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I hate noise. When I’m working I need to focus on exactly that one thing and any other noise becomes a huge distraction. My wife, Heather, on the other hand can listen to the radio, watch TV, read a book and still hold a conversation on the phone! It blows me away. The reality, however, is that white noise IS a distraction for everyone, even Heather. The trouble with ‘noise’ is that it serves no real purpose, except to draw us away from our core business. If we think of this in terms of leadership an analogous situation is our vision. Things in our periphery, now matter how attractive, must not keep us from that core vision; we must stay focused. How do we do this, the answer is as simple to state as it is difficult to implement. Get rid of the noise. I’ve been giving this some thought and it occurs to me that we can divide any given task, business or leadership activity into four segments; core business (stuff that is directly related to achieving our vision) supporting stuff (those things that need to be done to that underpin the core business) peripheral activity (the bits that could make a difference but also could do with refinement) and lastly and least importantly; noise or what I call ‘white noise’. That is, that constant buzzing, non-descriptor,  incessant blah in the background. Unfortunately, in many areas ‘white noise’ gets the largest chunk of our attention. So how do we eliminate or at the very least reduce the white noise? The first step is to understand and recognise the white noise in your life. Take stock. Secondly, devise a plan to reduce it. Strategise. And thirdly implement the plan. Take action. More could, and will, be said about this but for now, start looking, listening and feeling the white noise in your life. You might be surprised at just how much there is!

Failure is a curious thing and like many curious things it is often approached with caution. I say curious because it is so subjective, tantamount to someone’s perspective of a movie. Some movies fail, some succeed but most movies fail and succeed! For evidence look no further than the latest review of any movie and what you’ll find is a continuum of caustic criticism to euphoric delight. What one critic sees a dismal failing in the movie the next sees as a triumphant success. Similarly, our feedback to subordinates can always potentially range from abysmal to the superfluous. One leader recognises the effort and praises accordingly, while the next expresses huge displeasure. This, of course, is the human condition; varied, fickle and diverse. This is human nature on show for all to see. I’m not suggesting we ‘embelish’ the truth the way we see it, merely that we make an effort to focus more on people’s strengths and use this as a launching pad to go to the next level. I am questioning our logic in pointing out someone’s failings to motivate them to succeed. Wherever did we get the notion that to make someone succeed, to do better, we should berate them and make them feel bad? Feeling bad, feeling like a failure is a learned response. That is, we are not born with it. In fact optimism and a willingness to try our best is inert. Studies have shown that it is almost impossible to discourage very young children for they all know they are ‘great singers’ ‘terrific musicians’ ‘creative painters’ and ‘amazing dancers’. It is leaders that crush this and so all of us have a responsibility to lean towards success.

Leadership is a delicate balancing act. Human behaviour is complex. Put these two concepts together and no wonder we sometimes get stumped when it comes to motivating people. The reality is under ideal circumstances the human being will do… well, she’ll do any damn thing she pleases! That being said we are able to make some predictions based on experience, empirical knowledge and extrapolations from careful research. Most of us in leadership positions know that in very broad brush strokes there are two kinds of motivation; intrinsic, or internal reward or extrinsic or external reward (even if its to avoid punishment). What is less well known is the balancing act between these two motivations. As I said human behaviour is complex. Accordingly most human behaviour is a combination of these two elements, where the leader gets in trouble is when they mix them up. All the evidence points to the fact people can be motivated (and enjoy the experience) both intrinsically and extrinsically. However, and here’s the rub, if someone is doing something for intrinsic reasons eg; their job and of course they are being renumerated accordingly all is well, but take some of those external benefits away, whatever they may be (camaraderie, accolades, acknowledgement) and you will run into serious trouble. A celebrated study where researchers trained monkeys to perform a series of tasks, just for the sake of it, demonstrated how quickly they took to this. The same monkeys were then rewarded (with food) for doing the activity and quickly tired of the ‘game’. And when the external reward was taken away, they became frustrated even showing aggressive tendencies. Now I know you don’t have monkeys working for you (at least I hope not) and you don’t reward them with bananas (although you could) the reality is you must be very mindful of the extrinsic rewards they receive from their job and be very careful not to erode these. The last thing you want is a bunch of aggressive monkeys on your case!

