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Leader’s Kitbag – Feb 2020 edition

Hello and welcome once again to the monthly Leader’s Kitbag!

As always, this month features a combination of created and curated leadership insights and learning opportunities for you and all in the Kitbag Community.

Having explored a few format ideas with several of the more participative members of the community, we’re going to try a new layout today, and in the next few editions of Kitbag and ask for your feedback as we go.

So, what are we keeping, what are we changing and why? 

We will absolutely keep the elements that help you sort the content into your preferred medium (watch, read, listen) as well as the ‘time to view’ indication as we’ve had consistently positive feedback on these fronts. What we’re changing is the orientation of this content, and shifting it to be grouped in 4 new areas. Why are we doing this? Partially to answer a question we get asked a lot – what are the 4i’s? – and partially to let the answer to this flow more frequently through all of our work. As you’ll see below, the sections are Imagine, Ignite, Immerse and Inspire. I’ll let the section intro’s speak for themselves, but if you do have any questions about this, or feedback in general, please do hit ‘reply’ and let me know your thoughts.

As always, I hope you’ll find the recommendations here interesting, insightful and enabling to both your learning and your leadership journey.

Be well, lead well, and lead towards a better world,
Tim

Imagine…

Photo credit Jeremy Beck on upsplash

Imagine a better world built by your leadership. This content is visionary, strategic or futuristic in nature, looking at the road ahead for leadership.

To listen – 70mins – a podcast I guested on late last year with US-based Wally Carmichael, where working towards a better world was a topic the host and I very much aligned on. Listen on apple podcast or via Wally’s site here

To listen – 2hrs35mins – I know I know, 2 and a half hours? Really? Well yes frankly. Contained therein in this Best of Pt2 of the Rich Roll podcast is a compilation of some of the most  imaginative and impressive conversations with such an array of leaders in a vast range of fields that if you can find 30mins on 5 commutes this week to tune in to this, I’d say you’d have the best use of your morning journey to work you could ask for! Tune in and tell me I’m wrong…including conversations with Russell Brand, Paul Hawken, Ryan Holiday, Cal Newport and many more.

Ignite…

Photo credit Ismael Paramo on upsplash

Ignite your potential to lead to your utmost ability. This content is intended to be pragmatic, actionable and applicable to your leadership today.

To read – 5 mins – from Atlasian on promoting remote teams and Virtual leadership, this article shows a prevalence of this kind of working in the Smart Company top list this year. 

To read – 16mins – This article from Medium on what the author believes many successful leaders have taken out, removed or simply don’t do.

To read – 10mins – At the start of a year, post-break and fully revitalised, is now the right time to be talking about stress? Let alone burnout? Well, I’d say absolutely! When we’re at our best, most refreshed and determined, is a perfect time to get ahead of a problem and preemptively put steps in place to mitigate, more even remove, the potential for burnout in the year ahead. This recent article from HBR sets out the case for what a major problem burnout is – recently recognised by the World Health Organisation – the cost and organisational impact of it, and what steps we can take to prevent it.

To read – 4 mins – an idea I found really interesting, especially having had this training myself early in my career, in an article here on how CPR training for leaders can help them take the initiative, overcoming what the author describes as ‘bystander effect

Immerse…

Photo credit Stephan Cosma on upsplash

Immerse yourself in our deep exploration of a focal leadership topic. Month by month, we at 4i are examining a key area of leadership’s impact and contribution.

This month; Performance. Lots more to follow on this through the month, so please take a look on our LinkedIn and additional social platforms. We’re launching the monthly focus this month, as we move forward there will be more I can share ahead of time in the Kitbag. For now, please be contented with these two;

To read – 5 mins – my article here on our Insights page, a reflection of my own experiences with team performance being influenced primarily by the style, behaviour and capability of the leader.

To read – 4 mins – here from Forbes on leadership behaviour which drive results, and how few leaders have the right mix.

And also given the recent bushfire activity in Australia, a special mention on climate and these fires in particular…

To read – all 7 articles 2hrs – a great review in HRB on why climate matter for business, what role business can play, where to start and how to move forward, beginning here in Part 1 -Leading in an Era of Climate Action, the first of a 7 article series.

To read – 5 mins – a short but insightful article on the BBC around the major climatic shifts influencing the drought which has made fire conditions so hazardous.

To read – 20 mins – and if the BBC article above get you thinking and you’re keen to know more, as I was, this article by two leading Australian researchers goes into even greater depth. 

Photo credit Clarke Tibbs on upsplash

Inspire…

Inspire yourself or others who you may share this with.  Examples of great leadership, in particular what I call ‘Better World Leadership’ from the world at large.

To read – (whole book, took me around 6 hours) – Our Better Angels by Jonathan Reckford. From start to finish, this recount of Jonathan Reckford’s experiences with Habitat For Humanity is full of inspiring stories of leadership, service and contribution to a goal and a vision far greater than any one person. Discussing the 7 primary values of the organisation, and how these transfer into the work they do in communities across 70 countries, and transmit far beyond the scope of merely putting a roof over and walls around the heads of those in need.

To read – 5 mins – with more and more companies taking a stand one way or the other on climate change, some are very much leading the charge on being proponents for positive change. Microsoft announced as reported by Fast Company here that not only are they moving towards being carbon neutral moving forward, but are planning to offset all the carbon they have ever produced. 

To read – 11 mins – I must confess it’s taken a fair bit of conquering of my own imposter syndrome to firstly write, then publish this article here on Medium, let alone include it here in the Inspire section. I do so based not on my view of myself as providing inspiration, but on the commentary I’ve received especially in LinkedIn that the story I tell of two experiences I’ve had with natural disasters has done that, inspired some of those who have read it to take action and make small steps every day the path they share with me in making progress with climate.