TheDefender2021

When you encounter a “NO” in business, what do you do? . Does a “NO” set you back? OR Does it propel you? . Watch this video to learn more about “NO” #leaders #leadership #mentorshipmatters

Establishing partnerships on a global basis isn't easy. Many desired partnerships simply don't happen or they fizzle over time. . How you present your company can determine whether you are viewed to be simply a vendor or a trusted advisor with value & benefit for the long-term. . How do you challenge yourself or your organization to move beyond transactional to strategic? . In this video, you will learn (or enjoy a reminder) about the importance of viewing your company as a strategic player backing it up with an emphasis on delivering value and benefit to your counterparts. This sounds easier than it is ... enjoy the tips for success and share your experiences. #negotiations #partnerships #leaders

Establishing strategic partnerships on a global basis takes time, dedication and purpose. It also takes effective communication. . How you communicate can make or break the negotiations and ultimately what you agree to (and presumably implement). . In this video, you’ll learn about the three most important steps in communication when negotiating internationally. . Share your experiences of international negotiations, the broader network can benefit and learn from what you have observed. #thedefender #negotiations @ChristopherVoss

Today we celebrate Keith Fuentes and his leadership in establishing a HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM environment. . Regardless of how you define the word leadership, there is no doubt that certain individuals can greatly impact the lives of others based on their experiences and insights. . While we are all on different paths in our careers and businesses, we look to leaders for guidance and advice. . With only 10% of leaders naturally born that way, leadership skills can be learned, put into practice and perfected. There are certain characteristics, traits and skills that ultimately build the most effective leaders. . Join me the remainder week of the week in learning more about Keith, Marti and other great leaders. With all the focus on the things leaders aren’t doing, we need leaders in our network to whom we can look up to and who we want to emulate. . Please comment, like, share and tag great leaders within your network. Together, we have so much to learn.

Can toxic leadership be dismantled? . For more from TheDefender: https://lnkd.in/esmmKjR . There are many other examples including: https://lnkd.in/eZSQ942 . What is your story of overcoming adversity? . #leadershipskills #toxicworkplace #thedefender #makinganimpact Production by Dreamline Digital Limited

With employee engagement levels at an all time low, it's critical as a leader to ensure that you're focusing on your communication skills. One of the most important aspects for a leader is to ensure that you're communicating with effectiveness and with quality. Many of you have seen my videos in the past and you know that I'm advocating the implementation of a high performance (HPT) team environment. Now this is critical to your communication skills. Now, why is that? Within that HPT environment is a strong level of trust and integrity. It provides the leader with the platform and the opportunity to communicate effectively, frequently, and with quality. Now, how do you do this? Typically what you've seen in the past is more representative of hierarchical or traditional organizations, your town halls, your fireside chats. Now, I would advocate that you use technology as a means of ensuring a great level of communication. Many of you have used Slack. If you're a Microsoft office you'll use Teams. I certainly do advocate using one of those platforms as a collaboration tool. They are a great way of making sure that you're communicating both what your objective is and then how everybody's aligning around that objective. It gives you the opportunity to use that platform as well to communicate. What I would also advocate and particularly if you're leading a global organization is use again technology, use video conferencing capabilities like Zoom to be able to communicate and broadcast your message out on a regular basis to your team. And I think it's really important is to recognize as well that yes you may have that office environment and people around you and you can communicate with them, the water cooler talk or you can have side chats, etc, but you have to make sure everyone across the entire team feels included no matter what the time zone. It's really important that you spend time in one-on-one scenarios and they can be scheduled. However, I think more critically is ensuring that you set the expectation that when people do come in to have those one-on-one conversations with you, that there's an actual agenda. How many of you out there have run into situations where you walk into that one-on-one and you really don't know what you want to talk about or you just sort of make stuff up because you know you have the half hour? Make sure you set that expectation from day one that there's an agenda, a purpose, and an outcome for the one on one sessions that you have. Have regular team meetings. Now, how many meetings do we have every single day? Of course, what's important, is to ensure that it (the meeting) is a two way. Don't have these kinds of meetings where you are sitting in the lead chair and you go around the horn giving people an opportunity to give you an update. How meaningful is that? I've sat through many of those meetings and I can tell you not only are they boring but they're ineffective. If it's a two way street, you challenge the individual within your organization to come forward with where they stand in terms of reaching objectives but at the same time give them an opportunity to pose questions, to present challenges, and to look to you for context and input to how to overcome those particular challenges and obstacles. Of course, a lot of pre-work has to be done as well to get to that point but the fact of the matter is that these kinds of conversations, have to be two way. Please don't just make them one way. In my past videos you may have also seen that I recognize a number of leaders who are excelling at their use of social media. And something again, particularly for aspirational leaders, to recognize that you can accel, you can set yourself apart from your counterparts and your peers with your effective use of social media and those platforms to ensure that you're communicating effectively with quality and with context. At the same time don't hide behind social media, ensure that there's also that personal connection and that personal interaction. For those again who have global organizations make sure that you travel outside of HQ. Challenge yourself. You've hopefully got the motivation. Spend the time, sit down with your team, your senior leadership team on those markets, and take the time to actually hear from the grassroots. You know what? One of the most effective means as well that I've seen from leaders and I've done this myself, is particularly when you're in international markets take the opportunity to set yourself out in a social setting. Sit down with eight to 10 individuals, give them the opportunity to let their hair down, ask you some of the hard questions, challenge you, and then give them context and input back. Don't just give them back corporate speak. Tell them the goods, give them the idea as to where you stand from the company perspective and how important and how meaningful they are to your success.

