People Leadership: the privilege and results come with great responsibility!

I have been privileged to have the opportunity to lead and manage teams of all sizes over a 30 year career to date. From startups, small specialist support and advisory teams, large project teams to national and regional corporate account management teams. One thing I have certainly learned and experienced over that time is that sustainable successful business performance is highly correlated, influenced and impacted by effective People Leadership.

Now also as an executive / leadership / business consultant and coach, questions and topics I am often working through with people are:

(a) how I can develop my people leadership and personal influencing skills (for my current team and to take on a new / bigger role)? and/or:

(b) how do I best respond and manage (some conflict) with my colleague or boss (implicitly ... not being the sort of people leader or person that is particularly inspiring and motivating)?

Whether you lead and manage just one person, a small team, your own business, a large corporate or even a country, some leadership lessons can be well understood from classroom theory but most will come from your own experiences. Learning about the journey of other people leaders (successes and failures) is also valuable as there is certainly no standard instruction manual; so thanks in advance for allowing me to share some of my experiences.

When I first started writing, this was going to be a 5 thoughts, tips and tools blog but has ended up being a more comprehensive paper. So a quick heads up that on a word count, read time is noted to be about 20 mins so do get yourself a cup of tea or coffee, give yourself some space and time to read through.

A few new forces are certainly at play at present which add to the complexity of "people leadership" for the current decade being; (1) a social media / digital technology environment where there is instantaneous and recorded feedback and commentary on personal and employee thoughts and feelings, organisations being scored online for culture and even down to more specific "rate my manager / teacher" apps. (2) There is also then the emerging millenials workforce and associated views on the world and how things should be run (and companies actually shifting structures significantly to "new ways of working" for leaders and teams). Quite a change for what many Baby Boomer and Gen X senior leadership have previously been taught, trained in, comfortable and familiar with for most of their previous career.

It is also an interesting work dynamic at present as we work through the intersection of robotic automation and artificial intelligence and roles that "people" and "people leaders" will be playing over the next decade and beyond in terms of existing jobs and job roles.

No one dare talk of Command and Control Leadership nowadays (but does exist) and Self Managed Autonomous Work Teams or Tribes have yet to completely figure out how that works across typical organisational structures and particularly when differences of opinion arise. So I/we see many organisations still somewhat of a mix of all of the above.

This has impacts on everyone because whilst the newer generations of employees are looking for a great engaging job and work environment with cool leaders who are fun to work with I am always bemused to also speak with many senior leaders now seriously challenged on whether they should wear a suit or jeans and t-shirt to work. The work tie becoming a rarity now (or an office signal that something important may be happening).

I hear of many organisations saying to simply dress for the client, the day or occasion. This is somewhat helpful but I do still see a real mix bag of work attire across many professional organisations. I think that this is all quite symbolic of people working through who and what they are, should or want to be in a rapidly changing business environment.

Everybody of course wanting to fit in, feel valued and relevant. New and fresh to the workforce with lots of energy, ambition, questions and ideas through to the value and wisdom of experience and intuition when you have been around for a little longer, through a few companies and restructures, worked with/for a few different bosses and managed through a few economic cycles.

Behind of all this is always people wanting to find their place in the world. To be recognised, relevant, valued, challenged and encouraged. To find that intersection and alignment of what they can do, want to do, like to do with what the company / organisation needs doing and is offering. And so for the people leaders, managers, coaches and consultants out there, that is where you are much needed and valued also.

It is said that people are most likely to leave an organisation because of their direct line management (boss) and unfortunately I have seen, heard and experienced that quite a few times. Equally I am sure we all see and hear of people wanting to and joining organisations to have the opportunity to work with great leaders and positive cultural environments.

Reflecting then on all of the above and my own business / team / people leadership, hoping that I have got it right more times than wrong, learning from my successes and failures; here are 5 of my own "People Leadership" mantras, frameworks, principles that I most often come back to and I think they will continue to stand the test of time and generations.

As a leader, an effective combination and application of all these I have found and experienced leads to better staff engagement, a positive team culture and importantly, improved performance outcomes and results.

