Who’s in your meetings?

August 14th, 2009

Think about the last meeting you attended, perhaps with your team – who was there? And how did that affect the outcome of the meeting? Our guest blogger, Lesley Tulley poses this question.

Before pretty much every meeting you attend you will, consciously or unconsciously, have played a lot of it out in your mind already and would probably confidently bet a reasonable amount on the outcome. And it’s not just you doing this. Everyone else going to the same meeting has more than likely done the same thing. The first question might then naturally be, why have the meeting at all? And in many cases that would no doubt be a fine question and asking it would save a lot of time and hassle and increase productivity. Those are the meetings when you feel like you are going through the motions and having a meeting because, well, it’s what you do, isn’t it?

However, reducing the number of meetings is not what I am interested in here. What interests me is how you can view the members of your team, or the participants at any given meeting, in a way which will drive successful outcomes and make meetings a valuable use of your, and everyone else’s, time. Read the rest of this entry »

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Level Vision Newsletter June 2009 Values

June 20th, 2009

Level Vision Newsletter June 2009

Values are very much in the news these days. The MP expenses scandal in the UK revolves around the concept of what is right. What happens if what you do is “within the rules” but your actions undermine the trust that you have built with your team, or with your clients? In my blog Personal Branding, why bother? I make the point that it is important to look after your reputation, in the same way that companies look after their good name, which they often do by using Public Relations companies. One of the best ways to start is to examine your values.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Identifying your values tool

May 20th, 2009

A tip for establishing what your values are

Write a list of 10 aspects of yourself that you really like – special talents, qualities, behaviours, no matter how small or insignificant some of them may seem. Then, in

the second column, think a little bit deeper – what does each one stem from, what is the deeper value that your behaviour is allowing others to gain an inkling of? For example, you may feel you have a special talent for bringing people together and getting them to agree a way forward. Is the value behind that talent a desire to work in a happy, consensual environment (“Harmony”) or is it based on your wish to have an impact and persuade others (“Influence”)? Below the chart is a possible list of some values you might choose. You might like to start with a work or social situation where you felt were adding value, where your qualities, effort, insights made a difference.

The situation where I made a difference…

My special talents, qualities. behaviours

 The  values behind them
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Some possible values:

Achievement, adventure, challenge, love, cooperation, community, creativity, decisiveness, fairness, family, friendships, growth, happiness, harmony, honesty, independence, influence, intellectual stimulation, knowledge, loyalty, Nature, physical challenge, power,  quality, respect, responsibility, status, supporting others, variety, wealth, wisdom…

Once you have identified the values you think are important you will be in a much better position to live those values. And the people you work with will experience that consistency in a positive way.

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Personal Branding – why bother?

May 18th, 2009

Personal branding is a familiar topic, now that the world has been graced with the Beckham brand, the Brangelina brand, the Alan Sugar brand. It’s very easy to think that there’s no place for it in the real business world and yet each of these brands is incredibly successful, so isn’t it worth looking at whether personal branding could help you differentiate yourself, especially in this tough market?

Last month I was preparing a talk to a corporate women’s network and comparing notes with the other speaker for the evening. My topic was “Personal Branding” and hers “Public Relations” and we found a fascinating set of parallels between our two worlds. Where I’m concerned to ensure my coaching clients establish their reputation as leaders, her job is to help companies establish their corporate reputation. We set ourselves the challenge of answering the question “Why bother?” anticipating that both topics would meet with a certain degree of scepticism: aren’t reputations built on what you deliver, so don’t they take care of themselves?
Read the rest of this entry »

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Level Vision Newsletter April 2009

April 18th, 2009

Level Vision Newsletter

April 2009

Hi everyone

What is it that makes a leader? It’s a question that fills seminar rooms all year round at personal development conferences and it’s one too that the general public has got interested in during these tough times. In Barack Obama’s victory speech last November he talked of challenges that are “the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis of a century…” and everyone is wondering who will lead the way? What qualities do they have that fit them to the role in times of trouble?

In my blog “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” I look at one aspect of leadership that I believe is crucial, adaptability. As the saying goes: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”. To my mind, to cope with the economic crisis and climate change we need some different ideas, fast and maybe you recognise that in the challenges you or your clients face too!

Leadership Tip

How well do you know your team? A key part of Leadership is communicating with and motivating people you work with and it’s worth spending some time thinking about who you work with and how they respond to situations.

What drives others?

Think about how each member of your team behaves particularly when decision making under tight deadlines, or when the stakes are high:

image002

  • Risk – are they a risk taker?
  • Time – do they need lots of time to think or do they prefer to act?
  • Decisions – are their decisions based on consultation or instinct?
  • People – how important is consensus to them in moving forward?
  • Projects – are they process oriented or do they favour relational aspects?

The differences in these behavioural preferences reflect the individual’s key drivers and what is important to them to be in place to move forward. Recognising and responding to these can have a big impact on how the individuals respond. It aids you in planning communication strategies both with them as individuals and collectively as a team.

What drives you as a Leader?

The first stage to finding out what makes others tick is self-awareness. At Level Vision we use a tool called i-Lead that allows individuals to identify and focus on their key strengths and to understand what stops them achieving success. We work with individuals to develop personal ‘success loops’ which provide a blueprint for replicating your successful outcomes and ‘derailment loops’ that highlight where they breakdown. We develop and deliver tailored coaching programmes based on your objectives and suited to meet your circumstances.

