Welcome to the December issue of the LMI UK newsletter. It’s always a great month to celebrate a fantastic year and all those great achievements…for some. For others it might be a really tough time, for all kinds of reasons.
As a leader, emotional intelligence is such an important asset to you, especially at key times. Awareness is such a critical leadership skill. Awareness of self and awareness of others. Self-management and relationship management.
Some questions to reflect on that will be helpful to you:
How are you feeling as the year draws to an end?
Why is this?
What can/should you do about this (if anything)?
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How are those around you feeling? Think especially about your direct team and closest colleagues.
Why do you think this is?
What might you be able to do to help?
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This month’s newsletter offers up a variety of thoughts and resources that we hope will help you to reflect on the year that’s gone and do some good quality planning for the year that’s to come.
From the whole LMI UK team, we wish you a great month ahead, a fantastic Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
“I like people and I want to serve them!”
The LMI sales programme is called Effective Selling Strategies and helps people to develop an effective consultative sales approach unique to their business. At a recent LMI UK team day, Silje Howes shared her thoughts from this programme.
What she shared was inspiring to the team and was, in fact, far more to do with leadership than it was about selling, so we thought we’d share that with you too.
Silje explained her most important idea from the programme like this:
I went for a walk and I was listening to the audio, and there was one sentence in the first session that stood out to me and it said, I like people and I want to serve them. I didn’t remember anything else, but that one thing stuck out for me. And when I came back I listened again and I read at it at the same time. And again it was that one message loud and clear. I like people and I want to serve them. And suddenly it dawned on me that selling fits with what I love and it made it a lot less scary. Just that one sentence. Suddenly I'm thinking, Yeah, I do like people and I do want to help them. That is naturally who I am and that's what I want to do. And I noticed my enthusiasm increasing!
What’s true of selling – finding a way to help people because we genuinely care about them – is also true of leadership. Some call it Servant Leadership, or Authentic Leadership, or whatever else is currently popular. What is timeless though is that leadership is not a position first and foremost, it’s a responsibility and an opportunity to serve others.
Silje went on to tell a story that she’d heard on Simon Sinek’s podcast, A Bit of Optimism. Sinek was interviewing Will Guidara, a New York restaurant owner who explains his philosophy of ‘unreasonable hospitality. Guidara asserts that every business is a hospitality business and it’s in seeing and hearing people, as individuals, that great service takes place. For him, it’s much more than just the food!
It's a great episode and well worth a listen, as is Guidara’s book, also titled Unreasonable Hospitality.
You can also see Silje sharing these ideas with the team here:
Client Case study – giving talent a voice
William Lamb Group CEO Jane Wilson had a clear objective to develop talented people in the business and give them a voice to shape the future. She explained:
William Lamb is an old company, 150 years old, and I had a lot of new young people in the organisation who had a lot of talent but weren't necessarily getting much of a voice in the organisation. And what I wanted to do was use an LMI programme to open up them as individuals to open their own eyes to their own potential, develop themselves and understand that they could develop a voice in the organisation. And that was what I was striving to achieve from this programme. And I think it's worked. It's been brilliant.
Hear more from Jane and programme participants from William Lamb in this case study video:
Bite-size Total Leader®
Leaders are faced continually with multiple, diverse situations and developing in all four core leadership elements gives a distinct advantage - like an actor who can convey the whole range of emotions, or a golfer who is brilliant from the rough or a bunker as well as off the tee.
In this section you’ll find practical bite-size ideas that can help sharpen your own leadership skills.
1. Personal Productivity
Take some time to think about what a great day looks like. What have you spent your time doing? Who have you met with? What have you achieved? The clearer your picture of what excellent looks like, the easier is it to make your plans accordingly.
2. Personal Leadership
We started this newsletter thinking about emotional intelligence. Take a few minutes to review your own EQ using this Emotional Intelligence Self Evaluation from our Personal Leadership programme.
3. Motivational Leadership
Think ‘unreasonable hospitality’. Keep your eyes and ears open to really see and hear those around you and do something to make someone’s day today!
4. Strategic Leadership
Review your 2022 goals. What is the one thing you could focus on this month that will make the greatest contribution to a successful end to the year?
Leadership development is not a one-off event and leadership is not simply a role or title, rather it’s a way of thinking and behaving. The best leaders are Total Leaders® and the most successful organisations develop leaders throughout the entire organisation.
Upcoming events
16th Dec - Foundations of Success Workshop (last of the year)
“I nearly cancelled. I’m so glad I didn’t!” FIRST TWO PLACES FREE FOR ANY UK ORG.
17th Jan 2023 - Total Leader® Part 1 Effective Personal Productivity kick off (Online open programme)