Feedback is a gift

It is the gift of positive endorphins to yourself and others.Even if you are not feeling happy. Your body will respond to the physical movement sending the happy endorphins around your system.If you smile at others there is a good chance that they can’t help themselves smile back at you. Try it with your team, on the bus, in the line for coffee.We want to be with happy people, we gravitate towards them.If you want to be more inspiring, smile more!Are you smiling yet?

Leaders create culture by setting the socially acceptable behaviour of their teams.Whether that is a football team, a scout group, your team at work, your church or your family group. There are a set of behaviours that you adopt in that group. When you visit your parents, you notice that their rules are slightly different to yours; how they lay the table, whether you take your shoes off at the door or not. These are the socially acceptable behavioursCulture does not come from open plan offices, foosball tables or free beer.Two things change culture; leadership and crisis.Crisis is the big scale ‘how we have ever done things is not working’ type of crisis. Very few of us (thankfully) ever experience this.Which leaves leadershipYour teams want to please you and will emulate your behaviours, working out what is important to you.How do you show up?As a leader you get the team and culture you deserve. If you don’t like it, or want to change it; look in the mirror. What are you doing which is causing the outcomes you are getting.For change to be successful either change your leadership behaviour or change the change to fit the culture.

The umbrella of sponsorship is how much air cover your boss will give you when making changes.Do not be more committed than your boss, if you are you may turn around and find that you are in the seagull zone.The umbrella grows and shrinks based on your bosses priorities. Keep an eye on it and don’t be caught outside it.Do not be tempted to take on the leadership of the change, however passionate you. Leadership cannot be delegated.As an agent of change; stay within the umbrella of sponsorship to avoid the ‘seagull’ zone.

Feedback (or complaints) are a gift.If positive you can feel valued.Fear of feedback raises a defensive wall which creates a barrier. Avoid raising barriers in yourself or others.Learn to breathe, listen and say Thank-you, whether the feedback is positive or negative.Feedback given authentically is very powerful and is one of many data points to listen to.Give positive feedback to create open mindset.If you are frustrated that your boss isn’t in the habit of giving positive feedback, give some to get some. Make it authentic.Change the measures to change your outcome. Simple.

What you care for as a leader, is what your team will care for too.If you are not getting the results you want, try changing what you measure!If you are looking to bring about change, start with what you measure and prioritise.Make measures meaningful, things that your team can see a way to achieve.If your big outcome measure is too big and too far away, work out the leading indicators and measures which will makeThe right amount of flour, butter, eggs and heat will make a cake. If the cake is too big and scary, measure the components instead; heat, time, flour, butter, eggs. Know what these are.Change the measures to change your outcome. Simple.

When transforming businesses most value is lost when you negotiate with targets (your team members) who are angry at the change.Anger is a natural part of the change curve, it comes in just after immobilisation and denial.Humans hate change, we like things to be predictable.We get angry with being asked to do something differently, something that we have to rebuild the mental models in our head for.A well learned tactic is to negotiate with the purpose of limiting the scale of change we have to undertake.As a leader, leading change, it is tough to hold firm. We don’t like to see other humans in pain, especially if that hurt is directed at us.Reducing the scope of a change to minimise its impact is a short-term tactic only, one which reduce the benefits that the change will deliver you and your organisation.And the reason we do it; to help our teams feel better, because their pain is making us feel bad.We trade away value because of our own discomfort in the moment.Thing is; Leadership is not easy and it won’t always make us feel good.Focus on the outcome you want to acheive. This is not the time to give up on your dreams.Be empathetic don’t negotiate. The anger will pass. Time is a great healer.

Be open to learning, use the learning and adapt what you do.Encourage exploration and accept failure as something that you can learn from.Our biggest learnings come from our most challenging times.Reframe the self-talk in your head from failure into what was successful, what you learned and what you are going to do differently next time.Each learning step is an important step to becoming the leader that you want to be.Accept that there will always be an opportunity to grow, we are never ‘done’, be restless and seek them out.

Culture is the common beliefs, behaviours and assumptions held by a group, any group.A scout group, a soccer club, your book group or your company and work team-- When you go to your parents house, things don’t quite work the same way, they have different rules. This is the family culture. --Think of it as the socially acceptable behaviours of the group.It isn’t foosball tables, beer o’clock Fridays, open plan offices or oddball job titles. These are symbols they only work if the underlying behaviours match them, which is why you often see unused foosball tables, empty collaboration areas and few people mingling at beer o’clock.The socially acceptable behaviours of a group are set by the leader, whether formally appointed or not. Yes, that is you!What beliefs and assumptions drive the behaviours of your group?Leaders get the culture’s (behaviours) that they deserve. What culture are you creating?

Feel the fear and do it anyway.Our biggest growth comes from taking on challenges that are fearful and out of our comfort zone.Embrace the unknown, the ambiguity and find the bravery to set the path.Trust your leadership and grow with the challenge. You will be a better leaders as a result.Be happy that every day is a schoolday.Our leadership journey and growth does not stop, it keeps going and growing.

Ask for forgiveness not permission.Asking for permission stops empowerment dead in its tracks.As leaders we love it when our teams ask us to make a decision. That is what we are here for. Thing is, when we make decisions we disempower our teams. It becomes a habit.Ask yourself; Do *I* need to make this decision?If the answer is No; Why won’t my team member make it?Empowerment requires your team to act like owners in applying good judgement.Build trust in your teams judgement. Break the habit of decision making.Ask for their recommendation, nudge if needed, but empower your team to make decisions.Use your extra time to be an even more inspiring leader