Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Transformational Leadership Posted: 21 Feb 2011 12:11 AM PST In business and politics we tend to refer to the people at the "top" of the organisation or government as "leaders", whether they are or not, whether what they do is leadership or not and regardless of whether or not they have any followers. The simplest definition of leadership is: someone others choose to follow. If we look at the extraordinary turmoil currently in the Middle East, we can see that the nominal heads of state are not leaders at all. They may have their hands on the levers of power and they may have sufficient self serving cronies to keep them there, but what they are seeking to exercise is control, not leadership. We can see analogous situations in businesses where a hierarchy becomes more focussed on protecting it's hegemony than in leading the organisation forwards. Protest is just a form of feedback. The feedback comes in the form of protest precisely because authoritarian regimes dislike critics. And many authoritarian regimes dislike critics because they are insecure in their roles and as individuals. True leaders have the inner confidence to make positive use of critics to help form strategies and communication. 'If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.' ~ Winston Churchill Leaders are individuals prepared to stand up for what they believe in, sometimes with incredible courage. Leaders use their courage to inspire and empower others to step forward and have their say. If we do not believe in the direction our company or country is going, in many cases we have a choice. We can leave or we can transform it. Transformation means engaging others in identifying a better alternative and a strategy for making it happen. The moment we decide on transformation and engage others in our project, we become a transformational leader. If we want to transcend the mundane, we have to make the choice to stand up for what we believe in, to stay and to lead the transformation at some point in our life. Transformational leadership is also a team sport. Transformation is only sustained when it includes empowering others to be their best and creating the space for them to step up and lead in their moment and in their talents. Transformational leadership requires finding the solutions and the language to unite, the courage speak and to act, the will to persist in the face of disappointment and challenge and authenticity even under extreme pressure. Both political and business transformation seem to be becoming more popular. So I am working on offering a range of options for transformational leadership and teamwork courses here in Mallorca this year. Offering varying mixes of physical, intellectual and emotional challenge to suit the preferences of the group. The courses will use the wonderfully diverse and spectacular geography and facilities in Mallorca to challenge individuals to find the limits of their leadership, their courage, their persistence and their authenticity. The physical, emotional and intellectual experiences will be unpacked and discussed to extract the maximum learning against the framework of authentic leadership. More information will be available next week and if you are interested we can have a chat about what would work best for your team. Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +34 646391384 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Leaving "The Matrix" Posted: 14 Feb 2011 02:10 AM PST In the 1999 film Morpheus says to Neo "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself." One interpretation of the film is that it shows the journey from unconsciously living as part of our pervasive societal machine to consciously living beyond it. If we take that interpretation, The Matrix is analogous to western society. We work and consume, violence and aggression are part of human nature and there is no alternative to our society story. Failure to conform leads to exclusion in the form of prison, homelessness or worse. We feel as if we are always competing for attention, success or approval. For those living inside "The Matrix", the film is a slightly odd sci-fi movie with some new agey dialogue. In the film there is an alternative to living in The Matrix. That alternative is, to be unplugged and to live in the "real world", in this case a rather uncomfortable and hostile environment, from where it is possible, with the right equipment to plug back in and have "super powers". Back in the "real world" of our society, does this analogy refer to leaving our metaphorical Matrix? I think it refers to the experience of living unconsciously in our society, the experience of trying to be what we think other people want us to be, of constantly having to conform to some nebulous idea of normality, of being alone against the world, of buying into the status symbols, ego props and consumerism that define western society. Outside The Matrix is conscious living. It is both very similar and very different, at the same time. It is similar in that we can continue to live broadly the same life (unless we consciously choose to change it). It is the "why" we do things that changes, more than the "what". For example the reason why we work might shift from - "promotion and paying the mortgage" to "delivering on our purpose". Nothing changes, and yet everything changes. We still get paid, we still pay our mortgage, what is different is that our motivation comes from the core, from a place of love, rather than from outside and from a place of fear. In fact the additional motivation might actually mean