LEADERSHIP: The difference between life and death

August 2010 it all became very real for me. Life itself became about today, this moment I have now. Not tomorrow, or when I am ready, nor the next budget period, or when we have the buy-in from everybody, but now.

I was lying there on the side of a mountain, my bike somewhere further down below with my head burst open. That Sunday morning I miraculously survived a terrible mountain bike accident. That Sunday morning it should have been my last day, my last memory, my last breath.

"REGRETS" .....well there would have been heaps of them. No one's fault but my own. My own choice to think that I am, like we all do, invincible. We live like we are guaranteed a tomorrow. We live like we are guaranteed a next moment with a loved one, that the argument we had earlier can be dealt with 'tomorrow'.

I have learned a lot over the last 8 years and I have been blessed to get involved with many people and companies on many different platforms. All with the purpose to help them be more successful, more fulfilled, and more engaged in their lives at all levels. Helping their executive teams to be more united and stronger....less 'vulnerable' to the demands and pressure placed on them by life.

The most important thing I learned was that we are all called to be leaders. It starts with yourself. You are the leader of your own life! What does that look like? Are you taking action, taking responsibility and being accountable or are you blaming others. Are you still holding on to the excuses and reasons to justify yourself? How is that working out for you so far?

What I have come to learn is that we can't do this leadership journey alone. I have learned that no 10 steps to becoming a good leader is going to transform anything in your life either. I needed someone I can build a relationship with, someone I can trust, someone who has lived life and experienced the realness of the 'dark side' in the mistakes they made and lived through taking full responsibility for correcting it. Someone who when I am bleeding, can show me their scar. Someone who when I am about to take the wrong turn can prevent me from making the same mistake they made. Not because they think they know better, but because I know they have my best interest at heart. Someone who will stand up against me...for me!

I have had the pleasure to see lives, companies and families change in front of me over the last 8 years. Where getting me involved made no business sense, but it made every leadership sense. Then after a couple of months, not to mention years, it made all business sense as I hear the bottom line shout 'thank you'. 

I have also had the sad experiences where following my initial presentation to the Exco the majority wanted to walk a journey with me. Yet because of one or two the journey never started. Why, I don' know. It might be their ego, their own insecurities or ignorance. They might have something to hide and fear being exposed. The sad thing is that the CEO or President of that company knew it was necessary. The CEO knew the team under that executive member is struggling and crying out for help. The CEO knew that some of his executive team members are under severe stress and pressure. The CEO knew his executive team member was having an affair or under financial stress, and his vulnerability was placing them all at risk. Yet the CEO kept quiet and did not stand up, making a call that could have prevented what today is written in the pages of history.

Maybe the best staff in that operations team would not have resigned to go find a better and healthier working environment. Maybe the efficiency of the team could have been 20% higher and we achieved our targets. Maybe $1m would not have been wasted on an internal investigation to unethical behaviour. Maybe the companies market share would not have halved over night. Maybe a marriage could have been saved or the child not sitting in rehab. Maybe the heart attack could have been prevented. Maybe....and yes maybe that suicide could have rather ended in another breath being taken with a new perspective on life. 

For some of us there may be another 1000 days, for some another 20000 days and more, but for some of us there might only be today. What are you going to do with today. When are you going to wake that leader up within yourself and do what you know is necessary. When is the CEO and the President of their company going to stand up and do what is good, what is best regardless if all agree. Because that is your company, it is your people, it is your family....it is your conscious and your legacy.

In August 2010 I got my second chance at life. What are you going to do with yours? 

What is your next phone call going to be, who is your next coffee going to be with?

May you all, wherever you are, have the courage to stand up and take leadership! You are worth it!

Leadership Elevation

We have seen it too frequently in the last 18 months and we will keep on talking about it in the years to come. It happens in the lives of individuals and it is seen in companies across the world, whether small start-ups trying to enter the market or large corporates seen as world and market leaders.

What am I talking about? The rise and fall, success and failure......