Is it truly lonely at the top for today's executive or are they knowingly or unwittingly isolating themselves?

Whether at work or on your personal life, again, it's inevitable that you're going to run into conflict. The big question is, how do you deal with conflict amongst teams and amongst people? Well, as a leader, the number one most important characteristic or quality for you to demonstrate is that you are a facilitator, a moderator. You're not there to solve everybody's problems. And if you are a facilitator, then it's up to you to be able to bring the parties together to get to a point where they can establish some common ground, some shared values, and shared objectives. Of course, many organizations aren't even able to get people to the table, because they have not instilled a high-performance team environment within their organization. So you can have conflict because people are shooting for different objectives. Now, how you're able to overcome that, of course, is by instilling that high-performance team environment, establishing common objectives and a common set of goals, so that everyone knows what they're after. So along with ensuring that you are the facilitator, bringing people to the table, it's important as well to ensure that you're focusing those individuals on thinking in solutions. All too often, what happens in a conflict situation is that people are thinking in problems. They're bringing forward their own personal biases, their own personal concerns, and they aren't putting the needs and the requirements of the company and the team before their individual interests. That's, of course, inevitable, but again, as a facilitator, you can help them overcome that by challenging individuals who are in a conflict situation to think in solutions. That's a forward-looking perspective as opposed to a backwards and negative perspective, that many get stuck into when they're thinking in problems. This is sometimes easier said than done. What do you do in a situation where you have a toxic leader or toxic individuals within the organization, who are just, for purposes of their own ego, digging their heels in, establishing that conflict, and not even allowing you to facilitate to get to the point where you have that common ground and that common perspective, that you are inching forward to getting to a point where you've got, again, an understanding as to what you want to be able to accomplish together as a team? It's unfortunate, because there are way too many toxic people within organizations today, so the answer in many ways rests in what Simon Sinek's talked about, and that is one, as a leader, of course you can take some pretty dramatic steps and work with that individual to have them out the door, that toxic individual. You can highlight and isolate for them where their challenges and their shortcomings are, and challenge them to move forward and improve. And then of course, the third really is that you can accept the situation, but accept it knowingly, and understanding, and recognize that you still are in control, but that toxic leader is going to add some of his or her toxicity, unfortunately, to the company, and you've got to be able to balance that out with your leadership style, and your aspirations, and bringing other positives back into the company. That's the least desirable. I'm in the midst of watching Showtime's The Loudest Voice. It's all about Roger Ailes. There's one scene in the last episode I watched, and Ailes is berating the team. It is unbelievable. Now, he's establishing some objectives, he's trying to challenge people to rise to their A-game, but he's injecting a whole bunch of conflict and toxicity into the environment. The big question is, what do you do in those situations? Of course, you can make the decision to stay, as toxic as it is, but you do so knowingly and within your own power, recognizing that you can make a decision to change, leave, at any point in time. And I know there are always challenges there, whether economic, family or even political, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure you've got the power in that situation to make a decision to change. Of course, you can always wait it out. That toxic leader will inevitably crash and burn. Then, you know, the last really is that you make that decision to change and move on. But that's, again, easier said than done. The most important aspect of conflict, getting right back to what I talked about at the outset of this video, is taking the high road, being that positive individual, that positive leader that sets the tone, bringing people together for a common purpose and common objective, and in situations of conflict, facilitate, moderate, bring people closer to the point where they have a common set of values and objectives that they're shooting for, underline that with the importance of a high-performance team, and I can guarantee you'll be in a situation where you have a lot more harmony than you do conflict.

