Assessing the Environment - part 2

While the last episode was mostly for strategic level leadership and the process of consultation and assessment, this episode addresses entrepreneurs and team leaders who are in different fields such as social and community. Tune in to some great step by step in transformation Neocharismatic Leadership role #1 where you will surely move in the right direction.
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Chapters

• 0:50 We continue to discuss Assessing the Environment role from different leadership levels
• 1:21 Enabling leaders to address global problems
• 1:54 Entrepreneurial spirit drives 'The Search for Opportunity Stage'
• 2:30 The main prerequisites
• 3:00 Assessment of external environment is integral to any level of leadership success
• 3:46 Martin tells his experience in this role
• 4:04 How do you lead a start up group or venture into market with a product
• 7:09 How are you going to add value to other's work
• 7:29 Leaders helping his group and examining what strength they have
• 8:01 Leaders demonstrate learning and growing to their followers in this role too
• 9:43 How do you start asssessing the environment as an individual with aspiration or a team leader?
• 12:37 You will never know it all until you start!
• 13:17 How do you overcome the challenges?
• 14:00 The true mobilizer is you!
• 15:22 What is the best way to do strategy?
• 15:55 How do you assess the strategy?
• 17:34 Welcoming feedback on strategy.
• 17:59 Being a role model in accepting challenge and being flexible
• 18:02 Ghadah summarizes the role in three levels

Transcript

Introducer: 0:03

Welcome to this podcast series on Neo charismatic leadership with author, leadership expert and coach, Dr. Gather and Galloway and executive leader Martin Hedley, where they will both explore the recently published book, Neo charismatic leadership and the coaching topics it covers.

Ghadah Angawi: 0:30

Martin, we have discussed role number one, in the first stage, the search for opportunity in the last episode, which is assessing the environment, we were so focused on organisations and leaders at strategic level. But we promised our listeners that new charismatic leadership is applicable to different leadership levels, including entrepreneurs, team leaders, social leaders, I would like this episode to shed the light on this role in relation to other leaders in various fields and different levels.

Martin Hedley: 1:03

Yes, rather Good, I'm glad we have the opportunity to do this. Now. As I've mentioned, a couple of times in the past, you know, I find that with all of the problems in around the world, everybody has to step up to be a leader. So in order to be able to let them do that, we've got to address not just the big organisational leader, but the man or the woman in the street, frankly, yeah. And, you know, I, I've worked in very large organisations, but I've also run a couple of startup companies. And, you know, when you think about entrepreneurial ism, and even outside companies that come to think of it do, including some charities, they all have to start somewhere, right. And so that entrepreneurial spirit drives the drives the opportunity and builds a following, which eventually becomes an organisation. Yeah. So how do we create individuals that feel comfortable enough to just go out and share their expertise and their vision? and gain? Yeah, followers? That's what we'd like to? Yes, that's what I'd like to see. And I think that's where we need to go today, you know, how can this role be applied to them? Yes.

Ghadah Angawi: 2:18

So assessing the environment role is not solely for strategic leadership. It's also for individuals working in different fields at different levels. And I think there is three main prerequisites, again, that applies to every individual who wants to be a leader or who is in a leadership position, self awareness, vision, and empathy. And, you know, it's really important that an individual have these three prerequisites in place before they start building a team, or going out there and you know, trying to deliver a message, whether it's a social movement, or maybe just an influencing, you know, message on social media to be an influencer, this opportunities, you know, are there, what they need to do is have a good assessment of what it is like for them to be there, and who are their competitors, and what the market is demanding? Who are their clients who's gonna listen to them before you putting your idea out there in a start up, slow down your impulses, do not take every opportunity, there will be plenty of them, stop and do your research. It's painful, it takes time, you might want to go take a training course or you might want to follow someone who has some expertise in the field trial and error and small scale ventures, first get something right before you upscale.

