Latest / Authentic Living / Developing Leadership Skills for Managers with Tom Lawrence
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:11And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:27So
- 0:35Tom.
- 0:36Welcome to Authentic Living with Roxanne.
- 0:38Thanks so much for taking your time today.
- 0:41Oh, thank you.
- 0:41Thank you for having me.
- 0:43Most welcome.
- 0:44So Tom focuses on leadership, but, more from the perspective of an emerging leader and
- 0:51someone, that's either maybe been frontline and there's be developing, leadership skills
- 0:57wanting to develop leadership skills, or is already an aspiring leader in wants to get
- 1:02better.
- 1:03I and I would say that that organizationally is probably one of the toughest, areas in
- 1:11organizations for middle managers because we rely so heavily on them.
- 1:15So, Tom, tell us a little bit about, kind of what got you on this trajectory to to help
- 1:23senior managers, get better leadership.
- 1:26Tell us a little bit about your story.
- 1:28And, well, I've been in in in a leadership position, like I saw the middle management
- 1:32leadership position myself since 2009.
- 1:36I've been with them in the Raven industry since 2005.
- 1:40And I've worked with a lot of different managers from different parts of the United
- 1:45Kingdom.
- 1:45So I worked in Liverpool in Scotland, in Edinburgh and Glasgow and also now in London
- 1:51for 6 years, And the middle management level is where I've sort of been at for the last sort
- 1:56of, maybe 10 to 12 years.
- 1:59And what I've seen is it's not when when a lot of managers, when they get to sort of
- 2:06meditation level, they think that that's it.
- 2:10That's what makes them a leader.
- 2:11When, yeah, they don't need any more leadership training or any more leadership skills when
- 2:15actually, no, when you get to the management and supervisory level, that's the beginning.
- 2:20That's when you should start your leadership training and your leadership developments and
- 2:23your leadership journey.
- 2:24It's not the end.
- 2:25It's the beginning.
- 2:26And I've seen it too too often with with with middle managers is that they don't have
- 2:31leadership skills that service their people.
- 2:36They don't they don't think saving their people is what leadership is about.
- 2:39They think it's still the way around, whereas, like, the people should be serving them the
- 2:43leader.
- 2:45And in especially within the engineering industry, part of the of the rail industry I'm
- 2:51from.
- 2:53It's very much male dominated industry, and and it's very they cater this to leadership style
- 3:01leadership rather than, you know, service provided leadership.
- 3:06So the the reason that I wrote a book is to try and help these type, these these levels of
- 3:11leaders or managers to change the way of thinking, to basically lead their people better
- 3:19and treat their people better to realize that is that it is actually their responsibility to
- 3:26grow and develop their people.
- 3:28It's not talk of responsibility of the team to save them, if you know what I mean.
- 3:33Do you think it's because the industry that you're in, Tom, is a very technical I would say
- 3:40some elements of in engineering, and I've worked in my consulting role on the
- 3:45psychological ends with the engineering firms.
- 3:48That it's because there's they're technically driven.
- 3:51It's kind of, you know, not that you don't need people's skills.
- 3:55You absolutely do, but your go to or maybe the people that are attracted or fitted to those
- 4:01organizations are more what I would say probably left brainers, less likely to be as
- 4:07connected to the soft skills of communication.
- 4:09Would you say that's a fair, kind of, statements about, engine engineering or
- 4:15engineering kind of environments?
- 4:17Yeah.
- 4:18Definitely.
- 4:18What normally happens is you have your team of engineers, and then you have, like, say, your
- 4:24best engineer and what usually happens with your engineers, he or she is the one who gets
- 4:29promoted to the manager's job when it becomes available.
- 4:33But the difference is being an engineer and being a being a manager in a leader, a
- 4:37completely different, you know, because you're the best engineer, that doesn't make you double
- 4:42make you the best leader or best manager because when you get to management level or
- 4:46leadership level, your business isn't engineered anymore.
