Are you a leader seeking clarity and effectiveness in today’s ever-evolving landscape?
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by the mounting expectations and complexities of leadership?
Despite your hard work, do you sometimes feel like you’re not making the impact you’d hoped for?
If so, watch our webinar, which will empower leaders like you.
Why watch?
In a world where leadership is more diverse and remote than ever, navigating the commercial landscape filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) is challenging. The modern leader is not only expected to lead but also to adapt and execute effectively amidst rapid changes and information overload.
Join us for this insightful session where we will explore:
Purpose: Learn to engage your team with a compelling “why” that drives motivation and alignment.
People: Discover strategies to build and nurture a high-performing team that thrives in any environment.
Productivity: Master the art of executing plans and delivering results through others, even in the face of uncertainty.
What You’ll Gain:
Practical insights into the evolving role of leadership.
Tools and strategies to enhance your effectiveness and productivity.
Clarity on how to lead with purpose and build a cohesive team.
Is it for me?
This webinar is perfect for current and aspiring leaders eager to enhance their leadership skills and navigate the complexities of today’s business world. Take advantage of this opportunity to redefine your leadership approach and gain valuable insights from experts who have worked with leaders worldwide.
The New Manager Workbook is the perfect companion to the New Manager Playbook. Turn your learning into practical application of the shared tools, advice and guidance. Download links on page 2
How to set the right tone and make your first few weeks count
Becoming a new manager can be daunting; there are many practical things to do, and before you know it, you’ll be deep in the detail. You will find it hard to resurface and ensure you’re focused on the right things. This playbook guides you through your early weeks to get you off to the best possible start.
Despite its potential to significantly enhance growth and efficiency, many organisations struggle to make cross-functional collaboration work. The obstacles—ranging from competing agendas and egos to miscommunication and untested assumptions—can derail even the best intentions. However, by prioritizing stakeholder engagement early, fostering diverse perspectives, and addressing challenges proactively, organizations can unlock substantial improvements in performance. This executive summary highlights the critical importance of collaboration, offering actionable strategies to navigate common challenges and achieve greater cohesion and productivity.
Improving cross-functional relationships and collaboration arguably represents one of the most significant organisational growth and improvement opportunities – why, then, are organisations not addressing this?
Perhaps it’s not so surprising when you consider the layers of competing agendas, egos and infighting, conflict, misinformation, and backchannelling. Added to that, there are the self-imposed elements of assumptions, personal limitations, and poorly articulated business cases that, despite having merit, never see the light of day.
I remember my first major change programme, where an entire team was ignored because we didn’t think the change would affect them. We overlooked their wants and needs for this significant change. We assumed they’d be fine and would get on with it. The decision was a mistake; the Department Head used their influence to block the change for their team. The project team had to regroup and rethink. This delayed the project, and chunks of the scope had to be removed to hit the delivery date.
Over the years, we have built and delivered countless leadership programmes for organisations across the globe. We include a business challenge to help with the application of learning, exposure to the wider business, and delivery of value back to the business. I love working with leaders, yet it astounds me that they never seem to grasp the importance of engaging stakeholders. We even share the experiences of previous groups’ successes and failures. Yet despite these warnings, they still trip over the same things as those that have gone before.
Business Challenge in Action
We see it constantly; take a recent business challenge we ran. One project group identified a business-wide project that could transform employee engagement. They formulated compelling business benefits: increasing productivity, boosting employee retention, and promoting the brand in local communities.
The group got their plan together and ran it by their mentor; they were all set and approached a large department representing a third of the workforce. Having them on board would make a wider rollout easier. When they presented their ideas to the Head of Department, they assumed their excitement would be shared, but they hit a brick wall. The Head of Department highlighted obstacle after obstacle, insisting they go away and fix it. The group were understandably disheartened.
In the learning review, we explored what they could have done differently. How might they have engaged the stakeholders differently, gaining the department’s perspective? What assumptions did they make? How might they have felt had the boot been on the other foot?
This experience is a microcosm of how organisations do business every single day, and there is immense learning on offer. Failing to collaborate and engage stakeholders causes unnecessary delays, missed milestones, wasted time, effort, and resources.
We are all guilty of making assumptions, from whether someone will get involved or not to whether someone has the time, knowledge or skills, or not to be able to help. We may not even like them or want their help, even though this may be us cutting our noses off to spite our faces. Our egos can get in the way.
We avoid ‘difficult’ personalities; we circumvent them or bury our heads in the sand, hoping they won’t be an issue. But inevitably, they are, and this creates roadblocks and wasted time. If someone ignores your needs or fails to engage you, you will feel like making things difficult.
