How would you describe some of the greatest leaders you have met or worked with? What were the traits you admired the most? If your aspirations include honing your leadership capabilities, it is likely that leaders from your immediate or distant past have left an indelible impression. I can still vividly recall my first encounter with an outstanding leader. He was able to inspire every individual and could easily recall the names of every staff member in the company. Although the business went through many ups and downs, this individual was always upbeat, genuine and available. As I reflect on my own leadership journey, I will always remember his energy and sincerity, hoping to emulate many of his strengths while building key team relationships. [Read more…] about How Leadership Affected My Past (Interview)
Passionate Leadership
Why leaders need to stay Focused on Long Term Results
Are you a leader who cares about long-term results? And when I say long-term results, I’m not just talking about the bottom line and having a healthy bottom line. I’m talking about being a leader who really takes the time and recognizes that effort and hard work that goes into achieving great results, that it’s okay to have setbacks.
It’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to not just be checking all the boxes to see whether or not you’re covering what needs to be done but also that you have your eye on the future, that you’re conscious of being that visionary and that it’s okay if, perhaps, you don’t necessarily have the results you want in the short term but that all those setbacks will ultimately lead to an extraordinary long-term payoff, and it may not necessarily only be profitability.
It can be the way that your team responds to you, that they feel a part of the culture, and this is all because long-term results are also associated with building trust. We can’t automatically get our team to trust us. It takes time for them to really genuinely believe you as a leader. So all of that will pay huge dividends as long as you are focused on being the absolute best that you can be, the best genuine, caring, authentic leader that you can be.
This article is a transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPCIwiKX2g&feature=youtu.be on YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
Lead with the Heart
Are you a leader who cares about long-term results? And when I say long-term results, I’m not just talking about the bottom line and having a healthy bottom line. I’m talking about being a leader who really takes the time and recognizes that effort and hard work that goes into achieving great results, that it’s okay to have setbacks.
It’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to not just be checking all the boxes to see whether or not you’re covering what needs to be done but also that you have your eye on the future, that you’re conscious of being that visionary and that it’s okay if, perhaps, you don’t necessarily have the results you want in the short term but that all those setbacks will ultimately lead to an extraordinary long-term payoff, and it may not necessarily only be profitability.
It can be the way that your team responds to you, that they feel a part of the culture, and this is all because long-term results are also associated with building trust. We can’t automatically get our team to trust us. It takes time for them to really genuinely believe you as a leader. So all of that will pay huge dividends as long as you are focused on being the absolute best that you can be, the best genuine, caring, authentic leader that you can be.
This article is a transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N0huZf8w28&feature=youtu.be on YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
Passionate Leadership: 12 Key Traits That Distinguish The Best From The Rest
This article was originally published on September 7, 2016, and has been updated.
Do you remember your first encounter with a passionate leader?
The reality is that any leader can be passionate…if they know what to do.
But first, let’s look at why this is so important. [Read more…] about Passionate Leadership: 12 Key Traits That Distinguish The Best From The Rest
How to Improve Team Engagement – A Leadership challenge
How to improve team engagement. The burning question on the minds of so many leaders today.
What are you struggling with when it comes to keeping people engaged in their work? Do we understand why it is that people become disengaged? And what does it mean when people are disconnected and disengaged and disinterested? The consequences can be immeasurable.
In order to keep people engaged, we need to realize that it’s all about people wanting to do their work rather than feeling as though they have to do their work. When people demonstrate discretionary effort, then they are highly likely to wanna keep on demonstrating that discretionary effort.
That’s because they are connected to what they are doing. They are genuinely enjoying what they are doing. And I can’t imagine that there are leaders out there who wouldn’t want that for their teams.
So if we are gonna truly engage our teams, we need to realize that we need to be engaged ourselves, and we need to understand that that is what our teams are looking for in their leaders.
So remember: to have an engaged team, we need to be able to connect with people. When you show people the purpose of what they’re doing, and point them in the direction that they are focused on that purpose, they will feel more connected and they will feel more encouraged to be supporting your vision for your business and helping them to realize their own vision as well.
This article is a transcript from How to Improve Team Engagement – A Leadership challenge YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
Leading Self: Developing Adaptability
Leadership Competencies is all about honing your ability to be adaptable, to be flexible. Today, I would say more than any other time, we are seeing the pace of change accelerating and so of course, we need to be flexible. We need to be adaptable, and along with being adaptable, we need to be willing to be flexible. There is no room today to stand still.
