Wisdom from dysfunctional leaders

During my initial years as an employee a couple of my superiors drove me to my wit’s end. Sure they were nice and I would have to be fair and say they meant well however in my view they were completely incompetent as leaders and managers. To make it worse people on the outside used to comment to me how lucky I was to work for such a great person.

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Over the past five years working as a leadership coach however, I have discovered that sadly I was not alone. This scenario is actually quite typical and many of my coaching clients come with war stories of their inept manager.

Being a glass full kind of woman I decided to unpack this phenomenon and asked myself - how do so many leaders with such obvious dysfunctions manage to rise to and remain in prominent, senior roles?

Fortunately in my own career, I was blessed with several capable mentors and leaders who provided me the benefit of contrast. Still, working for the dysfunctional few prompted me initially to take my hopeless situation home with me – criticising, complaining and nagging the ear off whoever would listen. Once over the initial whining though these inept leaders prompted me to seek a way up or out, motivated me to work out what it was that grated on me so badly so I could find a new path without these issues.  

The wisdom of this process was that in hindsight, I learnt far more about great leadership from a couple of dysfunctional leaders than I ever learn from the excellent ones. The pain they caused me was a strong learning stimulant for the following lessons:

Self-Motivation – Nothing like a dysfunctional de-motivator to force one to drive oneself to continue to succeed in spite of the roadblocks.

Creativity – bland leadership requires personal creativity to find inspiration in new ways of doing things outside of the norm.

Patience – This is probably the biggest lesson I learnt and is an essential leadership quality.  Patience under poor management does not mean I am waiting for them to act, it means I am persevering despite their actions.

By-gones – dealing with the stress of working under this dysfunction has taught me to be less judgmental and more inclined to give support. If you let bygones be bygones and trust that everyone is doing their best with what they know at the time it defuses a lot of your frustration and makes you more compassionate.

So if you find yourself one day working for a dysfunctional leader, take heart. Set your intention to being grateful for the wisdom and leadership tools that you will learn through the process. You’ll be glad you did.

Daily intentions: life is a creation!

“While you are standing around wondering what tomorrow will bring, remember that life is a creation, not a discovery.” Srikumar Rao

As a corporate refuge I often prided myself (in a strange way) in the ability I had to multi-task and handle anything and everything that life and the job threw at me. No matter what the challenge I was there in the thick of it, problem solving and troubleshooting, managing and instructing.

While it was good to have that kind of strength and confidence in my ability to roll with the punches (particularly daily media issues) it was a thoughtless way to plan my day. In fact my plan usually consisted of 10% planned work and 90% of my calendar ready to tackle the daily dramas.

During my time recently in LA for my coaching mastermind, the concept of ‘batching’ my time and activities was posed. Now I have always been action-oriented and an achiever, don’t get me wrong, but doing this usually meant being ridiculously busy and came often at the expense of myself, my health, my relaxation and planning.

This got me thinking - imagine what I could achieve if instead I saw what life could do with what I threw at it?

Instead of just getting up in the morning to see what happens, I decided to plan my time, to batch my activities and to INTEND my day by setting daily intentions.

While the jury is still out and some days I keep my intentions better than others, I have to say having a plan for how my day is going to be, and then being clear to intend for it to be
that way has been pretty powerful.

Try it out for yourself. Start intending your day. Picture in your minds eye each morning how you want the day to go. Expect it to happen.

Sound too optimistic? Well let me share with you - even if I haven’t achieved 100% of my intention each day I certainly achieve over half of it and isn’t that better than just letting life run my day for me?

Instead of just responding to lifes little dramas, remember life is a creation, not a discovery. Have the intention to create big things for yourself - I know I certainly am!

Heidi Alexandra Pollard - the Living Leaders Advocate

Get more social to boost your career

I guarantee almost everyone has done some level of ego-surfing and googled their name to see what comes up. While it may sound like a trip down vanity lane googling yourself on a semi regular basis is a great way to track and measure your professional online presence.

Using quotation marks around your name eg: “Sarah Smith” is the cleanest form of searching and will ensure you just get results for your own name (as well as any others with the same name)

It’s a great way to track and measure your presence as well as get a feel for the topics and themes associated with you on the web. Why? Because I guarantee you many prospective employers these days are googling applicants names to confirm resume claims and get a feel for what others say about them as well as what they get up to on the weekend! Sound scary?

With Facebook leading the way and Twitter activity on the rise, Australians are rapidly increasing their participation in social media, content sharing and personal brand building. A recent study showed nearly four in five of Australia’s nine million social media users sent or shared a photo in the past year and nearly three quarters shared a link. The biggest increases in social media usage were reading and posting on Twitter and reading wikis.

Twitter’s audience levels grew by more than 400% in 2009 so if you’ve got something to say, that’s the space!

“The opportunities for brands and companies to tap into the social media phenomenon are really just beginning to emerge and to date we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” states Melanie Ingrey, Research Director for Nielsen’s online business.

Your personal brand is the most valuable asset you have - what are you doing to build your brand online?

Yours in prosperity

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicator’s Coach

Keen to take the bosses job?

I can show you how with my Boost Your Career Home Study Course. Hurry only 3 days remain on limited one time 75% off special offer - plus as a bonus you get a FR.EE bonus 15 minute laser coaching session with me! http://www.leadingvalue.net/_product_19340/Boost_Your_Career_Home_Study_Course

Great companies grow their leaders

Reference letter writing tips

I came across this article today and thought it may be of interest to many of you who may be called upon from time to time to provide a written reference for someone. Writing a reference letter can sometimes be a daunting task - afterall you may potentially be influencing the person’s chance of getting a job or not.