Martin Hedley: 3:49

Yes, that's that's certainly the right way to do it. My experience has taught me that, you know, and let me give you a bit of a background, I have the attention span of a golden retriever sometimes. So I tend to get onto the new shiny object and just ran with it. But what I have learned is, you know, you can stand up in front of a group of people and say something great, like, I'm going to solve world hunger Who's with me? And you'll have a pretty good group that sign up and say, yeah, I'm with that, you know, what do we do? And then when they realise that you don't have a plan, half of them will disappear. And then within a few weeks, when they realise you don't have any ability to deliver, the rest of them will disappear. Yeah. So you'll be basically not leading because everybody's left. So how do you how do you bridge that massive gap between you're going to solve world hunger to nothing? And I think what you're saying is that people who want to start a new idea, do need to do some research, but they've got to balance this. Okay? You don't want it to take so long that everybody gets into research paralysis and actually achieves nothing. So what the leader has to do is to watch the team as they grow. So if I went out there and I said, I have this really big vision, I want to achieve this. And 10 people say, yes, that is really good, I'd like to be with you. And then within a few days, you can share with them a sort of roadmap of how you're going to get there, then they're going to say, Okay, this is credible. Yeah, I can, I've got some skills that will help you know about project a, somebody else has skills that help project B. And what the leader is doing is looking at all of this and saying, Okay, I've got 85% of my skills covered. There's another 15%, I need. So I've got to go out and find those people. Similarly, I've got to make sure that I've done a reasonable amount of research, and that I know what's missing. So I don't have to learn how to fix that today. I just have to know that it's missing. Mm hmm. Because as you progress, as you become a leader, and others are supporting you, and providing you information and feedback, you will realise, ah, now's the time, I really do need to step aside and learn this. I can't put it off any longer. And there's nothing wrong with doing that. Yeah, you have to understand that it's got to be done. And so, you know, one of the things that I hate in any startup group, again, whether it's charity or business, it doesn't make any difference. You find, after about six to nine months, that somebody not two miles down the road is doing exactly the same thing. And they've got their own group, because they've already got their own group cultures, and they don't particularly want to merge. And so again, the fizzle goes out of both. And what really would have been good is if those two leaders had actually done their research, and just asked a few questions and find out who's around who's doing this, yeah, and say, Oh, well, I've got a plan for this. You've got to plan for that. They overlap some, but there's different ideas here. Perhaps we can put that together? You know, that's the value of research, being aware of who's around you. And in the early stages, can they help you?

Ghadah Angawi: 7:18

Yes. And I have one more thing to add. How are you going to add value to the work that they're doing? How are you going to differentiate yourself? What is it that you will bring differently? That will make it stand out the whole idea of what you're trying to do?

Martin Hedley: 7:37

Yes. Oh, I think it's that that's very important. I mean, that is what the leader does, isn't it that the leader is looking at the individuals in the group, and seeing what they're achieving? Or what they're not achieving? And it's helping them? So they're saying, Well, you know, if you, I don't know, let's say, they're putting a website together, and they say, Well, if you speak to so and so she can help you with how to do this webpage. Okay. That's, that's an easy thing. And the individual on the team will be happy to go and do that if one condition is met. And that is that the leader is also recognising those things when they have a shortage of knowledge. And they are themselves going out to fill that knowledge gap, when I know the leader is going to fill their own knowledge gap, then I'm quite happy to go out and fill my knowledge gap that the leader pointed out to me. So what the leader is actually doing here is not the same thing as the individuals, because back, basically disempower them, couldn't it, what they're doing is they're looking to encourage they are looking to, to read a little bit more to sound a little bit more knowledgeable. And you know, if that requires consulting, coaching, learning, what just research on the internet, it doesn't matter. When the leader goes back to that individual and says, Well, I found this out. And so now we know a little bit more, that individual is far more likely to respond to feedback, yes, in a positive way.

Ghadah Angawi: 9:09

Yeah. So you're talking about being a role model, or the other individuals around the leader making an example of how you are going to grow yourself, meanwhile, proposing to them the idea or the vision, and in the same time, you're actually influencing their behaviour. So you are actually being a leader before even the project started before even everything else, just by the act of interacting with others and bringing them in into your idea on the vision. Speaking of assessing the environment, what does that mean in terms of an individual contributor or an entrepreneur or a simple team about to do a start up? How do you do that? How do you start

Martin Hedley: 9:55

a very good question there because that is the piece that stops many people from even trying to be leaders. They don't know what it takes to start, well, it doesn't take a lot. If it's a business, then yes, you will need a business plan because at some point, you're going to have to either get money from a bank or from investors. So you better have a pretty solid business plan, which shows some kind of return on investment. If it's not a business, let's say it's a charitable thing, or community related endeavour, or even just a group of friends getting together to achieve something special. Like, for example, you know, rowing across the Atlantic, that takes a team, there has to be some kind of a plan, which says, this is where I am, this is where I'm where I've got to get to, here are the major things I need to achieve to get from A to B, then the question becomes, well, have I got it all figured out? And the answer, of course, is always No, because nobody can ever figure it all out. What we do have to do is say, but look, let's have a quick look around the landscape to see who might be competing weather. So who might be trying to do the same thing? Okay. The next thing is to look at the sometimes the geographical environment, you know, what, what is that? going? What role is the the geography of the place going to have, you know, how easy is it to transport things? Yeah, how easy is it to communicate with others in the team, those those sort of things. And then you want to look at who might try and stop you from doing this wonderful thing. There's, you know, just because you have a great idea doesn't mean that others all automatically agree, it's a great idea. So. So there's that. And then finally, you know, what reasonable risks are you likely to face? So obviously, if you're working on a project, outdoors in the southern states of the US, like Alabama, or Louisiana, for example, in September, and you're not planning for the possibility of a Harken, that's pretty silly, because one will come. And it's just a matter of time. Similarly, you know, if you're working in the mountains, say, of, of Oman, you know, communications along the roadways are excellent. But what you don't have to go very far from the road and you can't communicate. So if you're building something out there, how you're going to get messages quickly through to the people that are working your project. Yeah, you know, these are the sort of risks and they'll all be specific to what you're trying to do. But the fact is, you will never know all the competitors, until you start, you will never know all the risks until one materialises and, of course, half of the assumptions that you make, probably wrong. Yeah. That's why there are assumptions. Yes.