So, how adaptable are you to move with the pace of change, to recognize that things are happening outside of yourself faster than you can even imagine, faster than your business can even keep up with at times. So, if you are willing to be adaptable, and if you are willing to remain flexible, then you are in a position to teach other to do the same. You are in a position to be able to transcend change and you are able to remain on top of ever changing business dynamics and where your customers are going.
So, remaining flexible, is that you? Remaining adaptable, is that you? Because that is what we need to do as one of the core competencies to lead yourself.
This article is a transcript from Leading Self: Developing Adaptability YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
The impact of a Stable Personal Life on Leadership Ability
A key characteristic of great executive is to have a stable personal life, a balanced life. You may think to yourself, how realistic is that? Well, the best executives recognize that burnout is not the optimum state. They know how important it is to take time for themselves, to take care of themselves, to prioritize in their life the most important things: family, health, personal health, mental health, physical health, all the things that make them most productive. It’s not about working ourselves 14, 15 hours a day. It’s about realizing that the more balanced our lives are, the more effective we can be, the greater the difference we can make to our people at work and at home. So to be that great executive, we sometimes need to take an honest look in the mirror and see what needs to change, and if that’s you, the change can start right now.
This article is a transcript from The impact of a Stable Personal Life on Leadership Ability YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
What is Leadership Development?
So what is leadership development, and why is it important to your organization and the success of your business? Some people might say, “We’ve got to get more customers, we’ve got to find the best talent, the best employees.” In my view, all that is critically important. However, nothing matters as much as who you decide to develop as a leader, because it is the leaders that create the atmosphere, that mentoring your team that are making ideally the best decisions that have incredible influence on whether or not people feel motivated to stay in a job.
If your leaders don’t have the essential competencies to be successful, it really does start with you to make the best decisions and the best choices in terms of who you decide to put in those roles, and how you develop them.If you put the wrong people into the wrong role especially, thinking that they have the ability to be a great leader, that is going to cost you down the line. It’s going to cost you in terms of talent retention. It’s going to cost you in terms of lose productivity. It’s going to cost you in terms of low morale. So you need to make sure that you understand that you have the right people in place, and that when you decide to develop them, you’re investing wisely in your time, in your energy and everything associated with creating the best leaders that you can.
This article is a transcript from What is Leadership Development? YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
The Impact of Leadership on Talent Retention (Part 2)
Imagine investing time, money and energy to attract and recruit top talent at career fairs, and ultimately failing to plan for your new hires first days, weeks and even months at your organization. If you’re not doing all you can to inspire an individual to perform at his or her best at the outset, the chances are high that you’ve not only wasted your time and efforts attracting them, you’ve sown the seeds for disengagement and disenchantment from the first days on the job.
A Korn Ferry Future Step Survey conducted last year revealed that although almost all executives agreed that talent retention and mentorship are critical, about 25% of new hires will leave within the first six months, and the main reason for that is that their role wasn’t what they expected. What’s interesting is that 69% of companies surveyed say they have a formal onboarding program in place for all their new employees. However from the employee’s perspective, nearly a quarter of them say that their program lasted only one day, and about a third said they lasted only for a week. How inspiring is that?
The onboarding phase, this is a critically important period for a new employee. They need to receive purposeful, well thought out orientation and it needs to happen within the first 90 to 120 days. So ask yourself, do you have a strategy in place to welcome new recruits? Because during that time, this is what should happen, it’s a period where you’re establishing benchmarks. This is also a time where they get to connect with key personnel, it’s the time where you want to be able to provide them with hands on training and support, and that’s how they’re able to acclimatize to the culture. Remember, those first 60 to 90 days are critical, we cannot expect people to just fend for themselves.
In summary, your onboarding strategy has to be well thought out and intentional. When your organization fails to setup a new hire for success in the early stages of his or her career, job dissatisfaction and ongoing turnover are likely consequences. So let’s realize that talent retention can be improved by practicing preventative maintenance, making the appropriate arrangements for new employees to flourish right from the first day.
This article is a transcript of Talent Management Ep.2 – The Impact of Leadership on Talent Retention on YouTube.
Michelle Ray (Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com