Learning from Experience
No one likes changes imposed on them; we want to be involved, to feel that you have listened, heard and understood our perspective. Involving me in change in this way helps to gain my buy-in and increases your chances of success. The ‘people factor’ is a major cause of change programmes failing to achieve their intended outcomes. So, what’s the answer?
When the business challenge group reflected, they quickly realised they should have engaged and involved their stakeholders earlier, making buy-in easier. They recognised their excitement for their project, but it was not matched by the department head because they had their own issues and priorities to focus on. They weren’t excited; instead, they felt ambushed. Involving them earlier would have helped them feel the time had been taken to understand their department’s challenges, and they might have offered solutions. They may still have resisted, but the plan could have been adapted much earlier. Instead, they lost time, had to replan, and took longer to realise the project’s benefits.
Consider my experience of large-scale projects. If we had not cut corners, we could have explained what was happening, understood stakeholder needs and engaged others in making it work. This would also have avoided us delivering a substandard result.
In my experience, not engaging stakeholders well or, worse, ignoring them will catch you out when you least expect it. It’s far better to be proactive; you may as well spend more time getting them on board early rather than trying to recover later.
There are no shortcuts to involving people, so why not do it early and confront the issues up front? This way, you can engage with them on the solution and find ways to modify your approach for mutual success.
For many businesses, the ability to collaborate and execute effectively is underwhelming at best, and yet they still get results! Imagine if they got their act together and collaborated better—they’d be unstoppable!
My key learnings over the years are:
Explore who could help and who could get in your way.
Engage stakeholders early, be proactive and build relationships.
Start every interaction from their perspective – ‘seek first to understand’, as Stephen Covey says.
Have a plan to influence others and mitigate potential blockers.
Focus on the ‘why’ when presenting your ideas and goals/ Don’t get hung up on the how; be flexible and bring any conflict back to the ‘why’.
Don’t do all the work; involve stakeholders in solving problems; they probably have a better view.
Test, test and test assumptions, beliefs and biases.
Be aware of your self-talk; your mindset, if not managed, will trip you up.
This article first appeared on Forbes.com on 5th September 2024
Ricky has been a regular contributor to the Forbes Councils since 2023, where he shares his perspectives on all things leadership, change, culture and productivity, all with Thinking Focus’ unique perspective on metacognition, or as we prefer to say, thinking about thinking.
As a leader of large teams and departments, you will know that leadership isn’t just about hitting targets and managing people. It’s about unlocking the potential within your teams and, just as importantly, within yourself. In an environment where the only constant is change, how you lead makes all the difference between just surviving and truly thriving. That’s why I’m excited to share our Leadership Blueprint—a powerful tool designed to help leaders like you break through the barriers that often hold you back and drive real, meaningful change.
Why the Leadership Blueprint Matters
In my experience working with organisations across various sectors, I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is for leaders to get caught up in day-to-day operations, often at the expense of strategic growth and personal development. The pressures of managing large teams and hitting KPIs can sometimes overshadow the importance of continuous leadership evolution. But the truth is, if you’re not growing, you’re stagnating—and so are your teams.
Our Leadership Blueprint addresses this head-on. It’s not just another leadership guide. It’s a strategic tool designed to help leaders navigate the complexities of modern business while fostering an environment where individuals and teams can excel.
What Sets Our Blueprint Apart
1. Mindset First: You will have encountered those moments when your own thinking becomes the bottleneck. Our Blueprint emphasises the importance of mindset as the foundation of effective leadership. It offers practical ways to shift our perspectives, challenging the self-limiting beliefs that can hold us—and our teams—back.
2. Actionable Change: While changing your mindset is critical, it’s equally important to translate those shifts into tangible actions. The Blueprint provides step-by-step guidance on how to embed these new ways of thinking into your daily leadership practice, ensuring that the impact is not just theoretical but real and lasting.
3. Alignment with Organisational Goals: Leadership is more than personal development; it’s about driving the organisation forward. Our Blueprint ensures that as you evolve as a leader, your growth is aligned with your organisation’s broader strategic objectives, creating a ripple effect that benefits everyone.
What You’ll Gain from the Leadership Blueprint
The Leadership Blueprint is for leaders like you— who oversee large teams and departments tasked with managing, inspiring, and driving transformation. Here’s what you can expect:
Self-Assessment Tools: Understand your current leadership strengths and areas for development with actionable insights focused on areas where you can grow.
Tailored Action Plans: Develop a personalised roadmap that aligns with your leadership aspirations and your organisation’s goals.