- 4:49It's people.
- 4:50You're in the peaks.
- 4:51You know, you're not in engineered anymore.
- 4:54Your your your business is about people, and it's the same in any industry.
- 4:59Like, you could be in the fashion industry.
- 5:01You could be, you know, brilliance of making clothes.
- 5:03Yes.
- 5:03But if you get promoted to a leadership role, then your job isn't making clothes anymore,
- 5:08it's about people.
- 5:09And that's what managers don't don't sort of take on board is that their priority is still,
- 5:16you know, getting the the job done, getting the the results at the end of the month for getting
- 5:22the business growth or or something like that.
- 5:25Wouldn't actually know.
- 5:25Your job is people growth.
- 5:27It's, you know, people development.
- 5:29It's you know, developing new leaders as your role.
- 5:33It's not about getting the job done anymore, but that's what these managers, they don't sort
- 5:37of grasp that when they take on the new role
- 5:40So they don't delineate what happens, unfortunately, in most firms, and I would say,
- 5:46regardless of skill, they look at who's who's kind of done well on projects, for instance, in
- 5:51engineering or, different kinds of environments, but sometimes those people they'd
- 5:56be good at the actual technical skill of the job, but they're not they have limited capacity
- 6:03and sometimes limited ability, and we could talk more about that to be able to connect with
- 6:07people.
- 6:08And what what we know with leadership is you know, we wanna be led, all of us, regardless.
- 6:14Right?
- 6:14We spend so much time.
- 6:16You know, maybe we used to be able to stay at work versus home, but we're even if we're We're
- 6:20still working a lot, and we wanna be connected to the people that we work with.
- 6:24But if we have a leader that is disconnected, oftentimes, I think you get I would say it's
- 6:30probably 65 to 75 percent productivity with someone just because they have the scale, but
- 6:35if they're connected, you do get higher, levels of productivity apps absolutely.
- 6:40Would you agree with that?
- 6:41Yeah.
- 6:42Definitely.
- 6:42I mean, if you're I mean, there's a difference between, you know, following a manager on a
- 6:47leader.
- 6:48You you you follow a manager because you have to, you know, he or she is in the management
- 6:52position, and you have to follow them because, you know, that's how you get paid at the end of
- 6:57the month, so that's how you, you know, keep your job.
- 7:00But with a leader, you follow a leader because you want to there's a huge difference between
- 7:05having to follow with either and wanting to.
- 7:06Now, when you want to follow with either you're following a role model, you're following
- 7:11someone you aspire to to be someone who you aspire to maybe replace their position one day
- 7:17because you want that you you want to have the same influence on your your people as they're
- 7:24having on you, you know, so so that they're they're inspiring you to to become a better
- 7:29person.
- 7:29It's not just all being good at the job or become better at the job, but it's all living a
- 7:34better life.
- 7:34It's all, you know, because as you as you just well said before, you know, there isn't there
- 7:41there's, you know, the professional life and personal life, both if in your prefer
- 7:46professional life, if you're having a bad day, interferes and interacts and influences your
- 7:51personal life.
- 7:52Cause if you have a bad day at work because you have a running with your boss, so You have a, a
- 7:57poor experience with your boss.
- 7:59When you go home, you know, you don't just flip a switch and, you know, it all you're you're
- 8:04totally happy again.
- 8:05You still gonna be on the back of your mind.
- 8:06You're still gonna be thinking about it.
- 8:08So it does in, you know, it it will influence your behavior at home.
- 8:13So that's the to lead the ship in the job, it goes far beyond the job.
- 8:18So that that's what my my board manages the leaders about is.
- 8:22Going beyond the position.
- 8:24It's about, you know, how how you sort of not just develop your people to be better at the
- 8:29job, but to live better lives,
- 8:32So, you talk a lot about influence and I I wanna ask you two questions.
