Are you a Real Leader or All Talk?

Mike Schwarzer, TLP 4 Insight Reflections, 15 June 2016

Are you a real leader or all talk? What does this question evoke in you? How does it make you feel? Annoyed? Defensive? Intrigued? Curious?

What was the first thought on your mind? “How dare you Mike, questioning my integrity as a leader!” Or …”Mmmhhh, that looks interesting, I wonder what this is all about?”

The Frame controls the Game!

“Does the thought have you or do you have the thought?”

Whatever was on your mind, it influenced the quality of your thinking and how you’ve experienced this thinking. Consequently it led you to take action and open this reading.

And not just that, it influences the quality of what you getting from the following content of this post. Are you reading with a closed and judging mind? Are you comparing it to what you already know? Are you discounting what I am sharing with you?

Or are you reading it with nothing on your mind? A mind that is open and curious for fresh thought, for new insight, and for seeing new possibilities?

The frame controls the game. As human beings we have the ability of cognitive thinking. We can bring meaning to the world out there. Living in the world of thought means we can interpret and evaluate what we see and what we hear out there in our external environment. Not just that, we have to ability to make assumptions about our assumptions about it.

Living in our assumptions means we see and experience life through a distorted reality. It shows up in our behaviours. In the way we feel it in our bodies and the way we act. It shows up in the way we engage with others.

Here we can get into trouble! This can create major blind spots for us. Most people do not understand the nature of cognitive thinking and how it drives our understanding of how we think life works. This creates a false reality based on our assumptions that we hold true. The thing is, we always live in a false reality. In the world of thought there is no escaping from this false reality, nor is it a bad thing. None of us is immune to this.

However it becomes a problem when we think that our reality is the only reality. Then we act through the limits of that reality and project those limits onto others. Here we can easily buy into our thinking and that of others and being reactive to it.

Get out of your own way and see a world of possibility!

The trick is to get out of your way, to step back and see your reality for what is. It’s just your made up reality. It exists and is only true within the confines of your thinking. When you have that level of awareness you can gauge for the usefulness of what occupies your mind. You can act on it or not. You can question it. You can expand on it. You can explore it. You can step above it.

The more perspective you have, the more ways you can see the world in, the more choice and flexibility you have in dealing with what life is throwing at you. The ability to step above your thinking allows you to see with greater clarity and possibility. Here we operate through the richness and insightfulness of our thinking and engage with that of others in harmonious ways.

Real leadership is transformational leadership and it starts with YOU!

Transformational leadership is about engaging people’s minds through understanding, valuing and connecting with their higher level needs or intentions, which I have written about in previous reflections. Chip Conley, the founder of Joie De Vivre, founder of California’s biggest boutique hotel chain tripled his business during the Dot.Com crash and 911 by doing exactly that. Watch his TED talk on ‘Measuring what makes life worthwhile’ here.

It begins with you, how you lead yourself. In involves your ability to question and to step above your own thinking and to expand it. Your willingness to explore and to operate from your highest intentions. And to lead the way for others to do the same.

When you begin to do that, you’ll change the name of the game. You’ll find yourself operate in a state of flow. You’ll experience greater clarity of mind where solutions to problems miraculously appear. And you’ll connect and collaborate effortless with others. That is transformation in play!

So, are you a real leader?

‘A vital ingredient in a disruptive world!’

Many years ago I heard a great definition for a leader.

“Firstly, a leader has followers. If nobody is following you, you are not the leader. Secondly, what is the reason why people follow someone? Because they think that the person they follow knows where he or she is going!”

People generally follow someone they trust. Someone that stands for something! A person that has a sense of purpose and vision and that inspires people through that purpose and vision. Someone that leads through people and that shows them the way!

This is a vital ingredient for a real leader leading in a disruptive world. A world where being creative and innovative is the key to staying competitive and sustainable. And the ability to be flexible and adaptable to the changes that come with it!

This has to be done collectively and collaboratively, through people. A real leader’s role is to bring out the best in their people. To give them a sense of empowerment and create a space where employees can tap into their full potential.

Leaders who do not focus on bringing out the best in their people are a reliability to their organisation. They are costing their organisation and holding it back!

How do you bring out the best in your people and tap into the collective wisdom of your workforce?

It all begins with the assumptions that you make about people and how the world works. And how these assumptions either limit you or empower you in the way you engage with them and the quality of the contribution they make.

The clue is here! Are you a disempowering or empowering your people? Are they working against you or for you? Are you holding your organisation back or are you driving it forward?

