Motivation Bite Size - Job Security

In tough economic times when job insecurity is a concern for so many people, the prospect of job security is high on the motivational scale. When jobs are plentiful, this is much less of an issue.

But as leaders and managers of people what can we do to positively affect people’s job security?

The first thing is to focus on helping your people to become high performers, making them a valuable asset to the company. This will be particularly relevant if an organisation is using a matrix methodology to select employees for redundancy.

The second thing is to help your people to develop new skills and capability. This will not only enhance their performance capability and reduce the chances of redundancy but also, it will help them to find a new job should the worst happen.

Of course, a really effective people leader will not wait until tough economic times to implement these actions – they are a core part of the leadership role. And if you have been paying due attention to performance and development issues during the good times, your staff will have much better employment prospects right now than those less fortunate souls who have been working for an ineffective manager.

And if the worst does happen and you need to lay off any of your staff members, do everything you can to support them through the process, including generating job leads via your network and providing some level of career counselling at the point of exit. You might also want to stay in touch with them as they could form a useful part of your network going forward. Providing this type of support is not only a decent thing to do but it will also have a motivational effect on your staff that remain - i.e. having a leader who genuinely cares and tries to support their team members.


Simon Cooper is cheif executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the best selling leadership development book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Motivation Bite Size - Money

To what extent does money motivate people in the workplace?

Certainly, money is the reason why most people come to work in the first place but once they are there, is it really a key motivator? My own experience is that for most people it is primarily a short-term motivator. Consider if your employer awarded you a 25% bonus tomorrow. Sure, it would be nice and you would probably feel pretty motivated but for how long? When would the effects of that bonus wear off and other factors become more important to you?

What about if a new employer offered to double your salary? Would you accept the job without qualification? What if they wanted you to relocate? What if they wanted you to work seven days a week? What if they were financially unstable? I’m guessing that while the extra money would be attractive, it wouldn’t be the sole motivation.

When money does tend to be a primary motivator is when current earnings are not enough to sustain a reasonable lifestyle. If someone is struggling to pay their mortgage or feed their family, money is never very far from their agenda. But once our earnings are sufficient to take care of our core lifestyle requirements, it is rarely the primary thing that motivates us.


Simon Cooper is Chief Executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the best selling leadership development book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part Six

Previously in this series we have looked at the five stages of the coaching cycle; instruction, demonstration, practice, observation and feedback. But knowing how to coach is only half of the equation. Perhaps one of the greatest barriers to staff receiving the coaching they need is that the leader struggles to find time to coach – it is one of the most common objections that I encounter.

Most people would agree that coaching and developing staff is an important leadership activity but it is rarely urgent – nobody (apart from the staff member involved) is going to notice if you skip a coaching session today but all hell is going to break loose if you miss that project deadline! As a result, coaching doesn’t happen as often as it should and frequently managers will absolve themselves of coaching responsibility by sending people on training courses. We’ll look at the relationship between coaching and training courses in the next part of this series but for now, let’s just focus on how you can find the time to coach your staff.

Firstly, let’s be perfectly clear about one thing. If you are responsible for managing and developing staff, coaching is a core part of your job. No ifs. No ands. No buts. It is part of what you are being paid to do and the main way you can get your staff to perform at a higher level is to help them to become more capable. So, the bottom line is this – you simply have to find time to coach your staff. And here are some suggestions that I hope will help you find that time.

1. Schedule – Build it into your schedule (diarise it if you have to) in order to make a clear commitment to coaching your staff.

2. Delegate – Are you doing things right now that your staff could be doing just as effectively? Is it quicker to do it yourself? Are you hanging on to jobs you like doing? The more you coach, the more you can delegate – trust your staff and learn to let go.

3. Good Enough – Are you a bit of a perfectionist? Do you spend more time than you should on tasks to make them perfect? Can you do them quicker and to a standard that is still good enough? Well here’s the thing – good enough IS perfect!

4. Enjoyability – Are you spending more time than you should on some tasks because you enjoy doing them? Are prioritising these tasks ahead of coaching for the same reason? You don’t need me to tell you that more personal discipline might be required then.

