Issue 1
Asia-Pacific Leader E-Magazine for Leaders
Essential Leadership Values Learn how to establish the foundation of leadership
Business Lessons From The All Blacks
What the world champions can teach us about business
Set Goals That Work
Go beyond your New Years resolutions
How To Deal With Your Inner Critic It's time to be positive
 
New Zealand Leadership Courses
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From the editor Leadership is the new currency for success
Mark Wager Leadership coach Asia Pacific region
Hello and welcome to Asia-Pacific Leader E-Magazine.
stayed because of my life for this country.
This is a new magazine with two main objectives. Firstly, it aims to update people on the latest workshops and personal development products in New Zealand and secondly, it provides some practical and inspirational tips for leaders at all levels. Whether you are an experienced leader or you are just about to start your leadership journey, you will find something in these pages that will benefit you as a leader.
New Zealand like many countries has leaders who have a wide range of abilities. A recent survey showed that one in four Managers were considered to be poor leaders by their direct reports. This is alarming as not only are businesses losing money due to unmotivated and uninspired employees but it's a problem that has a solution.
I wasn't born in New Zealand but I'm proud and honoured to call this beautiful land my home. I left the United Kingdom fourteen years ago in order to follow a woman I was in love with. Today that woman is my wife and even though I came here because of a love of a woman I have
Leaders are not born they are made. There is no excuse for poor leadership in today's workplace. This magazine along with my work as a Leadership Coach for the Asia Pacific region endeavours to provide people with the skills and techniques that will ensure bad leadership is something that only exists in the past.
Email: mark@eliteld.co.nz Twitter: Mark_wager
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Inside kiwi leader magazine
The Essential Leadership Values 07
How To Set Goals That Work 12
Business Lessons From The All Blacks 10
Dealing With Your Inner Critic 15 Images courtesy of:
nenetus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Inspirational quotes
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The Essential Leadership Values By Mark Wager
Leadership is the ability to instil power and belief into individuals and teams in order for them to reach levels they didn’t realise could be possible. Leaders create strong emotional connections which build loyalty, trust and engagement. These can only be created through honest open interactions through which the leader’s values are demonstrated. It is these very values that determine the effectiveness of a leader and I would like to take this opportunity to share my own personal leadership values which have been developed and refined over the course of my twenty five years as a leader. In my opinion these values are essential for any leader who truly wants to make a difference.
Honour. Always keep your word
People need to have a level of trust and confidence in their leaders. If you say you are going to do something then do it. It doesn’t matter how small, such as saying you will email someone back by a
certain time. If for some unforeseen reason you can’t, then let them know so that they don’t think they are forgotten. It may seem a small thing but for the person concerned it's not. If they can’t have faith that you will do the small things then how on earth can they have faith that you will do the things that really matter.
Integrity. Always do what’s right legally and morally
People by their very nature, when faced with a decision will be drawn to the easiest option, the route of least discomfort. Leaders need to see the long term consequences and sometimes the route that seems easy today may contain some hidden long term pain. The temptation to always seek the easiest option is around us on a daily basis but leaders need to do what’s right both legally and morally because people need their leader to make the decisions that they can’t make. 7
Courage.
Duty.
Don’t back down from a challenge
Always do what’s expected from you
There’s never been a person who has achieved greatness without having an inner fear whispering to them that they could have made a wrong decision. It takes courage to ignore that voice because let’s be honest that inner voice of caution can be incredibly compelling sometimes. It takes courage to follow someone and that courage will only exist if they see courage demonstrated by their leader. Take the chances necessary. Greatness is never achieved by playing it safe. At the heart of every failure rests the genesis of your greatest success.
Honesty. Always tell the truth
This should be a given but it’s amazing how many leaders I know who fall short of this value. Over the years I’ve learned that you can have any conversation with anyone if you have the right intent, humility and respect. So don’t shy away from telling people the truth. People will respect you for it because you are showing them the respect to handle the truth.
The reason why people get paid a salary is that they get monetary compensation for certain duties. Unless you are incredibly lucky, you don’t get to pick and choose those duties based on what you prefer to do. Do your job and do it well. You don’t get the luxury of influencing people unless you get the basics right first
Chivalry. Treat everyone with polite respect
An integral part of any successful team is the ability to treat colleagues with respect. Therefore, as a leader you need to demonstrate the behaviours that you want to see in others. Don’t hold grudges with people and yes I know it’s hard but remember that when you fall out with people it’s their behaviours that you have an issue with and not them as a person. Be the better person, be the leader that your team needs you to be and treat people with respect despite the provocation to do otherwise.
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Humility. Never forget that you still have much to learn
Quality leaders never stop learning. Never forget who you are and where you come from. Humility keeps life in perspective which can be a challenge as you experience more success. One of the most common failings among Leaders is their inability to effectively manage their ego which leads to them believing they are smarter, more important and occasionally funnier than they really are.
Sacrifice. Prioritise the greater need ahead of personal glory
If you need to sum up what leadership means in one word then that word would be “sacrifice.”
