by Elisabet | Mar 29, 2016 | English Blog
Is that you?
Leadership is changing fast. And emotional intelligence is climbing to the top of desired leadership abilities. The ability to relate to others, to “get people”, to see people, to value others, to take care of how we impact others, to connect with people in such a way that they want to go that famous extra mile. Emotional intelligence is about being clever with people – ourselves and others.
Although, let’s face it, wasn’t great leadership always about emotional intelligence?
Don’t we all remember those leaders we’ve had (and I hope that you, like me, have had at least one!) who were about more than the job – more than the technical abilities, more than just a “goal achiever”. Someone who just made you want to go to work. Someone who made you see that work is fun.
When I first became a leader, some 24 years ago, there were no great attempts to try to help leaders be just that – people who lead. I might have learned the technicalities of the job as a manager, but I found it very difficult to deal with the difficult situations. A lot of is was gut instinct and either you had it or you didn’t.
Leadership development has come a long way since the early 90’s but sadly very few leadership development activities, even to this day, have the desired effect. Not because they are bad, but because they rarely change behaviours. And that’s what leadership comes down to, behaviours.
Or like Maya Angelou so eloquently said:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”
We all have emotional intelligence (in different ways) AND we can create more of it. It’s all about our behaviours and how they effect others.
Watch this space – emotional intelligence will continue to grow in importance. And that’s good, for people and for sustainable businesses.
by Elisabet | Jun 10, 2013 | English Blog
Since early 2011, I’ve been studying for an MBA (Master of Business Administration). Interesting and exciting. And what makes the MBA particularly rewarding and exciting for me, is that it’s got an additional focus on “Leadership and Sustainability”.
Sustainability is a term that gets bandied around a lot at the moment. It’s a “hot” word, some would even call it trendy. At a conference recently I heard someone talk about “sustainababble” as a way of describing how much it is talked about (not necessarily done, if you see what I mean) Quite witty, I thought:-)
And most people seem to view sustainability differently to the next person. It’s such a big subject and there are many definitions.
If you look for “sustainable” in the Oxford dictionary online, the definition is: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level or able to be upheld or defended.
I love the idea of making something sustainable, making something last, particularly in a world of constant change. More specifically, to be able to change AND achieve sustainability.
The world is spinning faster and faster, technology evolves and we become more and more impatient – we want quick fixes, fast results, now, now, now.
But we need to learn to become more patient, to delay gratification, to think about impact, to look ahead, to not just think about here and now, but also about “what happens next”?
Sustainability in business, as I see it, is about seeing the bigger picture, it’s about running an organization in such away that it can be around for a long time, for the benefit of ALL it’s stakeholders. As most businesses exist to make money (because otherwise there would be no money to run the business!), this often becomes the main focus for an organization, to the detriment of the business and it’s stakeholders, thereby ultimately NOT making enough money. Very counterproductive.
What do I mean by that? Well, corporate sustainability is about managing all your resources in such a way that you will still have resources! The resources are made up by PEOPLE (employees, customers, suppliers – and all other stakeholders), PLANET (with a growing population, our resources can no longer be used recklessly as we have so far) and PROFITS (the finances to run the business).
Easy?
No, it’s not. It’s complex. There are so many links and interactions between these resources, where actions in one area affects another, and on and on.
Worthwhile?
Oh, absolutely! There is so much we can do. We just need to get started. And know what to do, and how. Are you ready?
by Elisabet | Jan 21, 2013 | English Blog
To be a leader can be both rewarding and frustrating. I remember becoming a leader of a team 22 years ago, my very first leadership role, with no leadership experience and very little understanding of what was expected of me. There are very few “born” leaders, if any! We can all do with some guidance, support, new knowledge and ongoing development to become great leaders. We can’t be expected to just know what to do, it’s not that simple.
There are a number of challenges that leaders may run into. How about
- Unmotivated, unengaged team members
- Conflicts within the team
- People working too independently, in “silos”
- People not sharing things with each other, creating overlap and re-work
- Not knowing what to communicate and when and to whom!
- Team members that don’t share info, often because they don’t know or trust each other
- A team that’s not delivering as expected
- A team that’s not well perceived by others
Over the years, Mandy and I have worked with leaders and teams to help them overcome leadership and team challenges, creating a work culture that is engaging, productive and where people really enjoy working. Our book “The Team Formula” is our formula for how to work with teams to overcome the challenges leaders face.
The book is released 4th March 2013. You can find more information about the book here on it’s own website.
Elisabet Hearn, co-author “The Team Formula”
by Elisabet | Jan 9, 2013 | English Blog
I’ve written a book together with a friend/colleague of mine, Mandy Flint.
