7 Steps E-Book

PERFORMANCE AS A BUSINESS LEADER

STEPS TO PEAK

www.theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com

PI Leadership

My first book is titled “PI Leadership – The 7 Positive Insight Steps To Peak

Performance Leadership” which you can purchase from Amazon or by contacting

us directly.

In the book I use my 20 years plus experience of working as a leader in business,

8 years’ experience working as a business leadership coach, my academic studies

in psychology and the experience of developing my business to bring what I

believe will be a very useful book for you, as a leader or aspiring leader in business.

It is my firm belief that developing a positive mind set and approaches to the 7

key areas of leadership will have the biggest impact on your success. This relates

to the concept of Positive Insight (PI) – how much time we spend viewing

ourselves and our situation positively and acting on this. This is at the heart of our

leadership development model, PI Leadership™

So what does peak performance as a business leader look like?

It starts with a focus on your self-leadership. Working continually to keep

your thinking positive about yourself and what you are looking to achieve.

Keeping yourself motivated and energised, with a strong sense of self belief.

Secondly, it is about having a strong personal identity, an identity and

character as a leader that will gain respect and loyalty. It is also about

building an identity for your organisation that will display you in the most

positive ways.

It is then about developing a clear direction for where you intend to go. A

shared vision that is ambitious and inspiring.

Fourthly, it is about seeing your people in a positive way, engaging them

closely on the journey to success and continually developing them to get

the best from them.

It is about the way you communicate on a daily basis. Making sure you

come from a place of empathy and understanding, so you can build positive

long lasting relationships within your organisation and outside.

The 6th step is about influencing people to take the right action and selling

your ideas, services and products so they can make a true difference to

others.

And finally it is about continually planning, delivering and serving people so

that your promises and goals are realised.

I hope you enjoy the journey.


Realising your true potential as a leader (PI

Self Leadership)

The journey to peak performance as a leader starts with one very important thing

–you.

Positive Insight relates to how much of your focus on yourself, others and

situations is supported by positive viewpoints and behaviour. This is as opposed

to thinking and acting negatively. And we all do think negatively, I’m sure you will

agree. In the book I go into this in more depth, but suffice to say that much of

this thinking is under the guise of keeping us safe and not taking risks. It’s also

internalised negativity that’s come from parenting, the media and other

experiences. The most important fact is that we don’t need to own it.

I have a simple model for handling negative thinking:

o It has an important message that’s alerting you to a risk and you should

take note of it and act on it o It is a perspective that can be shifted to a more positive one o It is complete nonsense! When you raise your awareness and observe it,

you realise it can be ignored.

I also go into a range of other approaches to deal with the more negative side of

our thinking, but it’s key we develop some techniques to handle this.

Obviously on the flip side, it is crucial to maximise our positive thinking. This is

the foundation of the “Positive Psychology” movement that launched in 1998,

when psychology flipped from having a huge focus on problems of the mind, to

seeing how the mind can be our strong ally. I am proud to be a member of the

International Positive Psychology Association, as this is a big focus of what gets

me up every day in my work as a leadership specialist and business psychologist.

On the positive side I will touch on two things here. One is Neuroplasticity.

Neuroscience has developed dramatically over the past 20 years, so we can now

identify what is going on in areas of the brain when we are thinking in specific

ways. What has been found with neuroplasticity, is that our behaviour can adapt

and change different parts of our brains (taxi drivers have a more developed

hippocampi that relates to spatial awareness for example). So your neurology, or

in simple terms your brain, is not fixed. So we can all shift our thinking and

mental abilities.

The final thing I’ll leave you with in this area, is the concept of shifting your

filtering. Your tendency, when going about your day, will be to focus on and be

alert to the negative. Again this relates to our fight, flight or freeze responses. But

a range of fascinating research has found that you can work on your perceptual

filters to focus on the positive that is going around you. So as a simple exercise,

spend the next 21 days taking note of 5 positive things that happened in your day.

This will shift your filters more towards the positive and you will therefore start to

become much more alert to the positive opportunities and events around you.

I have done this for over 2 years and it works.


Developing your positive identity (PI culture

and identity)

Now we turn to step 2 (and chapter 2 of my book) – developing your positive

identity. Your identity can be split into three potential areas: your personal

identity, your identity as a leader and the identity of your organisation.

It’s important to raise your own self-awareness to gain an insight into who you

are and how you operate. This is one of the cornerstones of Emotional Intelligence.

An interesting insight into your own personal identity can also be gained from

psychometric testing. We use a basic form of the Myers Briggs and DISC profiles

(two of the more widely used tools) to give an initial insight into this, but you can

invest in getting the complete profiles analysed.