Too often the immediate focus is on procedures, equipment, strategies and tools where in most cases it is all about relationship, a person and character. The core of Leadership Elevation is with the individual and his/her character. If sound character is not in place then all leadership development becomes vulnerable under pressure.

In a recent interview with a leading global lifestyle conglomerate CEO, Alain Bejjani stated the following: "We spend a lot of time looking at the monetary/commercial aspect of our businesses. We manage it. We analyze it. We understand it. We try to read it in as granular and effective a way as possible. But the element that allows all of this to happen is people. And when you look at how much we spend on people versus how much we spend on the asset side of the business, you see a huge imbalance. For example, we might spend three years looking at a project. By the time we decide to go ahead, we will have cut it, sliced it, and diced it in every possible way. We will have analyzed it, understood it, and it’s under our skin. Then it might take us a week to determine who’s going to lead the project. My point is that the element that is going to determine whether the project is a success or a failure takes up the least amount of time. The problem is not what we’re doing on the monetary side. We should continue to do it and do it better. But we should be at least as good on the people side."

When I mention Steinhoff, is it poor strategy and process or people maybe a person that comes to mind for their fall?
When we talk about McKinsey, do you think dodgy company or does the conversation go to certain people who were involved making poor choices?
Tiger Woods and Jason Rhode to name a few, do you question their competence that lead to their fall or does character and relationships dominate the conversation?

We can add many names to these recent examples and the talking point or the tipping point remains the same, it is about a relationship, a person and their character.

Alain Bejjani continuous to say that 'we always look at leadership through the lens of leading teams, leading others, leading businesses, and leading change. But the most daunting task, for the most junior and the most senior among us, is leading ourselves. It’s a duty we have, first, toward ourselves, and then toward our business and toward our people, to support them in their leadership journey and development.
Historically this was left to what I call “the hazards of life.” In other words, it was left to personal initiatives and personal commitment. But I think businesses can shape their future by implementing their people agenda and making sure that their teams are like no other. It’s not just about a senior person in the organization, whether the chief executive or the human-capital officer, doing it. It is about each and every one of us being a human-capital officer. The people agenda in an organization is everyone’s agenda.'

Leadership Elevation supported with sound mentoring on a regular (monthly) basis has become a non-negotiable towards achieving and sustaining success. Leadership have changed and it keeps changing like software with any new approach or program being outdated within 3-5 years. The only constant in leadership is the individual and their character.

No company today can afford any leader on their executive team to be vulnerable. Do you as a Board Member know the health of relationships influencing the executives in your organization? With social media and global economy the pressure and stress on relationships and character have increased tremendously. What are you willing to do under pressure to be successful....or rather, to avoid failure?

The cost to take this risk today have become to big. What are you willing to do about it?

Your organization is worth it, the people you are responsible for are worth it and yes, you are worth it! 

Building sustainable Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement is a topic doing the rounds in business for a while now. Speaking to an associate of mine who just returned from the USA having completed studies at Gallup shared some scary stats. The disengagement rate currently stand at 86%, an increase of 16% from the 70% just a year ago!

Being aware of the high disengagement rate and with the topic of engagement being around for a good few years now, why the dramatic increase?

The cost of actively disengaged employees have been documented so clearly and measurably in recent times that I find it hard to imagine why companies are not making significant efforts to address this. Apart from the financial loss due to poor productivity, these employees are more likely to steal, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive customers away.

Of the 360,000 companies surveyed those with a higher percentage of engaged employees experienced 147% higher earnings per share compared with their competition. Put simply, an engaged workforce makes good financial sense, as anyone familiar with the topic knows.

From my experience the last 14 years the leading factors influencing employee engagement is the relationship with his/her direct manager and close relationships (personal & professional).

We can't ignore it anymore that the issue that needs to be addressed in order to increase engagement is relationship. There is an art in creating the platform where healthy relationships can be built in the environment we have today of mixed cultures, religions and not age anymore but generational gaps.

