With my business I’m often training organisations and teams, and one of the most asked questions is if I want to help them with their leadership programs, structure and teams. It’s always challenging because leadership should not only be a program, but, ultimately, leadership should be a culture in the organisation! A program can help facilitate this, but the ideal is that leadership is a part of the culture and the program should serve the culture. Question: If you are the leader of a team and you go on a holiday for a couple of weeks, who will continue to lead? Did you put a system in place that will manage them for that time? Or, will there be someone on your team who stands up to lead, because you created a leadership culture?

How do you create a healthy leadership culture? It all starts with you! Because people do what people see. You are the biggest example and influencer for your team. Ask yourself these three questions:

- Am I investing time in my self?
You have to invest time in yourself. When you are growing and developing as a leader, learning new things, reading books and challenging yourself to go further it is obvious and people will notice. They will see you flourish and will start doing the things you do.

- Am I really interested in other people?
Have you ever been talking to someone who constantly looks the other way, or someone who is checking the time every minute? But do you do the same with your team? Hopefully the answer is no, and that your team feels valued when you talk to them. Do you know your team? Do you know what they like doing on the weekend? Don’t fake it, show an authentic interest in others.

- Am I taking time to develop leaders?
Do you take the time to develop leaders, and invest your time with them? As leaders, we are in the people business. Leadership is all about people, and taking them to higher levels by investing our time and energy in them. It’s important to develop leaders and help them succeed in life.

Set a good example for people to follow. If it is a part of your DNA to invest time in yourself, being interested in other people and taking time to develop leaders, it will have a positive affect on your team. They will notice it, and start doing the same.

How we build a certain culture into an organisation looks different for everyone, it depends on the organisation and the values they have. But the core principles stay the same. There are 4 key principles you need to have which will definitely help you create a leadership culture.

1. Trustworthy:
When you have a team that is trustworthy, the possibilities are endless. You can trust them with new ideas, concepts and with other people. There is a massive barrier when there is no trust. Make sure you build trust! It’s so good to be open and honest with each other.

2. Positive:
It’s so easy to be negative and see the bad things in everything and everyone. What you need is an empowering team which sees the victory and the good. A team that is positive and builds each other up. There are so many battles to win and you can do it!

3. Teachable:
If you have a teachable culture, people are open for leadership development and new things. They want to learn and they want to grow. Make sure your team is self motivated to learn and not only dependant on you!

4. Faithfulness:
Are people faithful to you and to the organisation? When you have people who are faithful, they will stick- even in the hard times. You need people who do every season with you! Set a positive example and do the same.

It’s not impossible to do this! You can create a leadership culture and it’s worth while to do. Leadership is a great journey and hopefully you are creating a positive culture for people to flow in!

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Today we have the honour of having guest blogger ‘Paul Andrew‘ sharing some thoughtful insight:

In his bestselling book “The E-Myth” Michael Gerber attacks some common misconceptions around what it means to be an entrepreneur. He debunks why people become entrepreneurs, what a business really is, and helps explain why so many people struggle with their small business that was supposed to give them “freedom”.

I believe there’s an L-Myth too. The Leadership Myth has kept many a capable person from believing they could lead others.

Millions of people have accepted fallacies like these-
* “Real leaders are born leaders” – as though it’s a birthright… yet so many of us need to lead, even when it doesn’t come easily
* “You need to be an extrovert to be a leader” – as though it’s a personality type… yet some of the best leaders in history were quiet achievers or introverts
* “The leader has to be the smartest person in the room” – as though it’s an IQ test… yet many smart people don’t lead, and many world-class leaders didn’t finish school let alone their PhD
* “You can’t learn to be a leader” – as though it’s a completely mysterious art… yet there is a science of leadership too

In many ways I write these articles on The Leadership Coach™ for the 90% of leaders who find themselves leading out necessity. Not because they were born leaders. Not because they love the limelight or were the best and brightest. But because there was a need or an opportunity and they stepped up.

I actually believe that leadership is more an attitude than it is a position. That it’s more about the way we carry ourselves and our organisations than it is about the corner office or the fancy title.