Hello, there. Welcome to The Defender. I'm Gregory Wade. At The Defender, we're building GREAT leaders one leader at a time, and I'm here to help you to achieve both your personal and professional goals in a time frame much shorter than you can imagine based on real-world experiences that help you to implement actions now that'll help you to achieve your short- and long-term objectives. So, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and like, share, and comment below, and of course, tell a friend. For more exclusive content on business development, strategic partnerships, leadership development, and personal development, check out my website at gregorymwade.com. Until then, take action, and take action now. Follow me on Twitter: gregorymwade Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/grwade Connect with me on my website: https://www.gregorymwade.com/ Subscribe to The Defender here: https://youtu.be/Apw5pPThCGE

What does GREAT leadership mean to you? . Can toxic leadership be dismantled? . For more from The Defender: www.gregorymwade.com . #leadershipstyle #goingaboveandbeyond #makinganimpact

Essentials for Communicating Effectively . A special call-out to Catherine Johns for challenging the discussion around Collaboration . For more from The Defender: www.gregorymwade.com . #thedefender #communicationiskey #communication #leadershipstyle #leadership

No matter the size of your company, the stage of its development, you don't want to miss these tips . For more from The Defender: www.gregorymwade.com . #thedefender #growth #globalteams

Hey guys, thanks again for watching The Defender. In this episode, we're going to talk about one of the most important foundational aspects in leadership development, and that is building a team with a global mindset. If you like what you hear in this video, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, check out my website at gregorymwade.com and of course like, comment, and share below. In my close to 30 years of experience, I've learned from some of the most amazing leaders of their generation. At the same time, I've also identified and learned what to implement from my perspective in terms of an organization that I want it to be a high performance team, but also known for its diversity in thinking, perspective, and approach. Effectively, a global mindset, and I was able to accomplish this in many different ways. And at the same time I had this exposure and experience to teams that were known for their singularity in terms of their approach and thinking, as well as known for their hierarchies in terms of structure. And I can tell you what I was able to implement from a high-performance team perspective known for its global mindset, we are much more able to ensure faster decision making, we encourage creativity and innovation and prove that out in terms of the new products and services we are able to bring into the marketplace. We had a much stronger foundation for team performance. We were effectively supporting each other and our mutual success as opposed to just looking out for ourselves. And ultimately the global mindset allowed us to be able to be open to the world in terms of new ideas, approaches, opportunities and perspectives. We brought that back into the organization, and it really helped us to drive our new product introduction process, our messaging into the markets, and recognize that you know what? Whether you're big company, mid-sized company or a small organization, having that global mindset better prepares you to be able to address the marketplace because guess what? The fact of the matter is now that buyers can be located anywhere in the world. And I don't care if you're a small company in a domestic market. The fact of the matter is you're going to have more and more buyers who will be from outside of your local marketplace, and they're going to want to be able to access your products and services. So it's up to you to make sure that you build these teams out with a diverse set of backgrounds, perspectives and opinion, and then ensure that you're encouraging that global mindset. Now don't just take this from me. The folks over at Everwise, which is an incredible mentoring platform, recently authored an amazing article that identified some of the characteristics that are critical to ensuring that you're building out a diversity in your organization, that you're open and you are inclusive, and that you are encouraging again, a different perspective and approach to how you go about doing your business. And within that article they focused in on some of the most important aspects which were access to coaches who can guide you as a leader to how you go about