Leadership KPI: Making A Difference

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Leadership Thought of the Month

Monthly thoughts, musings, random ideas, or occasionally something I’ve read that I thought you might like to hear about - all relevant to leadership of course!

A few conversations I’ve had recently have made me think about success and how we define it. As leaders, managers, CEOs, and Founders, we often have a definition of success thrust upon us, the dreaded KPI, the share price, the revenue target, sales goal, customer feedback scores, there’s an endless list of them in the world of business.

In life too, there’s the things and stuff - the car, the house, the iPhone or whatever the latest gadget is that we simply must have to show how successful our career and life is - it’s the cliché of Keeping up with the Joneses (no, not the 2016 movie).

So the leadership thought this month is: what does success really look like as a leader? If we boil it down to what leadership is really about, i.e. people, then these common ‘business success’ measures are clearly not relevant. I’m not saying things like sales, revenue, happy customers etc. aren’t important, of course they are. However, they’re the goals of the business, of management even, they are not a direct measure of successful leadership, nor should they be.

Successful leadership produces a commited, happy team that collaborates effectively, is made up of people with diverse skills and experiences, who are each trusted and trusting. (I acknowledge that’s a very short description and is lacking depth, it took me aaaaages of editing back and forth before I was somewhat satisfied with it, but needs must since a whole essay on just this definition would probably not be very good newsletter content!).

Achieving that success usually means business performance will benefit as a result, because that kind of team will be an unstoppable productive force. Hyperbole, maybe, but they’re certainly going to be best placed for overall success.

Long story short, this train of thought led me to the choice of our opening quote from Michelle Obama this month - another good one would have been the famous words of Maya Angelou: people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Something New!

Next month I’m running a new workshop, I’m a little nervous about it as I’ve totally revamped the format of my usual online events and I’ve not run a live one in a little while now either. The goal of this one is to have something that’s 1. More interactive than the average Zoom-Google-Teams type of event or webinar, 2. Gives attendees something practical, meaningful, and personal to take away that will help with their leadership, and 3. Is a bit of fun!

Want to know more? If you’re free on Wednesday 17th July at 1pm, then I’d love for you to join me and as it’s a new format everyone is welcome and there’s no cost or membership requirement - check out this page to learn more: New Leadership Workshop: Finding YOUR Leadership Values or drop me an email/DM if you have questions.

Don’t miss out on this one - if all goes well I’ll be running it again, but next time it won’t be free. Hope to see you there, and thanks in advance for the support!

It’s Lonely at the Top…

It’s a cliche we’ve all heard - ‘it’s lonely at the top’, ‘leadership can be lonely’ etc. So from now on, in each edition of Leader Not A Boss I’ll offer a quick tip to help you break that isolation. Whether you’re a busy leader in a company large or small, a business owner, a solopreneur, or a new manager, loneliness at the top is something you’ll face at some point in your leadership career or even at some point each day.

A slightly different take on the question this month: get yourself on some training.

There’s many great reasons to do this, especially as a new or first-time leader, here’s my take on it though: the best leaders are always learning. You may have heard the concept of being a lifelong learner, and I truly see this as essential if you have any aspirations towards being a lifelong leader, or even a temporary one!

Secondly, like the networking tip last time, it’s a great way of meeting and learning from other leaders, and if you’re all on the same training course, event, or webinar, then there’s already a pretty good chance that you’re facing common challenges, seeking the same opportunities, and have similar points of view on the skills you want to learn.

And thirdly, in this age of online development, the webinar, distance learning, and so on: it’s pretty easy to do. If you’re selective about what you attend and how much you want to spend, then the return on your investment can be significant. Let me know if you want some recommendations for courses or events to attend - I’ve been to some brilliant ones this year from marketing to customer service to leadership, and everything in between.

Celebrating Great Leaders

In each newsletter, I’ll drop a quick paragraph or two about a great leader who deserves a bit of celebrating.