5. Automate – Are there some tasks and functions that could be automated? What are you waiting for?

6. Negotiate – When you ask others to do things for you, do you build in some flexibility to the deadline ‘just in case’? Most of us do. So what does that tell you about some of the deadlines you are working to? Yep, there is often scope to negotiate the deadline and/or the work content in order to buy yourself some more time.

7. Innovate – Use your resources wisely. What tools have you got to help you coach? Are there are other people who could help out with some of the coaching activities. You don’t have to do all the coaching yourself but you do have to make sure it gets done.

There are few things in the leadership role that are more important than coaching and developing staff – yes there are some, but not many. You need to find the time to coach, see it as a core part of your job and prioritise accordingly.

In the next and final part of this series we’ll be looking at how you can combine coaching with training courses in order to make developing staff more effective and more efficient.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part Five

So far in this series we’ve looked at how to provide clear instruction, effective demonstrations, enable practice in a safe environment and the under-rated element of observing this practice. In this section we’ll be looking at how to make an effective coaching intervention and provide feedback to the staff member.

In fact, the very phrase, provide feedback to the staff member is wrong. This implies that feedback is a one way process whereas it really should be a two way discussion. Wherever possible, the staff member should be encouraged to review their own performance or progression in the task or skill area with a view to identifying what has worked well and what can be improved. The coach’s role is to ask great questions and listen actively. In Brilliant Leader I recommend the use of the communication funnel as a key coaching technique for such interventions.

Apart from being a two way discussion, what are the other aspects of a feedback intervention that we should consider?

1. Positive Reinforcement – It is vital that people understand what they have done well and why. This is much more than simply praising the individual. It is about helping them to understand the positive behaviours they have employed so that they learn when and how to employ these behaviours in the future.

2. Constructive Improvement – When something hasn’t gone as well as was intended, it is important for the staff member to understand what they needed to do differently and how. The key guideline here is that if they were to perform this task again will they be able to exhibit different and more effective behaviours.

3. Support Interventions – Often, a feedback intervention occurs because the staff member asks for help – usually because they encounter something new or different in relation to the task or skill area. In the early stages of the coaching cycle, the coach might simply provide a recommendation or even an instruction. However, as the individual becomes more accomplished, the coach’s role is to challenge the staff member to come up with their own solutions or recommendations. These can then be shaped, if necessary, before being ratified.

4. Timely – Coaching interventions should be timely. The longer it is left after the event before the staff member receives feedback, the less relevant the feedback becomes. This presents particular challenges for those who are coaching remotely. This might involve coaching via the telephone or video conferencing. It might also indicate a need to meet with the staff member more frequently or to involve additional help in the coaching process from those who are on the same site or location.

5. Motivational – While remembering that the purpose of a feedback conversation is for the staff member to learn, it is also important that the environment that is created is motivational and inspirational. This requires that encouragement is provided even when correcting or improving behaviour. The feedback session should finish on the development of an action plan or a summary of key points that will be taken away from the session and the coach should instil a sense of belief in the staff member that they can successfully implement and apply these actions.

The final point to make when considering the coaching cycle is to remember precisely that – it is a cycle and not a straight line process. The cycle will repeat less and less frequently until the staff member becomes fully competent in the task or skill area. This implies that coaching is an ongoing process not a one off exercise. To be clear on this, coaching is a fundamental part of managing and leading people – it is a core part of the job.

This will be an important point to note in the next part of this series we explore how to find the time to coach.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Colin Powell's 13 Rules of Leadership

With thanks to redruglot on YouTube.



Many leaders would do well to heed Mr Powell's suggestions and I thought it well worth sharing these.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part Four

So far in this series we have looked at how to instruct staff members in a task or skill area, provide effective demonstrations and enable opportunities for them to practice, ideally in a safe or non-urgent environment. An often overlooked and under-rated aspect of coaching is monitoring and observing how the staff member is developing in the task or skill area. This then, is our focus for the next stage of the coaching cycle.

