Leadership Detectives
Leadership Detectives
Leadership - The 12 Tips of Christmas (# 1-28)
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Enjoy this brief 20 mins episode entitled "12 Tips of Christmas" to help you get 2021 underway and get the new year rolling.
Have a fantastic Christmas with hopefully a break from your work. Stay safe, healthy and be happy!
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SPEAKER_03Hey guys, welcome to the penultimate session of leadership detectives for 2020. It's not so much about ending the year, but about preparing for the next. So we've called this one the 12 tips of Christmas. And hope that whether all of them apply to you or just some of them, you get something from the next 20 minutes. So enjoy and have a fantastic festive day.
SPEAKER_02So welcome, my young and beautiful sleuths. We are a few days away from Christmas, and the leadership detectives are here with another episode to try and help you be better leaders or become great leaders in the future. So, Albert, good to see you, mate. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_04I'm good, I'm good. I'm not bad. As you say, a few days to go, things have changed for us in terms of where we're going to be and how we're going to spend the time. But as you and I always know, we make the best of what we've got and we don't worry about what we haven't.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. You know, there's a couple of things come to mind at the moment with the changes that are going on. First one is, yeah, focus on what you've got, don't worry about what you haven't got. And the and the other one is focus on what you control can control. There's no point in worrying about stuff you can't control. And one of the things we can't control is everything that's going on and decisions being made elsewhere.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. We touched on that before, I think, in previous episodes where we've talked about that.
SPEAKER_02So many times, I think, because uh it's a really important couple of messages to live life by, actually, is you know, don't focus on what you haven't got or what you can't do, focus on what you have got or what you can do. Yeah, and and then make sure you focus on the stuff you've got control over.
SPEAKER_04Just a couple of things on that while we talk about Neil. One of them is that all it can do is make you more negative, right? If you're going to spin on those negative things, the other thing is you waste a lot of energy, yeah. And the energy is gonna go nowhere, right? So direct your energy towards positive and you can get positive outcomes. I don't think we've got a head in the cloud. I don't think we got ahead in the clouds, right? I think we're just saying take a sensible balance, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. I do know I love uh Elon Musk uh in in interviews, he talks about brain cycles. He says you've only got so many brain cycles that your brain can cope with any one time. Yeah, and one of the reasons he sold everything, you know, he now rents a place, he sold all his properties, he sold all his he doesn't own anything anymore, is because he said, I need my brain cycles to focus on us getting to Mars. Yeah, he said, I can't have brain cycles focused on how and it's the same with this, right? Why waste brain cycles on stuff you can't control?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I guess I guess a guy who owns a company that stock has gone seven times in 12 months is probably not a bad guy to listen to, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. And and he doesn't care, he doesn't care about the money, he just cares about giving the the human race an alternative option, yeah, if something happens to planet Earth.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, anyway, so well, let's um let's talk about the the big guy in the red suit with the white beard who's gonna be off flying around the world later this week. So Christmas Day uh at the end of this week, and Albert and I thought what we would do is take on the Christmas spirit and the theme and talk about instead of the 12 days of Christmas, 12 leadership tips of Christmas. Yeah, so I thought that's what we go through. So we've got 12 here, and we'll go through them one more one. So the first one take time to reflect back on 2020, reflect back on what was good, what was bad, what you did really well, what you're really proud of, and reflect on what could you potentially do better as well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely agree. Because I'm sure there's a lot of material there that people might not think about, it doesn't come to mind easily. Sit down with a bit of paper, guys, and a pen and scribble some things down.
SPEAKER_02And and it's a year like no other because we've all had to adjust and overcome and change our plans. You know, no one's plan has been exactly as they expected the year to roll out. So in in business, in your personal life, you would have had to adapt and change. And whatever you did, it's worth reflecting on that for to see what you learned and what developed. Any more ones, any more comments on that one?