- 8:35First of all, you you I think you articulated it, but I wanted you to kind of So a manager,
- 8:41what is the difference between a manager and a leader and the skills associated with a manager
- 8:45versus a leader?
- 8:47Well, a manager manages, like, processes, policies, procedures, admin things, you know,
- 8:55you know, like, they manage things, like, manage time.
- 8:58You manage, you know, sort of material things where there's lead that a lead that influences
- 9:06and leads people.
- 9:07The the difference between a manager and a lead that is people and things.
- 9:12So I think because you in the workplace, you do you you hear a lot about, you know, people
- 9:17managers managing people.
- 9:19Know, you don't manage people.
- 9:20That's what creates toxic cultures.
- 9:23That's what creates, you know, or performance in teams because you people are being managed
- 9:30rather than led and inspired and motivated.
- 9:33So that's the difference one one person influences and leads people and one manages and
- 9:39manages processes, things, and policies, and procedures.
- 9:43So I see the difference between management and leadership.
- 9:46Oh, absolutely.
- 9:47And I think, that's that really makes sense, right, because I think, unfortunately, and when
- 9:52we talk about micromanaging, that whole concept comes up, right?
- 9:56Like, who wants to be micromanaged?
- 9:58Like, I'm a, you know, a psychotherapist.
- 10:00I was a you know, an executive for years, and I managed, you know, quite a big portfolio.
- 10:05But oftentimes, I would get micromanage by, my senior leadership team based on my portfolio.
- 10:11And I'd be like, okay.
- 10:13Well, you hired me for this capacity.
- 10:15Obviously, I'm bringing the skill set But then you're still micromanaging me, which was a
- 10:19really, really good way to demotivate me because, you know, I didn't feel good about the
- 10:23management I was having.
- 10:25But the leaders that were in aspiring to me or influential to your point with your book.
- 10:30Those are the ones, I wanted to work really, really hard for because regarding I knew what I
- 10:35was doing But because I wanted to make sure that they, were happy with my performance and,
- 10:42my relationship with with them was important Tom, I worked that much harder.
- 10:47Exactly.
- 10:49That's the difference.
- 10:50It's like, when when you're inspired by by a lead, that you do, you wanna weigh your best
- 10:54for and you wanna give your best.
- 10:56But it's when you micromanaged.
- 10:57I mean, I've been micromanaged numerous times by different managers and and the biggest thing
- 11:04that I feel when I feel micromanaged is they don't trust me to do the job.
- 11:08They're on my back because because of a lack of trust.
- 11:11It's like, well, what is what is it that I've done that's made you not trust me?
- 11:16You know, why do they not bring that up with me?
- 11:20Instead of doing
- 11:20So if you've not had a performance issue, it's not it's it's not related to performance.
- 11:26Where is this lack of trust coming from?
- 11:28Right?
- 11:28Like, I mean, hard.
- 11:30I I remember in different environments for myself.
- 11:32I've also, you know, been a leader in in various roles, and I was really aware that what
- 11:38people needed to know is that they needed to experience me as a person.
- 11:42You know, not that they need to know all the nuances of me, but if they could relate to me,
- 11:47then we were able to kind of connect and then jobs got done.
- 11:51If someone was disconnected, you could see the difference.
- 11:54Almost, it's almost like a bit of a pull in pull and tug, you know, to kind of, you know,
- 11:58create that energy to have a workflow kind of, seamless.
- 12:03Whereas if I was connected to someone, it was it was quite easy to do.
- 12:07Yeah.
- 12:07Exactly.
- 12:08And when when I say, like, no lack of trust, I mean, the reason that the that people micro
- 12:14manage as well, or one of the main reasons people micro manage is because they're insecure
- 12:18within themselves.
- 12:19They don't trust themselves, you know, they don't trust themselves to give their power
- 12:23away, you know, so like, I mean, that's what empower means is to give your power away.
