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    1. Accessorise so the top boys see you as one of them, don't over reach, just go for the next level. I know it sounds superficial (and it is), but you have to look like you belong in the club. But always remember 'subtle classic elegance' always beats 'trendy, flash and loadsa money'. Your accessories are reflecting your reliability and common sense and for heavens sake there is no point having a £500/$900 suit if you have a £50/$90 watch. 2. Have an elevator pitch of the benefits of what you are doing, not just the activities you are doing. Rehearse it, with eye contact and emotional content. 3. Understand who your boss is sucking up to and do it better. 4. Only put yourself forward for things that will succeed. 5. If you're responsible for it, then you should be in charge of it. 6. Seek 'face to face' feedback, tell them what you are going to do, do it, ask for feedback. Continue forever. 7. Have integrity. Stand for something. You don't have to be right, but you do have to have an opinion. 8. Be seen, press the flesh, have a tangible presence, take the long way everywhere, so people know you're around. 9. Practice your reactions and behaviours untill what isn't natural becomes natural, the first time to find out what you sound and look like when challenging someone, shouldn't actually BE the first time! 10. Don't gossip! Ever! I mean it! It'll kill your career faster than a bullet!

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  • “I have come to the frightening conclusion…

    That I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” - J.W.Goethe

Leaders set the cultural tone: In their lives and those around them

Posted on June 26, 2009 by executivecoachingguru

“I have come to the frightening conclusion…

That I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration,
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be,
we help them become
what they are capable of becoming.”

 - J.W.Goethe

Goethe (1749-1832) may well have been ahead of the curve when it comes to personal awareness and the impact  we have on ourselves and the cultural climate that we operate in. As a novelist, philosopher, playright, diplomat and civil servant (he obviously didn’t have a television to disturb him or email), he seemed to have a keen and lucid line of site on humanity and this in term enabled him to reflect on his own behaviour and pen the above.

If you are reading this as a business leader, there is possibly no other work on the topic of ‘dignity at work’ or ‘cultural dynamics’ that you’ll ever need to consult again, this says it all, “I am the decisive element”, the choices we all make ultimately become manifested in our own environment as an exec coach one of my primary roles is to enable people to understgand and value the gap between ‘Stimulus[GAP]Response’ if I ask you what do you think sits in the gap between those two words, what would you say?

The answer is simply ”Stimulus[FREE WILL]Response’, it’s just that for some of us the [FREE WILL] gap is very small and in fact is more of a reaction than a space for us to control. Teams and complete business cultures often have little awareness of their ‘capacity’ to either be the controller or the controlled in regards to the execution of Free Will.

How often do you see  individuals, teams or the business swallowed up in a response of  ‘happiness through to despondency’ that is often a trigger response that has been created by an outside source? If you have understood my question (and I asked it right) then the answer is ‘a great deal’, as a leader the hardest thing to do is recognise that as a primary part of the business ecology; how much you are responsible for the ‘daily mood that makes the weather….a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration’?

Goethe in his own personal observation in the 1800’s set a question that can now, not only apply to ourselves but also to teams and overall culture.

Filed under: executive coaching, leadership behaviour

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2 Responses

  1. instructor, on July 20, 2009 at 12:08 pm Said:

    Great site, I now have you bookmarked to come back again.

  2. agammy, on July 20, 2009 at 7:24 pm Said:

    I talk to so many people who don’t seem to understand they are in charge of their own destiny. (For example) they say they’re out there looking for work, but it’s a half-effort – sure they’ll apply to things on Craigslist here and there, but they aren’t willing to pound the pavement or treat job hunting like a full time job, and then they wonder why they aren’t successful. Similarly, people who are continually grouchy and cranky and who assume the worst in others wonder why they are treated poorly. You really are in charge of your daily mood, and how you come across to others effects how you are treated.

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