This month I had a short-list pretty quickly, but narrowing that down to a single choice was really tough. That’s why I’m still only just writing this section at 11:13 on publishing day!!

Twisting my own arm, I’ve gone with someone who is significant to me, is extremely well known, but perhaps not universally recognised as a leader: Sir Patrick Stewart, here’s why:

1. It’s not a traditional pick for a leader, but the obvious reason is ‘he played a great one on TV’ - he’s played several of them, in fact, but the one that will always stand out to me is Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation. My Mum (the die-hard Capt. Kirk fan) will be disappointed in me for this, but it’s not lost on me how frequently Picard is chosen by my podcast guests when I ask them to name their leadership hero.

2. Stewart himself is a great example of authenticity - or at least as far as I can tell given the fame and celebrity factor etc. - in interviews he’s always seemed down to Earth (ironically?), self-deprecating (I’ve mentioned before why humility is an important leadership skill), and straightforward/honest.

3. This short clip perhaps tells you all you need to know about the lessons he has learned and has to teach us about leadership, self-belief, and the importance of not taking yourself too seriously - something I think all leaders could benefit from.

He didn’t just play one on TV, he’s a leader in his own right and in his industry, and in his own words he got where he is today with the help of colleagues who became great friends. Which itself is a good lesson! Make it so.

Podcast News

ICYMI: This Month On The Leading with integrity Podcast

A quick round up of recent episodes, with links, so you can catch up on ones you missed!

• Ep.114: Finding Your Self Belief and How to Love Your Career, with Camilla De Burghe 
  (29-May-2024 - 01hr 15min)
  Listen Here, or Watch On YouTube
  Is a lack of self belief holding you back in your career? Camilla De Burghe is on a mission to help people face down challenges just like this one. Camilla is an accredited Career Coach, and feels passionately that every woman deserves to love their career and become a go-to expert in their role without working themselves into the ground. We’ll be talking about all of that and more, it’s a deep conversation about how to create more successful workplaces where people love their jobs. Isn’t that why most of us become leaders?
  

• Ep.115: Intentional Leadership and Playing To Your Strengths, with Juan Alvarado 
  (05-Jun-2024 - 01hr 25min)
  Listen Here, or Watch On YouTube
  Start With Why... or should it be: Start With Who? I speak with Juan Alvarado, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Trainer, Podcaster, and Veteran about how he discovered Gallup Strengths, became a certified coach, and uses it to help leaders be more intentional about their leadership while knowing & playing to their own strengths. Together we explore questions like does money buy happiness? (Probably not, but it definitely helps!), instead of "Starting with Why", should we be starting with WHO? What does effective feedback sound like?
  

• Ep.116: Generational Leadership and Putting the ‘FUN’ into HR Fundamentals, with Katie Howard 
  (12-Jun-2024 - 01hr 02min)
  Listen Here, or Watch On YouTube
  Chatting with HR Professional, Katie Howard, who's on a mission to put the FUN back into HR. Katie shares some of the wild stories, as well as some enlightening and entertaining ones, from a career in HR spanning government, corporate, and consulting. We talk about the red flags to watch out for in companies and in leaders, the pace of change, what great leadership looks like. and what changes are happening in work and workplaces resulting from generational shifts. Katie had some insightful thoughts on how leaders need to be able to speak to every generation if they're to successfully maintain a functioning team.
  

• Ep.117: Improving Workplace Culture – Grow it Don’t Build it, with Dan Bredeson 
  (19-Jun-2024 - 01hr 22min)
  Listen Here, or Watch On YouTube
  Is your culture based on cool stuff? The beanbags, the free pizza, etc. Or is it defined by 'how we do things around here'? How many people leave jobs because of a toxic, incompatible, or even just lacklustre corporate culture? I’m joined by organizational culture and leadership consultant Dan Bredeson, we get into all things culture, from why it’s such a hot topic in the contemporary workplace, the impact and fallout of Covid the Great Resignation (and more) from a culture perspective, and what, why and how leaders should be doing about it - the clue is in the episode title: Grow it, don't Build it.