One of the workshops I run frequently is presentation skills. These are highly practical workshops that involve a lot of practice and feedback. When a presentation has not gone entirely as planned, I will often ask both the group and the presenter how it could have been improved. While they often come up with some useful ideas, they rarely get to the root of the issue. And this is where I have to earn my crust as a coach – by not just observing what everyone else has seen but also, identifying what is happening and why. I have to see the things that other people haven’t spotted in order to suggest one or two changes that would transform the presentation.

This is at the heart of coaching observation. The coach has to observe what is happening and also what is not happening. They must see the things that others can’t and identify why things are happening. This enables them to provide feedback that gets to the root of the issue and enables the staff member to improve, noticeably, when they next try to practice the task or skill.

I believe this is an intuitive part of coaching and as such, it is difficult to be specific on how to develop this aspect of the coaching toolbox. However, I offer the following guidance.

1. Observe what is happening but more importantly, identify why it is happening.

2. Observe what isn’t being applied.

3. Ask the staff member to reflect on what you have observed.

4. Get to the root of the issue.

5. Don’t try to improve too many areas at once. Identify the base learning that needs to take place before building on this to improve the finer details later.

In the next part of this series we’ll be looking in depth at the art of providing feedback to staff with a view to reinforcing what they are doing well and improving things that could be done better.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part Three

Previously in this series we looked at how to provide staff members with clear instruction and an effective demonstration. In this third part of the coaching series, we’ll be looking at providing staff with opportunities to practice what they have learned. This requires that first we look briefly at the art of delegation.

Essentially, there are two reasons for delegating to staff members – firstly, to get the job done and secondly, to develop the individual. In delegating simply to get the job done you should primarily focus on ensuring the staff member is already capable of what you are asking them to do. Delegating to develop the individual is what concerns us here.

When looking to provide opportunities for the staff member to practice what they have learned, the leadership challenge is to try and create a safe environment. On occasion, there might be opportunities for safety to be created via a simulation but more often than not, safety comes by the delegation being in a non-urgent situation. This provides the coach with an opportunity to check work and provide feedback before it goes live.

Practice should also be timely. That is, it should occur shortly after the staff member has received instruction in the task or skill area (and optionally, a demonstration). If something is explained today and no opportunity for practice occurs until three weeks later, how much knowledge will have been retained?

In Brilliant Leader, I also make the point that practice should be graduated. That is, the practice should be made more complex in graduated stages until the staff member has developed completely in the task or skill area. The staff member also needs to know that support is available throughout the practice period although as we shall look at in the feedback part of this series, the coach will not always provide the answers.

Before we get to that aspect of coaching, we’ll be taking a brief look at the next stage of the coaching cycle – how to monitor and observe the staff member while they are practising. This will be our focus in part four of the series.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Why Training Isn't Working

A survey this week from the World of Learning that was covered by the British Institute of Learning and Development has identified 7 key reasons why learning retention is not being maximised by organisations:

1. Lack of learner buy-in
2. Lack of line management buy-in
3. Lack of clearly defined objectives
4. Lack of preparation
5. Lack of follow-up exercises
6. Lack of coaching/ mentoring
7. Lack of measurement

Organisations need to maximise the return on their training spend, more so in hard economic times than at any other. If learning is not being properly transferred back to the workplace, companies will not see sufficient value in their spend and budgets will be slashed. The World of Learning and the BILD are trying to address this issue at their conference on 19/20 November.

But let me be blunt. There is only a limited amount the L&D industry can do about this. The real issue is that many managers and leaders simply don't understand how to maximise their investment in training and development and the answer lies in those seven key issues.

Lack of Learner Buy-In
The person attending a training or learning event must absolutely understand why they are attending and accept this as a personal development area. It is the leader's responsibility to gain this buy-in by having an intelligent conversation with the staff member.

Lack of Line Management Buy-In
How many managers truly believe in the value of training? I still encounter way too many managers who simply don't get it. They only pursue any staff training because it is part of the performance and development review process and they address development needs by selecting training courses from a menu (with or without discussion with the staff member). Let's be clear, this is not developing staff, it is merely sending staff on a training course to tick a box that enables them to claim they are developing their staff.

