You dont always need to be ‘right’

Posted by Joe in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Hey,

In the previous post I discussed the issue of ‘The God Complex’ that innate feeling of ‘I am right’. This occurs in all of us to some degree but is detrimental to the development of ourselves and others. This is due to the fact that quite often we may be right but that doesn’t mean it is the only way, telling an individual consistently that there is only one right way of doing things severely limits their ability to see other possibilities. Of course there are those times when we think we are right but we are in fact completely wrong, which really doesn’t help anyone.

So if this trait is strong in us, how do we help passing it on to those that we lead? Well to achieve this you must first of all show unconditional respect for those that you are leading. That is that even if they can’t complete a task you still respect them and help them to discover a solution.  By doing this you allow that individual to develop the capacity to find solutions to problems themselves and not rely on others. Disrespecting them in anyway, such as demeaning them because they currently don’t have the ability to address an issue or can’t do it as well as you; hinders their ability to see solutions and of course does nothing for their confidence in their own ability. It also has a neurological effect, when we feel judged we revert back to our more ancient parts of our brain (the Red Zone) instead of being in the much more creative and collaborative Blue Zone (Prefrontal Cortex). Unconditional respect builds self sufficiency in the team and they can work much more efficiently and effectively, it also allows an individual to build a capacity to act in the Blue Zone.

So all this talk of respect and self sufficiency is all well and good but what does it look like day to day within a business. Well one way to develop this in a team environment is to have coaches as leaders. By coaching an individual it produces solutions that don’t come from the leader but the team member themselves. If this is done well, then overtime this will allow the individual to build an ability to come up with solutions on their own and thereby becoming self sufficient, more creative and more productive team member. At the heart of this process though is allowing this person to come to their own solutions through the right questioning. Therefore that little voice in your head telling you that you are always right is quietened down and you are now allowing others to be ‘right’. This allows a team to have numerous contributors to problems other than one, giving the team a huge pool of skills, knowledge and talent to draw from.

The God Complex

Posted by Joe in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Hi all,

This week I came across yet another interesting video; Tim Harford on something he terms the God Complex. It is all about how we all have a little voice in our head, no matter how loud or quiet, at times telling us we a definitely right. This little voice can hinder development both for ourselves and others we are leading. These beliefs that we are certain of are often just that, a belief. Having these closes us down to other, maybe better, possibilities. This will hinder our growth and learning as when things don’t fit with our fixed ideas then we will dismiss it. These beliefs also hinder the growth of anyone we lead as we will impose those, whether consciously or not, onto our team, this in turn hinders their growth.

We all have this trait in some form, some stronger than others. But building a self awareness around these strongly held ideas allows you to identify them and challenge them. This will open your mind to other possibilities and through those learning’s you will grow, prosper and lead much more comprehensively. So any successful business should have self awareness as part of their culture. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through coaching. This is at the heart of what we do; coaches can have a huge impact on businesses growth and we look to create middle leaders as coaches to begin that journey to self awareness.

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Can we all be like Google?

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Hi all,

I was thinking the other day what is it at companies like Google that allow them to consistently innovate and move forward? Is it a special breed of people, just by chance; is it just ‘their moment’ and it will pass in time? Or is it something else, something that we can all learn from? I then came across the TED talk below by Chade-Meng Tan of Google. He discusses the culture of compassion that runs throughout the organisation. This compassionate environment breeds innovation throughout the
organisation. To get to this point it is important to understand others and show them respect both of which are at the heart of our work. So can we all be like Google? It would seem we can; it just takes a little compassion to get the best from everyone, including ourselves.

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Listen up

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Afternoon all,

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I would like to discuss one of the key  behaviours that are at the core of being able to engage with another human being; listening.  It turns out our ability to listen is quite complex and we can listen on four different levels. The first is known as downloading. This is when we listen to what someone is saying but we only hear what confirms our own views and beliefs. This form of listening doesn’t really benefit the listener or the person being listened to. The person speaking intuitively knows that the other person is not interested in what they are saying.

The second level is known as Attentive listening. When we listen on this level we are listening to what is different to our view in what the speaker is saying but then use it to convince them we are right. I suspect this is used a lot in political debates everywhere. This can be useful for the listener if it stimulates new thinking.

