It is often necessary, or at least deemed necessary, in troubled economic times to change the leadership of organisations. Sometimes the existing leader is the scapegoat for poor performance driven by overoptimistic forecasts, often the leader is not able to lead effectively through an uncertain economy.

Have you noticed that some Leaders do not change seats,  despite the economy, and continue to return excellent performance regardless of external factors?

These leaders bring stability, and are the hallmark of an organisation where you can invest, with confidence, for the long term. The key differentiating factor, is the consistent results attached to the tenure.

What should you look for in the leadership of a company? 

• In the period of this, and their previous tenures, they should have consistently returned excellence and made improvement to the bottom line.
• If they had a previous success in a different role, did that success continue for at least 6 months after they left? Great Leaders ensure continuity for their period of residual influence. This is even more critical if they have advanced within the same organisation. Be cautious of leaders who had quick fix wins, moved on and the success moved with them, they may be a first aid expert but not a true leader of people.
• Retention of key staff that are industry recognised as Best of Class.
• Someone who really understand their business and can answer shareholder, media and analyst questions with simplicity and clarity ( not baffle bubbles).
• Someone about whom the staff enthuse at all levels.
• Someone who can present the vision passionately, and confidently, who shows true commitment to the result.
• In a downturn, they forecast conservatively yet act aggressively and do not blame market factors for poor performance,  but instead articulate clear strategy to grow through weakness of competitors.
• They should have good moral character in both business and private affairs, generally someone people have respect for.
• Finally, they will make rational changes and attract the best people to work for them. They are unlikely to continually restructure as they get it right first time, and understand loss of productivity through unnecessary change.
• In the event of Cost Cutting, they are the first to volunteer an equal or greater % cost cut!

Protect your investments by studying Leadership and Results for past 6 quarters. If the nett results are solid and on forecast, and the leader fits the description above, those leaders will take care of everything else for you, thus protecting your investment.

Another exciting investment can be those companies with poor performance who have just made a leadership change - IF, and only if, that new leader shows consistent performance for the past few years, and fits the description above. This company is likely to turnaround and fire up - It can be an outstanding investment decision.

Many investors try to analyse too many parts of a company. They look at whether the leader has managed a company of that size before - pretty much irrelevant as great leaders can manage any size. They try to analyse the products, the industry and market.. 

If you spend time interviewing the leader, and are sure a great leader is in place, then the risk is already minimised. He or She will deliver on your investment.

The impact of leadership on companies is highly undervalued, and we constantly see mediocre leadership replaced by yet more mediocre leadership!

This is not where I will make any investments!

People ask me is there a difference?

The answer is a resounding yes!

In simple terms you can easily manage things, events, operational issues and projects, but you will not be successful for long if you try to manage people. You see, people do not like to be managed, intrinsically we all value personal freedom, and being managed by default starts to infringe on our personal choices and freedom. We become robotic and functionally perform our duties without any passion or enthusiasm, without even really thinking too mucjh about consequences just focussing on doing what we have been told to do. Organisations that manage their people, will find low productivity due to high absenteeism, lack of motivation, and generally people are not happy in their work.

Is it important if people are happy or not, after all they are there to work?

People are either leaders or followers, and on this planet we appear to have many more people who prefer to be led, and even if they are leaders themselves they respect a great leader. If you are in charge of a team of people, then you have a responsibility to yourself, the business owners (if not you) and to your team to be a leader NOT just a manager.

If you become a leader then invest in learning how to become a very good one, capable of getting the highest levels of productivity from your people willingly.

Good leaders are rare, and the respect and loyalty they generate in employees cannot be underestimated. Even in an organisation of thousands of employees, great leadership starts at the top. A highly charismatic, informed, passionate and visible leader will generate a loyalty right down to the lowest levels in the organisation.

A transformational leader will increase the ROI for shareholders, by consistently achieveing their numbers through the willing hard work delivered by a motivated, high performance team. These organisations grow, even in recessions. These organisationas and their leaders are survivors. These organisations have lower stress levels in employees.

Transformational Leadership is no longer defined as something for the new age gurus, or a soft management style. When defined for enterprise, transformational leadership is rationally combined with transactional leadership, both being considered critically important. Neither style should operate in isolation.

