develop a world class People Engagement and leadership tool kit. Many shows interlink and support each other in order to allow you to gain in depth knowledge of the strategies and key people needs that you can focus on in your business. Make sure you download the show notes for each episode as I will always include the key strategies so you can take them away to use for yourself or your business. These all come together in today's Season finale as we really focus on the future of leadership.

What You Need to Do - The How
Key Tips to get you started today
It is very worthwhile that you keep in mind the rapidly changing workforce and its needs, as you are developing your people engagement tool kit. We are now regularly impacted by things such as;
 

• The Gig economy.
• Gen Y and beyond being more focused on finding something that fits culturally with their beliefs and having a high willingness to change roles if they don’t.
• The death of the long term job.
• Out of the box things like a global pandemic
• Constant change
• WFH
• Remote workforces
• AI              
• Staff expect to feel valued
• An agile workplace is needed for success

Always keep these key changes in mind as they will affect the entire culture of your business, and hence the people. Your leadership team should always be planning for the future so staying aware of key trends and preparing to integrate them is another key aspect of engaging your people. Change is our working reality, don't be scared of it, instead look for ways to incorporate it into your business, and it will take you to greater levels of success. This is a key component of future proofing your leadership skills.

Embrace Continuous Learning

You no longer have all the answers, and if you want to be a future proof leader, you need to acet this and look at the solution. The solution is continuous learning, allowing yourself to keep challenging assumptions and grow in your role. This is key to keeping you ahead of change and dealing with crises. If you run a department this should also be an area you focus on for your people. They want continuous learning as they know it future proofs their careers. So use this to your benefit, allow yourself and others to access learning and focus on developing a learning culture in your team or business. This is a win-win as it supports your people, improves revenue, and creates a positive and supportive culture. Don't miss out on this key opportunity.

To help you get there, or your leaders get there, you might need to make a key mindset shift, and that is to embrace Agile thinking into your leadership tool kit, adn have it become a part of your everyday thought process..

Agile Leadership is key to your business success and to Future Proofing your Leadership skills

The Agile Manifesto which was software focussed also sums up what we need to do to future proof our leadership skills- probably not surprising as this is looking at new Technology and your leadership skills need to be doing the same, especially if you want to future proof your skils. This manifesto values the following:

“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan.”

The core principles of Agile are:

• Customer satisfaction is the top priority.
• Embrace logical change at every step of the project.
• Create working deliverables then gradually improve them.
• Business and tech people need to work together.
• Build projects around motivated teams to produce quality results.
• Face to face communication is preferred over other forms of interaction.
• A working product is the best measure of success.
• Aim for a sustainable pace of development.
• Invest sufficient time to produce quality products.
• There is power in simplicity.
• Self-organizing teams are ideal.
• You can learn valuable lessons from both failure and success.

Keeping these principles in mind can help you and your team to become more open-minded to the agile mindset approach. They are the core values that help to nurture more efficiency in teamwork. Hence they are goals you need to incorporate into your everyday work styl in order to start to develop your agile mindset.


Hiring the best Talent is a crucial leadership skill- focus on developing it!
 
 
You actually need a robust and up to date relevant recruitment process……sadly this is often missing from many businesses.
So what is a great recruitment process? Key points to consider are;
 

• Company Brand……or lack there of…..or worse negative reviews
• What are you actually recruiting for
• Is the role right
• Who is managing the process? Are they actively involved?
• When was this last reviewed?
• Is there a solid and relevant JD in place?
• Is there a clear leader of the recruitment to onboarding piece?
• Do you have structured interviews with set questions for each candidate?

Value Creation through Career Paths and accessible Training Opportunities- Your people need to feel valued and this is a key step to achieving that.

Ensure you have fair, achievable and accessible career paths and training opportunities that are supported by an exceptional leadership team.

In order to make you the best leader you can be you need to embrace this key area and ensure you are supporting it.

This is important for a few reasons;
 

• Employee’s will stay if they can follow a pathway that is clear and supported
• Career paths provide brilliant ways for employees to gain further training and be of greater value to your business, as well as themselves.
• Staff progressing through the business and staying helps promote a culture that is positive and rewarding, and encourages shared success
• Staff feel more valued and therefore more engaged if they can follow a career path
• This Engages your People and leads to innovation and improved culture which directly positively impacts the bottom line

Developing your Personal Leadership- Always focus on this

You may not have given much thought to how adults learn and retain knowledge, but in fact research shows they can be broken into 3 different learning styles….now these are not exclusive, there is overlap, but generally people are more dominant in one area. Knowing this will help you understand how your audience reacts to uptake of knowledge and will help you streamline and prepare key communications with your people.
 
These are;
 
Visual learner
Auditory learner
Kinesthetic learner

Empathy and Value creation is a key pillar to Future Proofing you leadership skills- This is what your people demand. Hence focus on Servant leadership and Coaching to help get you there.

Servant Leadership- Originally coined by Greenleaf in the 1970’s- A key to your success

Servant leadership is a method of development for leaders. Servant leadership stresses the importance of the role a leader plays as the steward of the resources of the group, and teaches leaders to serve others while still achieving the goals set forth by the business.

“The servant-leader is the servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions”

Greenleaf- The ten principles of servant leadership

1. Listening.
2. Empathy.  
3. Healing. 
4. Awareness. 
6. Conceptualization.
7. Foresight.  
8. Stewardship.  
9. Commitment to the Growth of People. 
10. Building Community. 

Coaching
Coaching is one of the key traits of an outstanding leader, and the skills you gain through practicing this will lead you to uncovering new ideas, needs, and strategies by working with your people. This naturally starts to future proof your leadership skills and keeps you ahead of the competition.. It is something that can be learned and will set you apart as a great leader if you can master the habits and make them part of your leadership style.

Coaching is defined in many ways. The essence of coaching is:

• To help a person change in the way they wish and help them go in the direction they want to go.
• Coaching supports a person at every level in becoming who they want to be.
• Coaching builds awareness and empowers choice that leads to change.
• It unlocks a person’s potential to maximise their performance. 
• Coaching helps them to learn rather than teaching them.

Coaching is a learned skill, and like a muscle it is one of those things that can be developed with training and use. The more you practice it the stronger it gets, until it becomes second nature and forms a key part of your core business skill set.


Leadership is the largest driving force that will make or break your culture, and hence your people and business. It is key to put the time into not only getting this right, but making it exceptional. Only then can future proof your tool kit.
 
Shows
●      Previous: Episode 12 Season 6 - Coach your way to Exceptional Leadership.
●      Next: Episode 1 Season 7 - Recruitment 101- Non nonsense Recruitment Success
 
Written by Lisa Askwith
Director of ApexBRS | ApexBRS, Regional Director of See Global Media, Chair of  EGN Singapore, and Associate Professor Cambridge Corporate University | At the Age of Change, providing the HR component of the Global Executive MBA and BBA. 

Lisa has worked for some of the largest companies in the world and successfully led restructures and change management programs in order to improve the bottom line through engaging the people for success, while developing exceptional leaders who can make a positive impact on Culture and long term business sustainability. Also working closely with Start-ups and venture capital, Lisa has the ability to structure your business, or help your leadership, regardless of size of company or industry, and is able to do this in an inclusive no nonsense way which will involves all of your people and leads to success.

You can connect with Lisa on any of her platforms

LinkedIn Lisa Askwith - Director - Apex BRS
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