Leadership is about power and power was never meant to be kept. It was always meant to be shared. A true test of a leader is the ability to make a decision, without a second thought, that would benefit the team and may sometimes be to the detriment of themselves personally. Obviously you want to avoid these situations but if the need arises then as a leader you need to be prepared for the unexpected and the best way to do that is to know yourself and remember what you stand for. Keep your leadership values in perspective and at the heart of everything you do.
"When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier." Roy E. Disney
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Business Lessons From The All Blacks By Mark Wager
The All Blacks are statistically the most successful sports team in history with a winning percentage of 76.4% over 526 test matches dating back to 1903. Success is difficult to achieve but ongoing success is almost impossible. The All Blacks have accomplished year after year, an achievement that any team would be envious of.
I've delivered team building workshops for teams in different countries and industries for many years and I've seen clear similarities in what makes a team successful regardless of where the team is based or whether it is a rugby team or a team of architects. If you look into what has made the All Blacks so successful you will find valuable lessons that can help your team achieve ongoing success.
Establish a higher purpose Psychologist Martin Seligman articulated that one of the foundations of positive psychology was the belief that a person was contributing to part of something greater than themselves. In the All Blacks it's common to hear players talking about the legacy of the black jersey and how they are just custodians. This fits within the All Black's motto of "leave the jersey in a better place". For your team to succeed you need to find and articulate the core reason why your team exists and by this I don't mean what you do but why you do it. If you can find this then you will be able to establish the higher purpose for your team.
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Create a team of leaders Teams in businesses very rarely empower leadership outside of their managerial positions. Instead they delegate tasks which create a lack of ownership and connection within the team and hinders their effectiveness. The All Blacks have a wider leadership group of players which has meant that leadership is not coming from one individual but from the team itself. In business once you have established the higher purpose then each member of the team needs to know how they will contribute to that purpose and in doing so give them the autonomy and the tools to do the job. If you have hired the right people they will respond with responsibility and innovation and they will be a leader regardless of their position.
Make good people better The All Blacks have a philosophy that better people make better players and they spend time on working on the character of the players to ensure they develop the necessary personal characteristics which enable them to interact with and contribute to the team spirit. This is so important that the character of the player is a vital ingredient of selection. There have been many good players who never had a career with the All Blacks because they never had the necessary character to be a team player. In business this is an area that, with the exception of the very high performing teams, is sadly underestimated. In business the motto
should be better people make better business yet I've seen many team dynamics fall apart because of poor character.
Never stop improving If you want your team to succeed then a philosophy of continuous improvement is essential . You may be the best today but tomorrow is a different day and your competition is continuously looking for ways to improve and so should you. The All Blacks dissect each victory in order to look at any possible area of improvement regardless of how small. They embrace the idea of marginal gains because they know that the difference between success and failure is often found in what they call "the top two inches" In rugby very little separates the top teams so any small difference can be the defining factor. In business I've seen teams become overly focussed on what they call the "big ticket items" the killer idea that will make short term gains while continued long term success may be better achieved by looking at a hundred ways of improving by 1% rather than one way of 100%.
The All Blacks have provided their fans including myself many reasons to celebrate but they have also demonstrated that success can be maintained through different personnel both players and coaches. It's in this success that lessons can be learnt, lessons that businesses can use to improve their own teams.
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How To Set Goals That Work By Mark Wager It is universally accepted that goals form an important part of success. You can't walk into a workplace without some goals bring plastered on a wall somewhere. Each employee will most likely have a set of individual goals as well as those set by their boss. When work ends, many people go home to a set of other goals, this time life goals. Whether they are documented or not, goals are everywhere yet the majority of goals are unrealistic. They are not constructed in a way that motivates people, in fact a lot of them produce the opposite results and they demotivate rather than motivate.
This article explores the correct way to set goals. What do you want to change? Motivation comes from a desire to change and your goal needs to reflect this. If fundamentally the state that materialises from achieving your goal is not resolving an issue that is making your current state uncomfortable then the effectiveness of your goal will never be maximised. The greater the discomfort the greater the fuel for motivation. For example if you hate
your job you will be far more motivated to look for a new job than if you felt just fine in your role. Explore the darkest part of your life and in that darkness you will find your goal.
What does success look like? Once you know what you want in life the next step is to quantify that goal. You need to know what your life looks like when your goal is achieved. In short you need to be able to describe what success looks like. You don't need a lot of metrics but you do need to have a solid outcome that can be easily visualised. Just imagine if you want to lose weight, a typical goal is to reach a certain weight by a set time, yet a more effective goal would instead look like "I want to fit into an old pair of jeans that I haven't worn for the past few years. Describing the goal in these terms of what you gain gives you a clear measure as well as an outcome that invokes a range of positive emotions.
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Long range flexible, short term fixed. The most eective goals are multi layered. You need the long range aspirational goal but you also need the short term goals that when completed enable the wider goal to be achieved. These short term goals have to be very specific and fixed. The reason for this is that by having short term goals you create stepping stones to your main goal and you build a sense of self belief. Nothing will be achieved unless you believe it with your whole heart. Ask anyone who has achieved greatness how they achieved it and they will say the key was the small daily tasks they achieved. You may not envisage climbing the mountain but you can easily imagine taking one step at a time. What are the daily steps you need to climb your own personal mountain.