Lack of Clearly Defined Objectives
This is part of the buy-in process. Once staff have agreed that they have a development need and that a training course forms part of the solution (along with about a dozen other possible solutions!), the manager should ensure that they are focused on clear outcomes that are targeted from attending the training course. This encourages them to take ownership of their own learning.

Lack of Preparation
I don't necessarily buy this one. There is sometimes value to be had from pre-course work (if it is done). Personally though I'm not a huge fan of pre-course work as long as the delegates are turning up with a clear focus. A professional trainer/facilitator can impart knowledge much more effectively than pre-course work - although I also understand that the current trend towards blended learning can improve efficiency and also engage the learner in advance.

Lack of Follow-Up Exercises
I don't totally buy this one either. The main thing people should take away from a training course is an action plan - what are they going to do differently as a result of attending the programme? This said, there is often some value in having a follow-on session with the trainer a few months after the event.

Lack of Coaching/Mentoring
Assuming that the person has attended the right course and assuming that the course was well delivered, the lack of coaching and mentoring is by far and away the biggest reason why training courses will lack impact. Virtually without exception, the manager should have a discussion with the staff member upon their return to work to discuss what they have learned and to explore their action plan. Opportunities for implementing their action plan should be established and support should be provided, as appropriate. While the staff member is implementing their action plan, the manager should be provide regular coaching interventions - what are they doing well and why, what could be improved and how.

You see, as a professional and experienced facilitator I can cope with a lack of buy-in, a lack of objectives and a lack of preparation because I will back myself to inspire delegates and communicate effectively with them. But what I can't do (unless invited to do so) is support them upon their return to work. The manager needs to do this. The lack of this coaching support was the main reason why I built a dedicated support mechanism into our Brilliant Leadership workshops but this is pretty unique in the L&D market place.

Lack of Measurement
This goes hand-in-hand with a lack of coaching support and the lack of a leader embracing the learning process. Training should not be measured by happy sheets at the end of a workshop. Training should be measured against the learning that has taken place. What were the learning objectives? Did the action plan meet or exceed the learning objectives? Was the action plan implemented successfully? Has their capability improved? If so, the development objectives have been achieved. As a result, performance expectations and delivery should be higher going forward.

Some L&D succeeds in spite of the manager rather than because of them. Some L&D succeeds because some managers really engage in the process and help to make it a success. But frankly, not enough. I didn't need this survey to tell me that many organisations were not getting maximum return for their investment in training - I have score upon score of anecdotal evidence already.

Right now, when the economic climate is at its most challenging, managers and leaders in the UK and around the world really need to engage wholeheartedly and skillfully in the learning and development of their staff. It is one of the best ways to get improved results in the short, mid and longer term.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leadership and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part Two

In the first part of this series on how to coach staff and how to find the time to coach staff, I looked at the instructional stage of the coaching cycle. The need for the coach to provide a clear explanation of the task or skill area by breaking it down into bite sized chunks, delivering a clear and unambiguous message while checking the staff member’s understanding.

An optional tool for imparting knowledge is the use of a demonstration. This primarily enhances the staff member’s knowledge and awareness of the task or skill area by enabling them to see how it is done by an expert or competent individual. However, like each stage of the coaching cycle, providing an effective demonstration is not without its difficulties.

For example, has anyone ever shown you how to do something on a computer? Explanation – Talk – Click! Explanation – Talk – Click! Explanation – Talk – Click! I’m sure most of us have been there and the net result is that we are rarely further forward than when the demonstration began and more often than not, we are more confused.

So how does a coach provide an effective demonstration?

Competent Individual or Expert?
The first challenge is to ensure the person providing the demonstration is able to exhibit model behaviour. The problem often encountered by experts is that they have progressed to a level of unconscious competence – they don’t even have to think about what they are doing. Often, the most effective demonstration will be provided by a competent individual – someone who can think about what they are doing at each stage. This is not to say an expert cannot fulfil the role but they must be able to increase their level of conscious awareness.

Step-By-Step
An effective demonstration will break the task or skill down into stages and deliver these in a step-by-step format, taking questions at each stage before moving on. This process should conclude with a joined up demonstration that brings all of the stages together.