we are more likely to get promoted and more likely to get paid more. We have the opportunity to shift relationships from being alone trying to make it in spite of everyone, to being a collaborator in an interconnected network of teams and communities. The journey from one to the other begins with a belief that what is obvious is not all there is. It is the same with any of the many breakthrough experiences on the way. Protesters in Egypt and Tunisia, believing that there is a realizable alternative to autocratic dictatorship or individuals realising that they don't have to be in a state of paranoid competition with everyone including their boss, their co-workers, their parters or even their kids. In that moment of belief the alternative is hazy and unclear. In the movie: Neo: "Why do my eyes hurt? Morpheus: You've never used them before." With persistence and support the path becomes clearer. Without persistence and support the Matrix closes back around pushing us back into "our place", it's pervasive messaging crushing hope, as Morpheus explains "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." Support helps us to find the language and the confidence to understand what we are experiencing and to realise that it is real. As our path becomes clearer we experience euphoric moments of serendipity when our experience of life shifts from antagonism to alignment. Within The Matrix everyone is potentially an agent to be feared. Outside The Matrix, everyone a potential collaborator. "You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Which do you choose? Magic Monday - the compilation of six years of the best of these Monday morning e-mails is available as an e-book. (There will be a print edition when I can make the time). Also, working with my wonderful friend Dawn Waldron, we have written a new, thorough and really easy to use Life Purpose work book. You can get your copies here. If you would like help in finding your authenticity, give me a call. Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +34 646391384 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Dependence to Loyalty Posted: 06 Feb 2011 11:56 PM PST We are all familiar with the disempowering feelings of dependency and the prices and poor quality that go with it. The food on a cheap flight, restaurants or hotels in a tourist area, train tickets and petrol prices. Old school business logic declares that a business model that locks customers in is a good one, and so it may be, but there are risks associated with it too. With customers locked in for reasons of geography or facility, a lack of alternatives can easily lead to complacency. While the money rolls in, where is the incentive to develop products, streamline systems, build strong relationships or get the best from people? Over time a business that creates a success from dependency can become disconnected from customers, arrogant and sloppy. Business is at it's best under the scrutiny of competition with rivalry demanding the best from all involved. For customers and employees the effect of competition is invigorating and engaging. Dependency easily leads to relationships that are exclusively transactional on both sides. There can be little care, passion, engagement or fulfilment in a transactional relationship. Think of the last time you made a purchase because it was the only option available; how did it feel? If you told anyone of the experience did you report it positively or negatively? The reality of transactional relationships is that they are only ever as good as the last transaction. Transactional relationships do not lead to loyalty. Loyalty emerges in a space beyond the transactional. Loyalty is not only rational, it combines rational with emotional. A product or brand that evokes loyalty fulfills customers by exceeding expectations, delighting and thrilling them. The expectations created by this level of service, shift the relationship from transactional to an unconditional space. Mistakes will be forgiven. Loyal customers will take the time and the energy to feedback supporting the process of learning and improvement. Even if they don't feedback, they will remain willing to engage with marketing materials. Loyal customers become ambassador. "Viral marketing" the Holy Grail of marketers is only comes from loyal relationships. Without loyalty mistakes result in silent departure. Let me contrast two hotel experiences one in Hamburg one in Denmark. The middle size Hamburg hotel was near the airport and clearly had not had to put in a big effort to serve customers for some time. The other was a small boutique hotel in Aarhus a medium sized town in the middle of Jutland. The Hamburg hotel was a transactional experience with some specific problems with the room I was in, when asked how my stay was at check out of the Hamburg hotel I said "OK" I didn't even feel strongly enough about the experience to bother to help them improve it. I won't recommend the hotel. By contrast the Danish hotel was an engaging experience, and in spite of my usual grumpiness when staying in hotels on business I was charmed. When I noticed a problem, I volunteered the feedback and it was promptly resolved. I recommend the hotel entirely. Many businesses manage to exist their entire lifespan without ever engaging customers at a deeper level. What happens to those businesses when, because of competition or other changes in the market, they have to shift from being able to rely on dependency to having to generate loyalty? Assuming the leaders of the business correctly diagnose the problem, the treatment is significant, especially for a larger