SPEAKER_04I think the only other one on that is that it's a great one, it's a great year to then think about what I could do differently. Knowing what you know now that you didn't know then, what would you do differently now as you look forward and you're gonna take yourself through the coming months and years?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that's a really good point because how can you because you don't know what's gonna happen in 2021, it's still pretty uncertain. So, how could you take the way that the uncertainty and kind of plan for uncertainty almost?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um, okay, let's go on to number two. Number two, guys, I would say is a bit of gratitude, right? Um stop and think about what you do have and have be grateful for those things, right? Now, those things could be people that you're grateful to, who's helped you with bringing you to where you are today, who's helped you learn some lessons in your life, who's helped you in business, who's helped your family, and what are you grateful for? Material comes into that as well, right? But it's not all about material, but there is material as well. What have you got that you should be grateful for? Compare yourself to other people and others in situations that you are probably nowhere near. Now, I'm making an assumption that you guys are all doing really well, the ones that are listening to this. You might be one of those people that are not in a great place, but have some gratitude and be grateful. And Neil, you've taught me that lesson more than any, honestly. So, what's your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_02No, I mean, gratitude. So, gratitude is a really, really powerful emotion, and there's been a lot of scientific tests done on gratitude as well, and which parts of the brain are activated. And and feeling grateful on a regular basis and writing it down, actually, really it makes you feel good, it activates the right parts of the brain, but it helps you think better as well. So, look back, think about, yeah, as you say, think about what you could be grateful for, but write it down, right? And I was really grateful for and be grateful to yourself. If you did something really good, don't be uh don't be ashamed to be grateful for what you did personally as well. Yeah, um, absolutely. So, Neil, what would you like to put forward for number three? Number three, okay. So, this is a great time of year when you've got that kind of bit of downtime, unless you're trying to close your end, but if you've got that kind of bit of downtime to sit back and reflect, but also what's your personal vision for 2021? Don't just lurch into 2021 wondering what it's going to be like, just sit and picture what's what's the business going to roll out like in 2021. How do you want your team to roll out? How do you want your personal life to develop, your health, your fitness, your family? But just kind of paint that vision of how you want 2021 to unfold.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely agree. I'm gonna roll that straight and and and and important to listen to what Neil said there, guys. Take the balance, right? We're talking about your life, your work, your business, everything, right? This is your personal vision, you yeah. I'm gonna then pull one from that, which is particularly the business. What are your so for number four here, guys? What are your business goals for 2021? So if you know, if you know what job you're gonna be in next year, what do you want to see your team, your business, your environment delivering next year? Right? Is it about revenue growth? Is it about client satisfaction? Is it about market share? Is it about bringing something new to market that you don't have today? Is it about delivering a new service for your customers? What is it? What are your business goals? But stop and think what you want your business goals to be.
SPEAKER_02So I want to underline one of the key words you said there, which is your not the target you're given. Yeah, not what the business, not what your business wants from you, but what do you want to deliver for your part of that business? Or maybe it is your business. So what do you want to deliver for your business, for your shareholders, for your investors, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_04That's a really good point. Now, you're the leader in this environment, right? Don't forget what we've been talking about all year. You're the leader. It doesn't matter what your title is of VP or director or senior manager or team leader, you're the leader. Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_02And also remember, people follow people who know where they're going. Yeah, that's really keen. You've heard us talk about that throughout the last 27, 28 episodes. Yeah, and the next point, so point five, then leads on really nicely, which is uh spend some time thinking about how you want each of your team members or each of the department that you've got in your business, uh, how you want them to support your business vision, your business goals. What does good look like for each individual that either works directly for you or you know their department? So make sure you're clear how they fit in and align to your business goals.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, you're right. So so overall, each one of those guys needs to buy into it, right? They need to be aligned with you. So you having a wonderful plan that you that you keep nicely in your drawer on your desk means nothing if they don't if they're not coming with you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they need to know what well, I keep I the term I use all the time, what is good look like? Yeah, what does good look like for each person in your team in 2021?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, okay. So what so what do they say? Have a vision, but a vision without a plan is just a dream.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So so make sure you've now got a plan. Call it a blueprint, call it an executable plan. Basically, what are the set of actions? What are the things you need to do and the things you need to not do to execute such that you can achieve the goals you've just talked about? And those goals are your personal goals, your business goals, but have a plan. If you don't plan the action, Tony Robbins talks about this. When Tony Robbins does his early stuff, I never forget, and it's always stuck with me, Neil. Like one of his very early lessons is what is the difference between someone who's successful and someone who's not? And he said the most basic element that he puts forward is the person who takes action. Even if the action that you take isn't the most successful, what you've just done is create a learning opportunity, but take action. Otherwise, you can sit and read your plan for 365 days if you want. It's up to you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. So, yeah, so so it's two steps build a plan, then take some action.
