Courageous leaders reap benefits of tough decisions

Over the last few days I have engaged in conversations that have had me pondering the impending economic upswing and what will happen to those who were courageous leaders during the tough economic times and those who lead from a base of fear.

I truly believe that although many leaders felt they made the TOUGH decisions and followed through by having the courage to engage in crucial conversations to tell people they no longer had a job or they had to take a pay cut - I do not beleive these were "the" tough decisions at all - they were the easy ones and came from a place of fear.

The truly tough and courageous decision would have been to keep the people and collaboratively and innovatively work together to determine other ways (not thought of yet) to combat the tough economic times.

What we saw within many organisations was yet again that "our most important assets" were the first to go. Now as the upswing starts these same leaders are fearful of losing people they do not want to lose - as organisations start to advertise to recruit new people and making highly favourable salary offers - so the fear is probably warranted. Because the damage to loyalty has been done during this last year and people will now look to go where the best money offer comes from! Why should they stay loyal and "do the right thing" when organisations did not "do the right thing" by them and their colleagues during the tough economic cycle.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens in 2010.

Are you a socially intelligent courageous leader?

After reading through the article I mentioned in my last blog - "social intelligence and the biology of leadership" - I want to take the time to state that courageous leaders are socially intelligent because they show:

1. empathy with others and are sensitive to their needs
2. attunement to how others are feeling
3. organisational awareness of the cultural , business and market norms
4. ability to influence and persuade
5. propensity to develop others through coaching and feedback
6. inspirational tendencies so they bring out the best in people
7. teamwork
8. courage to stay true to who they are and what they believe in
9. willingness to use challenging behaviour.

I am going to work on these nine attributes / characters further and would welcome anyone's feedback and/or stories.

Social intelligence was summed up in the article as developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need. It can truly be that simple if we want it to be!

I challenge you to self assess what you do on a daily basis as a leader - can you honestly say that you have stayed true throughout the day to showing genuine interest in those people on whom you rely to create the business outcomes you desire and need?

Courageous leaders know that laughter is serious business

Serendipitously as I changed my FaceBook profile picture to have one that shows me laughing and stating that I recognise the importance of laughter in life and that we need so much more laughing in our everyday life on my FaceBook wall - I pick up an HBR article that I have used in my Courageous Leaders Development Programme for about a year called "Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership" and there on page 3 it jumps off the page and hits me between the eyes - there in black and white it clearly states that:

".......top performing leaders elicited laughter from their sub-ordinates three times as often, on average, as did mid-performing leaders. Being in a good mood, other research finds, helps people take in information effectively and respond nimbly and creatively. In other words, laughter is serious business."

So all those years ago when I was managing and leading in the professional services industry and wearing the wrath from colleagues that I instigated far too much frivolity in the office - even being accused of having afternoon tea parties where I could not possibly be getting any work done - well I was in the serious business of producing great results and engaging with each of my wonderful people.

So, courageous leaders know that laughter is serious business - inspiring others to be effective and producing great results - that's exactly what we are about!