From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog

 

 

Welcome back to a new work year!

So make sure your list of things to do has your TEAM at the top of that list – think about how you can kick off the year together with your team for best results. Think about what you could and should involve them in. Spend time on building the team, forging or re-forging bonds of greatness.

All teams – the great and the “not great yet” – can benefit from some focused attention – to get even better, to be more fun to be in, to achieve more. Because winning teams don’t happen by chance, they happen through a very important decision – the decision and intention to create a winning team, a team that delivers. Look at any sports team and you’ll know what we mean – it’s all about the team.

Plan for a team day to take place as soon as possible

So, if you haven’t done it already, plan for a team day to take place as soon as possible. Sit down as a team and talk about the team’s mission for the year – and how you will achieve it together. Encourage creative dialogue, listen to ideas and share yours too – and make some decisions together. Buy-in to plans and goals is greater when everyone has been involved.

And just spend some time getting to know each other more. Have fun, laugh. And keep building that crucial trust (no lasting success can happen without trust). The best teams know and like each other – and would do anything for each other – that’s what winning teams do.

Don’t wait – start today, take your team with you on a fun 2017 journey of success!

For more ideas on how to build teams, check out our award-winning books “The Team Formula” and “Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” or our website below.

 

 

About the authors

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International. You can download a free chapter of the book at www.leadingteamsbook.com

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog

 

As the year comes to an end and the festive season is upon us, it’s a great opportunity to stop and take stock.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection – Winston Churchill

Here are some reflection questions to help you get started:

• What are most proud of from 2016?
• What did you achieve?
• How did you help others? And what did that do for them?
• How did you use your strengths? When and where?
• What didn’t go to plan and what was good with that? (Yes, that’s a very important question because the toughest moments can lead to the greatest learnings)
• How will you celebrate everything you have done and achieved?
• How will you take your learnings from 2016 into 2017?

In fact, this is not just for the end of the year, we need to spend more time in reflection mode throughoutthe year as well. With our busy lifestyles we tend to rush onto the next thing without really appreciating what and how we have achieved.

So consider including that as a success habit for 2017.

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate – Oprah Winfrey

 

Once you have thought about the questions above, put your energy into how you are going to celebrate all that greatness!

Focus on your strengths and celebrate those strengths too.

Take a moment (or two!) to feel good. This is a perfect time of year to celebrate so go ahead enjoy the festive season.

You deserve it!

 

 

 

About the authors

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International. You can download a free chapter of the book at www.leadingteamsbook.com

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog

 

Right? You have your own unique set of strengths and capabilities, wouldn’t you agree?

 

“No matter if you’re just starting out or if you are at the peak of your career, the more you work in your strength zone, the more successful you will be”

John C. Maxwell,

So do you know what your key strengths are? What makes you special? What has taken you to where you are today?

If you’re not sure, here are some ideas to help you get started in your strength spotting:

• Reflect on what you think your strengths are. The answer to the following questions can start to point you in the right direction:
  • What do you enjoy most at work?
  • When do you feel most energised at work?
  • When do experience “flow” at work? (when things just seem to flow easily and effortlessly and time just flies by)
  • When do you deliver best results?
• Ask others for feedback on what your strengths are (it’s usually pretty obvious to others)
• Do a strength inventory. There’s a number of them out there, like StrengthsFinder or StrengthScope

When you know what your strengths are, start exploring how you can make the most of them, how you can tap into them more.Put them into your current and future context and ask yourself “which of these strengths will best help me achieve my goals and ambitions?” And then start thinking about how you can develop them further by adding knowledge, developing skills and using them in new situations and contexts. Your strengths should most definitely be in your ongoing development plan.There’s not just one way of being a leader. Everyone is different, everyone has their own unique set of strengths, skills and experience, and the more you can become aware of and use your unique combination – the more authentic and effective your leadership can become.

Have fun with your strengths – there’s no one like you!

 

 

About the authors

 

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International. You can download a free chapter of the book at www.leadingteamsbook.com

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog

We had the great honour and pleasure of talking at the WATC Careers Club earlier this week – on the subject of futureproofing your leadership.

However, time doesn’t stand still and neither should we, as leaders – so even authentic leadership needs to continuously develop to meet the challenges of the future.