Some of these I have written specific articles on previously also and those who have worked with me personally will surely recall a few conversations on a lot of the following.

1. Vision, Mission (Purpose), Values & Goals ("VMVG")

I can hear a few sceptical minds ticking over already when these words are mentioned and the thoughts go to the company Town Halls, PowerPoints and Posters on the wall that say good and nice things; but no-one really pays much attention after that and for day to day.

In contrast, I have also seen and worked with companies where there is virtually nothing done on this (in reality) and even more questions arise (personally and professionally) on "what are we working toward, what sort of company / brand do we want to be, where is the strategy, goals, targets...?" Personally I find that more disturbing and damaging than dusty vision, values and strategy posters on the wall.

In all my experience, people are strongly driven by a greater purpose than their day to day job activities. Vision, Mission, Values and Goals bring all the individual people, teams, activities together toward a unifying purpose and outcome. When the way forward is not clear or becomes challenging, it is the vision and goals that drive people to keep going. When there is conflict in decisions or direction, or lack of all desired / required information, Values offer a basis for which decisions can be made to move forward.

Remembering also that good strategy, leadership and business management is importantly also about what you wont do; VMVG importantly acts as guidance and boundaries on that.

Clearly one of the ongoing VMVG topics for most companies for 2020 and beyond will be responding to the threats and opportunities of digital disruption and digital transformation. Not only is this impacting customer engagement but is also fundamentally challenging the way that companies and teams are structured with significant changes to many job roles. So VMVG is therefore not just about what you do but also now about how you respond and manage continuous change.

Whether you spend a day, weeks or months on developing your VMVG, my key point and encouragement is to ensure there is clear articulation and understanding on each of these for each person in your team / business / organisation. Finally don't let this be "someone else's ideas or just HQ VMVG strategy work" that you are just relaying, make it real and meaningful for yourself as a leader and then for others you lead!

I have put VMVG first also as it sets up an important foundation for all of following.

2. Comfort Zone, Learning / Challenge Zone, Terror Zone

When building, leading and managing teams I have always been mindful to the mix of skills and experience in also considering the demands of the various team leadership roles and goals. There is always the question and decision as to whether best to go for a "proven, safe pair of hands" who would seem to be well and truly capable of doing well in a role, or do you opt for someone that shows great potential but clearly a stretch for them currently?

As a leader, part of our role is to understand and manage where each person may be in terms of their current position in the Comfort, Challenge or toward the Terror Zone. I will admit I have made mistakes in recruitment through my career in all areas. For the Comfort Zone, someone I thought could do the job easily and well, and they did, and got bored really quickly and wanted to move on. Another person I thought I had put in a good Challenge Zone role, but then I didn't really consider or have the ability to offer the level of personal support they would actually need to work through the challenges (and they lost confidence in themselves). Finally not that I ever intended to put someone in the Terror Zone but I knew the role was a big stretch, The mistake I learned from that one was that (being a senior role) I had focused mostly on technical IQ competency skills and not enough on the relationship EQ skills (and personal confidence) also required with the role and dealing with a whole new set of senior stakeholders (much more experienced and politically savvy). This led to many occurrences of personal conflict with various stakeholders and the person not liking (or performing well) in the new role at all.

Pleasingly, I have many stories of people who have moved well through comfort and challenge zones with positive accelerated career progression. As a leader, I think that it is often called upon to recognise those people who are "maturing" in the comfort zone and offer them a new challenge (if they are not already asking themselves). For some people ambition and drive is strong, for others more encouragement and support is needed.

I once had a direct report who had been working with the same team for many years. I knew they were capable of more being a very competent leader and manager. It however took a fair bit of encouragement for them to take on a new role in a new area with a completely new team. The early days were hard and much ongoing encouragement and support was needed. That person has since made two further career progressions into executive leadership, and I am sure from encouragement to venture into the challenge zone (albeit perhaps felt like the terror zone on a few occasions).

Finally let me say as a leader, your people and teams will never be their best just left on their own! They will want, need, expect and value your personal engagement, encouragement and support. And no I am certainly not talking about micromanagement (that is often highly demotivating and damaging) but to spend the time to get to know each individual in your team, their key skills, motivators, drivers, fears and passions; to be the right person with the right words of challenge and encouragement at the right time.