establishing the right construct for your company, identifying mentors as well, so these would be mentors who would come outside of the organization in to you as a leader or as an aspiring leader, and give you advice and perspective on how to open up your mind to ensuring you have an organization with that diversity in thinking, perspective, and approach. And then also providing, whether it's the benefits that go into ensuring that individuals have access to a realm and a wealth of different options within their benefits package that address their individual needs, not just the needs of the collective. And then finally training and education, and being able to access others who you might want to be able to talk to and gain some insights from in terms of how they're going about ensuring that their company, their teams are as diverse and open and inclusive as possible. So I really encourage you to check out the Everwise article as well. I'll post it within the comments below so you can access it. So again, thanks again for watching The Defender. If you like what you've heard, please don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Check out my website at gregorymwade.com and of course, like, comment and share below. I'll see you next time.

Leading With Purpose? What is Your Vision? . How Can You 2.5x Your Company Results? . For more from The Defender: https://www.gregorymwade.com Reference to Forbes where organizations with a vision are 2.5 times better placed to have high-performance teams and increased revenues vs. those companies without a vision Leadership Qualities and Leadership Skills benefit from having an established VISION: Leading with a Vision model Focus Removes Clutter Belief Consistency People Commitment Results

At The Defender, we're building great leaders, one leader at a time. On your path to becoming a great leader it's important that you establish a championship winning attitude within your organization. I'm Gregory Wade. You're watching The Defender. Whether you've been a member of an organized team, an individual sport, a member of the debate club or just been in a spelling bee, you know what it's like to be able to focus in on an objective and to achieve your results. You also know what it's like to at times perhaps not necessarily achieve what you're looking to be able to get to, but to be able to make adjustments so that you're on the right path to success. As a leader, you are part player, coach, mentor, and guide. It is your role, along with your senior leadership team, to ensure that you're establishing meaningful objectives that the team and your organization can rally around. At the same time, it's important as well to ensure that you're monitoring performance so that you can adjust and adapt accordingly to change and to some faults perhaps on your path of achieving your results. At the same time, it's also important to play that role of motivator. I can't tell you enough just how important communication is as well within the organization so that you're guiding that team, giving them that progress, giving them a sense in terms of how they're working towards the objective you're trying to create. Add this all up and you are on your path to ensuring a championship winning attitude and a championship winning environment within your organization. This is meaningful if you're trying to be number one in terms of market share. It's meaningful if you're trying to surge and grow as a fast-moving organization and you want to be on top of your game. It's really important as well if you've got that fire in the belly, you've got that competitive edge, you've got that competitive nature, you just want to be able to surge, grow, and win in the marketplace. I'm Gregory Wade and you're watching The Defender. Thanks again for watching The Defender. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Like, share and comment below. For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

The business publication, Forbes, recently reported on the rise and fall of former Cleo CEO, Shannon Spanhake. In the report, Shannon identifies that it was her insecurities that led her to a toxic leadership style all while lying about her age and her educational background. There is a lot we can learn from her experiences. Primarily, what not to do but more importantly, it highlights the fact that leaders aren't perfect (despite what their egos might tell them) and that with insecurities, they can seek support and assistance while they are in office. This, however, takes focus and self-awareness. Join me in this video as we explore the importance of developing self-awareness. For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