An area that may be available for you to develop also, is your expert

positioning or your level of authority in the profession in which you do

business. This is a core part of the identity that people will connect with as you

build your network and connections. So what are your strengths, qualifications or

experience that will form a strong part of your identity? What is your story as to

how you have arrived at the place you are now? People will connect with all of

these items.

Building from this is your identity as a leader of your business, but we will cover

that in step four – how you lead your people.

The final part of the identity triangle is the identity of your business. Many

people think a brand is a logo, but it’s so much more than that! I believe it’s worth

you focusing on 3 very important things in this area.

The first is the big “why” you do what you do. What is the “purpose” of your

business? Getting close to this and having it at the heart of what you do will drive

you and any people in your organisation through the ups and downs. It will also

connect with your potential customers. What would make you truly proud if people

said this about you and the way you do business?

The second area to focus on are your organisational values. This will be the driving

compass for you on your journey. What are the 5-7 key values that you and

everyone must be accountable to and live and breathe? You can then use these

to recognise positive performance and recruit people against.

Finally, what is your value proposition? This relates to how you can positively

differentiate your business in the market place? What makes you special? You and

I know you are, so how do you communicate this to your potential customers?

Building a positive individual and company identity is not straightforward, but

it’s at the heart of how you will be seen and whether people will want to develop

a relationship with you and your business. It really is worth the hard work!


Knowing where you are going (PI Direction

and Strategy)

Our journey to peak performance as a leader continues with step 3 – having

a clear positive vision of where you’re going that’s shared with everyone.

In simple terms, as a leader of a business you need to know the point B you aspire

to reach from the point A where you are now. If you don’t define this clearly, your

days may well be spent going off at tangents that aren’t the best use of your time

or the time of others. It really is all about focus.

Creating your future direction actually starts with some clarity on where you are

now. Your point A. A good tool for this is a classic SWOT analysis. What are the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relating to where you are right

now? In the PI Leadership model we use a SWOTT, which also includes the

developing “trends” in your market. However you do it, carrying out some initial

analysis will be very important in plotting the direction for the future.

I would strongly recommend including your team in these discussions too, as they

will provide greater insight. It’s also vitally important to involve and engage them

in setting the course for the business, as only through engaging them will you get

the very best from them (more of that next week).

To set your future vision, look 3-5 years ahead and set some targets or results

you would like to achieve in the different aspects of your business. But then come

up with one clear defining vision that will inspire and motivate everyone.

For example Amazon’s vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company.

What is your vision for you and your business? Bill Gates once said we

underestimate what we can achieve in the long term. So remember to think big

because, with your Positive Insight firmly set in the positive, your potential is

so much greater than you believe.

It’s then important to look at your mission. Which is “how” you will achieve your

vision. What are the behaviours and things you need to do to realise your vision?

Harley Davison’s mission statement is to fulfil dreams through the experience of

motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding

line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market

segments.

What are the key parts of your mission?

When you have the future vision and mission clear, it is then about bringing this

into the short term. I am a great advocate of 90 day planning, to ensure you

keep on track to your vision and long term goals. Take note though that Bill Gates

also said that we over estimate what we can achieve in the short term!

So I would recommend “thinking big and delivering realistically”.


In achieving your strategic vision and short term goals, remember you also need

to measure progress and re-plan and be flexible in your journey.

One method I spoke about previously, to keep you inspired on the journey is to

see your x-spots. Reaching your destination will have challenges on the way, but

the clearer you are on where you are going and why, the more likely you are to

get there.

http://theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com/2014/05/found-x-spot


Getting the very best from your people (PI

People Leadership)

Working with people can be both one of the most challenging and rewarding

aspects of your role as a leader. The science of management is more focused on

setting tasks and managing them to see that they are done. The art of leadership

is another matter entirely.

So in Step 4 I’d like to share a few thoughts and ideas from the book on how you

can develop peak performing teams.

As a leader you will need to serve your people, as well as direct them. This

may feel a little strange, but when you see that your role is fundamentally to get

the best out of your people, then doing all you can to make them as productive

as possible is a key part of your focus.

Servant leadership is about moving from an authoritarian approach to a

participative leadership style. This will involve employees in decision-making,

increased delegation and increasing the influence and responsibility of

your people. So how well do you serve your people and what can you do to

empower them more?

As a leader you will also need to develop your emotional intelligence in the

areas of relationships. So how well do you empathise with and understand the

views of others? This is the foundation to relationship management and the

stronger you are at empathising with your people, the better the working

relationship will be. Building on your emotional intelligence will also allow you

to flex your leadership style to suit the person and the situation.