The third and more profound level is known as Empathic listening. This is when the listener is starting to see the world from the speaker’s point of view and starts to feel some of the same feelings as they do. This can be very useful for the speaker to feel understood and as a precursor to them making sense of their own thoughts and needs. It also allows the listener to see a new perspective and thereby possibly stimulate new thinking.

The final and most profound level is known as Emergent listening. At this level both parties can be affected. When we experience this we feel an almost visceral sense of possibility; thinking ‘I can do this’. When this occurs we are profoundly changed.

The bottom two levels of listening are what allow us to fully engage with another human being. When these are used both the listener and speaker learn and grow. If these behaviours are adopted within an organisation, overtime they will become the norm We all know good listeners in our lives and guess what we can all be that way with just a little practice.

Joe

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How to truly motivate…

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Hi all,

Here is a great video on how to truly motivate people. A great challenge to peoples often held and practiced misconceptions of what people need to be at their best. Certainly some food for thought.

In the workplace it is essential that we get the best from our employees to maximise their contribution to the company. In the past financial incentives have provided the common tactic for achieving this. However in this great talk by Dan Pink he outlines the science of motivation and how there is a mismatch between what we know and what we do.

The video demonstrates that for employees to truly be at their best, financial reward is not what they need. They need to be given the opportunity to explore their own ideas within an environment which allows them to do so. It is a fascinating insight in to what actually motivates us a human beings and what we have been doing wrong for so long.

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The power of engagement

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This week I came across a report from the research group Gallup. Within which they were discussing how engagement affects a business. The report estimated that the “cost to the bottom line [of US businesses] to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.” It went on to say that that “…engaged employees are more productive employees. They are more profitable, more customer-focused,safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave the organization. In the best organizations, employee engagement transcends a human resources initiative — it is the way they do business.” You can have a read of the report here.

This report highlights the huge cost to a business that a disengaged workforce can create. It demonstrates the great importance of engaging with your workforce. This is what Leadership 3.0 is all about; the engagement within an organisation. At the heart of this new form of leadership is the ability to fully engage with an individual and thereby facilitate there development. Through our extensive research we have identified the key behaviours that are essential for engaging another person. As they are behaviours they are learnable. When these behaviours are modelled within an organisation by the middle leadership it becomes part of the culture; a culture of engagement.

The further benefit of creating leaders who can engage is that effect that it has on the development of individuals within a company. As discussed in previous posts this ability allows a Leader to facilitate a person’s growth into becoming more innovate, collaborative and resilient (being in the blue zone). Ultimately creating a workforce who are not only fully engaged but able to face any challenges that come their way and overcome them with confidence.

Creating a fully engaged workforce is crucial to a successful business. The two behaviours that are at the heart of engagement are listening and questioning.  In the next post I will discuss what our research has shown us about the power of listening when
engaging with others.

Joe

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How society shaped us as Leaders…

Posted by Joe in Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

Hey,

In the previous post the blue zone / red zone model was
introduced for understanding how our brain works.  This offers a simple idea of how to recognise when we are in certain mind states and how we can recognise it in others.  But what mind state is most prevalent in the population? And why are we that way?

Almost everyone in society goes through the education system. This helps us grow and develop into what we are as adults. We go there to learn, to build skills and to become a functioning member of our society. But what is the effect that this system has on our development?

Let me take you back to the beginnings of education. The British school system was born out of the early 19th Century Prussian model which was split into three different types one for the mass of the population (94%), one for the professionals (5.5%) and the third was for the elite (0.5%).

The model for the mass population (94%) was adopted here first and it was based on obedience (Education 1.0) – if you don’t do as you are told you will be punished. Children knew that if they did what they were told they had confidence that the future would work out well for them. Their anxiety was allayed through the certainty they perceived through being obedient. During industrialisation this produced individuals who were very good at following clear instructions which helped during the economic growth based on factory work. However, rote learning and discipline severely hinder an individual’s ability to grow and
learn. Under this system they develop a very strong red zone which allows the more advanced parts of the brain (blue zone) to under develop. Under this system a child implicitly learns that you lead through obedience which puts people in the red zone which is how first generation leaders were born (Leadership 1.0).