Are you unsure or fearful about approaching a leader that you admire for guidance and insights? If so, this video is for you. Learn from The Defender about how to approach a leader from whom you want to seek guidance. For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

In my close to 30 years of industry experience, I've seen it all on the social media front from CEO meltdowns to CEOs who thrive in the new digital landscape. All of this comes thanks to the transparency that these digital media outlets provide. Thanks to an April 2019 study by Brunswick, nearly half the S&P 500 and FTSE 350 CEOs now have a social media presence, but only one in four have posted within the past year. This is a shocking number to me because the expectations for leaders are very different. Some of these expectations from team members and outside parties include the importance for social media in communications, the positive impact that an external social media message will have on the company and what it stands for, and then ultimately, the role model that the leader will play for employees within the organization. Do you think an Elon Musk would be as popular as he is today if it wasn't for Twitter? Other reasons that employees and external forces are interested in leaders who utilize and leverage social media also include how they go about leveraging and using social media in times of crisis. Leaders with a strong social media position are also in a strong situation where they could actually attract more employees and new talent to the organization. And of course ultimately, it also means they can be in a great position to establish for new business. So what are the some of the steps that you can take as a leader to be able to establish your social media presence both for external purposes as well as for internal purposes? Well, the first is to establish the potential. Take that first step. If you are scared and you're unsure, take the first step of establishing whether it is Crunchbase information, whether it is Wikipedia, or just simply updating your leadership profile on your website. The second step is to build on the first and work with your internal communications team on establishing your social media strategy for your external comms purposes and establishing yourself first at least on one social media site like LinkedIn. The third step is building on the first two. So now you have a strategy in place, but you're now actively engaged with at least one social media platform, again, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and that you're actively posting on a regular basis based on a calendar of activities. It's not only satisfying, but it gives you fuel. The fourth step, and this is where you are really connected, is where you actually have a presence, and you're actively engaged, leveraging your strategy and your content calendar, where you're communicating across at least three social media platforms. Three out of the four main ones and you'll be in good shape. So for my part, in addition to those four steps, I also like to be able to emulate and to be able to reflect upon those leaders who are just knocking it out of the park from a social media presence. And personally, I'm really pleased to be able to follow and kind of emulate what Adena Friedman, the CEO of Nasdaq, is doing. She's actually active across all four of the major platforms, and she personally is active. She doesn't just have somebody posting for her, and she's very engaging and very purposeful in how she communicates both externally as well as internally, I'm sure, to her teams and her organization. And on top of that, what I like to be able to do as well is I actually like to spend a little bit of time looking at LinkedIn's Social Selling Index, SSI. And I challenge you to go back and look at what your SSI is because it'll give you a really strong indication as to how well connected you are. And I have a good feeling that many of you aren't, and you'll be very surprised by what you find on that SSI index. Here's a great tip for you from the producers at Dreamline Digital, where you can actually leverage the insights you accumulate thanks to Google analytics as well as to LinkedIn, and you post based on what's trending and what's profiling versus how you might feel on that particular day. If you add up all those four steps and more, you will be in a position where you truly are a connected leader. So I challenge you to take those four steps and share with me and post below what kind of feedback and what kind of experience you're having. Thanks again for watching The Defender. Don't forget to subscribe to my Rumble channel. Like, comment, and share below. And oh, by the way, a shout out to the folks over at Dreamline Digital. Don't forget to check out their webpage as well. They're doing an incredible job of emphasizing and supporting leaders in their promotion of their online presence and their social media message. I'm Gregory Wade. You're watching The Defender. For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