Have you ever wondered why some of the ideas you want to communicate to your people stick whilst others get lost in the strategic communication quagmire? As a professional presenter and consultant I have a responsibility to make ideas stick. Whether they be mine or the CEO’s, we want the idea to be understood, meaningful and importantly implemented. Begs the question; how? Well the short answer is ‘in a myriad of ways’. So let me give you one. An important one. For the message to stick it must be relevant, congruent with an element of emotion. What messages work best this way? In a word; stories. Since the dawn of time our ancestors have conveyed messages through story. Gathered around camp fires they would enthrall, warn and lament about the vagaries of their lives. In evolutionary terms we have come no more than a single tick of the clock and so stories retain their power to influence. Sadly corporations and their policy makers seem to have forgotten this. Let me illustrate this with an example;

“The nurse was understandably nervous. It was his first day in the operating theatre and he new he was being scrutinized. “That’s it nurse” stated the surgeon “close her up”. The nurse hesitated for no more than a second “There’s one more sponge, we had used 13 and there is only 12 on the tray” “I said close her up, nurse” repeated the surgeon this time with more force “I used 12” “No. I wont do it, I know there was 13”. Upon the nurse’s insistence, a grin spread across the surgeon’s face as she lifted her foot to reveal the 13^th sponge “you’ll do”she said.”

Compare the stickiness of this story with this hospital ‘teaching’ document referring to ‘operational safety’

“As is the functionally of similar fields of utility, process control and internal operations, it is found that errors are not confined to extraneous factors that are commonly complex and well defended technologies. These anaesthetic accidents are usually resultant from the often unforeseeable combination of confluted and/or organisational failures in the presence of some imitation in the system’s many barriers and safeguards. Psychological factors that force inattention, distraction and forgetfulness are the penultimate stage in this the least manageable aspect of the accident sequence. Whereas individual unsafe acts are hard to predict and control, the organisational and contextual factors that give rise to them are present before the occurrence of an incident or accident and as such, they are prime candidates for treatment. Errors at the pointy end are symptomatic of both human fallibility and underlying organisational failings. Fallibility is here to stay but we have a responsibility to make sure they are diagnosable and manageable.”

Which ’story’ do you think the young nurse will remember when he first enters the operating theatre?

Remember, relevant, congruent and emotive stories are sticky!

Leadership. An intriguing subject that seems to escape any quantifiable, qualitative definition. And yet it is a concept that in some way touches all of our lives. Therein lies a clue. In my seminars I often ask people to think of leaders that have been inspirational, influential or in some way has touched their lives. Some predictable names appear with regularity; Gandhi, Mandela, JFK and other well known leaders, but when asked who has really had the greatest impact the names that are written down for the most part few would know. They are mum’s, dad’s, brothers, sisters, friends, work mates, bosses and other personal connections. We all have the potential to be leaders. The real question is not are you a leader, but rather what kind of leader are you. Do you live your life in such a way that people would cite you as a leader in their life? If you do that is all the credibility you need!

Change the world. I wonder if that is something we all secretly want to do. Not necessarily in a global way, perhaps not even in a local community way, but rather to know that some one, some where gives a damn that you actually existed. To know that your life had some purpose. Isn’t that something we all want, to make a difference? If that is true, how do we go about ensuring we leave a legacy? Perhaps the first step is recognizing that we are mortal, that life is finite. With this recognition comes a responsibility that every day is part of that legacy. It seems such a simple truth that every moment contributes to that overall life and therefore every moment should be spent/invested in that way. The corollary then, is that every moment should be lived as if it were a microcosm of that greater life. Here’s a simple activity for you to think about: imagine it is judgment day (not the day you are going to die but rather the day you will be judged), and some being/god (whatever your belief might be) has descended to decide the quality and virtues of your life and unbeknown to you has been observing you for exactly the last 24 hours. Would that be a good measure of the legacy you’ll be leaving? No? What about if you could pick one day for last week to represent your life. Still not happy with that? What about the last month, year, decade? Think about this. What if the rules were slightly changed and you knew when the deity/being gave you some warning. Now you knew it was to be tomorrow. Would you live your life differently? If so, what is not congruent and what will you change to make sure the moments of your life represent the change you brought to this world?