Helping people to relate better automatically deals with conflict issues, absenteeism, gossip, etc. and opens the door for greater sharing, willingness to help, going the extra mile and making the choice to stay in stead of finding another job.

Contact Johan Koornhof today to get information on options available to increase the engagement of your staff and building strong sustainable relationships.

The Importance of Being Honest

More and more I come to realise how the word "honesty" and being an honest person is nothing more than convenience to most people.

Most people are being honest only when it suits them. They are honest only when asked the question, but will not out of their own share the absolute truth even when they know it is affecting someone else they care about.

It might be that they do not wish to hurt someone......
Maybe they wish to avoid closing a back door......
Or they don't want to admit being in the wrong in some area.....
Many times it is trying to save face as it were, that you will keep thinking good of them.

Reality, as we know it, is that the truth ALWAYS comes out sooner or later. Not having shared the absolute truth from the start, all you have achieved is making the consequences greater than what it would have been!!! It might cost the company more money. The accumulative cost or problem might be greater now. Instead of hurting one person, they trusted you and shared the story with others, and now more people get hurt and distrust you also.

The hurt or stress the other person(s) experience will be greater, not to mention the hurt or stress they experienced the days, weeks, month leading up to finding the truth. The back door you hoped to keep open will most probably be replaced by a brick wall for the future.....no chance to restore. News spreads fast and you will loose face with more people than you ever would have thought possible. 

How do you restore that kind of trust that got broken?

The hardest part is that you will have to live with it the rest of your life, those regrest that we all carry at some point, until you get to the place where you finally are able to accept forgiveness......and hope to receive forgiveness. Till that day, your lack of absolute truth will eat your heart in the moments you are with yourself. Those regrets will consume your thoughts. It might never go away and your life will bear the fruit.

There is nothing more destructive in your life than carrying guilt with you. I refer to it as being a silent killer. You can try to fool yourself that it doesn't matter, try to keep busy to ignore it, try to replace it with someone else or something else......but it will always return.

So have the courage and be absolutely honest, speaking the whole truth right now no matter what it might cost you. Today is your chance to change your life. The choice is yours..........and remember, you don't get to choose or control the consequences, but your choice is in your hands.

And there it is....

I have come to experience in my own personal and corporate life just as much I have seen it and experienced it with my clients that the ability to live in the moment of now...actual reality...is one of the hardest things to accomplish in life.

The other two options that for some reason we find more compelling and a lot easier to spend most of our time in is the past or the future. Scary thing is that both of these are not real anymore or real yet.

Lets look at the future as this is where we are moving towards in life. There are two options in terms of action you can partake in. Either you will be planning productively or you will be in a negative state just worrying about the future. The former of these two are obviously where we want to find ourselves being involved in. Most important to plan realistically, to set action goals that you have the character and competence for and you know you are passionate about. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure and the worry will eventually set in as you fail to accomplish these tasks.

Which bring us to worry. We have all heard it and know that to worry about something will not make any difference, no positive difference anyway. To be real about it, spending time worrying is one of the most damaging habits you can fall into. The moment you start to worry about something, which has not happened and might not happen at all, negative and destructive emotions fill your mind. The intensity just get greater and greater and the story lines you create just get more and more. Apart from the state of anxiety and or depression it creates in you, you harm relationships around you for no real and good purpose at all.

And then....well, and there it is!

What is going to happen will happen, it might be what you worried about or some form of it, or something completely different. And guess what, to worry about it now, with the obvious statement of 'see I told you so...I knew this will happen' is not going to change anything and certainly will not help your reality right now or going forward.

You will find yourself in one of two places each time you experience something in life. You will either see and experience something as a PROBLEM or as an OPPORTUNITY. 

What then? Well, back to positive planning and staying in what is real. Keep going and keep growing!

So the past is pretty much the same negative state as to worry about the future, because when you stroll around in the past you simply replace worry with regret and or guilt.

It is awesome to remember something from the past in order to learn from certain events while you make effective plans for the future, but not to get stuck there with regret or guilt or blaming others.