In my close to 30 years of industry experience I've seen it all, from toxic leaders to incredible leaders that inspire and motivate high-performance teams. At the end of this video, I'm going to share with you a great example of a positive leader, and expect that every video that I share with you over the next few weeks and onwards, I'm going to highlight one amazing leader in each of those videos. For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management. So why is curiosity so important and vital as a leadership characteristic? Well, set aside all the incredible technology developments and advances over the number of years, as an example, we wouldn't have music on our smartphone without curiosity. We wouldn't have Google Maps or mapping technology if it wasn't for curiosity, and asking what more we could do with E911 technology that came out in the early 2000s. In my close to 30 years of experience, I've seen companies succeed because of their curiosity. I've seen companies, of course, implode, because they failed to ask the question why. With all this great innovation and all this great change, what are the five characteristics of leaders who express their curiosity? The first is that they are highly engaged, present or in the moment, and aware of their surroundings, aware of their employees and their input, aware of their customers, and aware, of course, of the competitive environment. Number two is they're always looking for new and better solutions. They want to challenge their organization and they want to challenge themselves to be better on a consistent basis. Number three is that they value other opinions and experiences. They recognize the importance of having a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences because it can only make the company better by bringing in a whole variety of different ideas and perspectives. Number four is that they know and recognize that they aren't perfect. They don't need yes-men and yes-women around them to just simply agree with their perspective or what they think might be right. They want to be challenged, and they want to look forward with differences and a different perspective to ensure that they're always on and always innovating. And then number five is that they actually have a vision. They set the horizon for their company, for their team, and perhaps even for society. Just think of Elon Musk and Bezos, over at Amazon, who both have their own sets of vision for space exploration, but they're really setting an amazing horizon, no pun intended, for what might be possible. So how do you go about expressing your curiosity? Well, there's no doubt, you don't have to be a billionaire to be curious. So really what you have to be able to do is not simply accept the status quo. If you're sitting in your cube or you're sitting in an open-air environment within your office, don't accept the status quo. But it's easier than that. You have to always be asking six core questions. Whether it's in a meeting, whether it's with a customer, whether it's in the outside environment trying to understand the competitive space. And these six simple questions are more than just why. It's who?, what?, when?, where?, why? and how?. And so all a tip of the hat to Simon Sinek and the why component, but again you have to ask more than just why to be able to express your curiosity, to be able to innovate, to be able to challenge, and to be able to ensure that you're not just following the status quo. Thanks for staying until the end of this video, and as promised, I want to share with you a great example of positive leadership. Now many of you are likely following the NBA Finals, and whether you're a Golden State fan or you're a Toronto Raptor fan, or somewhere in between, I think you would all agree that Kawhi Leonard is an incredible, positive example of a leader, both on the court and off the court, and how he commands himself with the media. And one of the most incredible aspects of what he's been communicating is that he doesn't want to play hero basketball. He's not about trying to generate more fans. He just wants to set the tone, play basketball, and win. Thanks again for following The Defender, and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and like, comment and share below. And if you have any great examples of where you've expressed your curiosity, make sure to comment them below. I'd love to hear from you.