The second step in the British educational evolution was the second tier of the original Prussian system (for 5.5%) – conformance (Education 2.0). This is, if you do what I ask then I will help you, if you don’t then I will punish you. This really came to the fore at the end of the Second World War. This helped the development of a child through encouraging learning from experience and gave access to the more developed parts of the brain. This change increased an individual’s capability which was reflected in the economic activity of the time.  Anxiety was allayed through a promise that if you conformed you had a job for life, a pension, and support if you lost your job. This system produces very cognitively bright people but they are extremely risk averse, in that change holds many fears for them. This created the second generation of leaders who lead through conformance (Leadership 2.0). Under which interestingly it creates people with developed blue zones but also very influential red zones.

This history shows us where we, as a society, learn how to lead (mainly in the red zone); Obedience (Leadership 1.0), Conformance (Leadership 2.0) but what is next? Leadership 3.0 is all about engagement. That is to say that as a leader no matter how the individual performs you will provide them with what they need to develop.  When this is done it creates people who have a highly developed blue zone. They will always be innovative, collaborative, optimistic and resilient. When times get hard and things are changing employees who act in the blue zone, do not fear this change they see the opportunities that are within it. This change will get the best from every individual in the organisation; instead of relying on a few people the business will be getting the best from everyone.

This concept of Leadership 3.0 is a new one. In my next post I will discuss the idea of this leadership model in more detail.

Joe

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Performing at our best…

Posted by Joe in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Hi,

In our last post we presented a short introduction to were
our work comes from. The book that underpins all our work, ‘The Success Zone’, examines how a person can be at their best at all times and how leaders can draw that out of people. In this post we will be looking at what neuroscience teaches us about people being at their best.

The brain is hugely complex, however, there is a simple and regularly used
model to describe the make-up of our brains, which splits it into three parts; the reptilian, mammalian and human brain. This division of the brain is what helps inform the simple and powerful model that is outlined in ‘The Success Zone’. This separates the brain into the red zone and the blue zone.

The red zone, which is made up of the reptilian and mammalian
areas of the brain, responds to things that trigger a survival reaction. Inputs
that activate the red zone include fear, anger, anxiety, ambiguity, unfairness
and rejection amongst other things. In this part of the brain there is a very
strong self orientation.  Being in this mind state hinders the learning process, creates individuals who have
difficulty in seeing the bigger picture and look for what’s in it for them
instead of the team or the business.

The blue zone area of the brain is mainly concerned with the
area referred to as the human part of the brain. This is situated at the front
of your brain, just behind your forehead. It is this that makes us human and
socially orientated. Being in this mind state means that you are more innovate,
collaborative, optimistic and resilient. It is in this mind state when people
are at their best. They work together more, they can deal with adversity better
and they can see many solutions to one problem.

This two mind state model offers us a clear understanding of
which parts of the brain help us be at our best. In the next post we will look at
which zone dominates society and how the history of society can show us why this is.

Speak soon,

Joe

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Welcome

Posted by Joe in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Hi all,

Just a quick note to say hello and welcome to Blue. We are a new venture and our aim is to create a new generation of
business leaders that always have the ability to get the best from their team. In
this blog over the coming weeks and months we will be exploring ideas around leadership
and how they can help us improve business performance. We will also use it to
share ideas and content that we hope will stimulate new thinking in you and
maybe you will share some with us too.

Our work is informed by the theory that is outlined in the
groundbreaking book ‘The Success Zone’. The book outlines the neuroscience
behind an individual’s ability to cope in different situations and how this can
be influenced by teachers and leaders.

We apply this theory to something we term Leadership 3.0. This
is a new form of Leadership that will take businesses to a new level. It is an
upgrade that really will allow businesses to react to the ever changing
environment that we have come to know over recent years. It builds a capacity
in Leaders to inspire, stimulate and guide individuals into truly becoming the
best that they can be.

In our next post we will outline the theory that underpins
our work and demonstrate how it applies to business.

Until next time,

Joe

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