Working independently can create many challenges. Not least of which is the many thoughts that go through your mind on a daily basis. Unlike an employee, one’s discretionary time is almost infinite and so what to do with all that time and all those thoughts? At last there is an answer. Blog! You see, as a sole author, a co-author and a contributing author its not that I have nothing to say, it’s just that anything said needs to have focus. I guess the challenge is that I have too many things that interest me, fortunately they can all be subsumed under the rubric of ‘leadership’ but none-the-less this is an extremely broad topic. I’ve been working to simplify it. To form a clear, concise and comprehensible model. It is my intention that as this develops I’ll unfold it here. So what is leadership? At first what seems a simple enough question. Rarely, however, does a simple answer come to mind. Sure, we know when we see it, but when we try to describe it, it is as if it slips easily between our intellectual grasp. I’ve given this lots of thought. I think leadership is first foremost indeed in its entirety - influence. What’s more this influence may be segmented into three parts. 1. Influencing self 2. Influencing others and 3. Influencing the environment. Imagine these three circle intersecting in a Venn diagram. If you were to take your mental cursor you could double click into anyone of these areas and go deeper. For instance, in the ‘influence self’ circle you’d find headings for ‘vision’, ‘goals’ ’strengths’ etc, in the ‘influencing others’ circle you’d find things like ‘values’ ‘relationship’ ‘team’ etc and in the ‘influencing environment’ circle you’d find ‘community’ ‘culture’ and ‘connections’.  In turn anyone of these headings could be further explored in a cascading fashion. In future blogs I’ll explore these areas and go deeper, for now, just consider the three main circles of influence; that is, self, others and environment. How much influence do you have in each of these areas?

This morning I took my daughter to her senior campus where she is studying for her TER end of year exams (in Western Australia this is preparation for university entrance). This is such an intensely testing time for youth of her age putting her under enormous pressure. “What if I don’t do well, dad? What if I don’t get the grades I need? Then I wont be able to get a good career and I wont be successful”.

Have you ever been in a similar place? Perhaps not with study but something equally as worrying; a job interview, a presentation to the board or a performance review. Many of us have been there, and don’t we so often ask ourselves similar questions akin to “What if it doesn’t work out?”. “Monique” I said “You are asking yourself the wrong questions. What if you do fabulously, what if your grades are exceptional, what if you can choose any career you like?”

Will this line of questioning make her/you any better prepared? Well somewhat paradoxically, no and yes . No you won’t be any smarter, you wont have any more skills but YES you will be able to access more easily the smarts and skills you already possess. In other words you wont get in the way of your own ability. So next time you are faced with a challenging situation, rather than saying “What if it doesn’t work out?” ask yourself “I wonder how neat this is going to be when I amaze them with my ability?” Chances are, like Monique, that’s closer to the truth anyway.

The beginning of a Brave New World. It is with some reluctance that I begin this blog, not because I’m opposed to blogs. I’m not. Its more that feeling you get when you launch into something of which you are unsure. You know, like buying a diamond ring if you’re not a jeweler or purchasing a new computer if you are still used to keeping your accounts with an old fashioned ledger. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a Ludite but I’m certainly no technophile either. Fortunately however I do have some very good friends that are willing to give me a hand. My good Friend Ed (see his far more professional blog at www.ozdomains.co.au/blog) has guided me through this process. What do I intend to write about? Well I guess at first this will be an experiment in ’stream of conscious’ later it is my goal to develop clearer thinking ideas around professional development. We’ll see how we go.