by tashmcgill | Jun 9, 2014 | Community, Culture & Ideas
A secret can be a sacred thing – something that deserves to be hidden away, held precious, close and carefully. But in turn, some secrets need to be shown the light – gently and gracefully. Some of the secrets we hold are keeping the dampers on life: releasing them is like turning up the colour, the volume, the taste of it.
Some secrets are like a kiss; so intimate they bind us to each other and their keeping is a safety net, a close retreat.
I think of my soft-hearted friend, whose empathy is a gift to the world but they struggle to reveal it through insecurity and bravado. They keep the secret of who they are tucked away, asking me to keep its hiding place quiet too. The secrets of ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ really matter much; but the secrets of who we really are – those are the ones that need the most wisdom.
That’s the lesson about superhero super identities: who you reveal your deepest, secret self to is probably one of the most important decisions you can make. Those people will either be your worst enemies, or your very best friends.
Considering how much I’ve written about honesty and being honest this year, it’s only fair to keep things on a level footing. Here’s the truth of it: life is full of little secrets. Things we keep to ourselves and things we keep hidden for other people. I keep a lot of secrets. Maybe it’s not so bad, a little mystery. Or maybe it is. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Jun 3, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain
Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not yet perceived through the senses. It is the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, objects or events that do not exist, are not present or recreate events that have happened in the past. Imagination is about creating a new story, a new picture that also is attainable to the everyday person. It’s the ability to both see what is not yet, and what can be…
It gives a leader the ability to look at any situation from a different point of view, and enables one to mentally explore the past and the future. A developed and strong imagination strengthens your creative abilities, and is a great tool for recreating and remodeling your world and life.
We use our imagination everyday, whenever we plan a trip, our work schedule or even how a meeting will run out. We imagine the important and non-important but pleasurable moments we are planning throughout the day. We use it when we describe an event, explain how to arrive to a certain street, write, tell a story or cook a meal.
The creative power of imagination has an important role in the achievement of success in any field, not just the creative arts.
There were two essential ingredients, behind the genius of Churchill’s wartime leadership. Imagination and Courage. Great leaders are those who have great imagination and great courage. Imagination is a more encompassing idea than vision.
To be imaginative, however, as a leader, is to cultivate a finely balanced ability to imagine a future possibility and also see with clarity all the possible ways to be able to communicate that vision as realistic and achievable. Churchill cultivated each of these processes of the truly imaginative person. He had a solid grasp of the contemporary world crisis that he faced. This gave him the ability to be a realistic visionary, and he also possessed the gifts of an artist, to articulate and demonstrate a picture of what can be, a picture that all can participate in creating.
Our modern plight: we rationalize and formulate instead of imagining. We make decisions with such objectivity, we create a culture of reductionism and deduction. Truth & knowledge (the tools of a leader’s trade) have become universal and generic. Leadership becomes the right application of technique and models instead of a desire to be imaginative and follow the spirit of innovation and creativity.
Let your imagination run wild.
These posts were originally broadcast in a radio series, in 2009. If you are interested in talking more about leadership or you’d like me to speak with your team about maximizing their leadership skills – just get in touch. Tim Keel wrote a book called Intuitive Leadership where he agrees that imagination is critical to leadership, read it.
by tashmcgill | Jun 2, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
‘Knowledge is power’ or so they say, especially Sir Francis Bacon.
But – I would counter, that it’s what you do with that knowledge that measures your power or influence.
Wisdom is considered a sign of weakness by the powerful because a wise man can lead without power but only a powerful man can lead without wisdom.
You gain more influence by sharing knowledge than what you ever can by holding on to it. Leaders must hold to these 2 skills: knowing where and how to find knowledge that you do not have, which is second only, is discovering what it is you do not know.
In days of old, kingdoms were built by kings and governments that held on to what they had, gathering and drawing wisdom and wealth to themselves. But in around the time of Solomon, one of the greatest currencies in the world was knowledge.
Imagine that man who first invented fire, and all that was possible by it. While his individual power was very immense in the moment he alone held that knowledge, all of society was enpowered when he distributed what he knew. His influence was very great, and became greater.
Consider how the world has changed. Influence and power increases or decreases dramatically in accordance with what you do with the knowledge you have.
Great leaders will share their accumulated knowledge and build the communal knowledge pool for the benefit of customers, workers, company and the world at large, whilst Intellectual Property continues to be a defining edge in commercial practice. While the internet makes information accessible at greater speed that ever before, the accuracy and frequency of that data now matters more than ever. The most valuable thing? Knowing what to do with the vast amounts of data now available. The fastest growing skill demand in the digital age.
You’ll know many of Google’s mainstay products are available in some free form service to the masses, and the fastest growing fields of technology are in the use of mediums that allow us to share knowledge with each other. Open source technology pushes faster and better communication sharing as we build platforms that not only push and pull information but respond and adapt with the information they receive.