What are the underlying assumptions that either hold you back or drive you forward?

If that resonates with you and you want to know how to connect with your people, bring out the best in them and to tap into their collective wisdom read on. If not, I like to thank you and I look forward to serving you with my next reflection!

to your best

Mike

PS Are you ready for the next step?

Here is how it is going to work!

We are in the business of helping leaders and organisations to solve the problems that they have not been able to solve elsewhere and create the results they want to achieve.

You are going to spend three days with us where we coach the life out of you and stretch your mind.

But you have to hurry, this is your last change to register for this financial year's final program. Click here to book or email me here to secure your seat.

We help them to step outside of themselves, out of their blind spots and get a wider view. We help them to create bigger minds with a bigger capacity to operate in and through complex environments.

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience at our upcoming public ...

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience at our upcoming public ...

SELF-LEADERSHIP – Accessing Personal Genius Program
The Structure & Tools to Make Change Stick and to Tap into Your Creative Wisdom! 
Adelaide, 21 to 23 June 2016

In this program you will experience the structure and tools of making change stick, what we call meaning into performance and tapping into your creative space of mind. Change involves taking new thinking (mind) and embedding it into behaviour (body). The reason why many change initiatives fail is that the new thinking never reaches the behaviour. Additionally, creativity resides outside the conscious mind.


We know the structure of that process and have the tools to make the shift as well as step into your creative wisdom.

In this program we will share this structure with you and teach you the tools to create lasting change and transformation and the insights that come with it.

We’re looking for a small group of very specific people for this 'transformational leadership' program.

• You are a new or seasoned leader of people (i.e. team-leader, department head, general manager, sales manager, HR professional, training professional, OD professional, coach, etc).
• You work in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environments.
• You are asked to do more with less. To create better outcomes with less resources.
• You’re an enthusiastic, optimistic, open minded and friendly people-person.
• You genuinely want to make a difference and create an environment where people can flourish and organisations can thrive.
• You have an open approach to learning, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary.
• You can keep a secret.

If that’s you, then reply to this email here and let us know a little about your background (if you don’t know what to tell us about, look at the list above for inspiration). Also tell us about some of the pressing challenges that keep you awake at night and what would be one thing that you could do better or do more of that would make a difference in your life and your work. Make the subject line “Transformational Leadership'.

Why this program?

“My conversations with clients used to be transactional, now they are transformational. It’s not about the widgets I sell anymore, it’s all about the relationship with the person. It’s really exploring and addressing the client’s needs and solving their problems instead of a preset agenda of what to sell. This shift in my thinking has profoundly increased the business I am generating now” Connor O’Rourke, General Manager Sales, Datacom Systems SA, Adelaide, SA Pty Ltd

 

“When working with a client just recently, I was able to bring into play a number of the principles about the higher intentions and states that they are in. After doing this program it really helped me to understand the nature of our higher intentions and also to communicate this to my clients … you could see the light bulbs going off for them.”

Listen to how this program impacted on Michelle Holland, former Manager, People & Culture, City of Salisbury, SA and a recent graduate! Click on this link https://youtu.be/gDNT4rgsUD8 or the picture above.

Want to collaborate with us to help you solve your problems?
What a better opportunity to invest your end of financial year budget in the up skilling of your leaders with leading edge thinking! Click here.

More about this program!

This is an ideal program if you want to live a higher quality of life, have meaningful relationships with others, create lasting change and achieve greater results for your business and for your clients.

It will give you the insights on how people create higher level meanings and intentions about their world. How those meanings and intentions are then manifested and experienced in their neurology which consequently drives their behaviours i.e. Mindsets that support or limit people’s quality of being in the world, their performances at work and play, and their ability to achieve personal and business goals.

Understanding the structure of that process will give you the tools to engage a person at their higher levels of thinking (meanings and intentions) and create transformational and lasting change from inside-out (changing mindset, fundamentally thinking differently about their world, Big WHY) rather than from the outside-in (changing behaviour i.e. doing things differently).

This program is transformational and can be a life changing experience for you as many other participants have.

Contact me here or call 0419 866 427 if you have any further questions about the event.

To register and to take your magic to the next level reply to this email and I will email you a registration form. Alternatively visit our site click here.

to your highest and best

Mike

PPS if this is not for you but you know of someone that might be a good fit please forward this email to them and ask them to reply to this email address mike@thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

About Mike Schwarzer

Mike is a Performance Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40 countries, dedicated to helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the Australian branch of ISNS. An experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!

For more information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com and www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.