SPEAKER_03Correct.
SPEAKER_02Um, I think, by the way, I'll I'll I just want to stress to everyone don't get hung up over making a really detailed multi-powerPoint plan. Just sketch it down. You know, for this team, a plan looks like this. For this part of the business, a plan looks like this. Don't, you know, just the first big the five or six big steps you might need to take. Don't don't get into too much detail and get yourself bogged down with it too much.
SPEAKER_04I guess the other thing, Neil, is it can live as well, right? That plan can live. Oh, it has to you drop a new action into there, right? Something happens in March, and you go, Oh wow, key element. I need to don't go, oh no, I've got my plan, I've got to stick to it. So it lives, right? And you can drop things and add things, but do something.
SPEAKER_02Exactly right. So, and now I'm gonna we're gonna try and change the tone slightly with number seven. So the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me some meditation. So please, please, please. The power of meditation is so well known now and so documented. Years ago, if you talked about mindfulness or meditation, to most business leaders, they'd have just thought, you know, where's your Afghan and where's your um where's your beads and so on? But it's so it's proven now that some of the best leaders in the world all meditate every day to give themselves a chance. It's like resetting your computer, reset your brain by meditating or some mindfulness exercise. And there's tons out there on YouTube, on podcast, on playlists, just you can guided meditation, that it's incredibly powerful, and you really need to use it over the Christmas period.
SPEAKER_04That's an interesting one, you know. I bet there are people that think, no, that's not me. I don't do meditation. What's this meditation thing about? Guys, don't think this is some strange practice that other people go through, right? Go and do a little bit of research and see what it means to you. Just sitting and thinking is meditation. Just sit and think. You can do that. Do you know what? I walk the dog and I always take my headset with me. The last few times I don't take my headset with me because thinking time has actually been better. I like listening to Luther Van Dross, but not all the time, right? There's no reason why you can't just think, right?
SPEAKER_02It's never too much, mate.
SPEAKER_04It's never too much. So the next one, guys, number eight, um, educate and inform yourself, right? Again, I can't I refer back to Neil on this. Neil's a master of this. Neil's a really good reader of books, and Neil shared books with me, and I know he gives he gifts books. I'm not a great reader, I'll tell you that now, guys. Do I listen to audiobooks? Yes, that's me. I'd much rather be on an audiobook. But educate and inform yourself in some way. Read a book, preferably, given where we are here in the leadership detectives, try and read a book on leadership and get other people's point of view, not just our point of view. Or listen to an audiobook, or listen to something on YouTube, right? Or listen to a podcast, right? And guys, it doesn't have to be us because there's tons of stuff out there. Love it to be us, but hopefully you've heard all of our stuff. But educate and inform yourself. Neil, got a thought on this?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so a couple of things just to see because it you know, reading a whole book is so sometimes a bit overwhelming for people. So let me give you a couple of tips on how to do it quickly. First one is um if you go to the end, especially in personal development books, if you go to the end of the chapter in a personal development book and read the summary, it'll give you a good idea of what was covered in that chapter. And you can then go back and pick out bits that you want to pick out of that chapter if you need to. So if it resonates with you. The other tip is on YouTube for nearly every good leadership book, there is a book summary, like a 10-minute book summary, which is done in sketches. So that's another great way of doing if you want a book summary of any leadership book that's out there, it's probably on YouTube in a 10-minute summary. Okay, good advice. Good advice. Thanks, man. So, number nine, clear out the crap, take some time. Everyone loves doing this. Get your filing cabinet, chuck the files out, get your emails, clear all that rubbish out. If you've got an inbox that isn't empty after the 12 days of Christmas, you have let yourself down. Now, I know that there are people out there who've got 300, 400 emails in their inbox. Your inbox is not supposed to be a filing cabinet, it's supposed to be an inbox. So honestly, clear the crap out so that when you go into the new year, you're going in feeling like you're not dragging this weight behind you. You freed yourself of it.
