YOU ARE THE AVERAGE OF THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME WITH

American author and speaker, Jim Rohn is known for his motivational quotes. I am a fan of many of them, but this one is my favourite. “You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Let’s unpack that a bit as it has implications for all of us, particularly if you want to get better at leadership.
 
If you spend most of your time with negative people, it follows that your mood might also be brought down. If you spend time with positive people, you probably feel uplifted by them. Jim Rohn reckons that if you could measure either the negativity or positivity of all five, you would be the average of the group. I’m not aware of any scientific evidence to back the claim up, but I certainly believe the sentiment of it.
 
If you want to be fitter and healthier, start hanging around people that value fitness and health. If you want to be a speaker or an author, find groups of like minded people and spend time in their company. Many of us, by the nature of our chosen careers, spend time with fellow work mates and colleagues, so it may be a challenge to spend time with others beyond this group. But this is a choice that we can make if we want it bad enough.
 
People who aspire to be more effective in their leadership need to spend time in the company of others who want the same thing. Here are some ideas and options that might result in you widening your current circle of contacts.

• Find a coach or mentor and have some one on one sessions to challenge your thinking and create a bigger picture.
• Join your professional industry association and attend regular meetings and conferences.
• Become a board member of a charity or not for profit. Your fellow board members are there because of the expertise they bring and you will learn from them.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

I'm not much of an historian, and certainly not a military historian, but the name of Field Marshall William Slim keeps coming up in my leadership reading. Slim commanded a British field army in Burma fighting the Japanese in the '40s. Here are some things that Slim did that made him highly effective as a leader, despite being low profile.

1. Keep it simple. Slim regularly received 100 pages of orders when what he really needed was five. He writes in his book that the most important part of an order was the 'commander's intent'. I'd call that vision.

2. Establish a battle rhythm. Despite spending three and a half years fighting the Japanese, when at the time an 12 month deployment was more common, Slim maintained his energy and focus by exercising, reading and sleeping. He trusted his men to handle things while he rested.

3. Planning is everything and nothing. Slim was a mad planner and made sure of everything before going into battle. Even then, not everything went to plan and when it didn't, he was flexible about changing.

4. Ruthlessly enforce standards.  Slim made it known exactly what he expected and ruthlessly followed through. His people responded and he achieved results. For example, malaria was rife at the time and was a major threat to his troops. He banned shorts and short sleeves to protect against mosquitos.

Here's my favourite quote from Slim.

"When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder."

WHAT'S UP WITH LEADERSHIP IN AUSTRALIA? FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW.

The results from the largest ever leadership study in Australia have just been released. The Study of Australian Leadership (SAL) was conducted by Melbourne University and funded by the Federal Government.

SAL surveyed 8,000 individuals across 2,500 workplaces. It involved senior leadership (CEOs), as well as frontline leaders and employees.

Key findings:

1. Frontline leaders have the most impact on employees, shaping their work experience and creating the work environment.

• Takeout: The performance of your frontline leaders, not your MD or CEO, matters most to your employees. 

2. Leaders drive the organisational capabilities that lead to better performance. 

• Takeout: The better your leaders are, the better your organisation will perform.

3. Leadership is critical for innovation which is vital for business performance.

• Takeout: Everyone is talking about innovation, but we should be talking about leadership driving innovation.

4. Engagement, culture, trust and 'intention to quit' are results of good leadership.

• Takeout: Whether your people care or not, trust each other or not, or are going to stay or not, are direct results of leadership.

5. Investment in leadership development pays. Leadership development results in more confident, capable leaders who drive both performance and innovation.

• Takeout: Investing in leadership development means you will get better leaders, and with it, all of the benefits as outlined above.

Key Question for You!

What are you doing about leadership development at your place? This research has just been released. It's hot off the press, it's reliable, current and trustworthy. 

If you need help developing leaders, call or email. We can help.

LEADERS H. E. L. P. OTHERS

Put really simply , the difference between leaders and non leaders is that leaders HELP others.

HONOUR - leaders honour others. They respect them. They treat them as humans, not as ways of getting things done. They recognise diversity and difference.

ENGAGE - leaders are about others. They try to understand what motivates people. Instead of telling people what to do they start by telling them why.

LISTEN - leaders take time to listen, truly listen, not just hear. Listening to others is one of the most powerful ways of showing respect and engaging others.

PROMOTE - leaders care for their people. They support and actively encourage them to be more than they could otherwise.

What are you doing to H.E.L.P your people?

CAN YOU H.E.L.P ME?

I am exploring the concept of 'Leaders H.E.L.P' others and I want to invite you to participate. Send me as many leadership words as you can start with H, E, L or P. Either email me (greg@licencetolead.com.au or go to Facebook - see the link to the right).
H words - eg, honesty, hustle, heighten
E words - eg empower, enthusiasm, encourage.
L words - eg, love, lift, leverage.
P words - eg, passion, productive, protect.

Everyone who contributes will go into the draw for a copy of my book, 'Road Rules for Leadership'.