3. Are you Uncomfortably Excited?

This has become a bit of favourite of mine since I first came up with this expression probably ten years ago. It relates to a lot of the above in being constantly challenged, constantly learning, constantly pushing forward, exploring, succeeding, failing but ultimately moving forward with a purpose.

The expression originally came from a couple of sources. One was the HR Director from a large organisation who came to give a presentation at one of my team offsites. After going through a few slides on what great leadership looks like she finished by saying that "if you're already doing all of that and all is going well then you probably aren't pushing hard enough!" Her perspective was that in most organisation the occurrence of some conflict is healthy. Office politics was essentially a mix of differences of opinions combined with competitive ambition. The role of leaders is to recognise, understand and manage that, because getting out of control it also becomes highly damaging and destructive. Allowing, maybe even creating a healthy and manageable level of "uncomfortableness" between current reality and goals (perhaps also known as stretch targets) can be very effective.

The other perspective I had taken on this was in speaking with some tennis and swimming coaches who talked about hurting arms and bobbing head moments. In a challenging competitive environment (akin to business life) we are not there for a social hit of the ball over the net, or a paddle in the pool. Success is finding that 1 - 2% or 1 - 2 second improvement edge over the competition (and personal bests PBs). A tough role as a leader / coach but that meant serves and laps until arms were hurting and heads were starting to bob from fatigue and/or frustration. It was the coaches (leader) role to push for one more and then offer the always valued words of feedback and encouragement - Well Done!

There are many lessons we can take as business leaders in that approach also. As is sometimes said, No Pain - No Gain (but then also thinking about that feeling 30 minutes after a painful gym session)! Hurt and pain are interesting words in the business arena (common in the sporting arena), and applies to both mental and physical. So perhaps we just have to live with and work through "personal / team performance stretch challenge" for the business leadership context.

The most important reflection to me was that these coaches knew their people well enough to know where both their potential and performance was at. A really powerful metaphor also for great business leadership. Temporary (training) pain being necessary and circumstantial to a much more motivating and significant end goal and reward.

So I hope that provides some interesting food for thought and clarity to being constructively "uncomfortable" in a business performance and people leadership context.

Now in terms of ...excited. I added this on as a great balance to being a bit "uncomfortable" to also ask on a many occasions whether my team / people were "excited". Most dictionaries describe excited as "very happy, enthusiastic and eager" which I thought worked well. So to be Uncomfortably Excited actually had quite a few underlying things to it.

I would ask people are you excited about your job, your team, your business, your opportunities. Excited for me also has an "energy" about it. Of course there are elements of environment and circumstance which affect your level of excitement but also I think there are personal choices and self actuated mental states to create excitement (with enthusiasm and eagerness as the dictionary would describe).

Whether someone will tell you if they are really / genuinely personally excited or not may be a little harder but knowing the person you can quickly get a sense of reality, us humans have a great way of managing emotions with sarcasm also. When a level of excitement was obviously (or perhaps not so obviously) missing, as a leader I was also curious to ask, why?

I think we need to ask ourselves as much as others, if we are not Excited (happy, enthusiastic and eager) then what are we doing? Is it the job, team, organisation, or perhaps something more personal. My advice is certainly to speak to someone about it and as leaders, again our role to watch, monitor and respond to that. I would often answer with what can we do about that? And not "we" as in the broader organisation but "we" as in You and Me personally.

All too often I hear feedback along the lines of ...this place, this project, this team, this business, this leadership, this company... which is effectively a way of externalising the dissatisfaction / discomfort - and positioning the cause (but also fix) more distant. As a people leader, our role is to be "the team / organisation / business" and bring it back to what I/you can do about it. That may very will include a reality on what is more easily fixable but equally providing a confidence that broader organisational issues are acknowledged - because if it is being raised, chances are highly likely it is not just about one person.

It is important also that all parties each take personal accountability and ownership on what they are going to do about it (problems rarely fix themselves) - it has to work two ways.

