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…)
by tashmcgill | May 14, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Strategy
Recently I’ve been writing about provocateurs – those who push boundaries, ask challenging questions and provoke people into change. We who would be provocateurs we must take up a new responsibility, if we wish to be more than hot air and false promises. We must be people of the Both/And instead of the Either/Or. We cannot provoke without problem-solving.
There are too many (of us) provocateurs who have got tired of the push, the argument, the uncomfortable feeling of always being ‘that person’ in the meeting. We have become frustrated, disenchanted and slowly edged further away from the core we long to engage with and influence.
Yes, I believe that provocateurs belong at the Fringe, where we are afforded the best view of both crowd and horizon. But we cannot wholly live at the edge of things; lobbing our opinion and commentary into the centre, if we lose the reality of being in community while trying to shaping it. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Apr 28, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Strategy
I was at a community gathering this last week. It’s in my nature to sit in the front rows of these things, most of the time. However, this time, drawn in by the presence of those I was sitting with and enjoying their conversation; I found myself in the back rows.
You can tell a lot about people and what’s going on in their lives by how they position themselves to the world around them.
Front Row is a mindset that gets close to the action. There’s focus (or should I say, a lack of distraction), energy, a certain wholeheartedness. These are people who embody the ‘Do All The Things’ philosophy of life. They are also, just like in rugby, the ones who take a lot of the hard hits, out there exposed in the frontlines of life. They tend to be the people who get to say things like “Did you see that?!”, because they did from right up close and personal. You’re a witness to the action, so damn close you’re a participant.
Back Row is a different experience. From the back row, you’re less of a witness and more of an observer. The further back you are, the less you feel the need to throw your energy into it. From back there, you’re aware of something coming your way but you still have time to make a move. Dodging bullets is easy from the back row. Sneaking out before the closing act, moving sideways into multiple distractions. It gets busy and noisier in the back row; with so many different voices instead of just one loud voice. Sometimes you’re in the back row without a choice. Life demands you observe for a while.
Then there’s the Middle, stuck in the middle. You notice how people straggle into the front row but they stream into the middle? The safe zone. Too far back to be pulled out by the standup comedian, far enough forward that you’re close enough to the action to ‘count’, whatever that means.
Now that’s just the real life, sitting in the front row vs the back row of your favourite artist playing live or a movie you didn’t want to see in the first place. A town hall meeting to decide on something critical or joining a jury for a two week trial.
The metaphor is simple. You choose where you sit in relation to life. If all of life is a stage and we are merely players on it, a good number of just playing the part of the audience. Even then, we could be better at it.
Are we front row to the suffering of our friends and loved ones? Front row to their triumphs and victories? Do we let others close enough to be front row cheerleaders for us?
Are we back row bandits, or worse – middle row spreaders in light of our many social afflictions? Sitting in the back row; immediately I felt the affect on me. Less expectation, less participation. But I also felt further away – my voice less easily distinguished among the others.
Are you a front row or back row thinker? Proactively engaging in philosophical debate and pushing the boundaries? Finding better answers than what has gone before or sitting back and letting someone else do all the work?
There are an awful lot of people dying of boredom and distraction in the middle-back. It almost doesn’t matter what you get front row on (well, ok, a few things you really, really should avoid) but most of us need to find something that’s worth getting close up on again. Shelving that distraction and the wonder of the back.
‘I have never regretted a front row seat to life. In fact, I find the further back I sit, the less beauty I am able to see, the poorer I am.’
by tashmcgill | Apr 7, 2014 | Church, Spirituality, Strategy
In my line of work, we call them the ‘pain points’. They are the often unspoken, yet overwhelming reasons why people don’t do something.
Whether it’s a simple online transaction, completing a survey, finishing an assignment or responding to email – everything from tasks of the daily grind to the really important, life-critical stuff (like visiting your dying grandmother), the reasons why we don’t get to it are usually because there’s a pain point somewhere.
At some point in the decision-making process, there’s a minute crisis point that causes such a level of discomfort or pain that we cannot continue past it. (more…)