Insightful Case Studies: Learn from peers who have successfully implemented these strategies in real-world scenarios.
Continued Support: Access resources that keep you on track, ensuring your leadership journey is ongoing and adaptive to new challenges.
The Path Forward
Leadership is about more than maintaining the status quo, especially at the helm of large teams and departments. It’s about driving significant, positive change. Our Leadership Blueprint will support you, providing the tools and insights necessary to elevate your leadership game and, by extension, the performance of your entire team.
I encourage you to download the Leadership Blueprint today and discover how to unlock your leadership’s full potential.
This leadership blueprint is a powerful tool designed to help experienced leaders, those new to the role, and those aspiring to join the leadership ranks. It will help you break through the barriers that often hold you back and drive real, meaningful change. As a leader, you will know that leadership isn’t just about hitting targets and managing people. It’s about unlocking the potential within your teams and, just as importantly, within yourself. In an environment where the only constant is change, how you lead makes all the difference between just surviving and truly thriving.
This leadership blueprint is a powerful tool designed to help experienced leaders, those new to the role, and those aspiring to join the leadership ranks. It will help you break through the barriers that often hold you back and drive real, meaningful change.
As a leader, you will know that leadership isn’t just about hitting targets and managing people. It’s about unlocking the potential within your teams and, just as importantly, within yourself. In an environment where the only constant is change, how you lead makes all the difference between just surviving and truly thriving.
Is Your Company Culture Adversely Impacting Your Business?
Join Ricky Muddimer in our latest video, which explores the crucial question that every business leader should ask: “Is your company culture working for you or against you?” With alarming statistics from Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report, we uncover the financial and people impact of poor employee engagement and what it means for your organization.
What you’ll learn:
The true cost of disengaged employees to the global economy.
The difference between engaged employees, quiet quitters, and loud quitters.
How poor employee engagement affects productivity, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.
You can fine-tune four dynamics to transform your company culture and boost organizational success.
Why watch?
Nobody wants an out-of-sync team or company culture. This video offers actionable insights and strategies to help you identify and address cultural issues before they derail your business.
We work so hard to climb the ladder that often, we forget to consider what it really means. In this webinar, we cover what it means for you personally, the mental demands, what it means for the things you care about and your bouncebackability – resilience to you and me. We’re so keen to get started we rarely consider these four pillars. These slides accompany the webinar; you can access the recording here.
In this webinar, Ricky Muddimer shares ‘What they don’t tell you about leadership.’ In just under an hour, you will gain invaluable insights into leadership’s hidden impact and consequences and learn how to prepare yourself for your next step. Discover the four pillars you must understand as you head in any leadership role. Are you ready?
Seize this opportunity to supercharge your leadership journey! Take our free leadership health check to see where you stand against the four pillars:
In today’s fast-paced business environment, the quest for productivity is relentless, but the path to unlocking it isn’t always obvious. Leaders and managers often juggle conflicting priorities and are distracted by new technologies, shifting market conditions, and the pressure to deliver results. However, true productivity doesn’t come from doing more; it comes from doing what matters and doing it well!
This article reveals the secret to highly productive teams and individuals by exploring three crucial components: Brilliant Basics, Distractors, and Accelerators. How you navigate these “three swim lanes” will determine whether you and your team make meaningful progress or simply spin your wheels.
“Sometimes you need to slow down, to speed up!”
You’ll discover how to sharpen your team’s focus on the fundamentals that drive success, eliminate the distractions that slow them down, and strategically leverage tools and innovations to accelerate performance. Drawing on real-world examples and actionable insights, this article will equip you with the mindset and tactics to lead your team to extraordinary results—without getting caught in the productivity traps that derail even the best intentions.
If you’re ready to unlock your team’s potential and achieve breakthrough performance, this is a must-read for you.
In the quest for highly productive teams, it’s essential to understand the interplay between three critical components: Brilliant Basics, Accelerators and Distractors. How you choose between them will make or break your, and your team’s, performance and productivity.
The Three Swim Lanes Of Productivity
Brilliant Basics are the fundamental practices that lead you to success. They are the steps in a marketing funnel, an operational process, a project delivery or a sales process.
Following consistent steps leads to a desired outcome: an implemented project or a financial transaction.
Brilliant Basics are the repeatable steps that will, more often than not, achieve the desired outcome.
Distractors hinder your progress. They might be a lack of discipline in following your Brilliant Basics, a lack of attention to detail or a missed step in the process.
Or they could be a mindset. You convince yourself it can’t be done or there’s a better way, or you become bored and switch off.