SPEAKER_04It's interesting, actually, guys, because I'll tell you now, and Neil probably knows it. I'm a hoarder, right? I keep tons of stuff, right? But I don't keep it in my inbox, right? Because go if you think it's gonna be useful to you, go and file it somewhere. With the quality of emails, these methods these days, you can go and find it. There's no way you're gonna lose it. But as Neil says, if you open your inbox and all you see is all this stuff, do you want to start that on January the 2nd? I don't think so. Right. So I'm a hoarder and I know it's a tough thing to do, but get rid of that stuff. You don't need it there, it's just interfering.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%. Okay, next one. Uh, number 10, we're on now.
SPEAKER_04So your inbox is just one thing, right? Actually, when you come back to work and you're ready to go, what is your work environment like? I won't pan the camera around this office, right? Because if I showed you, you'd be horrified, right? Because I've got a load of stuff going on right now. Clear down your work environment, create an environment that feels focused, that feels clean, that feels directed to you starting the year and getting rolling on it. Have you got everything you need, right? Simple thing like have I got post-pad? I've always got post-it pads with me, right? Because I know if I've got an idea and I need to remember it, post-it pad and it goes up on the board there, and I make sure I take action on it. If I didn't have post-it pads and I'm not organized, I might lose the idea. So look, you're so old school.
SPEAKER_02I'm so old school, all right?
SPEAKER_04But but it works, right? For me, it works for me. So, whatever works for you, set up your work environment and set up a structure that's going to make you inspired and ready to move forward for the rest of the year.
SPEAKER_02So that was the word I was going to use, right? Your work environment should inspire you when you walk now. Given most of us are working at home at the moment, and not everyone has their own office or has their own, you know, you might be working in a bedroom or you might be working in a dining room or a kitchen table, but it doesn't mean you can't make the environment inspiring and energizing for you. Because you, you know, you're going to spend a lot of time there. So you want to be looking forward to going there, not drudging your way there. Yeah. So, no, it is important to get the work environment right. And it kind of links on to number 11, which is, and and and this is really powerful. One, I think this is a really important one, is re-energize your body. Take time over the 12 days of Christmas to get out in nature, get out in the fresh air, make sure you're just giving yourself a chance to get some oxygen in your body, re-energize your body, and so that when you go back, you haven't got that sludgy feeling that you have, especially after Christmas and all the uh um all the excesses you have over Christmas.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Exactly. So the final one, guys, and and we've we've kind of said plan to do something that scares you. But let me put another angle on that first, and then I'll pass to Neil, right? Think about doing something you haven't done before. Whatever it is, it could be a personal challenge, it could be helping somewhere, it could be doing something, it could be learning something, it could be anything. I'll tell you now, we've got a challenge set up. It's nothing big. We've got a challenge set up to go and do a walk in in on the third of April, which is to do the Surrey three peaks, right? With a bunch of guys who have never done this kind of stuff and they're saying, Wow, I want to go and do something. And I never thought they would, right? A bunch of guys I never thought they would do it, but they want to go and do something they haven't done before. Actually, I'll tell you the conversation started off about when I'd climb Kilimanjaro on a Zoom beer chat, and they said, Let's go do it. No, guys, we don't just get up and go do Kilimanjaro, right? So we're starting somewhere. But the point is, I've got a goal that we've got to go and do. We're gonna go and do something that people haven't done before. But Neil's probably a bit more extreme than me, and he's probably got some other ideas in it. I would say think to do something you haven't done before and and set yourself something. Neil, where would you want to wrap it up?