Your goal has to stretch you Your goal has to be just beyond your current level of skill. If your goal is too easy to reach then you will not have any sense of achievement when the goal is achieved. However, if your goal is too unattainable then you will feel a sense of anxiety and a loss of motivation as you realise the goal won't be reached . The ideal goal falls within a 4% - 10% range just beyond your current skills. It's within this range that when goals are achieved your brain releases a chemical called Dopamine. This is an addictive chemical that the brain uses to encourage us to explore and move forward.
Don't openly share your goal This final tip is the opposite to traditional thinking. It is commonly thought that by sharing a goal with as many people as possible you will be more likely to succeed but this only works when the goal is supported by those who hear it. If everyone is convinced of your success then you have the wrong goal as it is not aspirational enough. If your goal is significant enough to change your life then people will doubt you. Their reaction is rarely about you, rather it's a defence mechanism which hides them from the truth about goals. The truth is that the life we have is the life that we have earned. Everyone can have a better life and the ability to do so rests within ourselves. Your goals are precious so only share them with people who truly know and believe in you and as for everyone else it doesn't matter what they think as the only person who can make your goals a reality is you.
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How To Deal With Your Inner Critic By Mark Wager
It all starts with a whisper. You start to feel a sense of self doubt. Maybe you are being a bit ambitious, maybe you are overestimating your abilities. The whisper turns into a clear voice. It tells you that "this always happens to you, you are just unlucky, don't aim so high. At first you ignore the voice but the familiarity of the words resonate with you. The words carry a lot of weight because they come from a familiar voice, the voice is yours. Your inner critic has spoken.
We all have an inner critic. One of the most surprising aspects of researching and interviewing successful people is discovering that each of them without question have their own inner critic. On the outside they seem to possess absolute confidence and you cant imagine that they possess any self doubt but underneath that exterior lives an inner critic just like the one that you have, the only dierence is that they know how to deal with their inner critic and it's this dierence that separates the life they have and the life you currently have. Let's explore how best to deal with your inner critic and use this knowledge to help you
towards achieving your goals instead of allowing this to sabotage them.
What is your inner critic? Your inner critic is not you, it's a part of you a very tiny part that originates from your primal instinct for survival. One of the key evolutionary aspects of mankind has been the development of our imagination. This key development has been an integral part of our behaviour and is so dominant making us the leading life form on the planet. We can visualise upcoming events which influence our decision making processes as opposed to most animals who only learn from experience. I have never placed my hand on a hot stove but I can imagine what the outcome would be and it wouldn't be very pleasant. Our ability to imagine scenarios has enables us to achieve greatness and turn dreams into reality, it's this ability that is the engine that powers our inner critic, but our inner critic has one considerable flaw. All its inner dialogue is based on our perception of the world and our place within this world.
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Critiquing the critic
Working with your inner critic
The intention of the inner critic is pure, it exists in order to prevent us from failing but if not dealt with correctly the critic serves another purpose which is to maintain our perception of our place within the world. Each of us has a perception of the world and our role within it. This perception is formed through our beliefs, our experiences, our values, our family and friends as well as the environment we occupy. This forms a series of self images. These self images is our minds perception of our worth in a particular situation. The number of self images are as numerous as the situations we find ourselves in life. We have a self image for our job or our role as a partner in a relationship among many other self images. Our inner critic uses these self images as the basis for all inner dialogue. These self images are perceived as safe zones so any imagined behaviour that takes us beyond a current level of one of these self images is perceived as a risk so the inner critic starts to become more vocal in order to avoid this perceived danger. By way of example you may be doing well in a position at work and an opportunity arises for promotion yet if your self image is of you in your current position and you believe that's your worth then the idea of promotion challenges that self image so your internal self defence mechanism clicks in and doubts start to arise whether you can deal with the promotion. If not handled correctly the talk turns into subtle self destructive behaviour and you fail to get the promotion. Your inner critic believes they have saved you from failure yet in reality they have caused the failure to occur.
The key is to realise that you are dierent to your thoughts. It's you and no one else that determines the kind of life that you live and what you achieve in this world. Too often people accept their inner dialogue as the prominent voice in making decisions. Never forget that your inner critic exists in order to protect you from risk. Yet whether it's starting a new job or walking over to talk to a person you never met before at a party, nothing worth having in life is gained without taking risks. You have to decide what life you want to live. If you want a safe life and you are happy with being average, that's fine. Listen to your inner critic and you will be guided to this kind of life but if you are the type of person who wants to achieve everything you possibly can, then treat your inner critic as a positive force rather than like a nervous friend who is always looking out for you. Its time to convince this friend of yours that you deserve more in life and the self image of you is wrong. There are many techniques that I use as part of my coaching to help improve the mental performance for my clients but if you want to know which is the most eective tool, it is simply to act. If self doubt exits you need to take more action, work harder and work dierently to achieve your goal. You will be surprised that the more action you take the quieter your inner critic is.
"Doubt is only removed by action, if your not working then that's where doubt comes in" Conor McGregor UFC Featherweight Champion
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