Contact us at Level Vision if you would like to work with us to develop as a Leader. Visit our website to read more about our Individual Coaching

If you think they might enjoy it too please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends, colleagues and associates.

I’d love to hear what you think.

Hilary Gander

t: + 44 (0)20 8255 6343

e: hilary.gander@levelvision.co.uk

w: www.levelvision.co.uk

practical perspectives for leadership

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Teamprofile tool

March 20th, 2009

TEAM PROFILE How well do you know your team?

A key part of Leadership is communicating with and motivating people you work with and it’s worth spending some time thinking about who you work with and how they respond to situations.

What drives others?

Think about how each member of your team behaves particularly when decision making under tight deadlines, or when the stakes are high:

image002

  • Risk – are they a risk taker?
  • Time – do they need lots of time to think or do they prefer to act?
  • Decisions – are their decisions based on consultation or instinct?
  • People – how important is consensus to them in moving forward?
  • Projects – are they process oriented or do they favour relational aspects?

The differences in these behavioural preferences reflect the individual’s key drivers and what is important to them to be in place to move forward.  Recognising and responding to these can have a big impact on how the individuals respond. It aids you in planning communication strategies both with them as individuals and collectively as a team.

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When the going gets tough, the tough get going

March 18th, 2009

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
What does that mean? When the going gets tough, the tough scarper or does it mean the tough get into action? I like to think it means the latter. As we struggle with the vicissitudes of the current economic climate it’s good to learn lessons from how a great leader reacted in very different stressful circumstances.
I’m inspired by the great explorer Shackleton. In 1914, Shackleton led an Antarctic expedition which found disaster and Shackleton’s leadership meant that all his team lived to tell the tale.
And it’s quite a tale. The ship got stuck in the ice. For ten months. Then the ship was crushed by the ice. The men had to camp on the ice for four months in the darkness of the Antarctic winter. When summer arrived, they launched their three lifeboats. Four months later they landed on a very inhospitable Elephant Island. Shackleton took five men and sailed eight hundred miles over heaving seas in a lifeboat and had to cross a frozen mountain range on South Georgia before they could summon help. Oh, and then Shackleton immediately set about organising the mission to rescue the men he’d left on Elephant Island!
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Level Vision Newsletter Team MOT

January 18th, 2009

Level Vision Newsletter March 2009

Welcome to our first newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and find something of interest and something of value. If you do please visit Level Vision to subscribe to future issues.

There’s an old black and white Laurel and Hardy film where the pair are engaged to paint a boat and are so uncoordinated with each other that eventually all they’ve achieved is they’re covered in paint and the boat is completely trashed. It makes me giggle every time.

Compare that with Team GB, whose teamwork is justly lauded for gaining them 47 medals at the Olympics in Beijing last Summer. In my blog Team GB – Myth or Miracle? last year after Chris Hoy had won the Sports Personality of the year, I examined the way teamwork had contributed to their success. It intrigued me because before the Olympics I had assumed that individual athletes competed for individual glory, which was a strange assumption because I know that doesn’t work well in the business world.

The concept of teams that perform is something we’re passionate about at Level Vision. Investing some time ensuring your team is united around a common vision, understands what is important to other team members and has a clear plan of action for achieving the vision will have a huge impact on individual performance and overall productivity of the team.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Feedback tool

December 20th, 2008

FEEDBACK – How to make it work for your team

Top Team Tip

Make time for feedback.  Your team comprises many mini-relationships and interactions.  Creating time and a structure for feedback enables each individual relationship to function more effectively and can get rid of any blockages in the system.

Feedback doesn’t work if:

·         It is uninvited

·         It happens at the wrong time

·         It is unstructured

Feedback does work if:

·         It is invited

·         It is expected

·         It is structured

Support your team in giving each other feedback by:

·         Emphasising how important it is

·         Creating a time and space for it to happen

·         Suggesting a structure

·         Doing it regularly yourself

Example Structure for Feedback:

·         Plan a one-to-one meeting

·         Limit the time to 5 minutes each to share your feedback with each other

·         Use a structure like this:

o   “I feel ________when you do / say _________”(what drains my energy)

o   “I feel _______ _when you do / say _________”(what boosts my energy)

·         Spend 2 – 3 minutes in a dialogue to clarify (not to justify or get defensive)

·         Agree actions: make suggestions and offer commitments

Regularly practising giving and receiving feedback in a structured way has a significant impact on how team members interact and can prevent breakdowns within the team.

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Team GB – myth or miracle?

December 18th, 2008

Chris Hoy, unofficial captain of Team GB, won the Sports Personality of the Year this week. Didn’t it bring back all the excitement of the Summer? Fourth in the medal table behind the giants China, the US and Russia: I was so proud to be British!

Now I love cycling, though you would never catch me riding in one of those velodromes: it looks far too dangerous! And I’m passionate about teams and what they can achieve that individuals can’t achieve on their own. The concept of a British team for the Olympics is a strange one though, isn’t it? In most of the events isn’t each individual athlete competing for individual glory, trying to beat their personal best? And yet, and yet…it seems team may have been a factor that really made a difference in Beijing in 2008. What could have made Team GB so powerful? Read the rest of this entry »

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