I was sad to hear that Greg Dearsly was stepping down at NZISM’s president. He and CEO Selena Armstrong have changed NZISM from a random group of people that I resented paying my money to, to a professional organisation that I am proud to be a part of. Of course, I was going to dial into his swansong webinar ‘Not Safety Leadership’.
There was so much information presented, rather than my usual ramble; I’d like to highlight my 9 key takeaways from the presentation and recommend that if you are reading this, you take the time to watch the full webinar.
Top 9 Leadership Training Takeaways
- Leadership is a verb: It’s about physical acts and ‘doing’ something rather than having a title or expecting people to listen. Sometimes, it’s our role to support others when they have their leadership moments.
- Leadership moments: Sometimes, leadership is about being a good citizen, standing up and ‘doing’ something at the right time.
- Be a mood engineer: Be grateful for small wins, ask great questions (think Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Psychology), and encourage others to keep asking questions. Also, remember to smile (it’s contagious).
- Be vulnerable: Being vulnerable is not being weak. It’s ok to not have the answer, and your vulnerability will breed trust within your team. See Brene Brown: Daring Greatly
- Soft skills are harder to learn than technical skills. Working on your soft skills will help you build influence.
- Influence: Your ability to influence people allows you to create a web of relationships that will support you and your team. The cornerstone of influence is the ability to be a humble listener and to be respectful and curious about other people’s perspectives.
- Resolving conflict: If you are facing conflict, or find yourself getting ‘triggered’, get curious.
- Describe what is happening
- Flip the situation around to what it would look like if everything was going well
- Reframe the situation so you can work out how to reach a positive outcome.
- The value of your team: Take time to get to know your people – their strengths and unique set of skills that they bring to the team. I found Greg’s download on this invaluable and realised that I had never formally done this with any of my teams. See – TEAM UNIQUENESS CHARTER.
- The value of diversity: Celebrate differences and build a strong team by including people who have different backgrounds, life experiences, education, philosophies, etc. Make it ok for your team to disagree.
Noho ora mai Greg, you have achieved so much and brought a wealth of knowledge to NZISM. Best of luck with your new endeavours and I look forward to seeing how you influence the NZ Health and Safety profession in the future.
As always, if you have any thoughts on leadership training or anything to add to this blog, please call me on 0272 007 680 or email sarah@employmenow.co.nz.
P.S. I hope you appreciate that I always end my blogs with a call to action.