Running Commentary
While providing a demonstration the coach should provide a running commentary that also allows for the staff member to ask questions as the demonstration unfolds.

Practice
While this is technically the third stage of the coaching cycle, an effective demonstration should allow an opportunity for the staff member to have a go at the task or skill in the presence of the coach. This will often include a summary of the issues arising from the demonstration before allowing the staff member to move onto the next stage of the coaching cycle – extended practice.

In the next part of this series I will explore further the challenges that are faced by both the coach and staff member in providing opportunities for extended, unsupervised practice in the task or skill area.


Simon Cooper is Chief Executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the unique and powerful Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Leadership Week - 28 Oct to 3 Nov 2008

Simon Cooper reviews this week's best leadership articles.

Wally Brock continues to inspire with his Three Star Leadership blog. In this week's gem (although delivered as more of a rant at a NYT article) Wally focuses on motivation in tough times. The great thing about Wally's blog is that it continuously encourages the reader to think and in my case, the writer to write.

Chris Young on the Rainmaker blog looks at five common reasons why CEOs do not share their vision. While reading this article it's worth considering whether your CEO shares their vision and more to the point, would it help you as a manager/leader do your job better?

On Leadership Turn, Miki Saxon explores the leadership silver bullet. This revolves around how managers can change their mindset in order to become true leaders. As anyone attending my leadership workshops will know, the development of leadership attitudes, values and behaviours is close to my heart.

On Mission Minded Management, Michelle Malay Carter makes some strong points about management accountability. The overriding impression for me was that shared leadership (of which I am a fan) should not be confused with shared accountability.

On his Community Blog Stephen Covey analyses trust between the leader, the organisation and the staff members. He discusses how easily it can be broken and goes on to explore the steps required to rebuild trust. This is a must read article, especially for anyone who is familiar with Dr Covey's 13 Behaviors of High Trust Leaders.

Why wait a whole week to see my top picks? Every blog and article listed here (and many more) are covered on our Leadership Toolbar - providing you with one-click access to everything you need to keep up to date with the leadership world, as and when it happens.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book Brilliant Leader and architect of the unique and powerful Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Coaching Staff - Part One

One of the key leadership activities in the workplace, especially for those with direct responsibility for people, is to coach their staff. But how do you do it and how do you find time to do it?

In this series I hope to answer both questions. To do so I will be putting a simple coaching cycle at the heart of the discussion. This breaks down as follows:

1. Instruction
2. Demonstration
3. Practice
4. Observation
5. Feedback

This cycle seems relatively straightforward but the reality is that there are challenges presented at each stage. So let us begin with the first stage of the coaching cycle – instruction.

When a staff member is new to a task or skill area, the first thing they need is to understand what they are meant to be doing, why they are doing it and how it should be done. This is the knowledge they need to gain but simple as it sounds, it has some potential pitfalls. The greatest risk is that the initial explanation might not be fully understood and even if it is, human nature will lead to memory gaps during the learning process. So how does the coach overcome and deal with these issues?

Context
Before providing instruction on a task or skill area, the coach should provide the staff member with a clear context. Why do you need to learn this? How does it fit in with the other tasks you are asked to perform? How does it fit in with the work of other team members? How does it fit in with other teams and/or the wider organisation?

Without context, it is much harder to fully understand the task in hand.

Bite Sized Chunks
The best way to provide instruction is in bite sized chunks, particularly for more complex tasks or skill areas. These chunks should be logically organised into building blocks of knowledge so that each new explanation is a natural progression from the last one.

Common Language
It is imperative that the coach uses language that the staff member understands. You need to be especially careful about the use of jargon or internal language.

KISS
Keep it short and simple (or keep it simple, stupid if you prefer). Don’t over complicate an explanation. It should be clear, concise and unambiguous.

Message Delivery
Make the message come alive by using examples, analogies and visual aids.