Transformational Leadership is solely and completely about over achievement, productivity and top performance being able to be delivered consistently. It is about attracting and retaining top performers without excessive salaries, it is about delivering a lower cost, highly productive oprganisation where people actually want to work.

If you have a team of people, and you want to be successful, then you must become a leader and not just a manager!

For more information please visit TrulyGreatLeadership.com and if you are already on the Truly Great Leadership website, then sign up for our free updates every two weeks. Just go to the bottom of any page and enter just your name and email.

Attending some recent dinners, drinkies and events I have begun to realise that true communication between people is dying.

Recently went to a dinner where I met some old friends, and a whole stack of new people. I am always excited at the opportunity to meet new people and to see what they have to say about their lives.

At the end of this event, I was starting to get a bit lower than usual on energy, and I began to think about the conversation at this dinner - and then extrapolate that further out to other social events I have been to recently. It comes as a bit of a shock, but it kind of follows on from my 'everyone is talking and noone is listening' blog! I realised that the only people who was asking others about what they did, what their interests were, and being interested in their stories was us! We didnt talk about what we do at this event because, frankly noone cared!

It seems that people want to talk about weather, illness, government events, and any common demoninator ( such as golf at the golf club) - play it safe, that is it!

But if you do this - how will you ever know if the person you just met has a great idea that you can be involved with, an inspirational dream, a huge life story, has an answer that you have been seeking? How will you even identify if they could be a candidate for friendship?

Social networking is a critical part of life, but I understand that many people miss out on the huge adventure that comes with social networking. Most people do not know how to start conversation and communication with new faces, they hide behind an excuse of shyness.  On the internet people reveal incredibly personal information on networks like twitter and facebook, but start to tremble when they walk through a door a face a group of people they do not know!

Well, if this is you - here is the secret key to having interesting social events! Ask open questions of anyone you meet. Open questions are ones that cannot be answered by yes or no, and preferably stay away from 'whats the time?' or 'What day is it?' These kind of questions don't work either :-)

As a question like, 'heyI am John, and I was just admiring your ring, it is an unusual design, what does it represent?' or 'hey I am Julie, and I saw that we share a choice of wines, what do you think of this one?'

It is just like a secret code or key, it unlocks their personal metaphysical  front door and they invite you in.

Now sometimes, you get someone who just wants to peek through their front curtains and pretend they are not home, so you will get a dismissive response. Thats OK, until you are accomplished at social networking, you can just glide on past. Most people however, will stop and make time for someone who cares enough to ask a question about them or their lives.

If you are at an event, and have one of those unfortunate tables where noone wants to speak, then try asking a group question like 'Hi, I am Jo and I was reading a book about happiness before I left to come here, and it had some interesting ideas on the different things that make people happy, can I ask ( and look at one of the group) what makes you really smile?' or ' I saw an advertisement for a holiday in France and I was thinking about going, has anyone here done a trip like that?' If questioning the whole group is too tough, then just ask the person next to you!

When you meet new people if you can ask questions, you will find the conversation will quickly flow. When it stops you can just ask another one, possibly an extension of the first.

When you reacquaint with people you have not seen for a period, ask for an update eg 'How are the renovations going?' or 'When I last saw you your son was playing baseball, how is he going?'

Make sure you ask your questions in a polite way, a classic no go zone is a real life example from a recent dinner. My partner was wearing a Ducati shirt, and the lady across the table said ' Do you actually own a Ducati, or did you just save up and buy the shirt?' My partner is a different nationality and culture, to this lady, and he was a little offended. However, the same question could have been phrased as 'What do you like about Ducati?' In this process she could still find out if he owned a Ducati or not, and he would appreciate the interest she shows in him.

You will find you have interesting conversations, that actually touch and communicate with others. They will remember you as an interesting person who cares, and you will discover when you see them again that you recall details of what they told you.

So if you feel you are shy, go places where you do not know anyone and use your secret code, you will be delighted with your new confidence and acquaintances!

You are Amazing - Go and Communicate It!

Leaders that can transform businesses are critical in todays environment, but unfortunately they are very rare. Truly Great Leaders are the ones we remember, that stand out above all others, that take corporations through boom and recession with equal ability to return excellent results to shareholders. Leaders that take countries through war and depression with as much celebration and cultural solidarity as the good times.