So as you can see, my use of being "Uncomfortably Excited" - a positive operating environment I was wanting to create for our team / business has also resulted in many a great questions and conversations. With the next decade surely to bring lots of further change, challenges and opportunities, I encourage you to give it a go with your team.

4. Work Smart, Kick Goals, Have Fun

This to me has been an important and useful mantra / philosophy in being able to simplify all the complexity and busyness that typically exists with work life today into a few key principles and priorities. Let me explain further.

I am sure many have heard the expression Work Smarter not Harder. I think overall it is good statement with the goal of bringing some balance to how things get done most effectively. The danger perhaps is an implication of don't work hard and for me, many of my personal, team and business key achievements have been a result of many weeks, months, years of hard work (and yes a dose of good timing and good luck sometimes also). I am sure Thomas Jefferson would agree who is quoted as once saying; "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

I therefore like to think of working smart a few ways. I think the general spirit of the quote is about how you make your working hard even more effective by being smarter also. Many people refer to improving personal mind / body balance to simply working hard; getting good rest, taking time for meditation and reflection rather than simply putting in more hours. Being more considerate of where and how your are spending your time rather than continuing to do the same things the same way (and expecting different / better outcomes).

In today's times, there is certainly no shortage of opportunity to also explore and apply new technologies in working smarter. This has also meant for many people the "9 to 5 office and 5 day / 40 hour week" has now evolved into being online, anywhere, anytime. I am certainly one of those people and requires a different set of "life balance" disciplines to how and where I spend my waking / working hours.

The 9-5pm/38-40hrs/Weekends that exists for many developed countries and companies was and has purposefully been designed to provide designated "downtime" for workers. Whilst still generally applies, todays work/business environments sees working days and hours much more varied ... and a digital business environment "online" 24/7. This requires a new set of personal and business working principles and disciplines.

There is an abundance of research and empirical evidence correlating a healthier work life balance to better work productivity and output. Studies by the International Labour Organisation and Corporate Leadership Council both suggest a 20% improvement (primarily in brain memory, concentration and creativity impacts for individuals and reduced absenteeism and staff turnover for organisations) with a healthier / sustainable work-life balance. Some countries now actually exploring workforce laws and legislation around that.

There is also no shortage of tech apps now to help in personal effectiveness and productivity in so many areas. It will be up to you to firstly identify what areas you might need more/most help on in being more effective and then choose a few apps / tools to try out for yourself and your team. In my experience, don't go for too many (you will have too many notification bells and alarms going off) pick a few, try them out and use them well.

Moving on to Kicking Goals that is a simply an analogy for me about delivering outcomes and results. Having the right people. plans, products, processes and platforms in place is essential setup for success. Saying and doing all the right things is important also. If you are also working smart also then the next key question is going to be around results and outcomes. Did / have you achieved your targets? Did you kick enough goals?

In many personal career, leadership and sales coaching conversations I will ask the question of whether your boss, team, colleagues, peers, organisation believe you are achieving the goals and objectives you signed up to. Are you going to get there, close, confident, way off, what is happening? Of course this also comes with an expectation that there has been a clear understanding and agreement between leaders and teams on what great looks like (what the balanced scorecard / KPI's actually are). Unfortunately sometimes that is not understood, agreed and clear and is sure to lead to a poor outcome for all.

I have also coached and encouraged a few people, that it is both the leader / manager and your individual personal responsibility to clarify and confirm performance targets and expectations. Don't be having that conversation at performance evaluation year end!

I think Soccer (football) is a great analogy for this also. Often a low scoring game where there is so much that goes into the strategy and game play and the game can be won by just one goal. The whole time of play and measure of success will be how many goals were scored. There can be a great game, great play and no goals kicked - let's just hope the opposition / competitors did the same. A simple reality, but often useful reminder (for business teams also) that at the end of the day the game is won by kicking more goals!

Some times I see even senior leaders often caught up in day to day operations, changing structures, strategy, people, teams, systems and lose sight that with all of that also going on, the game is still in play - and you still need to be kicking goals! Very useful therefore in times of constant change to also pause and consider, is what you are doing as a leader directly linked (with confidence) to an improved ability by the team to kick more goals?