What are you passionate about?
What are you busy with?

It is okay if you do not have it all figured out perfectly from the start...just make a start and the rest will fall into place over time as certain doors will close and some will open. Just stay focused on what you are passionate about and enjoy what you do.

Enjoy who you are...you are worth it!!! 

The Power of Being Grateful

I am once again reminded of the power that our emotions have in life. But to be perfectly honest and real about it, an emotion is just that, an emotion. It has absolutely no power until we focus on it and make that emotion a reality in our life. 

There are more than enough experiences and events in one day to drive our thinking and speaking into negative conversations....be it in our head or with people over a cup of coffee. Driving to work first thing in the morning you are bombarded with newspaper headlines on the lamp posts with one disturbing or upsetting story after the other. Not to mention the taxis and cars that undercut you or sit on the back of your car so that you can almost see the breakfast they had!

All of this and your day have not even started at work with challenges you will face there. Did I mention you got up at home with your spouse being unhappy because you left the kitchen messy or spilled some coffee on your way out? Of course your child struggled to get up and the 15 minutes of nagging started to get you frustrated and maybe an angry word slipped out which left your daughter in tears.

Emotions are simply the most powerful energy that sits behind every decision you make in life...

That is why I can share with all the conviction within me to encourage you to shift your focus when you feel down. Evoke a positive emotion that will change the course of your day. How do you do this? Focus on someone or something that you are deeply grateful for. Take just a few minutes and shut yourself off from all the 'noise' around you that distracts you...and focus on just one thing or one person that you are truly and deeply grateful for. In that process you will feel the negative energy disappear and replaced by joy. Enjoy that thought and bask in that emotion for a while....let it sink in. Then kick that negative emotion's butt by taking action....pick up the phone and call that person whom you are grateful for and share it with them. Even more powerful, share it in person if you can!

That real moment of sharing your gratefulness will have such a powerful positive impact on the rest of your day and in the life of the other person.

So take a moment....make that call...and let the power of being grateful change your life and that of someone else today.

You are worth it!

The Key to Great Performance

Keep your personal problems at home when you come to work!

We have all heard this and for some reason the corporate world still holds on to this belief. Time and money is spent on the hard issues at work when it comes to training and development. But the reality is that we keep bringing the soft issues, those personal stresses from home to work with us. Not because we are failures or not good enough, but because that is what makes us human.

First, here are signs of distress. The intensity will increase as the stress increases without effective help being provided.
• Increased absenteeism
• Reduced productivity
• Friction with employees
• Crying or yelling
• Dressing inappropriately
• Becoming accident-prone
• Coming in very early/staying very late
• Joking about everything
• Constant forgetfulness

As economic pressure increase, so does the time dealing with personal employee issues.

The sooner companies start to provide effective support on how to deal with personal issues the sooner performance will improve. Companies can't see this as a personal problem that needs to be dealt with privately...it is a company problem and one that is growing rapidly. In 2013 it was reported that personal stress impacts the performance of 49% of employees, causing them to spend on average a minimum of 2 hours per day dealing with these personal issues at work. That is 25% of their working time, costing the SA private sector about R60bn per year.

The solution?

Many companies react by tightening HR protocols and procedures. Regulating phone calls and Internet usage have become everyday practice. To be honest this has not made any positive impact on performance, instead it created the opposite. When my child has an issue I will find ways to deal with it...and that is just the reaction from a loving parent.

However, empowering your people to deal with personal issues effectively will make them more efficient at work as well. The more empowered people become in managing relationships the more effective they will become. No single training course can make this happen. Implement regular talks on relevant topics at work for people to attend. Just short 45min practical sessions which people can process and take home or back to their desk.

At BE REAL Company we provide regular (bi-weekly or monthly) Be Real Sessions which give people the insights and practical tools to influence behavior in their corporate and personal environment. These are at a fraction of the cost to what normal training sessions would be allowing for consistency in these sessions.

Contact us today on 0823706915 or johan@bereal.co.za

You are worth it!