One style does not fit all with great leadership and you will need to adapt

your style and know when it is right to direct, coach, be more democratic and use

other approaches to get the best results.

Leading people is also about how well you reinforce the right

behaviour. There was a piece of fascinating research carried out by psychologist

Marcial Losada, where he examined the performance of teams in 60

businesses. One factor was a strong predictor of the performance of these

teams. The amount of positive feedback as opposed to negative

feedback. The tipping point was found to be 2.9013, well let’s say 3:1 as we are

friends! So teams needed to hit this ratio to see improvements in performance. In

fact peak performing teams thrived in an environment with a ratio of

6:1. Feedback is so important, but when did you last give your people positive

feedback and do you make this a consistent part of your leadership behaviour?

Not only will this build a positive culture but it will drive results.

This is the tip of the iceberg of what I cover in the book on this subject, as this is

an area I feel passionately about.

The more you trust, engage and encourage your people the more enjoyable your

working environment will be. It will also improve individual and team results.


Understanding and being understood (PI

Communication)

Almost everything you do in business is done in relation to other people ultimately.

Whether that be your suppliers, your customers, the people you work with or

people you build relationships with in a general sense.

So in this Step 5 I’d like to share a few thoughts and ideas from my new book on

how you can ensure you’re communicating in the most positive way.

Communication actually starts with a focus on understanding others first.

Empathy is your starting point here, as it is important to understand someone’s

position before getting your message across. This works with customers, where

we need to understand their issues and needs first. It relates to our people, where

we continually need to appreciate their position. It’s difficult to get our messages

across if we treat the other as a blank canvas, so always look to understand first.

One great tool for this are our 6 friends, the open questions – who, what, where,

why, when and how. Make a conscious effort to build these into your

communication and relationships, so you can “open” people up more and find out

more about them first. These are very supportive in developing your empathetic

skills, which will help you to stand in other’s shoes and see things from their

perspective.

In communication too, how much time are you spending emailing when you could

be speaking on the phone or face to face? How much time are you spending on

the phone when you could be speaking face to face?

Research has shown that 55% of our communication is down to body

language, 38% is down to tonality and 7% to the words we use. This would

mean that email is leaving out 93% or our communication! Now I actually believe

the research is too old and flawed to generalise in this way, but the important fact

is that we do need all three forms of communication to effectively get our

messages across.

This is why I encourage any business to bring their teams and people together at

least once a week to share messages using all three forms of communication. The

meetings can be short and focused, as should all meetings be (more of that in the

book!) and doing this will make them a worthwhile use of everybody’s time. Don’t

become a business whose culture is based too much around email

communication. Use more human styles of communication to engage

people – present, meet, face to face and phone calls.

And sometimes that communication will be you standing in front of a group of

people to present! This may make you twitchy, as 75% of you will have

glossophobia, a fear of public speaking (the most common phobia!).

Presenting yourself and your business in the best possible way is, in my

experience, one of the top 5 business skills to have. To become a stronger

presenter it’s about focusing on 6 things:


To prepare and plan effectively. It’s said by some that this is 90% of your focus.

Whatever the % figure, this is critical and will help with point 2.

Building your confidence. You can see a previous blog on this area here.

Work on skills to engage your audience and keep them interested.

Use your voice and language to land your messages clearly. Telling stories is a

really good way to support this.

Use your body and all the physical tools to support you well. This includes flip

charts, props, presentation slides and of course you!

Finally keep a really strong focus on the results you want to achieve. Begin with

the end in mind, as Steve Covey would say. Then work hard to achieve those

results.

Communication is at the heart of everything we do in our businesses, so working

on this skill truly is time well spent.

http://theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com/2013/11/biggest-fear-public-speaking


Getting decisions and making sales (PI Selling

and Influence)

Your skills as an influencer are fundamental to how well you sell and reach

agreement with others.

So in this week’s blog I’d like to share a few thoughts and ideas from my new

book on how you can ensure you’re influencing from a place of integrity whilst

getting decisions.

PI Selling and influence is about seeing what you do for others in a positive way.

It is also about seeing the need to move people into action in a positive light

too.

I’ve referred to the term “human selling” before, but this means keeping a focus

on your purpose and the big “why” you do what you do. It comes from a place of

service rather than manipulation. Many people bristle when you talk about sales,

but we all need to influence others to get decisions made in all aspects of life –

business and personal.

Keeping a strong eye on why we do what we do, will help us influence without

manipulating. When we sell we should always be solving a problem or helping

someone else with a product or service that we truly believe is of value to that

other person. If we come from this place, then using some influencing skills to

help move people out of procrastination and into helpful supportive action is a

good thing.

