VNA - Leadership by Design

25/12/2021

08/07/2021

*** Gareth Southgate: an example of inspirational leadership ***

It has literally been a lifetime since the England football team last made a championship final. We don't know if England will win the European Championships final this weekend. But we do know we are watching a set of players that has played as a purposeful team like virtually no previous England team has done.
Some of the credit for that must go to their manager, Gareth Southgate. Despite his studied understatement he is becoming one of the most iconic figures in world sport.
And much of that is down to his leadership style. Business writers have been noting for a couple of years now that Southgate's style is a textbook case of how leaders create high-performing teams that are more than a sum of their parts.
Here's a short checklist:

- He strives to create and sustain the right environment for performance, a judicious mix of fun, and intelligent hard work .
- He keeps people, his players and staff feeling involved.
- He has always insisted that his players must feel that they are in a safe space where they can express themselves and be heard.
- He doesn't necessarily believe in disruption for disruption's sake but his environment stays open to fresh thinking.
- He has created an unusually diverse advisory group, which keeps it from becoming an echo chamber.
- Because of all this his leadership is credible and respected.

Ultimately there's more to footballing success than just that, of course. Success in this great game is a complex and challenging business.

But so many of these lessons resonate perfectly with the work we do at VNA. We use these lessons and more, to develop leaders to be the best versions of themselves, to think and work smarter, and to build and inspire great teams as they negotiate the complex and challenging world of their work.

https://www.vnaconsult.com/gareth-southgate-an-example-of-inspirational-leadership/

22/06/2021

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 ‘𝗭𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲’ 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝘅𝗲𝘀

Videoconferencing has made it possible to work remotely during the pandemic. But working on platforms like Zoom and others has been shown to be stressful in ways that we had not anticipated – the process is intense and exhausting, we can feel tied down physically and there is a taxing cognitive load of constantly trying to interpret and generate non-verbal communication that is not dissonant.

Several organisations are working on institutional guidelines for better, less stressful and productive video conferencing. While the answers are still evolving, here are some suggestions that can help what people are referring to as “Zoom Fatigue.”

https://www.vnaconsult.com/four-causes-for-zoom-fatigue-and-their-simple-fixes/

26/04/2021

Faulty thinking patterns that lead us astray can happen to the best and the brightest among us. Though common and easy to slip into, they are luckily not hard to spot and fix. At VNA our coaching engagements often help leaders step up to the next level by identifying and working past these barriers to success.

https://www.vnaconsult.com/5-irrational-thinking-patterns/

30/03/2021

Listening to people is a supremely effective way to get more out of them. But it’s not easy to do it right. Many of us listen hypercritically, leaping in with nit-picking, rebuttal or worse, confrontation. This is terribly unproductive of everyone’s time, and possibly damaging to any future interaction. The good news is that it is not hard to work around. In our coaching and leadership development practice we work with many tried and tested techniques of presence and mindfulness to help leaders achieve the most positive outcomes for themselves and their organisations.

https://www.vnaconsult.com/defending-against-predatory-listening/

15/03/2021

The impact of the pandemic on how we interact with others has been huge globally. As some countries open up again cautiously, we renegotiate who to spend time with and how we interact. But people are discovering unexpected hurdles, such as in reallocating quality time from their immediate bubble back to people they don’t know so well, such as in work relationships.

Here are some learnings on how we may circle back towards being more social: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210218-why-we-may-have-to-re-learn-to-socialise

https://www.vnaconsult.com/why-we-may-have-to-re-learn-to-socialise, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210218-why-we-may-have-to-re-learn-to-socialise

With socialising at a near halt during the pandemic, our social muscles have atrophied. We may have to re-train ourselves to be with others again – but how?