6 Steps for Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence (transcript below) . Produced by Dreamline Digital Limited (https://www.dreamlinedigital.com) ----------------------------------------------------- What are the four components of Emotional Intelligence? Well, the first is self-awareness. Understanding and recognizing what you think, why you think the way you do, and then why you behave in the fashion that you do. The second is self-management. Understanding your impulses, why you react and why you respond in certain ways in certain situations, whether it's a conflict situation, a positive situation or simply leading an organization. The next is social awareness and this is the underpinning of Emotional Intelligence with a key characteristic of empathy, the ability to be able to put yourself in another person's perspective, in another person's situation, appreciate where they're coming from and be able to respond in a much more holistic and a much more well-rounded fashion. And the fourth component of Emotional Intelligence is relationship management. The importance and the focus in on conflict resolution, and now be able to focus individuals on a common objective and being able to accomplish incredible tasks and those objectives. Those leaders who strive to maintain a high level of Emotional Intelligence recognize that the organization, the team and the company is less about them and more about the team and more about the team success. There's also a greater connection to the things that matter to the business, like your customers. Leaders of high Emotional Intelligence also recognize and see improved communications up and down the organization. The team understands what you stand for and they understand what direction you want to take the organization. And then finally, one of the most important components and benefits is that those leaders with a high EI are able to inspire, motivate, and critically provide a balanced approach to the business, ensuring that you are on a stable ground in terms of your direction. And people really do rally around individuals and leaders with the ability to drive stability, but at the same time growth, inspiration and enthusiasm. So what are the six steps to boosting your EI? The first is reflect on your own emotions. Be self-aware, recognize within yourself what you stand for, what drives you, what challenges you, and then ultimately recognize that how you behave impacts and influences everyone around you. The second is to ask others for perspective. Now, this might be a little bit difficult because you're looking for objectivity, but I can tell you that that is one of the most important steps, because those around you are able to identify your quirks, your challenges, they're being able to identify as well to give you impetus for self-improvement, for growth and for understanding. The third is to be observant. Now, many of you have heard me also suggest it's very important to check your ego at the door. Recognize again that the boardroom, your team, the organization or the company, it's not about you, it's about the team, it's about your customer, it's about your combined success. I would layer into that the all important aspect of empathy, the ability to put yourself at other people's shoes, to be able to understand the challenges that they're facing, what they're encountering in life, what inspires them, what motivates them, so that you can be better able to respond and support them in kind. The next, fourth most important component is to use what I call the pause, and this is a key component of listening and that is taking the time to think before you speak. Don't just react. Think about what you're going to share, what observations you're going to hold, and what you're going to contribute to the conversation and to the team around you. The fifth is, and this is really important as well, is don't entertain gossip. This takes you down a rat's nest that you don't need to be able to go down. The fact is you're a leader, you don't need to entertain gossip and get engaged in negative conversation and negative discussion about your team and the people within your organization. The last, sixth component, is curiosity. Be genuinely curious about individuals on your team, be curious about their lives, be curious about the organization, what their job is all about, and what they're looking to be able to accomplish. By asking great questions, you'll be in a much better position to understand those around you again, and to be able to guide them accordingly as you're looking to be able to accomplish your objectives together. On your journey to boosting your Emotional Quotient, which components do you most connect with and what components do you see yourself working on? For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

Can leaders of organizations, regions and teams have a positive impact on public policy? . For more from The Defender: https://lnkd.in/eTAuB6r . #changeleadership #publicpolicy #policy #makingadifference #leadership For educators, HR, Training and Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