Here are examples of just 4 influencing techniques, which originate from the

famous book on influence by Robert Cialdini

1. Scarcity – we are all more likely to move into action if there are only so many

of something or they are only available for a period of time. So where can you

build scarcity into your sales process? 2. Authority – People are influenced by perceived authority. So how can you raise

your game and your level of authority? Writing, speaking, results? 3. Recommendations – How many strong testimonials and recommendations do

you have and how extensively do you use them? 4. Contrast – How you can you show what can be achieved working with you in

comparison with another way of getting the same results that would take more

time and/or money?

The book goes into influencing techniques in more detail, but just check what you

are doing against these and think how you can change your approach.

Also, when selling and influencing we need to keep a strong focus on the results

we bring to others. Not features and not even benefits as such. Results with

hard evidence are the very best. I have worked with a client over a 12 month

period when their turnover has gone up 109%. I have worked with another client

who has now reached the top 100 companies to work for in the Sunday Times.

These are tangible results that others will want. Keep tracking the results you

bring and make sure you use them to influence others to make decisions and work

with you.


If you know you are coming from a place of integrity, it is good to use closing

techniques in your sales process too. Have you ever heard of the Ben Franklin

close? Otherwise known as the balance sheet close. You can find out more about

all of these in in the full book, but for now have a look into some closing techniques

that you can use to get agreements to work together rather than have people

thinking about their options forever!

We are all selling and influencing every day, even if we don’t fully realise it.

Working on your influencing skills to ensure this is done with integrity, from a

place of serving and helping others, is extremely important to your long term

success.


Making things happen and providing the best

service (PI Service and Delivery)

In this final chapter I’d like to share a few thoughts and ideas from my new book

on how you can deliver on your great ideas and serve your people and your

customers as best you can.

Planning is the foundation piece for how well you will deliver and serve people.

How much time do you set aside for this? Do you take your great ideas and build

them into an action plan? A long term strategic vision and 90 day planning is

a crucial element of this.

Once you have your plan, delivering against this means keeping a constant focus

on your priorities and managing your time well, as we all know how precious this

is. How much control and planning do you build into your day to day schedule? I

encourage all my clients to close down each day and create a plan for the next,

so there is a clear target.

Your delivery will also be impacted by your habits. Therefore it is good to take a

look at the things you are doing on a habitual basis that are not productive and

address this. It is also good to look at some habits that would allow you to utilise

your time more effectively and then bed these in (warning – it takes 21 days to

bed in a new habit so keep committed!).

This is just a flavour of what you can do to deliver on our plans.

Let’s now spend a little time looking at service. One of the most important driving

values we have at the Leadership Training Workshop is to “do what we say we

will do always”. Remember this doesn’t just apply to your customers but to your

people too. How many business leaders fall at this hurdle and how much would

you stand out with your clients and people if you used this as a guiding light for

your behaviour and service of others?

Related to this is the notion of feedback. When serving your customers or serving

your people (as a servant leader), seeking and acting on feedback will make a

huge difference to your results. Build client reviews into your calendar and ensure

that feedback is a key part of this.

It is also time well spent to look at the way you do repeatable processes. Have

you systemised what you do or are you continually doing this in an adhoc way?

Not only will this take longer, but the end result will not be of a consistent quality.

Therefore start with one area of your business and build in step by step processes

to carry this out in a systemised consistent fashion. Obviously introducing

technology to do this is worthwhile too.

These are just a few ideas to help you deliver and serve as well as you can. Finally,

it is also important to keep the positive energy levels up for you and your people.

Motivating yourself and your people to keep on track needs PI Leadership and

recognition of all the good results on the way.


About Tony Brooks and The Leadership

Training Workshop

If you have found this eBook useful, please get yourself a copy of the full book

from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/PI-Leadership-Positive-Insight-

Performance/dp/0992688957/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=143565855

8&sr=8-1&keywords=pi+leadership or by dropping us a line.

If you would like any help in putting all this into practice, whether this be working

with you individually or working with your teams, The Leadership Training

Workshop and I are here to serve you.

If you need a speaker on leadership for your event it would be great to talk,

Check out my website or the company website:

www.thetonybrooks.com


There are plenty of useful blogs and news on events for you.

Email to:

[email protected] or [email protected]

Give me a call directly on +44 (0) 7912143 040.

I love my work and it would be a pleasure to get to know you and help in any way

I can.

Thank you.

Tony

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PI-Leadership-Positive-Insight-Performance/dp/0992688957/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1435658558&sr=8-1&keywords=pi+leadership



http://www.thetonybrooks.com/

http://www.theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com/

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7 Steps E-Book

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