Mandy and I have worked together for many years, since 1997 in fact, first at American Express and then as owners of our own companies, finding projects to collaborate on now and then.
One day we were talking about how we spend so much time with individuals, teams and organizations around the world, and enjoying our work very much, but that we are always limited by time – there are only so many people we can work with.
We decided that we wanted to try writing a book to see if we could share some of our experience of leadership and teams in such a way. So one day we sat down in Mandy’s kitchen, inspired by the garden outside (yes, the picture is from there), with a laptop and a flipchart and started brainstorming ideas and then started writing, one word at a time. We found straight away that writing was SO MUCH FUN and that we wrote well together, it worked. Time just seemed to shoot by when we were writing. At first we weren’t thinking about the publishing of the book, we were simply completely caught up in the writing, enjoying the process and the creative way to explore what we do for a living. Over time, the story and the characters have developed and they now feel very close to us, like people we know. It’s worth mentioning though that the people in the book story are completely fictional, they are simply a summary of our business experience over the years.
What we have written is a fun business book which we think will appeal even to those people who wouldn’t normally read business books but still want to develop work skills and be successful at work.
The book is released 4th March 2013. You can check it out here
 
by Elisabet | Jul 16, 2012 | English Blog
100 years ago, in 1912, the summer Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden.
On Sunday the 14th of July 1912 the Olympic Marathon was run with 69 participants. It was a hot day and many runners suffered from the heat, only half of them completed the race.
One of the 34 people who didn’t finish the race that day was the Japanese runner, Shizo Kanaguri. His “disappearance” created the “myth of the missing Japanese” and I remember growing up with the tales of what happened that hot summer day. Apparently he wasn’t feeling well due to the heat and the long travel through Russia he’d had to make to get to Sweden. He was invited into a family’s garden for lemonade and buns (typical Swedish cakes, most common version is the cinnamon roll). He stayed there and rested for a bit and then returned to his hotel, checked out and went back home to Japan.
For years afterwards there was apparently talk about what could have happened to him. What happened was that he became a very influential person in sports in Japan and went on to participate in two more Olympics in the 20’s, but for some reason people in Sweden still just knew him as the “Japanese who disappeared”.
He was finally tracked down by some Swedish journalist and was invited back to Sweden in 1967 to complete the marathon! He finally entered the Stockholm Stadium after almost 55 years and crossed the finishing line, making his marathon race the “longest in history”:-).
Yesterday it was exactly 100 years since the 1912 Olympic Marathon, and a 100th Anniversary Jubilee Marathon was run. This time there were almost 9000 participants (including a great grandson of Kanaguri!) running the same race (well almost, roads have changed in 100 years so they had to make some changes to the course).
I went to watch the race as the runners passed us twice on their way north to the turning point and then on their way south into the city again. It was just a couple of hundred meters from our house. And close by, near to the house where Kanaguri was offered lemonade and buns (the actual house is not there anymore), great grandchildren of the hospitable family were serving lemonade and buns to runners and spectators (including Kanaguri’s great grandson). The circle was completed.
I got so inspired!
There was so much joy, there were so many running styles, there were people who seemed to be having a great time and those who seemed to suffer, there were people with hats, without shoes, men in dresses (1912 style!), people holdings signs, wearing wigs – there was even a women dressed as Superwoman!
Watching the race was exactly the kick in the bum that I needed to get myself properly back on track for my race. So what if I’ve missed a few weeks of training!
And who knows, maybe I’ve got a Marathon in me in due course…..
by Elisabet | Jul 15, 2012 | English Blog
I’m trying really hard to not be stressed by the ticking clock.
I’m training for a 10K running race which will take place 1 September. When I started training early spring, it seemed like I had AGES to get ready, to get fit, to be able to run more than 200 meters:-).
But time goes really quickly, doesn’t it? All of a sudden I only have about 6 weeks to go and I’m behind schedule….
The last two weeks I’ve been down with a cold and I haven’t been able to run at all, so I’ve lost two weeks of very valuable time. I have no margins left.I mustn’t get another cold!
I’m trying not to get stressed though, mainly by telling myself that it all happens perfectly! (thank you wonderful Susan Jeffers for the best affirmation ever!) Maybe I’m not supposed to have a lot of margins. Maybe I am supposed to feel a little stressed about it, as it might help me keep focused.
More than anything, I am so convinced that I will do this, I will complete the race, even if I won’t be as fit or as ready as I could have been. Life is no “Sliding Doors” film after all, where we can watch the parallell story of what might have happened if we had done something differently. Thank goodness for that. That means it all happens just the way it should, the right way.
I’m relieved:-)