Ghadah Angawi: 13:05

So this brings us to the idea of continuous evaluation, continuous assessment. And this is just not for only organisations but also for individuals. So yes, individuals need to plan they need to have a strategy, they need to have a strategic plan or a business plan in place, depending on where they're going with their initiative. But this all sounds like overwhelming for some people. And the answer to that is, you have to invest in a supportive environment for yourself, you have to surround yourself with a group of entrepreneurs who have been through different issues and different challenges. You have to hire a coach, business coach, leadership coach, you have to hire a business consultant, that will walk you through the process from the beginning to the end. If you can get free surfaces, like in the USA, sometimes you have some organisations that offer free seminars, free summer universities as well. They have support for small businesses, go ahead and take that. Nevertheless, it's not going to happen just by you sitting there and writing your vision and surrounding yourself with a group of humans a Hey, let's do that. It's not as simple as that. The world is complicated. But if you have enough determination to pursue your goal, you will eventually arrive there. Because that's all what it requires. Your intrinsic motivation. you'll believe in what you use, and what you can offer to the world.

Martin Hedley: 14:39

It will, it will and what what amuses me with my business experience, for example, is how we go to great lengths to teach people about continuous quality improvement or process improvement. companies spend a tremendous amount of Money, making sure that everybody knows how to make the procedures that they're involved with, a little bit easier and a little bit simpler all the time so that you cut costs, and with a straightforward model. And yet at the same time, we teach, or we do strategy, as if it's a once every year thing, or once every three things, um, strategy, the planning of it, you only do really once until it changes dramatically. And then all you're doing is checking off the boxes as you're going through your plan saying, Oh, this works, this didn't work, this work, this didn't work, and hopefully making adjustments. But this is where many companies fall down. So, you know, there aren't that many role models out there for our individual entrepreneurs who want to do it for themselves. Okay, I understand that probably just over just under, I should say, probably just under one half of all the assumptions you made in your strategy will either be a little bit off base, or possibly completely wrong. So it would be silly not to go back and say, Gosh, what have we learned in the last three months? What have we learned in the last six months? Is this strategy viable anymore? If it's not, then just eliminate it, or come up with another strategy. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to change direction, particularly with an entrepreneurial company, because you go out to the market, and you try something. And, you know, the market says, We love it, it's a great idea, we would love to adopt that technology, or software or whatever it happens to be. But then they say, but it's got to go through all these regulatory hoops, it has got to pass certain criteria. And then of course, you have to be added on to this organisations vendor list, that can be a three to four year project. And you say, oh, okay, we've got a product that works right here. But between a product that works, and a customer actually being able to buy it is a little period of four years, which is going to be very costly. So, you know, this is some of the intricacies, I suppose you could predict a lot of that. But you know, there are many, many quite high priced consultants out there that help companies understand regulatory process and things like that. And even they will tell you, at the best of times, we will try and get you as close as possible to a clean audit the first time, but we can't guarantee it. So even those that do this day in and day out, can't guarantee on the results. So as an as a new leader, we've got to say, I welcome feedback, which tells me it's not working, because I need to go back and adjust the plan. And then when the people see you actually adjusting the plan in response to feedback, they believe in you, your integrity is going up and they learn.

Ghadah Angawi: 18:15

They learn. We have so far discussed the three scenarios and the first stage the search for opportunity, the strategic level, the team leadership, and individual entrepreneurs. And yes, coaching is important. It will help you see through all these mazes, find your way and adjust yourself new charismatic leadership is about exploration, learning, and the willingness to persevere and continue to take the challenge. So until we meet next time, this is the end of our episode. Thank you very much for listening to us. Thank you, Martin.

Martin Hedley: 18:51

Yes, thank you. Bye bye.

Introducer: 18:54

Garda and Martin. Hope you enjoyed this episode. There is more information available at Neo charismatic leadership.org. And if you would like to discuss coaching or training for yourself or your team, you can contact Garda and Martin through the website. We look forward to your participation next week. Until then, goodbye