Leaderonomics

We too often overcomplicate leadership and how to make it effective in our organisations.

We end up with it being something about a few people at the top rather than something that everyone should be involved in day-to-day that inspires people to give their best no matter where they are or what they do.

As a result, we know that most organisations, teams and individuals could perform significantly better than they are currently.

In many cases, having effective leaders could get 60% of people to give up to 30% more effort.

So this is all about getting the best from you as an individual, your colleagues, your team, your boss and all the other leaders in your organisation, including the CEO (chief executive officer)!

What’s clear is that delivering this success isn’t complicated; we just think it is.

It’s actually based on things we all know about and have experienced. So we don’t have to learn anything new to be able to make it happen.

This is the basis of my new approach to leadership – Mach 2 leadership (two simple steps to success) – in building effective, engaging, ethical and entrepreneurial leadership.

Mach 1 leadership

The first step – Mach 1 – is to get people willing to give their best. For over 25 years, I have been asking people around the world what their best boss did daily.

What made them give super performance for that person.

The list of actions identified is consistent globally, across sectors and at different levels – from bankers in the United States (US) to lawyers in the United Kingdom, the Red Cross and the Chinese Space Programme.

There are simple practical things that make a real difference which can be done every day. However we often forget to do these. This is the simple but effective foundation for Mach 2 leadership.

Mach 2 leadership

Mach 2 focuses all the extra effort delivered by Mach 1 on to things that really matter.

To do this it helps leaders at all levels become more entrepreneurial by understanding the wider context of customer needs, the organisation and the world in which it operates.

It makes clear that just understanding and doing your own job is no longer enough in the new world of organisations.

Collaboration is key to success – now accounting for about 50% of profitability compared to just delivering your own objectives. So it’s now more about “we” than “me”.

The Mach 2 assessment is based on all of these areas to give you an idea of how you are doing across the board in a very quick, simple and practical way.

It gives you an instant indication of things you are doing well and those that you can focus on to improve. This can then become part of your development plan for the forthcoming year.

It has already been used successfully by leaders across the world from US to Europe and Middle East to Asia.