Courageous leaders negotiate differently!

I had an incredible experience last week facilitating business negotiation skills workshops for a client. When first asked to undertake this project I declined because I believed that I did not negotiate and cringed at the use of the word. Courageous leaders do not negotiate...........this was the inner chatter in my head and yet upon reflection and challenge I realised that courageous leaders DO negotiate and so did I - just on different terms to that of the stereotype I had in my head about what constituted an effective negotiatior! My upbringing in business had lead me to believe that an effective negotiator was aggressive, kept information and needs close to their chest, played manipulative games and walked out with the knowledge they had WON and the other person had lost! And this was not what I did and it was not what I ever wanted to do!This experience has allowed me to recognise that I am a great negotiator but that I do it with my style and now I am proud to refer to this as the courageous negotiator. The courageous negotiator is transparent, gives information freely and with the intent of finding the best outcome for all parties because they believe so strongly that it is win-win or no deal. I also now know that my style is very much based on the wonderful movie called "Pay It Forward" and counter to what many effective negotiators believe I make widespread use of generosity. This has created great outcomes for me and for others involved in the negotiation. So for me I am eternally thankful to this client as I have now totally reframed myself and are proud to say that I AM a negotiator - a courageous negotiator!!!

Courage to be YOU

In developing the content for my book I was reflecting on some new thinking and would like to share it with you..............I see the constant tension leaders need to manage between financial, brand and people sustainability - the constant push and pull between the short term and the long term; the external and the internal. And this tension permeates every decision leaders make, each behaviour leaders choose and every promise they make to any stakeholder. To harness the creative force that can lie behind this tension takes uncompromising courage from any leader. The Courageous Leaders Model clearly advocates how individuals can redeploy into a position where their courage allows them to harness this tension and unleash something truly creative.
How realistic does this feel. Can courage enable you to manage your way through the ever present tension in your daily lives? Is it sufficient if you have developed your self mastery to an extent that means you are clear on the kind of leader you want to be and now you just need the courage to "be" that leader?

We need far more courageous leaders

I walked away from a client meeting today filled with the overwhelming conviction that we need far more courageous existing leaders and until we have them, we need to realise that behavioural change within organisations is always going to be a mere ‘tinkering at the edges’.
We need existing leaders to step into a place of complete vulnerability where they are prepared to be challenged and most definitely prepared to change. And in my experiences to date I have far too little evidence of this happening. The even more frightening thing is that the more research I do on fear, the more I wonder how we can truly encourage more existing leaders to work constructively with their fear and jump into this place of complete vulnerability – where they do not have control and they do not have the solutions.
In these turbulent economic times we are seeing more and more existing leaders clinging to the Downward Spiral of Fear (link to previous newsletter) to protect, to comply, to regulate and to control. What we really need are leaders who are prepared to climb the Upward Spiral of Courage – to embrace vulnerability, to want their thinking challenged and to come to issues with creativity and an abundance mentality! We so desperately need our existing leaders to be courageous!!!!