Everyone leading. That’s the goal. Thinking like leaders, acting like leaders, making choices like leaders, carrying the vision like leaders, taking responsibility like leaders.

So great companies don’t build leadership structures, they build leadership cultures. They harness the latent leadership in all of us.

It’s time we rethink leadership.

So what do YOU think are the myths or half-truths people believe that keep them from becoming the leaders they could be?

I’d love to hear your comments.

Find more of Paul’s articles on:www.theleadershipcoach.com

Stay tuned in for our Leadership Articles and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog.

Making big or even small decisions for your organisation, teams and personal life isn’t always easy. As a leader there is a risk attached to the choices you make. Often it can get very overwhelming and difficult in some situations. As leaders we face this tension a lot, and honestly it isn’t getting any easier, leadership and the economic world keeps changing.

We are going to have a look at how we can make the right decisions in every situation. First of all you have to understand that our actions are attached to our beliefs! The way we think and believe has a massive impact on how we make decisions and the choices we make. We can have limiting or positive beliefs, those beliefs will shape how you act and live out your life and lead your organisation & teams.

Before we make a decision we want to do it from a place of strength and control. We don’t want to make out of control choices. Personally there are 4 things that I take into consideration when I make decisions:

Making a decision:
- How does it impact me personally
- How does it impact others
- Time
- Resources

As a Christian leader I also add in a 5th point; How does it impact the church. It doesn’t matter if I need to make a small or big decision, I always make sure I take those 4/5 things into consideration.

The question is, after taking those things into consideration, what would be the correct response + action to take? How I choose to act is totally in my own control. We want to make the right decisions and be strong as a leader, because the stronger you are the stronger your leadership and influence will be.

We have to think systematically when we make decisions, however as leaders we want to be innovative, which means that we need to do things out of the box! To keep momentum happening we need to do new things and keep improving ourselves and our organisations. It’s difficult to predict the outcome of being innovative, because most of the time we have no idea what lays ahead on the other end of our decision. Most decisions are a big step of faith and basically we just need to give it a go.

There needs to be a balance when you make decisions. When making decisions & choices you need to have a good look at the stats, think it through logically but you also need to add some faith, courage and boldness to the mix. Use your guts! Sometimes leaders are too afraid of making choices and we hold back. When that happens we don’t progress and often stop being innovative.

If we want to lead organisations, businesses & teams that are cutting edge, moving forward and making a difference we need to do things out of the box and stop being afraid of making difficult decisions & choices.

I truly hope this would have helped you with making decisions. I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

The next generation of leaders is going to play an important role in what the future is going to look like for us. I discovered that age in combination with leadership isn’t a dilemma, because leadership is a journey! You are never too young and you are never too old to start on the leadership journey. But can I encourage you that leadership flourishes in a surrounding where this is stimulated and valued by others! That’s why it is so important that we train, equip & coach the next generation of leaders in a positive & effective way.

In everything we do we want to bring a leadership culture, empower & equip them, and give them a sense of belonging by getting them practically involved.

Think back to elementary school and high school, you see the leadership principles already developing in the young people. Popular students are the leaders of different groups, there are class leaders, they lead sport teams and more. What if we start training and coaching those young people and students already in an earlier stage of their lives in leadership?

If leadership is influence then young people are definitely leaders. They influence other people and lead new trends, fashion, technology and they definitely lead and influence their friends. You can have a positive or negative influence on others, the challenge is how they can influence others in a positive way. As leaders we want to leave a positive impression, that’s why we need to set an example for those young people.

But why don’t we invest time in training young people effectively in leadership? Older people can have trouble in their approach to young people and are sometimes even fearful that the next generation can do it better than them. Some people are negative and cynical about the next generation, a problem many people have is that they are uncertain of themselves and they project that on others. However will that stop us in training young people? But how can we become better in training & coaching the next generation of leaders? Is it actually necessary that we spend time on this?

The answer on the last question is ‘yes’. It’s so essential that we see the importance of developing those young people in leadership. Soon the teenagers of today are the new CEO’s & leaders of your businesses and organisations. You need to see their development as an investment! It is important that we spend time to develop young people, they are very driven & passionate to make a huge difference in the world. The younger you learn something, the more valuable it will be for the future.

