TheDefender2021

Today we celebrate Roh Singh and his skill in LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. . Roh is an author, speaker, guide and mentor to those on their path to developing their best selves. Check out his book Rise Warrior Rise and ExcelerateYou; Roh’s digital wellbeing and performance platform. . While we are all on different paths in our careers and businesses, we look to leaders for guidance and advice. Please like, comment and share your experiences with other GREAT leaders within your network. . 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. LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE is one of the most important skills. . Join me the remainder week of the week in learning more about Roh, Keith, Marti and other great leaders. With all the emphasis on what leaders aren’t doing, it’s time we focus on what leaders are doing well right within our networks. . @rohileshsingh #thedefender

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.

How do you lead during times of crisis and challenge? . What characteristics do you observe in leaders during tough times? Do they stick their heads in the sand and hope it goes away or are they on the frontlines? . If you have observed great leadership during times of significant challenge, comment below. Others would love to hear from you! . #greatleadership #thedefender

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

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

Do your meetings have a purpose? . Are you meeting for the sake of meeting? . How you manage meetings directly relates to your leadership skills and characteristics. . What were some of the best managed meetings you attended? Why? The worst? Share below! . #thedefender #leadership #businessleadership #leadershiptraits #bestmanaged

As CISOs, risk management professionals and MNO retail and enterprise executives, you invest $ and dedicate significant time to planning for major disruptions, and those plans are never as realistic as we would like. Remember, the satisfaction of our customers needs to be at the core of everything we do and wrapped into your plans. . In this video, you will learn about the challenges and opportunities related to: - Channel Mix Irreversibly Changed - People & Skills Requirements Shift - Fraud & Security Attacks Escalate - Consumer Behavioral Change - Government Regulations We all hope that the COVID-19 situation is a once in a lifetime event (never to be repeated), but it is also a wake-up call for continual improvement. . The key, in times like this, is to adapt quickly. CISOs, MNO executives, risk management professionals, etc should consider what’s working well now, what could be better, and build their plans accordingly. #thedefender #learning

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.

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.

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.

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.

For leaders, how they provide feedback can mean the difference between action and inaction . Many managers and aspirational leaders have no clue about the importance of providing constructive feedback . As with many leadership characteristics, mediocre managers and “leaders” have learned from those around them and/or their immediate boss. In most cases, the immediate boss is not equipped to provide proper coaching and guidance. . They’ve never been trained in what it takes to LEAD . #thedefender #leadershipskills

Eliminate micromanagement and 4x your employee engagement #engagement #leadership #purpose #managementstyle #managingpeople

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

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

How do you facilitate or enable change? . Are you an agent of the status quo or an agent of change? . If you are an agent of change, how do you celebrate success? Comment below #thedefender #greatleadership #positiveleadership #effectiveleadership

Do you seek to build an adaptable team or do you prefer surrounding yourself with likeminded people? . Adaptable teams perform better overall but are particularly notable in times of need and crisis . What are some of the characteristics of adaptable teams? Why did they make such a difference? . #thedefender #leadership #leadershiptraits #teamperformance

As a leader, how do you manage through stress? . How do you maintain your perspective and your focus? . Share your approach(es) in the comments below. For me, I like to train for half-marathons - this helps to center me and recognize what is important in mind and in body . #leadership #thedefender #leadershiptraits #businessleadership #positiveleadership

The benefits of establishing a BHAG and why only 4 in 10 companies actually set the goalposts. Learn: ✅ Why establishing a BHAG aligns the org ✅ Why it is important to not be one of the 6 in 10 companies without a BHAG ✅ Companies with a BHAG and a great leadership team are well worth the investment #leadership #bhag #greatleadership #purpose

How do you manage interaction with your direct reports? . Do you meet weekly? Do you meet daily or do you meet at all (exchanging texts and emails)? . Now more than ever, your team needs you and your leadership. Meet 1:1 for best results! . #thedefender #greatleadership #positiveleadership #managementstyle

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.

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

Today we celebrate Francois Mahieu and his leadership skill in GUIDING GLOBAL TEAMS. . This week, we've celebrated 5 GREAT leaders including Marti Konstant, Roh Singh, Craig McLennan, Keith Fuentes and today Francois Mahieu. With all the emphasis on what leaders aren’t doing, it’s time we focus on what leaders are doing well right within our networks. . While we are all on different paths in our careers and businesses, we look to leaders for guidance and advice. Francois has set the mark for leading GLOBAL TEAMS. Accomplishing this is not easy; it takes purpose, lots of coordination, a belief in the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and an emphasis on diversity of thought, experiences and background. . 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. BUILDING GLOBAL TEAMS is one of important skills. . Please like, comment and share your experiences with other GREAT leaders within your network. #thedefender

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

Shattering the Glass Ceiling from The Defender. Tag someone in this video who has demonstrated the courage to lead not simply to manage (and go through the motions).