- 12:28So if you if you can't trust yourself to give your power to someone else, then that's where
- 12:33the micromanagement comes from because you're not, you know, you're not sort of letting your
- 12:39pass, letting your team, perform because of your own lack of ability or or your own lack of
- 12:45self belief or your own lack of trust within yourself.
- 12:50Absolutely.
- 12:50And, you know, my new book, which is coming out not too long from now, Tom, probably about 2
- 12:55months.
- 12:55It it's, you know, we it's about, you know, authentic heart leadership.
- 12:59Right?
- 12:59Because really if we look at it and if we look at someone that's aware, you know, why did you
- 13:04get into leading?
- 13:05What's your what's your story?
- 13:06What values do you bring?
- 13:08If I know that and I bring that to the to the environment, I'm bringing my whole self.
- 13:13But if I kind of, to your point, I'm, you know, unable to let go of control or have fears
- 13:20within myself that translates out into how I connect with others and then in turn how I
- 13:25lead.
- 13:26So, you know, so that's such a vital vital thing for that awareness for people that, like
- 13:32you said, people that want to lead, right, where and and be influential, if if I trust you
- 13:38and I like what I see, I'm gonna follow you.
- 13:41But if I'm kind of uncertain, I'm gonna be thinking, no, I'm not so sure I'm gonna do
- 13:45this.
- 13:46Right?
- 13:46Yeah.
- 13:47Exactly.
- 13:47I'm people who who follow managers because they have to.
- 13:52What you what you know, what you see in the workplace, so what I've seen is people will
- 13:56give the minimal effort that they can just to get the job
- 14:00done.
- 14:00Absolutely.
- 14:01Just to get to the end of the 8 hours of the day and then and go home.
- 14:04Getting through a day.
- 14:06Yeah.
- 14:06I
- 14:06hear that.
- 14:07I hear how I'm just gonna get through the day.
- 14:09I'm gonna get through the quarter.
- 14:10I'm gonna do what I gotta do.
- 14:12Now let's talk a little bit about, this time, right, because, you know, we're talking about
- 14:17trust.
- 14:18Right?
- 14:18And I, you know, maybe maybe in London where you are, different environments here in North
- 14:26America had to, quote, unquote, pivot and go virtual.
- 14:29Right?
- 14:29So here you go from what what I would call in my time in corporate FaceTime, which meant I
- 14:35know what you're up to, to other than Zoom or teams or whatever, I now have to completely
- 14:45explicitly trust you in every way because now we're at home.
- 14:49So what did you find in the workplace around, companies being able to, I'm gonna use the word
- 14:57lean because I'm gonna say that a lot of them probably you managed?
- 15:00Well, at the very beginning, I'd say, when we went to lockdown in March slash, like, a year
- 15:06ago, at the very, very beginning, we were asked to put a daily plan together of everything that
- 15:12we were doing, like, absolutely every single and I I'm a I'm a leader of 9 people.
- 15:18So I was going I had to go to my team and say to them, you know, I need a plan from you every
- 15:23single day of what you're doing.
- 15:25I didn't want to sue myself.
- 15:26I did that.
- 15:26I mean, after the 1st week of that happening, I said to them, like, scrap the plans.
- 15:31I'm not doing this anymore.
- 15:33You could then put in a plan together every single day.
- 15:36We'll take them an hour a day.
- 15:38So that's an hour.
- 15:39Just just put in a planter that that no one needs But the reason that my leaders are asking
- 15:44for is because it as you say, that they were they were micro managers, and and they didn't
- 15:49trust us, but after a while, what I found was when I, you know, once I, spoke with these
- 15:55leaders and sort of, led led them in a way, I I I was sort of giving giving them the message
- 16:02that, you know, it the more you do this, the more people are gonna get upset about and the
- 16:08lack and and the and the the the less productivity you're gonna see, especially with
- 16:12with now we're all working from home, whereas, you know, the deception is productivity will go
- 16:17down.
- 16:18And in the beginning, it did.
