Stand out thinking for stand out performance
If you want to deliver stand out performance then you need to think about your own motivation, the way you lead others and your ability to think creatively. Here Clive Lewis highlights the challenges for 21st century leaders.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a senior leader or in your first management role – if you want to move forward fast at a time when the economy appears to be slowing down then you have to be distinctive. This distinction is about you and your mindset, about the way you lead your people and about business and the creative way you handle issues. And let me be clear, if you think you can stand out just by working harder then forget it – it won’t be nearly enough.
This focus on your distinctiveness is most easily understood within the context of creativity – and by that I mean you thinking creatively, working with people flexibly and using creative tools at the time you need them to help you get better results. Let me explain.
Your passion can set you apart
First of all I want to talk to you about you – not about what you do, but about what you are like when you are inspired and passionate. Of course there may be all sorts of different drivers that motivate you but I’m suggesting here that when you show up at work with a passion to make a difference then you are guaranteed to make a significantly different impact on projects, colleagues and clients.
But does passion belong at work? Cynics may say that this is a term better suited to the bedroom but that’s not the sort of passion I’m talking about. When I talk about passion I’m talking about you being in touch with what is meaningful to you and taking action that sees you delivering the results you want. This is a big prize. A spate of surveys by organisations such as Gallup, Towers Perrin and Blessing have found that leaders are desperate to get their people more engaged because they know that engaged and energized staff make such a difference to achieving results. So how can you show up in such an inspired state?
The proposition here is that in order to get passionate you have to get in touch with what brings you a sense of meaning at work. This doesn’t mean you have to sign up for some worthy cause but rather, you need to know what gives you a sense of purpose. Some people, for example, may feel passionate about providing public service. Others may feel the same about implementing systems that improve efficiency or in providing legal, financial or management support to colleagues. In short, you will feel passionate when you are investing in the work that you are doing. So what you need to consider is what it is about your work that gives you most satisfaction.
Be in no doubt – your passion makes a difference. It will ensure that you bring much more vitality and enthusiasm to your work and this will set you apart from many of your colleagues. More than this, when you are enrolled in what you care about it is contagious. This means that your passion will rub off on your colleagues and will lead to you being highly regarded in your team.
So if you, as a manager or a leader, are interested in finding out more about your passion for work, what should you do? The first step is consider what you care about. You don’t have to be charismatic or an extrovert to be passionate; you simply need to know what matters to you. So ask yourself what gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction and consider what contribution you want to make. If you want to go even further then you can conduct an exploration into what values you hold and what relationships you want to develop that will support you in your vision to make a difference. All these questions can open the door to your passion and help you get in touch with the energy you need to bring more pace and focus to your work.
Be a distinctive leader
The second piece about your distinctiveness concerns the way you lead your people and my contention here is that if you want to stand out from the crowd then you need to build your emotional intelligence and help harness the talent of your team.
The truth is that most people hold a great deal of their energy in reserve. Indeed according to some research findings, people feel that, given the right circumstances, they could typically double the amount of energy they bring to work. So why don’t they? Well in many cases it is absolutely down to the way they are being led.
So how exactly does emotional intelligence relate to team performance? Again we only have to look at the research. A study by Yale University, for example, found that teams with high levels of EQ outperformed teams with low levels of EQ by a margin of two to one. And it really should be no surprise to find that EQ makes such an impact. After all we live and work in a world that is changing shape constantly and is increasingly more demanding. Just consider… we work in structures which are much flatter than ever, we have to be much faster on our feet with both colleagues and clients, we work in multi-functional teams and sometimes in virtual teams where there is enormous responsibility on us to build the relationships we need. And on top of this there is a greater intensity in the way we work. In facing all these pressures of course it helps to be emotionally resilient and responsive.
And the role of emotionally intelligent leaders plays an especially significant part here. When people are on top of their game then they will find this new matrix world stimulating and their talent will flourish. But when they are under too much pressure then there is a danger of people pulling in different directions, not communicating, losing motivation and making poor decisions because of stress. In this context emotionally intelligent leadership is the glue that holds people together – not only by providing the requisite support but by ensuring that individuals and teams maintain focus and performance.
Think creatively
Finally if you want to add value over and above the norm in today’s workplace you simply have to be able to apply leading edge thinking.
This may sound obvious but the reality is that in many companies in which I work, constant information overload is crippling people’s thinking capability and the consequences are often dire. In such situations people start to lose sight of their priorities, they make poor decisions, they withdraw.
However, the pressures of the information economy aren’t going to subside anytime soon. In fact we can predict that communications are only likely to speed up further. The answer therefore has to be that people become more resourceful in themselves – and that means they need the latest skills and techniques that are available to help them work and think more effectively.
This is one of the reasons why I have developed an approach to help people not only tackle information overload – but to eliminate it.
This model, which now sits at the heart of many of the programmes I run, is called INSEAK® – the Intelligent Strategy for the Effective Acquisition of Knowledge. It recognises that whenever we are faced with new information we need sorting strategies and reading techniques to help us to determine the relevance of that information. The INSEAK® approach combines various Mind Mapping and Speed Reading techniques and not only helps people by giving them a method of blasting through the information glut but helps them at the same time to harvest vital knowledge.
So INSEAK® is one of the accelerated learning skills that can help leaders to differentiate themselves but it certainly isn’t the only one. Leaders and managers need to consistently stay on the front foot and that means that they must also know how to apply creative thinking and problem solving techniques, must know how to think on their feet and must know how to communicate with impact.
This is no small undertaking. Being your best, leading your teams to high performance and being creative in the way you think will certainly help you stand out from the crowd but it needs constant practise. Your challenge as a manager or leader is to be proactive, get behind yourself and carve out the opportunities that await.
Emotional quotient, a metric similar to IQ but measuring one’s perception of emotions. It’s often used when measuring EI (Emotional Intelligence). Find out more about our Emotional Intelligence course here…
INSEAK® is a registered trademark of Illumine Limited and features on our Effective Speed Reading™ and Advanced Thinking and Learning in-house course and public workshops.
Find out more about ways to tackle information overload in our Assimilate section.
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Tags: Emotional Intelligence (Training), engagement and motivation, information overload, INSEAK
