>
““You don’t need the loudest megaphone or the brightest spotlight on you to be a truly great authentic leader””
Welcome,
to our (your) new – leadership and career blog from Roud Career Coaching, I hope our blogs continue to support your leadership and professional growth.
Thank you for wanting to be part of our intermit global family it means a great deal to me to personally welcome you.
Over the last 4 years it’s been a real pleasure to write every week a blog that has focused on either leadership or careers, and, the response received from all parts of the world continues to blow me away. I cannot thank you enough for the kind words, but, more importantly to hear you are getting use and benefit from these and actually putting thoughts into Action. That is just gold to me – thank you!
I have been reflecting about my leadership and career coaching business Roud Career Coaching and one thing has come to the surface over the last year and in particular over Covid19 is I must keep true to my purpose and why I started Roud Career Coaching. It’s so easy to get distracted with all the hype and news going on around us. But it is also important to embrace the constant moving parts in our everyday lives. In reflecting I felt a slight shift away from my purpose, but some hard looks in the mirror pulled me back in check 🙂
If you have a purpose I’d encourage you to dig it out and look at it right now.
Once you have read over it check yourself, if you are shying/stepping away from it then it’s time to refocus my friend. Come on if i can do it then so can you.
If you don’t yet have a purpose I would urge you and encourage you to put time into creating this. For those who would like to understand more about creating a purpose check out this video I did prior to Covid19 on purpose. If you are interested in kick starting your purpose work then please do get in touch with me – I would love to be play a small part in this creation with you.
As someone who spent 8 months creating my purpose I can assure you the hard work and time spent has been of great support and benefit over the last few months. Global crisis and the unknown are all around us – but in my global headquarters I have a framed picture of my purpose that I see every single day. It keeps me honest and true to why I am on this earth!
As you will have seen from the video on purpose, it takes an enormous amount of courage and determination to live our purpose and as a leader the time to live your purpose has never been greater. Don’t hide behind something that is false or not true! There is enough of that going on in the world right now. What we all want, and need is authentic leaders, and to be very clear that all starts with ‘you’ no matter your title or level.
Welcome to our regular readers of our leadership and career blog. I hope you, your loved ones and those close to you are safe, healthy and doing everything you can do to be the very best you can be.
To our new readers a huge welcome in. Thank you so very much for wanting to learn and grow yourself. It is so great to be part of your world. If you are not yet familiar with my blogs lets just say we go ‘long-form’.
In our blogs we will 100% stay away from the hype, the hacks and the hashtags (the 3 Hs) why?
Because greatness takes time and personal effort nothing more, nothing less.
None of us are born leaders – we must grow, evolve and take our time. Only through time will we truly become the most ‘authentic leader’ that works for ourselves. I hate (a strong word) hacks! Having raced a number of Ironman events there are no hacks to crossing the finishing line, you must get up every single day and put in the work, sometimes the work you don’t want to do, the little things that you think (ah I can miss that part…….) hacks are like diets they come and go. I am keen when working with clients that we have honesty – consistency– and the freedom of allowing ourselves to be ourselves.
So, if its ok with you no hacks here.
As an executive coach I encourage you to be honest with yourself – this is a great starting point. Show up every day and put in the hard work – try and avoid short cuts. Allow yourself to slow down, put in the hard work and the rewards will far out weight everything else. As a new family member feel free to check out all our previous blogs here
Lead as the leader you want to see is an interesting title for our first global family blog. It can mean so many different things to so many different people.
Over the last 4 years I have had the privilege and pleasure to personally coach over 600 professionals in their leadership and careers. I have the very best ‘job’ if you want to call it, in the world and one I take extremely seriously. All of my coaching work is done under a very tight code of conduct and confidentiality. Over the last few years clients have bought into our sessions some common themes and they go a bit like this………
‘oh Nick, he/she is a bad leader’
‘if I was in his/her shoes I would have done it differently’
‘I cannot believe he/she treats people like that’
‘why would he/she say that’
‘that is not the right approach to take – I would do it……’
‘if I had it my way I would……….’
You can see hopefully from the above examples that as a certified coach we could spend a great deal of time discussing things like……so how does that make you feel, or why do you feel that way, but as you know I am not your typical coach.
My focus when clients engage with me is 100% on (you) and nobody else. The results of our work together are on (you) and nobody else. If we are going to work together (you) are in the driving seat. How I ensure the focus is on you when these important conversations come up in our sessions goes along these lines.
Ok,
· so, what are you going to do?
· What is it you will start doing right now?
· How are you going to take the lead in this?
· What are you going to stop doing and start focusing on?
We all can relate to these conversations; we get home after a long day at work and just chuck it out to anyone who cares to listen. As a leader or future leader, you must start looking at your own approach (first).
There has been a wise saying for thousands and thousands of years.
“Control what You can control – not what you cannot control”
Lead as the leader you want to see is not just for the following people who are currently Chairs, Boards, CEOs, C-Suite Executives. Lead as the leader you want to see is for (all) levels. Please don’t forget that.
Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of recording a number of educational leadership videos and one of New Zealand top leaders Rob Campbell came into our global head office to discuss ‘authentic-leadership’ and we shared stories on this. (for those who are not aware or familiar with Rob he is a leading chairman and director, he is chairman on a number of New Zealand’s leading large listed business and earlier in the year Rob was made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to governance and business. We spoke for about an hour on this feel free to check out our video here (educational leadership video series) just scroll down to either the short or long version. Rob had been reflecting on this and said, Nick we expect our top people to be leaders – but what we need is a decentralised model – the person at the top may need to be an enabler / teacher.
Lead as the leader you want to see. I hope you can start to understand and appreciate our topic today, it doesn’t start with anyone else – it starts with (you). To lead isn’t about title or position – it’s a great deal more than this.
Many of us might be unsure or nervous about our own leadership potential, where do I start, how do I understand what it is to lead? what is my leadership style / approach? These may be just some of the questions going on in your mind right now and if you want support around this get in touch with me.
I mentioned earlier that none of us are born to lead – just like ridding a bike, a horse, learning to swim, learning a new language we can all learn, develop and grow. It just takes commitment, dedication and the will to try new things and work out what works for you!
When you notice yourself falling into the trap of those common themes that I shared earlier, stop for a minute and consider this, what do I need to do to lead as the leader I want to see!
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks leadership & career blog, see you next week.
Look after yourself and each other,
Nick x
About Your Coach
Nick is married to Nicola and they have 2 kids, Louie (4) and Willow (2). Nick has been partnering professionals in their leadership and careers since 2006. He is a Master Certified Executive Coach and Top 3 executive coach in the world on Intelligent Leadership (IL) Executive Coaching. Nick has personally coached over 600+ professionals, he coaches on the EMBA program at one of New Zealand leading business university. More information on working with Nick can be found here