Leader’s Kitbag – September 2019
Hi and welcome back to the 4iGroup monthly Leader’s Kitbag – our compilation of items to help leaders learn, lead better and thrive themselves.
September already? It won’t be long before the Christmas lights are out! I hope you’re all having a great year and looking forward to the run into the festive season. For the moment though, let’s focus on the here and now – Happy Father’s Day to all you fellow Dad’s, like me doing their best to set an example to great future leaders!
This month we continue our regular broadcast format, dividing our recommended intake across various mediums so you can immediately head toward the area which is both most accessible to you, and best suits your learning style.
It seems that our provision of ‘how long this will take’ indicators has been beneficial, so we’ll continue with that moving forward, and thanks to all who got in touch to let me know this helped them decide which content to commit their time and attention to.
As usual, a quick welcome mention to some new subscribers to our community who have joined us since last month’s note;
– Paul, good to see you signing up mate, it’s been a long time since we saw each other, hope all’s good with you and the family.
– Kelly, likewise great to see you joining the community, I hope the operation has gone well and that we’ll be talking soon once you’re back on your feet!
To everyone, thanks in advance for your time and attention devoted to the Kitbag, as always I welcome your comments so do reply if you’ve got any thoughts or suggestions on this month’s recommendations.
All the best,
Tim & all at 4iGroup
To watch
A medium-length TED (10mins) from Simon Sinek, which I came across a few weeks ago and really enjoyed – that focusing on making your team feel safe will provide a real benefit to productivity and contribution, building trust is the key – click here for the TED talk via youtube
To read
A quick read (10mins) and an insightful article on the multiple ways embracing a focus on gratitude can help you lead – click here for the article on Inc.com
One I recommended to clients twice this past week, a bit of a hit last year but if it passed you by, and are in any way interested in enhancing behaviour and sustaining the change over time – Atomic Habits by James Clear. The central premise is very small changes that are sustained over long periods of time make hugely positive impacts. It’s certainly made a big difference to me. As a full read, I’d say it’s a return flight to Tokyo or a two week bed-side time commitment, or you could take the short cut with Blinkist (15mins to review the whole book) – click here for the link to the Blinkist search
Following the theme of small improvements over time, I enjoyed this article in Forbes which is a quick read (less than 5 mins) on the compound benefit of 1% improvements to performance, following Kaizen principles, with a particular focus on securing a new role – – click here for the article on Forbes.com
To listen
I really enjoyed this podcast with Cal Fussmann, literally laughing out-loud at one of his anecdotes of interviewing Mohammad Ali. The key theme is questions, which are the right ones and when to ask them – a foundational skill for great leadership in my opinion. The whole broadcast runs for a reasonable length by podcast standards (1 hour) but the time flew by and left me wanting more – click here for the link at apple podcasts
One of my favourite authors of last year, Francesca Gino, appearing on one of my favourite podcasts, Hidden Brain – not to be missed! Francesca’s book (Rebel Talent) is a highly enjoyable, research founded assessment of how leading creatives, pilots and business people succeed by ‘appropriately’ breaking rules, leading to ultra-high performance and stunning innovations. This is a highly enjoyable and balanced interview, running to just over 45mins total – click here for the apple podcasts link
And just one final thing…something to test.
One new area today, I’m excited to almost be able to announce the launch of the first of our digital learning products, Emotional Intelligence Learnt. EQ fast becoming a vital asset in the modern leaders skillset, and is one that is able to be significantly improved with focused learning effort. What I would invite you to do at this stage, if you have the time and interest, is to head over to the course area (click here to do so) and have a walk through and let me know what you think. There’s a short free course available now (EQ-L101) and also an area to register for information for the other course areas which are in the final stages of development. Sign up if you’d be interested in getting access to the course before launch to give it a final run through. If you’d be open to doing so, your reward will be on-going access to the course for free!
More to come on the digital learning front in the weeks ahead, other courses on Productivity for Knowledge Leaders, Leading Virtual Teams and Career Guide for Leaders are scheduled for testing and launch in October and November.