- 16:20Oh, because, we have no choice now but to become leaders, what I found that my team was
- 16:28we we actually became better collaborators, better communicators, better connectors, and
- 16:34our productivity and our performance went up.
- 16:37And how I did that was, you know, I just had a a morning call with every single member of the
- 16:41team, just before the start of the day, just just I didn't say anything about the job or
- 16:46what they were doing during the day.
- 16:47It was just how are you?
- 16:49Do you have everything that you need?
- 16:51And is there anything that I can do for you today?
- 16:53And that was basically the whole conversation every single day, and I just let them know that
- 16:59the end of the call, if you need me today, just call me anytime.
- 17:03Don't email me, you know, just in case I'm not in the house or whatever.
- 17:07Just call me straight away, and I'll and I'll answer, you know, and and that's basically all
- 17:11all I did.
- 17:13And a lot of the other leaders within the organizations have same thing.
- 17:16I'm sort of followed our lead as followed our team's lead.
- 17:20We did, we should be sorting our productivity and our performance go up.
- 17:24Well, obviously, and I think, you know, if you think about the pandemic, everything was based
- 17:30on fear for real reason in lots of ways, because Europe, you guys were, you know, well
- 17:35ahead of us, and we're, like, looking at you going, oh, yeah.
- 17:37That's Europe.
- 17:38And then showing after it came not too long after with us.
- 17:42We start to see the vast amount of numbers.
- 17:45But initially, I think everybody was in panic, so they were all coming from a place of fear.
- 17:50Which is what what you're describing, Tom.
- 17:53And then, like, you know, at some point, I think people had to recalibrate and say, okay.
- 17:58We're all scared here.
- 18:00But how is it that we let you know, which is like you're talking about connection, which is
- 18:04what you did.
- 18:05Here, this is kinda cruddy for all of us.
- 18:07We're all in this together, how is it, you know, how is it that we can join and, you know,
- 18:13kind of figure out what we need to do to be able to start work again?
- 18:17But I think, unfortunately, there's other the companies that figured it out like you guys did
- 18:22and other companies that didn't get it.
- 18:24That missed the work.
- 18:26Right?
- 18:27Yeah.
- 18:27Exactly.
- 18:28I mean, you know, this was a massive up.
- 18:32I mean, you you look at this pandemic as a huge opportunity for us to improve on our leadership
- 18:37and to sort of take care of our people better, you know, to, treat them better.
- 18:43And and that's something how that's how we sold it.
- 18:45I mean, when we go when when this pandemic, you know, eventually does, you know, if it will
- 18:49ever come to an end, but, you know, if if we're all able to go back to the office again and go
- 18:53back to the way things wear.
- 18:55I mean, I don't want things to go back the way things wear.
- 18:58I want I want things to to to improve from where we are now.
- 19:02You know, I I want to have to wait the the collaboration, the the communication that we've
- 19:07got now, I want this to improve.
- 19:09You know, I I wanna still be, you know, following our team up, every day asking them
- 19:14how they are.
- 19:14If there's anything that they need from me, just make just letting them know that I'm here
- 19:17and I'm present for them.
- 19:19You know, even if it's, you know, if we're all in the same office again, then the way I'll do
- 19:24that is they just, you know, going over a person's desk, asking how they are.
- 19:28Whereas in beforehand, it was, you know, the only reason you were going to have heard or
- 19:33someone would come over to my desk was to see what was going on with the job.
- 19:37Right.
- 19:37So I think, you know, when I'm I've been out of corporate now for 10 years.
- 19:42And at the time that I left, it was still pretty much like that.
- 19:46In, in, you know, Toronto, Vancouver, lots of bigger nerve centers in that, you know, it was
- 19:53like, you have, you had these big you know, like you said, projects you're working on.
- 19:57You're having meetings that are specific to a goal.
- 20:00Right?
- 20:01There was no how you doing Roxanne.
- 20:03You know, how's the family and what's new, you know, in your neighborhood?
- 20:08But guess what?