Education is the passport to the future,

for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Malcolm X

The world and our reality in which we are operating, is changing continuously and so does our leadership. Factors like globalisation, the expectations of new generations as well as sustainability goals, push and encourage a new type of leadership.

Future leaders need to be authentic, strengths-focused, inclusive, flexible, great listeners, curious and open-minded – to capture others interest and engagement, to be able to create dialogue and cross-pollination of ideas that can solve the challenges of the future.

This can sound big and over-whelming, but it really doesn’t have to be.

Just remember that great leadership is about influencing others and enabling others to do a great job.

And with that in mind, think about what behaviour(s) you can further develop to make that happen. Maybe you want to practice your listening, your feedback skills or your open-mindedness (=listening without having to be “right”) – or something entirely different. Only you know what’s going to be most useful for you.

Whatever it is, make the commitment to do it and notice the strides you take to futureproof your leadership. And with that kind of commitment, we know you’ll do great!

About the authors

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International. You can download a free chapter of the book at www.leadingteamsbook.com

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog

Have you ever heard of Wayne Gretzy?

Everything in life is a pattern. Nature has patterns. Weather and seasons have patterns. Human beings have habitual patterns, in their thoughts, their feelings and their actions.

The better we can become at noticing our own patterns (= self awareness) and those of others (=social awareness), the better results we can get. We can communicate better, create better relationships and lead better.

If we can become aware of our own patterns, we can change them. If our habits aren’t working for us, we can change them, and get better results. We all get stuck at times, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Of course we need to do things differently to get different results. Habits and patterns aren’t always easy to break, but if we can just become aware of them, then we are well on they way to change. And we can start creating new, more effective patterns, one step at a time.

And if we can become aware of other people’s habits and situational patterns, we can start to predict some of what’s coming up, so we can approach situations in the best possible way.

An increasingly important EQ skill for future leaders is to be able to observe and listen. Let’s take inspiration from the legendary Gretzky and become masters of patterns, not just seeing what’s happening right now but also what might happen next.

 

 

About the authors

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International. You can download a free chapter of the book at www.leadingteamsbook.com

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

This may sound simple and obvious, but yet, when we really need that attitude, we don’t always look for it – we get stuck in the ‘automatic’ reaction of anger, sadness, disappointment or sense of failure. And the key word here is of course to go LOOK for the attitude. It’s a choice and it can be made at any time, in any situation, whatever we face.

And an easy way to look for it and find it, is to be ready with an attitude, a thought, a mantra if you like, which can quickly get you on the right path of taking the next step to progress, success and results.

Here are a few examples that have helped us keep an optimistic attitude in challenging situations:

                                                     “It’s all happening perfectly”

Susan Jeffers PhD

 

                                         “When things go wrong, don’t go with them”

Elvis Presley

 

                                       “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”

Anonymous

Attitude is everything. Being able to look at ANY situation and find something good in it is a question of choosing our attitude to it.

We have met many people who have been disappointed/sad/angry when something happened and have later on realized that it was the best that could have happened to them.

• People who have lost their job and realised that it was the push they needed to take the long overdue step of doing something new that they had wanted to do for a while but not dared to take.
• People who have failed at something and then understood that they never would have come up with that brilliant new idea unless they had failed and had had to have a rethink.
• People who have experienced conflict within their team and realised that it made them take a new approach to teamwork, leading to better goal achievement and team climate.

Some of the best leaders we have ever met are extremely good at this. And as we are really keen for leaders to get ready for the future…do you think this a crucial ability to have? Absolutely, so do we. So many things will not go our way – it’s part of change – but our way of looking at it is ours to choose.

Attitude is everything, and one of the few things completely within our own control – if we choose to take it.

So go on, have an attitude!

 

 

About the authors

Mandy Flint & Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, award-winning authors of ”The Team Formula”.

Their latest book ”Leading Teams – 10 Challenges: 10 Solutions” is out now, published by Financial Times International.

Praise for ”Leading Teams: ”This book is a 21st-century guide on how to build a world-class team. I highly recommend it” Steve Siebold, Founder, Mental Toughness University, Florida USA.

www.leadingteamsbook.com