7 Steps to Become a True Leader

This week I'm joined by Nick Bradley.

Nick is a successful businessman having worked in investment banking and management consultancy for 30 years. He has a passion for inspiring individuals and businesses to achieve their purpose.

He has a new book out,  "Zero To Authentic Hero - the 7 key steps to become a true leader".  This is a compilation of what Nick considers to be the top seven mistakes made by Nick and ex colleagues and clients when taking their first leadership role.

His objective is to help leaders avoid these mistakes by raising the awareness of them as well as providing strategies that you can put in place to overcome them.

I must admit, these are also things I see too with the leaders I work with.

There’s seven key areas in the book, which Nick runs through briefly and then we focus on two that Nick would pick out as being essential.

1. Understanding Beliefs
2. Clear Purpose
3. Living Core Values
4. Skill Set
5. Communicate with Clarity
6. Live your legacy
7. Building Your Resilience

 

Some of the highlights of this episode are:

• The secret to driving behaviours in the right way!
• How you can get light bulb moment that enable you to see what’s going on, be open to change and improve the way you lead and behave.  This also means you get more out of your team as a result too!
• What leaders need to do to communicate with clarity and why it’s important to do.  Learn reasons why you should and should not get the communication right.
• Why you need to get clear on your purpose
• Reasons why resilience is so important

 

“The first one I talk about? Every single time is about having a clear purpose, because I believe having a clear purpose then drives so many other things. activities. So if you get that right up front, everything else becomes so much easier.”

Nick gives a great example of how the Swedish Road Traffic Agency added purpose to their messaging and really made a difference in their communication, engagement and reasons for their road traffic restrictions.

“Once you've got that purpose, you can then build your strategy of what we're actually going to do, and your vision of what it will look like when we get there.”

 

The seventh step in the book is about building and resilience to what you do. Part of that is actually planning and scenario testing what might happen in your business and what might happen to your people. So you're better prepared before it happens instead of just having to be resilient when it does happen to you.

“Being resilient during that firefighting phase, as you say, is so difficult, frustrating. And I kind of like to ask people why are you now be able to successfully rise from the ashes without actually asking why you were on fire in the first place?”

Nick has four areas in his gateway for resilience.

“the four gateways for resilience for me at least our sole, physical, mental, and social, yeah, and it's all about balance between the four of them. Don't just go and exercise all the time. Don't just go and read a book all the time as it were, get the right balance, whatever that balance is, you might not be 25% across all four, but whatever that right balance is for you.”

Nick is giving away a free copy of his book to all listeners of the podcast.  You can get your copy from his website (link below) and find him on these other social platforms.

Website:  https://www.mandalaleaders.com/store

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickBradley7

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbradley7/

 

Excitingly, this month I'm delivering several virtual Business Boundary workshops to help companies support the issue of blurred boundaries.

With so much time at home, the end of the work day is blurring into home life with many people struggling to switch off - physically and mentally.

This also means many are struggle to be engaged and ready to start the week, because weekends have blurred into weekdays.

Setting clear boundaries enables everyone to switch off so that they get the rest they need so that when they are at work, they are more productive, happier and healthier.

Clear boundaries for customers or clients also reduces stress and sets our clear expectation: this creates respect and improves relationships.

So if you want to be increasing your performance so that you’re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to [email protected] .   Or head over to my website at www.emmalangton.com  and you can find the contact page and either send me a email from there or book an appointment straight into my diary – saving all that to-ing and fro-ing that you get when we try to get space in people’s diary.