Check Understanding
At each stage of the knowledge transfer process, the coach needs to check understanding. There are several ways to do this. In some situations it might be appropriate to run a test or a quiz. In others it might be more appropriate to ask the staff member to summarise their understanding. A more subtle way of checking understanding is to have a conversation about how to apply this knowledge that culminates in an action plan – the conversation itself enables the coach to be confident that the understanding is accurate.

Reference Material
Ideally, the staff member will have access to reference material that will serve as a reminder to the knowledge they gained. This can take the form of procedure/user manuals, process maps, notes, intranet/knowledge transfer documentation or even a relevant book.

On the surface, providing instruction on a task or skill area appears straightforward but in practice there are a number of potential pitfalls. The guidelines above will help you avoid or navigate your way through these.

In part two I will be looking at the next stage of the coaching cycle - how to provide staff with an effective demonstration.


Simon Cooper is Chief Executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the unique and powerful Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Leadership Week - 20-27 October 2008

Simon Cooper reviews the week's best leadership articles.

There was a great article by Herb Kelleher this week, talking about his best lesson in leadership - be genuine. Faked behaviour is transparent from a mile away and people don't buy into it. There are many ways to become a great leader but the overriding factor is to be true to yourself and your values.

Wally Brock continues to produce excellent pieces in his Three Star Leadership blog. This week's gem focuses on the differing attitudes towards training and development between senior executives and HR professionals. Do we train to genuinely develop people or to keep the troops happy?

A useful summary by Miki Saxon of a recent Guy Kawasaki interview for the NY Times, including extracts of GIA (Guy's Index of Absurdity) from his recent book, Reality Check. As Miki says, it's not what Guy says that is so original but rather, the way he says it.

Writing on Leadership Village, Maureen Collins makes the point that the key to effectively managing performance problems is to gain a commitment to improvement, not to bully out a submission - how true.

John Agno continues his narcissist's leaders series with a a review of how to avoid the traps that come with this leadership type - including finding a trusted sidekick and seeking therapy (aka executive coaching)!

With the ELC Leadership Toolbar it is easy to keep up to date with the leadership world - the best articles, books, news, tools and more with just a single click. It's easy to install, 100% free and completely adware/spyware free. Why not improve your browsing experience today, it takes less than a minute to download and install.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

Leadership School

I had a fascinating dinner with a recently retired headteacher this weekend. He started off by asking me about the leadership workshop that I ran last week in San Francisco and also about the launch of Brilliant Leader, my new book. What followed though was a real eye opener for me.

He had headed a school (although it was technically branded as a college) that had developed a genuine leadership culture and delivered staggering outcomes as a result of this. An example he used was the cleaners. They were made aware of the school's vision, what they were trying to achieve, how they were trying to achieve it and most importantly, how their role fitted in with this vision. And this was the case with all staff and students throughout the school.

Everyone was encouraged to be part of the team pulling together to deliver the school's strategy. This included regular performance reviews, career/personal development discussions and an open door to ideas throughout the organisation. And when the school succeeded, the team's success was celebrated. Everyone, including the cleaners, were included in the celebration process. Individual success was also recognised through praise and reward mechanisms.

The net result? Everyone wanted to do well and so they did. Exclusions reduced dramatically, results improved likewise and everyone felt they were part of a community that was succeeding. It became one of the country's stand-out success stories and my dinner colleague spent the last couple of years before his retirement briefing headteachers up and down the country about how he went about developing a leadership culture.

It seems to me that lots of organisations and communities around the world would succeed more if they developed a genuine leadership culture. And the thing is, it really isn't that difficult. People respond to effective leadership. People respond to praise and recognition. People respond to being part of a team.

If the classic command and control environment of a school can produce transformational results by developing a leadership culture, then just imagine what can happen to a commercial organisation that follows this example. And with the threat of economic downturn becoming a reality, I would wager that companies who survive and even thrive in this environment are likely to have a strong leadership culture centred on effective communication, teamworking and recognition mechanisms that reward success.

The only note of caution I would add is that it must start from the top - that's where true leadership begins and it doesn't end until it gets to the bottom of the organisation.


Simon Cooper is Chief Executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops that set new standards in how to build, develop and lead high performing teams as well as helping organisations develop a genuine leadership culture.