Today, shareholders of companies are frustrated, and losing confidence in the markets, because they just cannot trust the forecasts from Corporations any longer. When the results are delivered, they are often clouded in 'baffle bubbles' - the slick PR woven artfully around very ordinary results.

An average shareholder confused by the true impact on results, and their EPS, of one time restructuring costs, buy outs, mergers, and complex results that are presented artfully as a positive result. What they do understand, is that somehow it does not mean any more money in their dividend account. Smaller investors lack confidence and, not surprisingly, are reluctant to help the markets bounce back.

Analysts are often struggling to provide definitive guidance to the investors, based on leadership changes.A What does yet another CEO shuffle mean to the outlook for major corporations? Large corporations remove one name, and simply replace with another, often with similar backgrounds and education, but few of them have a track record that demonstrates the hallmarks of transformational leadership.

This is similar to the leadership in political arenas, where the policies of one leader and another are not so different and the change of leadership in a political party makes actually little difference, except a shuffle at the top for key positions. The voters become frustrated and jaded, leading to a resignation that their vote matters little.

Transformational Leadership is simple, yet rarely practised by coproarte leaders, or government heads. Transformational leadership is holistic, it is all about using the human resource available to effectively transform the culture and results of that organisation. This transformation in turn is self perpetuating as it is human led.

It isA intended for CEOs who want to make a difference, and aspiring CEOs. It is highly recommended in a short form for Board Members and Analysts.

It is my belief that corporate results will continue to be mediocre at best, unless transformational leaders are trained, and recruited. Leaders capable of challenging the establishment by removing cultural blocks and truly embracing the potential of their most expensive asset - the human resources.

Leadership is the most critical element in the performance of any company, it greatly exceeds contribution from product, advertising and marketing. Leadership that maximizes the use of its people will achieve consistently excellent results, in both good times and bad. My studies over a few years have shown that outstanding leadership is undervalued and the impact of average leadership is grossly misunderstood.

I have first hand experience of many US corporations getting at best 60% productivity from their senior executives. They are working long hours, but much of this is spent playing defence games that have pervaded the corporate arena in the past few decades.

Productivity throughout many large organizations is severely hampered with issues like blame cultures that focus on who did it, rather than how to fix it, unnecessary reporting demanded but not read, and internal powerpoint that has gone truly viral!

The big issue is poor utilization of the human resource, that results now in constant redundancy cycles instead of market aggression, even in leading organizations. Many leaders of large corporations have no idea of the productivity cost of these expected redundancy rounds, that affect even the best performers, which results in less productivity even from the best people.

The Essence of Truly Great Leadership is a new, refreshing and simple look at the core elements of what makes some leaders consistently outstanding. It was developed from the results of a long term study of the results of organizations who have leadership excellence, versus those who do not.

Boardrooms that recruit high profile talking heads instead of true leadership, then expect these people to advise them on the functionality of the organization and what companies they should synergistically merge with, are fooling themselves that they have what it takes to responsibly manage shareholder funds.

The Essence of Truly Great Leadership outlines the 12 principles of Outstanding Leaders, and therefore should become the hallmarks sought when recruiting new CEOs, or analyzing the appointments already made. It is offered both in house or online with mentoring support.

To read a free sample of this course please click here.

Quote: 'Reflection must become part of your daily life. You cannot centre without reflection, and you cannot remain rational and unemotional without centering. ' From The Little Red Success Book by Terrie Anderson

When you understand the huge benefit of centering, you want to be able to to call upon this powerful self management tool at will. It is easy to do, once you learn how and practice regularly, and it allows you to always hold a strong, good and powerful position. Even in the most stressful circumstances this tool can be deployed within a few minutes and you will be amazed with the results you then achieve.

The Little Red Success Book will teach you how to centre within minutes in almost any situation, remain calm, detached but yet very aware and able to communicate from a position of strength. Once you have control of your self, it is incredible what a different outcome many situations have.

We reflect as part of centering, as reflection allows us to step away for a few seconds and rationalise our situation. Normally, we just react immediately from an emotional stance, often negatively. If you can first reflect, and understand the bigger picture, then a much calmer and more powerful version of you steps forward.

Reflect is the second step on your path to Happiness and Success from The Little Red Success Book.

You are amazing - the power is yours!