Leadership is for today

There is a wonderful quote from Mother Teresa that says

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has yet to come. We have only today. Let us begin"

Leadership needs you to balance that short term and long term thinking. Creating that dream of tomorrow...the vision of where you want to take the company or the team. However, what we do have for certain is today....dreams without actions become nightmares within the business world.

So....be thinking about tomorrow, but be taking action against your goals today.

Engaging People In the Company Vision

Words are powerful, incredibly emotive and can be used to really ignite the passion in people. Here are 3 great examples of ho

1. "It's the place people come for refuge - a 3rd place not home not work" Starbucks
2. "It is more than just a resort; it's a means of rediscovering oneself, of inventing an entirely new me" Club Med
3. "The experience enlivens the senses, instills well being and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our client" Ritz Carlton

Now look at your vision...does it stoke the same level of emotion, is it too general like surpassing customer expectations, being the best etc? Does it read like words put together at a "facilitated brainstorming session" or does it paint a powerful picture that people can see and engage with?

The Difference between Management and Leadership

A question that I often get asked, and I do feel people do mix up the terms. For instance you often get Team Leaders being managed by a manager!

Here is what my old boss explained it to me about 20 years ago, and I think it still makes sense to me

"Manage today, lead tomorrow"

Or as I sometimes say.....Management is motivating people to get the work done today, leadership is about inspiring people to create the future.

Be a Bullfighter! Cut the jargon....

Jargon really does turn people off, it also confuses people so here are my list of jargon words that you must avoid

Strategy
Vision
Mission
KPI's
Strategic imperatives
ROI
Strategic Direction

You need to replace all these with everyday terms so most of the above can be replaced with the following 2 sentences

What are we trying to acheive, what are our goals for this week, month, quarter?

What targets shall we set ourselves?