- 20:08We've been flipped over the other way, and there's always been talked about that need for
- 20:12us to connect with people, but the pandemic, you know, I would think out of adversity, we've
- 20:18gained a lot of good things.
- 20:19And to your point, we shouldn't go back to the other way.
- 20:22We should bring all the learnings, even if we do kind of a hybrid model between virtual and
- 20:29in office again.
- 20:30And bring the skills that we've learned to communicate with us and this whole element of
- 20:36trust truly people have had to learn even if they had issues of trust prior to the pandemic.
- 20:43It had to learn how to figure out how to develop relatively quickly and and talk to
- 20:48their kind of shortcomings and develop the skill or say, look, I know I'm not very good at
- 20:53this, but I I've gotta figure it out.
- 20:55And at least they joined with peoples to be able to kind of work together.
- 20:59And, I mean, what you just said there, but, like, saying that, you know, I don't I'm I'm
- 21:03not used to this yet.
- 21:04You know, I'm I'm, you know, I'm I'm sort of still working on, you know, getting better at
- 21:09these, leadership or building trust and stuff like that, although, influencing the team.
- 21:15But if you if you're telling your team that, you know, You just wasn't making yourself
- 21:19vulnerable to the team.
- 21:21That shows the strength.
- 21:22You know what I mean?
- 21:23That's not that shows the strength to the team, and that that actually does build trust when
- 21:27you when you show your vulnerability to the team and they're saying that I don't know
- 21:31something or I need help, you know, the far more likely to help you, you know, whereas if
- 21:38you'd before, if you would imagine, I, as I say, within my industry, shown vulnerability or
- 21:44saying that you don't know something was a sign of weakness or was was was viewed upon as a
- 21:49sign of weakness when it's actually not.
- 21:50It's a sign of strength.
- 21:52Right?
- 21:53But I think it took this for us to, you know, we always said that in in in corporate sectors,
- 21:58but now what we're realizing, you know, is that If you want people to get creative and take
- 22:04chances, they have to we talk about, you know, filters when you succeed, but when we're
- 22:09already living that, I don't think so.
- 22:12And now we've been forced to because we've been feeling in lots of different ways through this
- 22:16pandemic.
- 22:17And now people have to know that it's okay to make mistakes so that they will take chances
- 22:22again.
- 22:23Yeah.
- 22:23Exactly.
- 22:24I mean, I mean, because as you say, like, it's very it was always written on your on your
- 22:30vision and values boards and and the in the in the big corporations that you see on big post
- 22:34you know, I, land from failure and all that stuff.
- 22:39What actually do you really land from failure?
- 22:41Are you allowed to land?
- 22:42You know, would you lead that or your manager?
- 22:44Allow you to fail.
- 22:46You know what?
- 22:46Absolutely.
- 22:47It's one thing to say it.
- 22:49It's it's another thing when you're actually feeling and the response that you get.
- 22:52And, unfortunately, what we with a lot of senior teams, a lot of people aren't being as
- 22:57creative because they are afraid to sit talk about their shortcomings, which in turn, that's
- 23:02a cycle.
- 23:03But if people are able to say, I just screwed that up, and, you know, okay, you know, I'm
- 23:08sharing with you and to get that acknowledgement, look, we're all human beings.
- 23:12We all make mistakes, but allow people that space so that they can just go on and then some
- 23:18of the most creative things come out of, people recognizing from mistakes, right?
- 23:23But if you're kind of consistently stifling people, then how do they develop that, you
- 23:28know, that capacity?
- 23:29If you're not allowed to fail and and and then when you do, think, oh, no.
- 23:34What's gonna happen now?
- 23:35You know, you you're not gonna learn.
- 23:37You're you're not gonna see that as an opportunity to to learn, you you're gonna
- 23:43either, you know, make it as an excuse to give up, or you're just gonna do nothing.
- 23:48You're just gonna stay exactly where you are with us.