But how can we take the focus off ourselves and start helping those young leaders? If we look to coaching we must not focus on ourselves, but on the client. We need to take the attention off ourselves and focus it on others. It’s not easy to do that in the postmodern world, because everything is self focused. Self leadership is amazing, because how can you lead others if you can’t lead yourself? But it would be awful if it stays at that level. My focus as a leader must always be on others. We have a culture in which scepticism and negativity is dominating, but let’s focus on the positive side and bring out the best in these young leaders.

There is so much we can do in order to train & coach young people. It doesn’t matter if it is in the business world, non-for-profit, church or school, we all can set up leadership programs and get young people practically involved in leading.

But I reckon it all starts at home with the family, and it starts at school with education & practical involvement! If we can set up Leadership Development Programs at High Schools it will change the world. When students learn at a young age how effective positive leadership can be, they will have a massive advantage when they are older. And the effect on society will be phenomenal, a whole new generation of good leaders will stand up! Lets start training and coaching those young people now in their early stages of life.

Be creative, put structure in place to see those young people be equipped & empowered and give them the leadership tools they need!

Personally I believe in the next generation and think that they can make a difference. Are you willing to work with them and start coaching, training and supporting the next generation? Let’s make a personal commitment to do this. Value those young people and make sure you train them in leadership!

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Some people just don’t stop talking about servant leadership while others almost never talk about this subject because they view it as a weak habit. But I am convinced that the true measure of your leadership is not the number of people who serve you but it is the number of people you serve. Good leaders always have an attitude of being a servant first and being a leader second! Every good leader should serve the mission of the organisation, serve the people and lead by example. Putting others first and yourself second is a strength and not a weakness! Here are just a couple of thoughts about servant leadership:

Firstly servant leadership doesn’t mean that you are weak. It takes a strong leader to be a servant. They need different qualities like: listening, humility, awareness, nurturing, building community, boundaries, serving and much more. They are humble stewards of the organisations resources and put others first. Servant leaders are very effective because they look after people and help them reach their full potential and goals in life. They aren’t scared to see others succeed in life.

Secondly servant leadership and leading by example is a must have quality to have for every great leader. People will listen to you and respect you much faster if they see you leading by example. Because leadership should not be position based, but it should be relationship based. The only problem is, it’s not some method you do, but has to be a genuine and natural part of who you are. You can’t fake it! You can’t care about people one day and the next day neglect them. It has to be genuine!

Thirdly servant leadership is a culture you create in your team and organisation. Everyone should serve each other. It’s having a ‘yes mentality’, always being able to help, support and encourage each other. Servant leadership should create a positive flow in the organisation! If we serve & encourage one another we will both grow and be successful.

So you have to realise that servant leadership is a strength, you have to be an example and create this servant mentality in your organisation. If you are genuine about this, the sky is the limit for your teams. It’s not pushing people down so you can step up, but it’s together lifting each other up in order for everyone to win. Take your mind off yourself and start thinking like a real leader who has the best interest for the people under them and wants them to reach their goals. If you are a servant leader, you are a strong person!

However let me make one important sidenote: When you are a servant leader it doesn’t mean you let people run over you. One of the qualities you need is boundaries. You will need strong and healthy boundaries in your life, and the key is to communicate this effectively and in a good way to your leaders, peers and followers.

Like I already said leadership should be relational based and not position based, and that is what servant leadership is all about because your position will only bring you so far, but your servant heart will bring you to higher levels.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a program on the television about leadership. There are countless numbers of discussions around the topic of leadership: Are leaders born, can you learn leadership & management, is leadership genetic and what kind of leaders do we look for in the 21st century?

It’s not wrong to ask ourselves those kinds of questions and think & study about it. Personally I reckon people can be born with leadership characteristics, but it’s your choice if you want to develop, educate and practice your leadership potential.