Coming back to the Soccer (football) analogy is also the point of when the goals were kicked. The team that is scoring is also increasing confidence as each goal is kicked because it is building confidence that the game plan is working. Often we see football teams on a roll as goals are kicked as personal confidence builds. The same I strongly believe applies to people and business leadership. Building strategies and programs that provide ability and confidence through regular and progressive milestone achievements (and kicking early goals) by the team have been far more effective in my experience than going for the big win / turnaround in the last quarter!

Finally and importantly on to Having Fun!

I am mindful that a lot of the above has been about being uncomfortably excited, working smart and working hard, making sure you are kicking goals. Perhaps all sounds a little tough and harsh.

If there is ever a human memory that transcends roles, teams, organisations and careers it is so often the measure of how much fun it was working with that team and/or organisation. This is often matched with the statements of we achieved great things together, we worked hard, we had our differences at times but we also had fun. In my experience the "fun" was also part of achievement and positive team cultures. I don't think I have ever heard .. poor culture and leadership, people were leaving, we were missing targets, clients were unhappy ...but we still had fun - it just doesn't seem to equate.

What about where there is organisational restructuring, downsizing, redundancies, you might well think and ask? And I have been there as a leader and impacted participant myself many times and that is not fun. I think it therefore makes sense to think of, use and apply "Fun" in situational context. Fun times can also be individual personal moments as much as major organisational events. Humour used carefully can often be good icebreaker / release for times of higher stress. Fun across the team has also been a great measure of team relationship strength and effectiveness.

Some of the best teams I have worked in and had the pleasure to lead have included times of great discussion, rigorous debate, a few tears, wins and losses and lots of fun ... an ability to make fun of each other and situations, without personal attack and always with relevance to how "this team can be even better, attract, grow and retain great people and deliver really great outcomes".

Work - life today is complex, constantly changing and challenging for individuals and organisations. So a couple of final thoughts on this. For leaders, I would ask how you are managing the "fun" factor at work. Is it a fun place to work, fun place to be (while working smart and kicking goals also). Is fun part of the spirit, energy, DNA environment and not just at the Christmas Party and occasional Friday afternoon drinks? I remember reading a quote a few years ago on one organisation's approach to this - probably not the best strategy.

"The culture meetings will continue 9.00am Mondays until team morale improves".

For individuals, considering all of the above and from my own experience; if you are not (on balance) having fun in your job then (a) try and create some fun, which often works well but if not (b) find somewhere else, something else where you can find and have some fun!

Thanks for reading through so far. I hope the above has given you some useful information and pointers to think through, based on many years of my own leadership observations, experience and lessons. Hang in there, we're on to the last section now and some final concluding thoughts!

5. Be Real, Be Relevant, Be Present

I was privileged this year to work some great people and a great team in the area of Human Centred Leadership. This was about applying Human Centred Design principles not only to customer solutions but also being aware of the mindsets and biases we bring to our thinking and responses to situations, opportunities and challenges, based on deeper rooted personality traits, values and beliefs.

Some of the key HCD/HCL elements at play are captured and reflected in the infographic below which I put together, published and also wrote about a little while ago.

The key point in this is that our own leadership approach and effectiveness is of course tied to how we feel about ourselves in a particular situation. That brings in a complex mix of:

... who we really are, who we want to be, what we think others want us to be, who we want to be for others, what we want to be remembered for; together with our values, knowledge, training, skills and experiences that have got us where we are today.

Words that regularly come up when defining great leaders and leadership are Vision, Integrity, Humility, Honesty, Courage, Communication, Focus, Strategy, Inspiration, Co-operation. These being a mix of some technical learned skills together with many underlying personal behavioural traits (albeit still learned but over a longer lifetime of experiences).

Clearly as a leader you have an influence with and over your team and environment. I think the saying goes to be mindful of the leadership shadow you cast because most people will expect that to get ahead and along with you and the company, they need to mostly reflect your style and behaviours. That is great for the positive leadership traits, the challenge is in being very aware of blind-spots (and they are called blind because you often don't see them and/or most people are afraid to tell you what they are).