SPEAKER_02So I think there's a couple of things you said there because it's interesting that you you you're doing that with a group. That's a really powerful thing to do, is to be do something with some with other people because it helps motivate you and motivate them. I think where where I kind of go with the scare yourself is when we scare ourselves, when we feel nervous or anxious about something, it opens up different pathways. And you you cannot grow if you stay in your comfort zone. You can only grow outside your comfort zone. Outside your comfort zone is scary. You get that feeling in your stomach, you're not sure. So you and you should be scaring yourself every week, every month, every year. And the scale of how much you want to scare yourself will how much you grow. Now, I'm not saying go and terrify yourself by jumping off a building because that probably isn't going to help your growth when you land up on the floor. But what I'm saying is do something that feels uncomfortable to you. It could be that you've never presented in front of 300 people before, or you've never run a Zoom webinar to several hundred people because most webinars are getting hundreds of people on these days. It might be that you you set one to set yourself a physical challenge like Albert talked about. It might be that you you know you'd want to do something like maybe go and ask your team for some feedback. That would be pretty scary for most leaders. So, what do you really scare you a bit that you could do? Build that into your plan, and that's the 12th challenge from us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. And take that one, guys, and put it into Neil's number three, right? About your personal vision and the things you want. That's yours, that's personal to you. You maybe you don't tell anybody about it, right? It's up to you, or you broadcast it, whatever you think inspires you. I actually find that sometimes with this, if you broadcast it, it kind of now you can't back out, right? Yeah, yeah. But you decide how you want to manage that.
SPEAKER_02Um, I'm gonna add one more that just popped into my head because one of the things I've found that works really well for motivating teams and motivating individuals, is try and think of something you could do during 2021 that is gonna be for the good of others. And I what I mean by that is some kind of charity activity, some kind of give back, some type of work you could do free of charge that's gonna support people who are less fortunate. That's that's a really, really powerful way of bringing your business and having a common goal to focus on.
SPEAKER_04It's a very strange thing, actually, because I've heard it said many times that giving is receiving, and when you do those things with no other agenda or goal, it pays back in a different way. If you're gonna sit down and look at where you're gonna get your payback, then you're probably doing the wrong thing. There is this is not about payback, this is about making a contribution, and the payback might be nothing more than fulfillment, but that's payback, right?
SPEAKER_02So, what we've done is lay out 12 days of Christmas and 12 ideas that you could focus on over this time as leaders, and because we're overachievers and we want to give more, we've added a 13th there as well. Um, so I hope that you know I'm gonna I'll kind of start summarizing Albert. I think I hope that everyone has a fab Christmas, that you do take time to enjoy time with your families, you take time to re-energize, uh, you take time to do some stuff for you as well. But hopefully, some of those ideas, even if you take one or two and and implement them, are gonna help you as get have a better 2021. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Neil, where are we? We're episode 28 today, right? 28, yeah. And as we said to you in episode 27, right? Thanks, and and letting people and have some appreciation is really important. So, from us, thank you for all our listeners for the year, right? This wasn't how we set out, and it's come it's developed really well, uh and it's great to be able to be helping people. So, thank you for listening, thank you for supporting. It's really good being here with you guys. It's the last you will hear from us in 2020. Um, but it's been really good being able to publish these things to you. Let's see what we got in line for 2021. Oh, Neil's had a year.
SPEAKER_02It won't be the last because we could we're doing one next week before new year. So will we get that out? We will get that one out, will we? Ah, hopefully, yeah. Yeah, no, I think we'll get that one out.
SPEAKER_04But okay, all right, cool, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, so anyway, it might be the last you hear, but it might not be. But uh enjoy. Thanks, mate. Listen, you have a great Christmas as well. Love talking to the family.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, all the best. Take care, guys. Take care.
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