Like John C. Maxwell says ‘leadership is influence’. But you can have two types of influence, positive & negative influence! I want to have a positive influence and I so hope you have the same goal in mind. I want to lead people well, make a positive difference on the planet and build a profitable business.

We need to be the kind of people that believes & encourages everyone to become better leaders. We are all born with certain characteristics, but we need to focus on developing, educating and practicing those characteristics for the greater good. In particular we need to focus more on practicing and developing leaders on the work floor. People will have to run with the idea’s and practice their leadership. You simply just can’t have knowledge and think you are a good leader.

However we keep asking ourselves the question, what kind of leaders do I look for and what kind of leadership do we need in the 21st century! Where did it go wrong in the past, and with this economic crisis we need good leadership. How can we improve in 2011? I reckon one of the main problems is that we have the wrong people in leadership positions at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

You as a leader need to be at the right place in order to maximise your capacity to be an effective leader. If you are a level 3 leader, you can’t be effective in a level 4 or 5 position. (I don’t say that a level 3 leader can’t become a level 4 leader, I’m a believer in people and committed to seeing them succeed in life). We can’t afford to have the wrong people leading our organisations. It’s not right for the organisation and for the leader itself to be at the wrong place. If you are a level 3 leader you need to be effective on level 3, and not be ineffective on level 4.

We definitely need to select leaders better. The lower, middle & higher levels, at all levels we need to select people better. Most people rush to the top of the leadership ladder and they didn’t get the leadership foundation & steps right, and all they end up doing is hurting people and making wrong decisions. It really doesn’t matter if you are born as a leader or not “so to say”, everyone has to work on becoming better. Be a great leader at your current level, and be committed to learning new things.

We need the right people at the right place, and leaders with a long term vision. I’m not only leading a business for tomorrow, but also for the generations to come. We are so focused on short term goals, wealth & success that we loose the bigger picture and stop building businesses for the future. Get leaders with a long term vision!

We really do need to find the right balance. We need to start developing, educating and practicing leadership, at the right place, at the right level and with the right people.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

The Leadership Innovation Blog is celebrating its one year anniversary. I’m so excited and want to thank everyone for reading my leadership blog & sending me your feedback. The last year has been such a wonderful experience and thousands of people took the time to read the posts.

To summarize the last year, here are the 5 top read posts:

1. The Leadership Ladder – Part 1
2. Leadership Programs for Young Leaders
3. Self Awareness
4. What a team needs – Part 3
5. Start to Refocus

This year I’m very excited to take the blog to a whole new level, I’m continuing to write insightful articles, present you with quality leadership blogs and we are getting more practical. The Leadership Blog is a very vital part of my global business ‘Leadership Innovation’, feel free to visit our website. Stay in touch through my twitter on the latest updates & new improvements.

Please keep sending me your comments and feedback.

I’m sure all of us are dreaming about something: A vision to accomplish, career, family success, making a difference and more. We are focused on achieving a certain goal & vision. I remember having a certain goal for my business, and when I accomplished the goal it felt a little bit unreal. I was planning it for so long, and suddenly I accomplished the goal and the dream came true. However after that I had to start refocusing, and change how I was doing things.

When you dream about something for a while and you fulfil that dream or goal why should you keep dreaming about it? Why dream about something if you can touch and walk in it. One thing you have to keep of course is a passion for it, but you will have to refocus your dreams & goals. For example when you have a dream to start a business you will need to dream bigger! Start dreaming about building a business, getting clients, start helping people and building organisations & teams.

If you don’t learn to refocus you will keep living in the past and keep living a small life. You constantly have to evaluate your goals in order to keep moving forward, dream big!

We need to keep evaluating our dreams and goals. Keep asking yourself if you need to change something? Do we need to refocus? It’s easy to be content and start living an ordinary life. But personally I will never settle for the status quo. I will keep dreaming, pushing forward, breaking through, doing new things, refocusing and keep living a big & challenging life.

It’s not always easy however it is so important that we refocus. Not only for ourselves but also for the people around us and for the people we are trying to reach. As leaders we have such an important role and there are so many more people to reach & influence. If we settle for the ordinary the people who follow us will leave us or will settle as well for the ordinary. If we settle for the ordinary we miss the amazing opportunity to reach more people. Are you encouraging your organisation & teams to refocus their dreams & goals?