Great organisations I have worked for have had us (senior leadership) do 360 degree reviews which on some occasions went beyond the boss, peers, colleagues and direct reports to also family and friends. That feedback was often confronting but once constructively digested provided the opportunity to do something about it. This would sometimes result in engagement of Behavioural Psychologists and Executive Coaches to work through various areas at a deeper level. It was also valuable in understanding that there were clearly people (all of whom I though I interacted with in a similar way) who saw, thought and perhaps perceived of my leadership and engagement quite differently. The realisation also that for some of the feedback areas over the years, no-one had confronted me directly, why didn't they just talk to me and tell me? The reality of course that most people tend to avoid and dislike confrontation. Perhaps also people taking a view on likelihood of change.

A few lessons over my 20+ years in leadership have also been to be aware and mindful of leadership styles in different situational contexts. Being able to read and adopt to what is likely to be most effective and needed for given situation and hardest of course when not your most dominant personality style. People leadership through today's era of digital transformation is different to that of the global financial crisis and different to previous decades of strong economic growth. Many principles remain the same and good leaders will adapt and evolve with the changing external and internal environment and expectations.

Sometimes, a different leader (person) may be what is required through different stages of a business and for the type of business. We see this often from startups to scaleups, small businesses to large corporates from crisis, transformation to more stable economic environments (with various senior leadership / CEO changes). A key consideration for boards and executive in looking at the composition of their own senior teams - provided that simply changing the people is not then considered the easy and final answer to key underlying issues - perhaps at least it means it will get some fresh new focus.

One of the more common issues I see in leaders being real and relevant to their people and teams is a mismatch between what is being said and what is being done and experienced.

Many senior leaders enjoy the luxury of professional writers, PR and marketing who are very skilled and knowing what should be said and how it should be said. The challenge then is that people (led by the leader) have to execute on those visions, goals and promises. As humans we also have a well developed intuition and EQ radar to quickly assess whether what is being said about the brand or company is congruent with what they see from the leadership team. If not, it will quickly be ignored and dismissed and in fact likely to do more damage to morale, motivation and culture.

Equally for leaders, there is sometimes the feeling that we must have the answers, to be able to define and show our people the way forward (part the seas and lead them to the promised land!) It is always pleasing to see and hear great leaders who recognise changing, uncertain, turbulent times, acknowledge that we certainly don't have the answers but are clear and focused on applying a core guiding purpose, principles, values and goals to manage and respond to the future ahead.

Sure, people are looking to leaders for leadership (and to bring all that great vision, passion, experience and encouragement to bear) but as also featured in a number of Harvard Business Review leadership articles there is great power in what is described as selective vulnerabilities. That individual expression of some areas where human FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) creeps in and an acknowledgement of that.

That has and is a key part I think of the critical leadership competencies in being real and relevant for your people. People I am sure will certainly not see that as leadership weakness but a credible and commendable human reality that like everybody, leaders don't have it all figured out all of the time.

A final point on relevance, that as a leader it is also going to be about finding areas and opportunities for personal connection with people, what they actually do in the team and their role (for your business or organisation). It always raises alarm bells for me when I hear comments like "senior leadership are off doing their own thing somewhere but it doesn't really seem to matter or have any relevance to what I am doing in my day to day job".

An abundance of organisational psychology research and personal experience tells me that whilst perhaps not often directly spoken about, people are always looking for relevance and meaning in what they are doing in their lives and a big part of that relates to their job role.

As leaders I think it is therefore important to recognise that people today are so often so busily focused on job task at hand there is limited time or consideration to be connecting the dots on meaning and relevance (although it is always underlying). So my call out is that:

the onus is on leadership to connect meaning at an organisational strategy, team and individual / personal level to ensure that every employee understands how they are contributing to the overall vision, goals and greater good of the organisation.

Finally (three minutes reading to go) one of my favourite discussion topics is being present as a leader. There are two angles to this which I will address. One being leadership presence which is often written about and a part of much executive coaching. The other angle (which is also related) is in being physically present (actively listening and engaged) with people in each and all interactions with them.

