Tag: Simon Sinek

Why do you do what you do for a living? and ..why it matters!

Published on by Bridget Clapham really useful stuff.1 Comment

Why do you do what you do – for a living?  What’s the point of reflecting upon this? Read on!

Let’s consider a continuum of related scenarios….Some people drift into certain fields and then wake up decades later asking themselves the above question and not finding a satisfactory answer. They may be “happy” enough with their job and role or they may feel they are simply treading water to pay the mortgage. At worst they feel trapped, hate their job and find the whole work arena stressful and unfulfilling.

Some people, on the other hand, are fortunate to be able to answer the question with relish and enthusiasm because, what they do for a living resonates brilliantly with their values and life purpose.

Where we are on this continuum, matters hugely on several levels. It affects our wellbeing and health, our family life and relationships and of course, our level of passion and our productivity and effectiveness.

If you are a leader, your answer affects not only you but all the people whom you lead and manage.

Whatever stage you are at in your career work proactively to ensure that what you do matches your values, and that you have a degree of purpose and passion for what you do for so many of your waking hours!

Simon Sinek in his, now legendary TED talk which, incidentally I would make compulsory viewing on ALL degree programmes, MBAs and Leadership Training, is essential viewing for leaders and those aspiring to lead.

I could write pages of prose explaining it but instead, I invite you to spend about 18 minutes of your time watching and listening to Simon Sinek

Click on this text to spend 18.04 minutes learning from the great Simon Sinek on TED

and then continue the learning by reflecting upon the following questions:-

Exercise.

  • Watch Simon Sinek TED talk and then reflect upon the following alone and , if a leader, with your leadership team!
  • What is your why?
  • What is the “why” of the company you work with and does it provide a good fit with your own?
  • Are you working where you are working because of their “why”?
  • Does your current role allow you to tap into and honour your why?
  • Do you recruit people to your organisation who “fit” and can strengthen your company’s why?
  • Do you sell your products or carry out your daily activities with your “why” in mind?
  • Is your “why” obvious to those whom you lead and work with?
  • Are you authentically leading people in a way that honours your own and your company’s “why”?
  • What questions does this generate for you?

If you have a great coach, this is a good exercise to work with. My clients love it and it generates lots of discussion and actions whenever I use it!

Let me know your thoughts after this exercise and if you have time to leave a comment on the blog, I would love to hear from you.

Until next time when I will share with you my personal “why”

Bridget Clapham

Leave a comment or feel free to email me direct via my website by clicking on this link!

To praise or not to praise? That is the leadership question!

Published on by Bridget Clapham really useful stuff.1 Comment

To praise or not to praise? I believe that the short answer is “praise”, but, if I leave it there, the blog post would be a tad short and probably not too useful, so, here are my further musings!

As those with a fundamental knowledge and understanding of human psychology know, what we human beings like, or rather need, is to be treated kindly, to feel valued, appreciated and loved. It is, quite simply, part of being the social creatures that we are!

When we get signals from others that this is the case such as when we are authentically treated kindly and  praised by someone, our amazing brains release fabulous hormones – chemicals such as serotonin and oxytocin. This gives us a feel-good hit and, quite simply, we feel good.

For those of you who are interested in the neurochemistry and neuroscience, serotonin is released when we feel proud or valued and oxytocin when people are kind to us and we feel liked or loved. N.B. Love, in a workplace and leadership as opposed to a romantic sense, is defined here as having a sense of appreciation for and closeness to others.

For a great explanation of the importance of these and other neurotransmitters read Simon Sinek “Leaders Eat Last” – link here to one of the many places where it is available :- http://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Eat-Last-Together-Others/dp/1591845327

 So why is praise important? When we feel proud, valued and appreciated, our brains are running on great neurochemistry and we are more likely to feel positive, motivated, learn quickly, be creative and perform well.

 Praise

So, as a leader and, in fact, as a human being, which of your behaviours will help your team or your peers or your own leaders to feel supported, proud and valued?

Lead in a way that cultivates a culture where praise and celebration at all levels,  are the hallmarks of your style as a team or organisation. Be strong and kind – they can blend well together!  Spread the praise around too….. after all, your peers and your own leaders have a right to their own great neurochemistry too. It can be lonely at the top – who praises the leaders?

Many leaders and managers wait for formal 121’s or even for appraisal time to deliver praise and positive feedback to employees. My question is – why wait?

As a manager,  you are with your team most days.  It follows therefore that most days there will be positive behaviours and minor or major successes that you can use to deliver authentic feedback to your staff. I believe that authentic, time relevant praise – that is specific to an individual, even better, specific to an individual’s action or behaviour is worth its weight in gold.

