Are You Appointing the Best Person for the Job?

Are you really appointing the best person for the job? Tikanga holds the key. Finding the best person for the role has long been the intent for employment specialists and senior executives. Whether you use competency-based questions or the STAR method of behavioural interviewing, you will likely miss one central element. Discovering ‘who’ the person is, gives interviewers the best source to uncover the best candidate.

9 Ways To Positively Impact Leadership Team Meetings

From Dysfunction to Impact and Influence in Leadership Teams One thing that continues to surprise me with senior leaders is how many do not contribute to senior leadership meetings. Having worked with thousands of team leaders, I notice typical behaviours and one of these behaviours is to remain silent in meetings. Of course, there are many reasons for their silence. Kate, one of the leaders I spoke to, let me know what affects her: Without meeting protocols, others talk frequently...

What creates vibrant team culture?

I Iove the energy in the room, Matt says in our first Executive Presence group session. What is that? And how is ‘energy’ created, you might ask? Energy can be stored and transformed, but what is the form of energy among people? Energy among people is the interpersonal connections that create movement among people – either drawing them closer together or pushing them apart from one another. When the flow of feeling among people is positive, warm and those there accept one another,...

Fresh Flowers and Great Leadership Teams

Group facilitators work in all sorts of venues, most of them sterile and without inspiration. In my very first workshop, I took a bunch of tulips and asked for a vase. I was given a large jug. In went the tulips. In spite of the mismatch, several participants commented on the flowers. Three things struck me: Participants’ delight in seeing something bright and fresh in the room Their capacity to shift from what was at hand to something immediately in...

Quality Interactions Save the Day

Do you have days when nothing seems to work out? I had one of these days on a recent trip to Picton. I needed an internet source for a three hour zoom meeting. I felt like Goldilocks- I tried a café that set me up with internet vouchers and a chord to keep my laptop charged, but it was too noisy. I couldn’t hear. I drove to the visitor’s centre, but it was closed. A staffer came to see what...

A small town, with world class service.

3 days in picturesque haven Picton, population 4,300, and I encountered world class service, many times. We went to an Irish pub for dinner. The atmosphere was warm and congenial, the service personable, the interior colourful and the food was fresh and delicious. We returned the following evening. We were met with, “Chardonnay sir, and for you ma’am, pinot gris?” Yes. The bartender remembered our drinks after one visit. I was impressed and delighted. I was struck by how the...

Maintain your Mojo to be an Effective Leader

Maintaining your mojo means giving yourself time to rest so that you can continue to be the most effective leader for your team. I’ve met too many executives who continue to work ten-hour days and seven-day weeks. Why is this? Mostly, they don’t want to be judged by their boss or peers as weak or not resilient. The thrill of being on top of something new, making rapid decisions and innovating brings rushes of adrenalin. As inevitable complaints and criticisms...

Know Where You Stand – Emotional Pain and Leadership

Discovering you were closer to someone in your team than they were with you can hurt deeply. This hurts even more when you realise that others knew this before you did. When information within informal networks of interpersonal relationships overrides formal structures, trust is broken. Emotions run high as the true structure of relationships are revealed. You know where you stand, and how close or distant others are in relation to you. Remember Carlos Ghosen, Chair of Nissan, Japan and...