So the first is do you err more on the side of driving profit versus purpose and values or are you somewhere in the middle? Personally, I led one of the most profitable organizations, but at the same time we had a great set of values and we had a common set of objectives or purpose. The second is to really focus and identify whether you are more about establishing hierarchies versus a network of teams. And again for me, I fell somewhere in between, where we had a set established leadership structure but at the same time we highly valued a high performance team environment. Are you more of a directive or supportive leader, or are you directive versus supportive? I've actually found that I fall somewhere in the middle, where I am actually a participative leader. Participative leader means that you actually appreciate and enjoy a whole set of different inputs, perspectives and objectives from the team around you, but ultimately you're not about consensus driving. You actually like to be able to make decisions based on fact, based on input and your firm and your resolve and your direction. Are you focused in on having that strength and that risk aversion where you plan and you predict, versus experimenting and adapting? Personally, what I found as well, was that I was able to establish an environment that was highly data-driven, but we also allowed for ourselves to be able to be really creative and to drive innovation and change into the organization because you know what? We actually had a really good idea as to what we're facing because of the data, because of the data-centric perspective that we had. Are you more about rules and control for protecting the company, for ensuring that you are abiding by all of the rules and have sort of set practices and standards, or are you more open to establishing trust and using that trust for guidance and really placing that emphasis and importance on the employees and your team around you so they'll do the right thing? Personally, I've found that I've erred more on that trust side. I really do believe it's important to be able to provide that guidance into the organization, but believe the employees in your team are going to do the best that they can do because they know what they're trying to accomplish. Are you more about centralized decision making or distributed decision making? A lot of companies find this when they're trying to revolve around headquarters versus maybe some of their satellite organizations, and a lot of companies kind of get caught up in this, wanting to be able to drive from central control. Again, quite frankly from my perspective, what I've found really works is a combination of some central guidance from an overarching perspective on what the corporate objectives are of course, but then really allowing your satellite offices and your regional offices to be able to make decisions independently and with a sense of empowerment. Are you more about the inner circle or the dome of silence, or are you more about providing context and direction into your organization? And personally, again, as many of you know, I'm really about providing context, guidance and direction so that the team knows what they're trying to accomplish. Once you've identified these various characteristics and you have a good sense of what your values are and where you stand from a leadership perspective, now you can start to encapsulate those in some keywords and key direction. I'll tell you what, one of the most important things I've done as well in establishing my leadership philosophy, is to identify that I am a supportive leader and that I am a participative leader, with the recognition that there are both quantitative and qualitative objectives, which I've actually talked about in the past about objective setting. Now is the time to be able to establish 3 to 4 keywords that actually identify your leadership philosophy. From my perspective, I established three keywords to identify my leadership philosophy. The 1st was to create, the 2nd was to contribute and the 3rd was to collaborate. I utilize these keywords to be able to identify what I stood for from a philosophical perspective, and I actually injected those words and those terms throughout my communication back into my team in the organization, whether it was through town halls, fireside chats, direct communication back into the organization. I wrapped those key philosophical elements back into what I was communicating and what I wanted to try and accomplish as a company. At the end of the day, what the team knew was that they had a participative leader leading the organization, who was focused on quantitative and qualitative objectives, but while wrapping in key values and key principles to help underpin that leadership philosophy. For educators, HR, Training & Development, this video will help guide your prospective leaders in leadership skills, leadership qualities, leadership styles, leadership vs management.

Finding the right ingredients for establishing a productive strategic partnership in the domestic environment can be tough enough as it is and many a company have struggled. . Successfully establishing a strategic partnership on an international scale takes a) a Win/Win approach b) the interest in truly listening to the other party c) respect (across a variety of dynamics) d) check your ego at the door e) a focus on establishing mutually beneficial objectives and guidelines for engagement Successful partnerships are those that endure for the long term and assist the parties in meeting (and often exceeding) their expectations. Share your experiences in building international strategic partnerships. Others in our network will benefit from your insights and perspective. And remember, “What works in Denver doesn’t always work in Delhi “. There is a wonderful world out there and your ability to adapt and adjust, will make all the difference. #cybersecurity

Establishing a strategic partnership starts/stops with the people "at the table". . Success comes from the recognition that it is important to establish a collaborative working environment and trust BEFORE the terms of a partnership agreement are negotiated. . Without the "right people at the table", there is high likelihood that you will miss the importance and key success factors of: a) establishing executive sponsorship and support b) identifying mutual objectives and/or complementary goals c) solidifying baseline expectations for the operating environment (post go-live) including how to manage conflict d) maintaining a positive and active focus on the partnership As a leader, if you follow these steps, you and your team will be in a much stronger position to ensure the long term success of the partnership you have established. For a great example of a strategic partnership, click the link in the comments below.

When only 1 in 10 business leaders share that they believe that their current cybersecurity measures meet their immediate needs, it makes you wonder what the future holds. . 55% of executives shared with Ernest & Young that they don't take cybersecurity into account when considering their business strategy. . If this is the case, what is a leader to do? Per HBR, "Cybersecurity is Every Executive's Job". This means that change is necessary; else you will let down your customers, shareholders, stakeholders and business. . Watch this video and learn more about the importance of cybersecurity to your business and to you as a leader.