17/02/2021

Last week Vicki Nicholson had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jamie Anderson for this Cycling Life. Here is the link https://youtu.be/94LzQ3p60C8 if you would like to watch the video and here is what she said about the experience:

I first heard of Jamie as a world-class master's cyclist, with multiple victories in international competition. But he's also a busy management guru, advisor and business school professor, working at several faculties, including Columbia Business School. Antwerp Management School and INSEAD, among others. He couldn't have been better placed to interview me about my own efforts to juggle the competing needs of running a full-time business career with the relentless demands of training at a high enough level to compete at international level. As often happens with such interviews, after I watched it, I recalled many experiences that I wished I had shared at the time. Here is the top three:

· When I went for my first international Gran Fondo qualifier in Dubai in 2015, hundreds of us lined up in the very early morning at the start in the pitch dark. The organisers decided that all the women should line up at the front. The flag went down and the race started and it was an insane scramble as many of the men behind literally pushed us out of their way to get to the front!

· When racing in the Masters World Championships finals in Albi in France in 2017, it was a longish downhill section that was the most terrifying. I knew it was essential to stay with the bunch but riding over 60km/h in a large group, riders just centimetres apart, was no joke for a relatively inexperienced amateur like myself.

· One of my most eye-opening moments was in 2014 taking part in Rás na mBan, Ireland’s biggest women’s race, and watching Tayler Wiles win. Tayler was heading on to the World Championships to represent the USA a couple of weeks later and is now a top professional, one of the key riders for the mighty Trek Segafredo team. The difference between someone of that caliber and what I had experienced in my very limited racing career was simply jaw dropping!

How do these experiences equate to leadership? It is by taking the leap and putting yourself into that zone of discomfort and the unknown that you learn quickly. If you bring the right attitude, you can even learn from extreme experiences like going up against elite professionals at the top of their game. I started racing late in life but the big race experiences, even the “failures” where I did not finish where I would have liked or even finish the race at all, enabled me to quickly gain so much rich experience. So the question to ask yourself is: 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 “𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀”? 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘇𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝘀𝘁?

In this interview Vicki Nicholson talks about her discovery of riding bikes relatively late in life, and her path to competing at the highest international l...

08/02/2021

Why are smart, accomplished women often told they're not strategic?

This article highlights a common problem that derails the career path of so many capable women, across industries. There is a structural bias at work here, but it can be overcome.

Our Strategic Thinking™ and one-on-one coaching offerings are designed to help leaders successfully navigate past these obstacles into the senior leadership positions they deserve.
Do contact us for more information on how programmes like these can help you or your team achieve their potential.

https://www.vnaconsult.com/why-are-smart-accomplished-women-often-told-they-are-not-strategic/

18/06/2020

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗲𝘆𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽

Which leaders have been the best at getting people on board with their plans to tackle the coronavirus crisis?

It's the ones with the shortest, most memorable messages. Like these: Stay Home. Stop the Spread. Support Our Doctors.

“Finding the Right Words in a Crisis” is an article by Carmine Gallo that talks about the keys to being credible right now. You can find the full article here: https://hbr.org/2020/04/finding-the-right-words-in-a-crisis. This quote sums it up: "The clearer and more concise you are, the better your chances of getting your message across and persuading people to act on it."

𝗕𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿. 𝗕𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳. 𝗕𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

That's exactly the focus of our Think on Your Feet® programme. This successful programme has been helping managers and leaders to get their ideas heard, absorbed and acted upon, the world over.

To learn more about how Think on Your Feet® can help your organisation, do contact us.

10/09/2019

Next week, on September 17, we are hosting another short and free webinar to learn more about Think on Your Feet© and how this can benefit your organisation.

Please check the link for more details!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/think-on-your-feet-webinar-communicate-with-clarity-brevity-impact-tickets-72199786505

19/08/2019

An eye-catching and provocative headline, but there's solid science to back up that claim. Mindfulness meditation is an important element of many leadership development programmes, and it's an integral part of the globally successful Search Inside Yourself programme that we offer.
Neuroscience shows that 50-year-olds can use it to develop more grey matter in many parts of the brain, as much as people half their age. It works much like regularly exercising a muscle makes it stronger. And when your brain boost happens in areas like decision making, working memory, stress management and emotional regulation, it's a no-brainer to see what an advantage that gives you in the workplace.

A healthy brain not only supports your intelligence, but emotional regulation, stress level, and other things that support your professional success.