If you are stuck in the past, if you have settled for the ordinary I encourage & challenge you to get that passion back, refocus and start being innovative again. There is so much more inside of you, so much more dreams, goals & visions. There is so much more inside of you that will help people and will lead your organisation & teams into something completely new. Please make a commitment that you will never retire from refocusing.

For many years I had the privilege to lead different & multiple teams. The most exciting sort of teams I have ever led was volunteer teams. If you want to test how good you are in leadership, go and lead a team of volunteers. If you lead an organisation or business and you wonder who you need to pick as a leader, ask them to lead a group of volunteers! Because with volunteers you don’t lead out of a title but you will need to lead out of relationship.

There are so many indicators if someone has leadership potential. Does someone have the ability to make things happen, vision, strong people skills, self discipline, desire and more. But there is one great test to see if someone has leadership potential and that is to ask them to lead a group of volunteers.

I encourage you to test your own leadership ability and try to lead volunteers. You might be wondering why that is so difficult! Because with volunteers you have no power, you can’t lead at all out of position. Almost everything needs to be action & relationship based. They don’t have to do anything you ask them to. And if you’re not challenging them they will lose interest but if you push them too hard they will drop out. If you don’t have a vision or you can’t communicate the vision they won’t know where to go. And if you don’t have good enough people skills they won’t spend any time with you.

And I encourage you to not only lead volunteers, but you should also volunteer yourself. Servant Leadership and leading by example is a very good quality to have. People will listen to you & respect you much faster if they see you leading by example. Because leadership should not be position based, but it should be action & relationship based.

If your organisation or business has any kind of community service, encourage the people on your teams to volunteer. And if you work for a not-for-profit organisation definitely encourage your people to volunteer. You will notice very quickly if people have the potential to go to another level & step up if they have the ability to lead volunteers.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Last time I started a 2 part series on the leadership ladder, I said that there is nothing more frustrating than seeing leaders who rushed to the top of the leadership ladder and they didn’t get the foundation of leadership & the different steps right, they ignored the foundational qualities as a leader and they end up hurting people and making wrong decisions.

A couple of examples of the foundation of leadership & qualities where: Integrity, honesty, good communication, personal skills, proactive, wanting to learn & respectful. But how do we build that foundation and how can we develop these qualities!

A lot has to do with personality, some people are born with leadership qualities and they have naturally already a lot of those kinds of qualities. But even then you look for consistency and if someone can outwork the qualities & foundations. It doesn’t matter if you are born with it or not, everyone has to work on becoming better.

The basics and foundations of leadership can easily be learnt by people. You can learn them, practice them and become better in them. And everyone should rise to the challenge and become better at them. Why wouldn’t you want to become a better person and leader! We all might not have the capacity to reach the top of the leadership ladder, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to not become a better person and rise to your personal challenge. We all can get the foundation right and everyone should do it. Why wouldn’t you want to become better in helping & influencing people!

However, the higher you go up on the leadership ladder, the stronger your foundation needs to be. It is just something you never can escape from. After you got the foundations right one of the keys to moving up as a leader is to focus on leading well at your current level, and not on moving up the ladder. If you are a good leader at your current level I reckon that doors of opportunity to lead at a higher level will open. When you are faithful with the things you have now and show consistency in that, people will recognise it!

One of the foundations & qualities of leadership is being proactive. Show that you are proactive, be willing to learn and step out. Go out of your comfort zone and be willing to serve & help others.

There is so much great material out there that can help you to get the foundations of leadership right. I encourage you strongly to start working on those qualities and make sure that you become a master in it, and transfer every little bit of it into your teams & organisation. Make sure that you develop leaders & teams around you who understand the importance of the foundation of leadership and help them to develop their personal leadership qualities.

If you need help or want more information, feel free to visit our new website: Leadership Innovation. I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

You can also read my article in Leadership Magazine on, “Coaching young people in leadership”. (The article is in Dutch only).