It's interesting to do some quick research on "Leadership Presence" which includes comments, traits and definitions such as:

• taking command of a room / high situational awareness
• having the right balance between talking and listening
• sharing thinking and opinion with confidence
• a communication style that is impactful and persuasive
• active / assertive body language
• showing up as a whole person / genuinely curious and attentive / being present

Having worked with/for many leaders, the above was not always evident and did not come naturally for many. It doesn't simply come with title (that can help) but is also learned with experience (some may say earned with experience). Confidence and extroversion also does not equal presence. Introverts and silence can also command great presence.

I think we can all relate to the team member who doesn't say much (probably listening better than most) but when they speak everyone listens and out comes some pearls of wisdom. Great people to have on a high performing team. Be aware and mindful of those people and give them space to shine!

Being present as a leader for me means also being personally present, available and engaging. Many coaching conversations with me will include the question (to senior leadership); "When did you last do a floor walk, who did you talk to, who did the most speaking, what did you learn?"

I encourage all leaders to research, find and engage with staff on one thing of personal interest and one thing of business interest. Do you even know for some people (leaders) what your people and teams are actually working on? What do they most enjoy out of work?

I have always been emotionally moved as a leader to hear from people in either farewell cards or sometimes emails years later ..."I will never forget that time you said to me or ...what you said to me when..." Many times I had probably forgotten that interaction, such is life as a leader; a reminder of the influence and impact you have on peoples lives, not just their jobs, in moments when you might not have even realised it.

I once left an organisation and was presented with 12 different farewell cards from people around the country and region. It took a little while to read through every comment and with a few tears and lump in my throat (my wife even asking if I was ok and what was going on?), if I hadn't appreciated the value, importance, role and impact of (inspiring / engaging / connected) leadership before, I certainly did after that!

I use that experience in also coaching other leaders to think about what will be written (or not written) on their farewell cards; other than Congrats / See You and probably not going to be "well done on financial performance in the second half 2018".

Being present as a leader is also not just about your direct reports. I encourage all leaders to take "skip line" conversations, be engaged with people at all levels because (a) people will definitely appreciated it and (b) you will probably learn a lot more about your own business (that may not be coming to you through formal communication channels).

If you want to make a great positive leadership impact for your people, culture, engagement and performance, do think about how you can / will be more real, relevant and present.

In Conclusion

I am mindful I had also titled this article People Leadership for the next decade and all of the thoughts, experience and principles above could and do apply to leadership over any and many recent decades.

Accordingly, looking at 2020 and beyond here are a few things that are likely to present some new challenges and considerations to your organisational people leadership:

• accelerated technology impacts to the work force and job roles
• intersection of AI / Robotics and Human engagement across many job functions
• a stronger community / environmental influence on what is acceptable by companies (and associated leadership) - we have seen big impacts of that already
• speed and transparency of information (power of social media)
• shifting age demographics of the workforce generations (and associated internal culture and external customer experience expectations)
• shifts in ways of working, the gig economy; a blend of permanent, part-time, contractor, contingent and consultant company workforces
• people also living and working longer (and encouragement and support for older people to remain longer in the workforce)
• ongoing and accelerated digital technology disruption to long standing business models, brands and company structures.
• a constantly changing and turbulent geopolitical and economic global environment

So whether you are suits, ties, jeans, t-shirts or safety overalls leadership, I do encourage you to be aware and mindful of all that comes with being gifted and privileged in taking on the opportunity of a people leadership and give yourself some time for regular reflection on:

1. Vision, Mission, Values and Goals
2. Comfort Zone, Challenge / Learning Zone, Terror Zone
3. Being Uncomfortably Excited
4. Working Smart, Kicking Goals and Having Fun
5. Being Real, Relevant and Present

And finally, I wish you all the best in your own journey of great leadership and great outcomes for yourself, your teams, business and organisation (it is of course an ongoing learning and personal reflection and improvement process).

I look forward to hearing more of your own leadership stories, challenges and successes!

By: Mark Townley (Founder & Principal, Ideas2Outcomes) Jan 2020