- 23:51I'm just saying that making mistakes and and and and failing at something is is an
- 23:55opportunity to get better at it.
- 23:57You know, like in anything, but as you say, if you if your leader is not allowing you to do
- 24:02that, then that's where that fear comes from, the fear factor of of of failure.
- 24:06So let's talk a little bit about let's say I'm I've just been kind of promoted, I'm a big
- 24:14primary manager, and I maybe I have some skills, but I'm, yeah, I'm not so good at it.
- 24:20And I wanna get better.
- 24:21I wanna eventually kind of create a a path, to becoming a leader?
- 24:26What are some of the core fundamental steps that I should be taking or considering taking,
- 24:34Tom, to to to be be in the trajectory to become a leader.
- 24:38The best way I see as improving as a leader is you've got to work on yourself every single
- 24:44day.
- 24:44You know, you've got to work even if it's just a small thing or or know, read books, read
- 24:50leadership books, you know, watch, leadership videos on YouTube, attend online courses, you
- 24:58know, you can you can look at 3 online courses.
- 25:01You can see you can pay the online courses.
- 25:04Seminars, webinars, you do all that you can to develop yourself as a leader.
- 25:10Oh, and then once you've got that knowledge, The the only thing you can do then is practice.
- 25:16As you say, practice makes perfect.
- 25:18And, you know, you you don't become a leader by reading books all day.
- 25:23Or you can gain the knowledge and then, when you go to the workplace or or even when you're
- 25:28at home, you know, if you've got a family and you got, you know, you wife or a husband and
- 25:32you have you have children, you can practice leadership skills with your children because at
- 25:36the end of the day, you're your children's leader.
- 25:39You know, there's no difference between being a manager of a team of 9 people or being a father
- 25:44of 4 boy 4 boys or 4 girls.
- 25:47You know what I mean?
- 25:48The only thing you can do is is gain the knowledge, but then use that knowledge and and
- 25:53practice it and and put it into practice because a lot of companies don't I mean,
- 25:58there's a lot of companies that do do leadership development, but they only do it for
- 26:02certain people or certain level.
- 26:04They don't do it for everybody whereas leadership development should be absolutely
- 26:09everybody in the company because, you know, a leader's leadership is not a title.
- 26:14It's not a position.
- 26:15It's not a, you know, a a a right sort or, and it's like that, a leadership, everybody in the
- 26:21world can become a leader.
- 26:23We've all got the ability to influence So, therefore, we've all got the ability to lead.
- 26:27So and and the the best way to do it is to develop yourself and I should say is just to,
- 26:33by part of that development, it's important to practice what you learn.
- 26:37I'm just trying to it's interesting you say that, right, because, with a lot of my research
- 26:41for my book, I, the most connected authentic leaders that I interviewed for the book.
- 26:48What they said is there's no difference for me at home or at work.
- 26:52And that sometimes when they were training or or trying to get better at scale, they would
- 26:57ask their child that maybe they had the most kind of, contentious relationship with, you
- 27:04know, what is it that they did well?
- 27:06What don't they do well?
- 27:07What could they get better at?
- 27:09And what what helped them, you know, to evolve the relationship with that child sometimes
- 27:13becomes a template for them to think about we have we don't have employees that we go along
- 27:18with famously because we just have are in sync, but it helped them to grow with the with the
- 27:22employees that they had sometimes had a different kind of interaction with.
- 27:27So you're so right.
- 27:28We're all we all lead, right, whether it's in our home or community, you know, wherever we
- 27:34go, we are leading.
- 27:35And if we understand ourselves and what we, you know, and we know what what we want to how we
- 27:41want to be led as well.
- 27:42Then you're able to kind of, you know, think if I need that, why doesn't everybody else around
- 27:47me need it?
- 27:47So I think it's, that's a great point.
- 27:49We are leading I say for I always say from the time we open our eyes in some capacity till we
- 27:55close them again, we're leading in different roles in our life throughout
- 27:58Yeah.
