Posts Tagged ‘leadership’

  • Leaders: Good Evening Mr Bond!

    Date: 2012.07.30 | Category: Leadership Testimonial | Response: 0

    I am sure by now you will all have seen the short film of the Queen meeting Mr Bond as part of the opening night for Team GB’s spectacular hosting of the Olympic Games! These were the 4 words in total spoken by the Queen in her debut as new Bond girl! No Holywood frippery or nods to celebrity in this starring role …….. but  the Queen  as we know her, complete with regal hairstyle, handbag and the royal corgies.

    I find it slightly bizarre in a way that I am writing about the Queen and my reflections on those 4 words “Good evening , Mr Bond” as I am not normally known for my royalist sentiments!  However in the spirit of taking inspiration from “not the usual suspects” , I do think her performance provides us with a number of reflections for our own leadership.

    The first one is, be ready to step out of your comfort zone and do things which are fun for you and others. In this era of austerity, small acts of celebration can make the difference. They don’t all require such minute choreographing and technical endeavour or even Daniel Craig !!!. My local coffee shop recently gave its staff a day off, starting with breakfast served by the managers and then a day out in the city of Bath. What have you recently done in small acts of generosity to say to your team : You Matter!

    The Queen brought her authentic self to the role. In these days, particularly for colleagues in the public sector, the pace of change and transition  for colleagues can be phenomenal and pretty relentless. It is easy to lose your sense of self and purpose. Do make sure you take time out to review with trusted friends where YOU are in all of these changes and what will enable you to bring your authentic self to your leadership role and win the trust of your team.

    The Queen also embodied what  multipliers of talent call ” native genius”, something that people do , not only exceptionally well, but absolutely naturally. She has done this throughout the 60 years of her reign, through thousands of hours of participating in all kinds of events, ceremonies and celebrations, meeting great diversity of audiences and individuals, in largely understated ways. “Good evening Mr Bond” captures it perfectly!

    In our working lives we see daily examples of native genius. If you are not spotting this, then get out from your desk and go down on your equivalent of the front line on a regular basis. Spot the individual able to deal calmly and professionally with the upset customer on the front desk, identify the colleague who after a few minutes in their company can make you feel a whole lot better about your task, your role, life in general or the individual who always makes time for their staff no matter what the pressures are and the individual who shows a real talent in working with students and interns  and so on ………

    The great thing that distinguishers multipliers of talent is their ability to spot native talent, bring it to the awareness and attention of the individuals concerned and so enable individuals to utilise this talent more fully. Leadership is about unlocking the discretionary talent that individuals bring with them . Once unlocked it enables people to go beyond what is required in the job description and offer their full intelligence to their teams , customers and organisations.

    So look around you…..

    What do individuals do better than anything else they do (enthusiasm and energy are key determining factors)

    What do they do without effort?

    What do they do without being asked?

    What do they do readily?

    If when you draw their attention to a particular talent and their response is something like ” doesn’t everybody do that?”, you know you are in the right territory.

    Finally, what’s your native talent? Four words please!

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