Coming Up Soon…

This week Tomorrow will be Episode 118, and I’ll be talking to Eric Sardina about finding your purpose - both as a leader and in life. Eric is a coach helping his clients find meaning, purpose, success, and joy. He also hosts a podcast called Return to Authenticity, so it was a pleasure having him on the show.

We chatted about finding your purpose, whether it be divine or otherwise inspired, the hero’s journey, and how to lean into your true calling with authenticity, grace, and - yes - leadership. It’s a bit different to our usual discussion topics, but is a really insightful and powerful subject that’s well worth a listen.

Tune in when the episode releases tomorrow morning at 0830 (UK), here’s the link: https://smartlink.ausha.co/leading-with-integrity/ep-118-is-your-ladder-leaning-on-the-right-building-leading-with-purpose-as-your-authentic-self-with-eric-sardina 

Next week I’m chatting to Olympian and Coach, Joey Lye about confidence, high performance, how to adapt and thrive, and her experiences of teamwork, leadership and crisis on the world’s stage as a competitor at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 - a.k.a. the ‘Covid Games’.

Later in July the week after next, I’ll be joined by engagement and retention expert Clifton Savage, we’ll be discussing all things team building, recruitment, retention and how to take a service-first approach to leadership. On 17th July I have a conversation with entrepreneur, author, and cybersecurity pro, Christian Espinosa about his experiences from growing up in poverty to joining the Air Force as a communications officer, getting into cybersecurity, and starting his own businesses; and of course all his lessons in leadership through all of that. The following week, our guest will be CEO and author, Chrissy Myers, who’ll be talking with me about the nuances of operating a family business, building a resilient team culture, and the role of vulnerability. And in our final episode for July (long month - a 5-episode run!) I’ll be speaking with Philip Blackett, a consultant, entrepreneur and author of ‘Disagree without Disrespect’ - a topic which will form the central theme of our conversation.

Want to Get Into Podcasting?

It was recently suggested to me that, having recorded well over 100 episodes of Leading with integrity now, I might offer a few ideas here for anyone considering getting into podcasting themselves…

I’m by no means going to claim any expertise in audio quality (or video, I definitely need a better camera for episodes recordings, consider it on my list for this year!!!) - and perhaps this is a no brainer, but I’m going to say it anyway: invest in a reasonable and reliable microphone.

Once you’ve got your podcast concept, you know what it’s going to be about and who it’s for, and you’re about to follow last month’s tip of “just do it”, go and get an external (i.e. not the integrated one that’s built into a laptop) mic. Audio quality is a key indicator of success for podcasting, so I’m told, so it’s a worthwhile investment.

If you want to understand the difference it can make, go listen to one of my first 5 or 6 episodes, then listen to my latest one - you’ll hear the difference even after the heavy editing and remastering I’ve tried to do on the older ones.

It doesn’t have to break the bank, you can get a decent starter mic like the Blue Yeti (which I still use myself) for about £120 at time of writing. That may seem a lot for something you’re not sure about yet, and I get that. There are lower cost alternatives too.

Anyway, that’s my next bit of podcasting advice, for what it’s worth.

That’s all for this edition, thank you for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed it (feedback most welcome).

I’ll talk to you again soon, and until then:

Be a Leader, Not a Boss!

David

In case you don’t know me that well, I’m David Hatch and I’m here to help new managers and first time founders with their leadership skills, so they can become leaders not bosses, lead with integrity, and build happier, higher performing teams, more effective organisations, and, ultimately: successful businesses.

If you’d like to join Integrity Leaders, my online leadership community and get early access to my podcast episodes, as well as participate in live member-only sessions/events, and access an ever growing list of leadership resources, you can be part of it now with a complimentary trial for 60 days - all I ask in return is your engagement and honest feedback. At the end of those 2 months, there’s a no-fee membership option, or you can choose to become a paid member (£39/month).

Here’s the link: Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders or first-time founders.