- 27:59Definitely.
- 27:59And and that's why, as I say, everybody in in the workplace needs leadership departments and
- 28:04and personal growth.
- 28:07Help with their own medicinal growth because that's what a leader.
- 28:09That's what a leader does is is the it's their responsibility to grow and develop their
- 28:13people.
- 28:14And the best way to do that is to help your your team grow and help your team develop.
- 28:20You know, they've they've got to most of it by themselves or as the leader, you know, it's
- 28:25it's it's your responsibility to help them and make sure that, you know, they're on the right
- 28:29path and that they have everything they need and you know, and, and that you're, you know,
- 28:33you're offering your service to them.
- 28:35That's exactly what leadership is.
- 28:36It's an active service.
- 28:37It's it's you know, it's not a a right for for you to be served by others.
- 28:42It's for you to to save others.
- 28:45With with them, I mean, with your own personal growth, I'll say to to become a better leader
- 28:49is to develop yourself, but also have that leader or that for that role model you can
- 28:55aspire to be.
- 28:56Or, or, you know, some or one day replace?
- 29:01So this is already fascinating.
- 29:04Sure you have a lot of people that are thinking mobile.
- 29:07I'm managing all the time.
- 29:08I wanna be a better leader.
- 29:11Or you're probably having even leaders recognizing that maybe how they're stifling
- 29:15some of their managers that maybe can evolve.
- 29:18So where is it that people can get a hold of the book, first of all, or even if people are
- 29:24ever wanting to coach or, have you, connect with them to help them out.
- 29:30Where tell everyone where they can meet you, Tom.
- 29:32I would you can go to my website.
- 29:34It's called highly effective leader.com.
- 29:38And you've there's all my there's all my particles.
- 29:41There's, all my materials on there.
- 29:44I've got an on I've got one online course called the growth mindset for leaders, but I'm
- 29:49actually I'm in the middle of, developing another 11 online courses So within the next
- 29:55sort of form, 4 to 5 months, I'll have 12 online courses uploaded.
- 29:59You can get the book from Amazon.
- 30:02Called manager to leader and the subtitle of the book is how to become a highly effective
- 30:06leader.
- 30:08And you can know that you can you can get get that from Amazon as a or you or you can go to,
- 30:14a site called inbox to read.com.
- 30:17That's box with a number 2.
- 30:19Read.com.
- 30:20You can get it there if you if you want an ebook.
- 30:23And you can you can you can find me on LinkedIn.
- 30:26I'm a a Tom Lawrence on LinkedIn.
- 30:29And my YouTube channel is called Leadership And Growth.
- 30:33At the moment, there's about 39, videos on Leadership personal growth and influence.
- 30:40And I'll be putting out more videos soon once I've completed my online courses.
- 30:45Awesome.
- 30:46Well, I'm sure they'll be able to find you.
- 30:49So so what did I learn today?
- 30:51I, you know, I learned that, you know, with me talking leadership all the time that we should
- 30:58not expect anything from others we're not able to have within ourselves.
- 31:01So as, if you are a leader, and you know that there's gaps or blind spots that you have.
- 31:11You know, focus on what you need to to be better at those things and your best audience
- 31:15are the people around you.
- 31:17And if you know things aren't going well with an interaction, have the capacity or try to
- 31:22develop the capacity to ask, the individuals around you, what is it they that they need
- 31:27different from you And then that's when you can go back, reflect, think about what you need
- 31:32develop and come come forward again.
- 31:34So, again, thanks so much, Tom, for coming on, for anyone wanting information, you can reach
- 31:41me at roxanderahodge.com.
- 31:43I speak on authentic leadership and teams.
- 31:46Okay?
- 31:47Take care.
- 31:47We'll talk to you soon.
- 31:50Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne.
- 31:53Create the roxanne Durgesh.com/blueprint.
- 32:07We'll see you next time.
- 32:08An authentic living with Roxanne.