To find your way through the challenge, here’s some tips from writer Michael Lee:
1. How do you know the person in question?
Here’s the first vital step on how to write a reference letter - it is important to state your relationship with the candidate - how you know him or her. Are you a teacher, a colleague or even a former supervisor? It is also important that you indicate how long you have known that person.www.selfgrowth.com

2. Back up positives with specifics
Even if you sing praises about the candidate, having no specific example to back them up will do you no good. Perhaps it is a wise idea to ask for a list of the person’s accomplishments - this is a tremendous plus in any reference letter.

3. Don’t write anything negative
Not everyone is perfect. However, that should not be reflected in your reference letter at all. Stick to the positives and let the candidate answer for his or her weaknesses during their interview with the employer. Listing the person’s not-so-brilliant qualities might only prevent him or her from getting short-listed.

4. Separation is key
When knowing how to write a reference letter, you must recognise what separates the candidate from the rest of the applicants. This is one of the more crucial points of the letter that employers really want to know. Write down characteristics that make the person stand out from the rest.

* Michael Lee is a freelance writer and writes articles for

Cool Obama Quote

Had to share a great quote from Obama that a client just shared with me:

Change will not come

If we wait for another person or some other time

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for

We are the change that we seek.

Barack Obama

Thanks Noeleen!

Heidi

Have you thought about your career brand?

Personal career branding is essential to career advancement not only because it helps define who you are but because it also gives people a sense of what you stand for and the value you would bring to their company.

Just like a company, your personal brand is your reputation. I find most of my clients are not proactive in establishing and building their personal career brand and it is not until we begin to focus on their brand values and articulate them that they start to find they are more attractive to employers. Basically if you don’t stand out you will may miss out on many opportunities. 

Management guru Tom Peters, writing in his book The Brand You50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an “Employee” into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion! states: “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are the CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc.” He adds, “You’re not defined by your job title and you’re not confined by your position description.”

So have you thought about your career brand and what it says about you?

All the best
Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach

Did I just see you on YouTube?

There is a massive market of opportunity for you as a professional communicator today to catapult your visibility and drive prospects and employers to your website, blog or online resume through utilizing the power of video. 

Research shows the average YouTube visitor spends around 27 minutes watching videos per day. By being a part of the video space you can create a more personable experience of you, your strengths and skills. You know the old cliche, people hire people they know, like and trust - well it’s absolutely true. What better way to connect with potential employers than through video so they get a real sense of who you are and what you have to offer?

Not sure where to start? I admit I wasn’t too tech savvy when I started out, but technology has made it extremely easy and user friendly to add lots of cool innovative features to your website, resume or blog cheaply and simply. There are many new cameras that can help you do just that. The new Flip Video Camera is a great ’Plug & Play’ device or you can just use the video capability on your digi camera like I do for good quality quick videos. I use the Canon IXUS 90IS and find it delivers all I need in a handy little handbag sized pouch.

Using these devices means it is now easier than ever to shoot video, upload to your computer, and then post to your resume site, blog, YouTube or Facebook across the worldwide web in minutes! No expensive editing software, no long wait times, and best of all for those of us who have been there done that before for ourselves or our clients - no big production company or agency costs to make this happen. Fantastic!

Knowing your values and motivations

Have you noticed how we’re hearing that more and more companies, in light of the recession, are returning to their values and brand promise to re-connect with their employees and improve morale?

In my new Boost Your Career Home Study Course I describe how it’s equally as important for communicators to return to their personal values to ensure they’re doing a job they’re passionate about.

If you feel like you are stuck in a rut, have hit a plateau or are struggling to find the passion you once had for your comms job then perhaps you might consider a simple shift to regain your motivation.

Sure you might be able to bluff your way through and be professional enough to be able to focus and produce results even if you have fallen out of love for what you’re doing, but you know you produce far better results if you are tapping into your passion and purpose.

Lacking any real motivation for work right now? Learn more from myself and my seven guest experts featured in my new book all about how you can give your communication career a boost.

I can totally relate, several years ago I found myself at a career crossroads. Having spent my whole working life in public relations, communications and marketing, to sometimes feeling frustrated and demotivated. What’s more I feared that in the bureacracy I worked for that I wasn’t able to add any real value.

Now based in a swanky city head office with an impressive title and a staff of 72 I found myself missing the constant contact I used to have in previous roles working with people on the ground and at the sharp end.

It prompted me to spend some time with my first business coach Ken thinking through what I wanted from life, what my personal values were, and what I needed from a role to help me fulfil them. I discovered that the things that make me tick are servant leadership, connecting with people, making a difference and lifelong learning. Once I knew what my values were, I was able to make changes.

I decided to start my own business Leading Value to get the freedom and opportunity to make a difference that I wanted. I chose to specialise in communicators and creative professionals coaching and training, because working with those people gave me pleasure, gave me day-to-day contact with people I love working with and being challenged by. Importantly I was also able to see and hear the massive difference I made to these people’s lives and careers which was and important part of my desire to serve.

I still have my off days - don’t we all? But overall, I love what I do. It is so empowering and freeing to be able to make choices about the work I undertake, based on the kinds of activities that align with my personal and business values.

So what motivates and inspires you?

What are your values?

How does your current role allow you to live those values?

Take the time to ponder these questions, you’ll be glad you did!

Yours in prosperity, passion and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard

The Communicators’ Coach