“What about the need to let people know about their mistakes and shortcomings?”  I hear some of you say…. Well, think about it. We do indeed all make mistakes and have development needs. I believe strongly that the development feedback, delivered kindly in the context of a culture of praise and success, will be more likely to generate change in the employee. In the following example, which employee is more likely to develop and thrive?

  1. The one who is told to improve and given feedback on all of the reasons why he or she is not making the grade and thus feels demoralised and undervalued?

Or

2. The one who gets praised when he or she does well, is supported to develop in areas where improvement is needed and can work on making further improvements from a foundation of confidence and self-worth?

As an emotionally intelligent leader, and one who is keen to further develop EQ, you can tailor praise and feedback to suit the individual styles of team members. One style does not fit all! Experiment and ask for feedback on your feedback – it’s always useful.

Want to know more about the importance and value of praise and of helping people to feel important and valued? Here is a link to a great article highlighting research that supports the ideas within this blog post. https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/praising-employees-leads-to-higher-productivity-research-finds

My recommendation, start to make praise and positive feedback part of everyday conversations and ……let me know what you notice.

Until next time

Bridget.

Part Two. Why do you do what you do? the importance of your “Why”.

Published on by Bridget Clapham really useful stuff.Leave a comment

What do you do? Where, how and when do you do it – and WHY?

questions-1328465_960_720

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy “why” you do it” as Simon Sinek so eloquently explains.

If this doesn’t yet make sense, it may be that you missed last week’s blog on the importance of WHY we do what we do. At the end,  I said that I would post my personal “why” in the next post and so  in Part Two, I will be doing just that.

Firstly, you may want to refresh your understanding of Sinek’s work, which will mean a trip back to last week’s post. Here’s a quick link:- https://reallyusefulstuff.me/2016/04/19/why-do-you-do-what-you-do-for-a-living-and-why-it-matters/

If you are up to speed, let’s keep going!

One of the key points that Sinek and others make is that we are biological, chemical beings with complex neurology and, that we are driven to a great extent by our emotions.

Think of your own decisions- how often do you “sense check” a decision, or change one because the first one just didn’t feel quite right?

away-1019745_1920

If, like me, the answer to those questions is “always and quite often ”, then what follows will make perfect sense to you!

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy “why” you do it”

To explain what you do, is fairly straightforward, most people can tell you that. When I work with leaders and team members, most can articulate clearly what they do both as an organisation and as an individual within it. Often ( if not engaged with their “why”, they will explain it as being quite dull!)

As Sinek explains, some people can also explain how they do what they do. This is a bit more interesting but still a fairly neutral narrative.( See Sinek’s Golden Circle as explained last week – worth exploring if you haven’t already!)

What my and actually every other human brain is actually looking for is to experience a chemical shift, a connection, an emotional response to what we are hearing.

This starts to happen when people talk about or indeed, from their “why”. This is when we are likely to connect with and truly “buy in” to what the other person is saying. It is our “why” – our authenticity to our values that gives clues as to who we really are and what really matters to us! This is what other human beings connect with.

Think about it, given the choice, which Dr would you connect with and want to be cared for by? :-

  1. a Dr who only went into Medicine because it is the family tradition and is competent but dreams of another career because she/he would actually rather have been a lawyer…..OR
  2. a Dr who is also competent AND whose practice is fully aligned with her or his true values of care, support, health, healing and wellbeing.

So, here is my offering , my attempt to communicate my “why”.

My Golden Circle

Why I do what I do:- I have a passion and total belief in EVERY person’s ability to learn, develop and achieve their own excellence in life, in a way that enables them to feel happy, well and fulfilled. I believe that it is possible for each person to enjoy the process of becoming the best they can be.

How I do what I do:- I apply  curiosity and a skilled and ever developing knowledge and understanding of people, human psychology, organisational psychology, behaviour, learning, education, coaching and neuroscience in my work with clients. I combine with a great toolkit of strategies and methodologies to enable my clients to work with me to achieve fabulous results.

What I do:- I coach people to be the best they can be (beautifully combining personal excellence, success and wellbeing as essential ingredients in the cocktail!)

Those who meet me, say that when I talk about “what” I do, I do it from my “why”.

Exercise :-

I highly recommend working out your personal Golden Circle and one for your organisation. It is an interesting process and is great for developing increased self awareness as well as sometimes revealing some unexpected insights!

There are some great resources to share the ideas about the Golden Circle here

https://gumroad.com/l/GoldenCircle#

Let me know how you get on!

Until next time.

Bridget