There may also be someone or something redirecting your focus. Your boss might ask you to look into something, a competitor might unexpectedly make a move in the market or trading conditions might change. Distractors feel like swimming against the tide—expending effort without making headway.
Accelerators are enhancements we hope will boost performance. They could be new technologies, innovative methods or strategic initiatives that accelerate teams’ progress toward their goals.
The challenge is assessing whether they could become a distractor, taking you off task and away from your brilliant basics.
Productivity Traps
Several traps derail even the best-laid plans:
Self-Inflicted: Teams can be their own worst enemies. Unhelpful mindsets and the “magpie effect”—constantly chasing shiny new objects—prevent progress.
External Influences: Market changes, disruptive technologies and competitive pressures serve as distractors if not navigated properly.
Authority Bias: When a senior leader champions an accelerator, the success criteria may soften over time or even get overlooked.
Festering Distractors: When things are allowed to worsen, the flow against you increases.
Accelerators That Don’t Pay Off: I remember implementing new software in a sizeable financial institution, but leadership became impatient. This led to the withdrawal of promised functionality, and the intended benefits went unrealised.
Real World Examples
I coached a leader in the U.K. healthcare sector whose many priorities were limiting their productivity. So, we used the swim lane analogy to simplify things. We clarified their goals, understood each one’s importance, and categorised tasks and activities into three lanes:
What should they be doing that will lead to the desired outcome?
What tasks added no value to the end goal or limited their time and attention?
What shiny new things were they being drawn into?
In this leader’s case, there were plenty of distractions, and their boss was a magpie, constantly asking them to look into something shiny and new.
First, we focused on their boss. The need to please or fear of saying no to authority can be a real problem. How could the leader build a story of impact and consequences to make saying no easier?
Coaching upwards helps leaders understand internal conflicts and compromises and their impact on their team and organisational goals. Through this process, my coachee gained a clear perspective on what matters and what is impactful. They defined a plan to eliminate, mitigate or delegate distractors so they could focus on their key deliverables—their brilliant basics.
My key learnings over the years are:
Explore who could help and who could get in your way.
Engage stakeholders early, be proactive and build relationships.
As Stephen Covey says, start every interaction from their perspective – ‘seek first to understand’.
Have a plan to influence others and mitigate potential blockers.
Focus on the ‘why’ when presenting your ideas and goals/ Don’t get hung up on the how; be flexible and bring any conflict back to the ‘why’.
Don’t do all the work; involve stakeholders in solving problems; they could have a better view.
Test, test and test assumptions, beliefs and biases.
Be aware of your self-talk; your mindset, if not managed, could trip you up.
In another example, our business built and delivered a sales leadership program for a global med-tech company. They had installed the latest CRM system; however, resistance was causing low adoption, so leadership requested a training program.
It became evident that the “why” was missing—the sales teams believed the new program was meant to monitor them, while the business wanted the sales team to see how the CRM could be an accelerator for all.
But right then, the CRM wasn’t an accelerator but a huge distraction. We helped the sales leaders understand the relationship between basics, distractors and accelerators. We focused on the basics and how they could use them to help their teams be brilliant.
“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” —John W. Gardner
Refining Your Brilliant Basics
In the second example above, we asked the med-tech sales team to define their sales process’s key activities and tasks. They quickly identified things that added no value, like spending time on customers with no intention of buying and not spending enough time with customers who could or might buy.
The penny dropped for them as they realized the importance and significance of CRM—to them! It could help them determine which opportunities were worth pursuing, track all their activity and ultimately determine how best to spend their time.
The Secret To Productivity
The secret lies in knowing what creates value—your outcomes. Focus on what inputs create the outputs that lead you to your desired outcomes.
Brilliant Basics: Find that sweet spot between quantity and quality; how do you do more of what you need at the highest quality?
Eliminate, mitigate or delegate anything limiting your time on Brilliant Basics.
Avoid chasing the silver bullet. Focus on what consistently works rather than seeking quick fixes.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, suggests working out what you’re good at and focusing all your energy on that. He calls it the ‘hedgehog principle’. Brilliant Basics are your hedgehog; focus on perfecting them first and foremost.
Senior professionals can drive their teams toward exceptional performance and success by refining the basics, mitigating distractors and strategically leveraging accelerators.
This article first appeared on Forbes.com on 26th June 2024
Ricky has been a regular contributor to the Forbes Councils since 2023, where he shares his perspectives on all things leadership, change, culture and productivity, all with Thinking Focus’ unique perspective on metacognition, or as we prefer to say, thinking about thinking.