Google’s success comes in understanding what knowledge is most powerful, influential and important and knowing what we do, do not and want to know. Then packaging it in consumable forms so we can use it within limits. But that’s another story.
Think about mentors – the best mentors are those that share knowledge and experience with others for the benefit of the broader community. So too with leaders.
If you want to lead with influence – share the knowledge that you have about your processes, your strategies – give away and you will gain respect and manna from those who want to learn from you, beside you and those who can influence your own knowledge pool. You’ll learn more in what it takes to share what little you may have, than you’d ever gather on your own.
These posts were originally broadcast in a radio series, in 2009. If you are interested in talking more about leadership or you’d like me to speak with your team about maximizing their leadership skills – just get in touch.
by tashmcgill | May 30, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Spirituality, Strategy
“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, there, depending on unreasonable people.” – George Bernard Shaw.
While it looks good at first glance; often a leader too willing to compromise becomes the person that no-one takes joy in following. The ground is too murky, too unsteady and constantly moving. To be reasonable means to you are open and willing to compromise – which is an excellent attribute in marriage but must be applied sparingly in leadership.
Sometimes those that truly make a difference are the ones who refuse to budge – whether that’s about reforming ideas that are inefficient and stodgy, looking for fresh innovations or simply refusing to follow the crowd. The ones who refuse to ‘do what’s always been done’ when the times are changing and culture requires a critical new response.
It requires a lot to stand your ground and be unreasonable – unable to be reasoned into another position. That means unable to be rolled in an argument. It’s not being stubborn for the sake of it, it’s having a strong rationale that’s so well-reasoned it will not be unreasoned!
Let me pitch it to you another way. Society looks for leaders who are ‘relevant’, or in other words – someone they feel will have influence. It’s easy to attribute credibility because they have the appearance of being relevant.. ie: they use the right gadgets, have the right lingo, use the ‘relevant’ and ‘leading’ systems.
But actually – a true and unreasonable leader is the one who is constantly defining what is relevant by their own innovation and process, then questioning the value of relevance regardless. An entirely other way of thinking.
Don’t be caught by the job description that too aptly words what kind of leadership they are looking for. That’s not leadership – it’s someone to lead in the manner an organization is already accustomed to. Innovation won’t happen there.
Be unreasonable.. and find new ways, fresh ways, your own ways of doing things.. and you’re on your way to being a leader.
This week’s Leadership blurb was inspired by thoughts about relevance and leaders, how we are judged or awarded credibility. The centric thought came from a quote supplied by Jill Shaw’s blog Conversations@Intersections.
These posts were originally broadcast in a radio series, in 2009. If you are interested in talking more about leadership or you’d like me to speak with your team about maximizing their leadership skills – just get in touch.
by tashmcgill | May 29, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
If you want to be an effective leader, in business, your profession, the creative arts, social service, community, school… wherever you want to lead – a great place to start your journey is with understanding influence.
Understand who you are already influencing. Look for who else you’d like to influence and start to understand what you might need to do to position yourself to influence those people.
But understand this – influence is not something that gets handed to you with position.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter who is at the head of an organization if they are not the person with the most influence. Remember how the kid at the top of the class wasn’t necessarily the person who determined whether or not you made into the cool group?
Remember in university, when the most popular lecturers didn’t necessarily have the flashest office or the longest, most impressive title.
Influence is about calibre and character. Influence is people who choose to listen to what you have to say. Influence is the number of people who respond to what you think, say, act and implement in your life and leadership practice. Every time you connect and engage – you build trust, which is a greenhouse for influence in relationships.
First, be aware of who you are influencing, what your message is and how you can influence change for the better. This isn’t about getting your way but about facilitating the right conversations and opportunities for other.
If there was one thing I want you to understand about leadership and influence; it’s that influencing those above you and beside you is far more powerful and rewarding than influencing those below you in the hierarchy. There’s a flow-on effect too. Seek to bring as many people beside you as you can, multiplying influence.
That means bringing people together to create opportunities in business, opportunities for social change, opportunities for relationship. The best matchmakers in history are people who influence the opinions and actions of others.
These posts were originally broadcast in a radio series, in 2009. If you are interested in talking more about leadership or you’d like me to speak with your team about maximizing their leadership skills – just get in touch.
by tashmcgill | May 28, 2014 | Community, Culture & Ideas, Strategy
“You’ll get what you give.”
“You’ll get back out what you put in.”
“You’ll reap what you sow.”
There are lots of ways that we imply that action or investment should generate a return or reward. That philosophy underpins lots of daily interactions and decisions we make.
It’s not just about how much effort we invest in something, but also how much effort we invest in people and relationships. We reassess our commitment and friendships when we feel like we’re giving it more than the other person. We determine the priority of tasks in our work days based on how much it matters – or, what’s the consequence (lack of return or reward) if I don’t get it done.
Mostly, society has accepted this principle at large as a pretty good way of being. Society isn’t often wrong, right? Except, well – except in a bunch of cases.
Like charity, or when we try to describe what it takes to be a hero. (more…)