business. Loyalty describes a relationship that goes beyond transactional in a mutually positive and supportive way. Transactional describes the logical and functional benefits that underpin any business relationship. Loyalty is the space beyond transactional, where the emotional benefits exist and the relationship is less conditional and less about the specific results. This is distinct from a dependent relationship where most of the positive value flows one way and the binding force in the relationship is more like addiction than loyalty, in that it is ultimately destructive. Cigarettes are probably the most extreme example. Loyalty is created by people and it follows that a company seeking to engage loyally with customers must start by engaging loyally with staff. To transform any relationship requires the actor with intent to model the relationship they would like to experience unconditionally. As Gandhi put it: "You must be the change you want to see in the world." For a business to enjoy an honest, loyal and rewarding relationship with their customers, for example, they must offer that relationship to both customers and staff. And they must offer that relationship to staff first, because it is the staff who will be the ones creating and holding the customer relationships. And staff will only represent the relationship they themselves have with the organisation. Fortune Magazine have just published their annual survey of the best places to work in the US, as a cool info graphic. If you drill down into it, you will see the key words staff use to describe their work experience. If you compare the words staff use to describe their experience, you can easily translate them into the brand as it is experienced by customers. Delivering this requires what I call Authentic Leadership. It is the highest level of leadership yet identified and it is what businesses require to create loyal relationships. More on Authentic Leadership. Magic Monday - the compilation of six years of the best of these Monday morning e-mails is available as an e-book. (There will be a print edition when I can make the time). Also, working with my wonderful friend Dawn Waldron, we have written a new, thorough and really easy to use Life Purpose work book. You can get your copies here. Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +34 646391384 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Control OR Creativity Posted: 30 Jan 2011 11:50 PM PST What are the business lessons from events in Tunisia, Egypt and other restive Arab countries? Fundamentally: Education + Connection ≠ Obedience The illusion of control can only exist in a population while that population are uneducated and disconnected. And obedience diminishes with education and connection. Obedience is not replaced with disobedience, so much as it is replaced with personal responsibility. As people are better educated and more connected they become more willing and more capable of taking responsibility and less willing to submit to authority. For governments this means that repression is inconsistent with a society where there is a requirement for a critical number of "knowledge" workers. A small number is manageable as a privileged elite, once that number gets too big it is no longer manageable. Ergo - if a government wants to retain control of it's people, it cannot also seek modernity on any scale, because it cannot educate enough people and still maintain control. For business it is the same, just at a different level. Businesses requiring a high level of personal responsibility, creativity, connectivity and intellect cannot also expect to control or incentivise staff with carrot and stick type approaches. Ergo - if a business wants creativity, innovation and responsibility from it's staff it has to trust them, empower them and ensure that the work they are doing is meaningful for them. For example; few businesses at the leading edge of innovation today, clock work hours, restrict internet use, operate repressive HR policies, count holidays or tightly control expenses. Staff are simply asked to achieve their team goals and given the resources, alignment and the freedom to do it. For this to work requires a higher level of leadership than is common in control based environments. It requires a level of leadership that is comfortable in it's own skin, has the confidence to encourage everyone to be the best they possibly can, even if it means surpassing the leader and critically has the courage and confidence to do the right thing, to truly lead, to take responsibility and criticism when appropriate. This is what I call Authentic Leadership. It is the highest level of leadership yet identified and it is what our businesses and our society requires to create the kind of society we want - one that is peaceful, sustainable and fulfilling for all. More on Authentic Leadership. Magic Monday - the compilation of six years of the best of these Monday morning e-mails is available as an e-book. (There will be a print edition when I can make the time). Also, working with my wonderful friend Dawn Waldron, we have written a new, thorough and really easy to use Life Purpose work book. You can get your copies here. If you would like help in finding your authenticity, give me a call. Feel free to forward this to friends, post to your networks and to republish on your website. Please include the link You can subscribe for free at www.neilcrofts.com Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +34 646391384 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts

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