12 Practices for Your Leadership Success

1. Be a Human
   Leadership is fundamentally about connecting with people on a human level. This means showing empathy, compassion, and genuine concern for the well-being of others. It involves recognising that leaders are not infallible, but rather individuals who make mistakes and learn from them. Embrace your humanity and let it guide your leadership style.

2. Know That Other People Do Not Feel or Think Like You
   Everyone has unique perspectives, experiences, and emotions. As a leader, it's important to both respect and explore these differences. Diverse thinking leads to better problem solving. Avoid assuming that others will react or think in the same way you do. Instead, strive to understand their viewpoints and tailor your communication and actions to meet their needs. By doing this you will reap the benefits of their thinking.

3. Accept That You Don’t See the World Accurately
   Your perceptions are shaped by your biases, experiences, and limitations. Acknowledge that your view of the world is not always correct or complete. This humility allows for greater openness to new ideas and feedback, fostering a more inclusive and adaptive leadership approach. It also ensures you build a more useful view of reality.

4. Understand That You Don’t See the World Fully
   No one can fully grasp the complexities of the world alone. Accepting this fact encourages leaders to seek out diverse perspectives and collaborate with others. By doing so, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities your team faces. Mature leaders (those who have arrived at a secure place with their leadership), are more comfortable with uncertainty and the unknown. It’s not that they necessarily have more answers. What they have is a faith in their ability to ask useful questions. 

5. Be Curious About the Above and Engage from That Curiosity
   Cultivate a genuine curiosity about others' perspectives and experiences. Engage with your team and colleagues by asking questions and actively listening to their responses. 

• Curiosity cures anxiety, ignorance, selfishness and extremism

• Curiosity creates empathy, compassion, knowledge and growth

• Curiosity prevents: arrogance, judgement and stagnation

6. Be Available to Challenge and Invite Challenge
   A healthy leadership environment is one where open dialogue and constructive criticism are encouraged. Be willing to challenge the status quo and invite others to challenge your ideas and decisions. This openness fosters innovation and continuous improvement.

7. Listen. Listen first and Seek to Understand
   Listening is a critical skill for effective leadership. Prioritise listening to your team and colleagues before offering your own opinions or solutions. Seek to understand their concerns, aspirations and intelligence. This approach builds trust and ensures that your actions are informed by the needs and insights of those you lead.

8. Have Adult-to-Adult Conversations (Which Means You Have to Manage Your Ego)
   Leadership requires mature, respectful communication. Engage in adult-to-adult conversations by leaving your ego at the door. That means being aware of when your behaviour and communication feels more driven by things like:

• The need to be right

• The need to be needed

• The need to fix

• The need to control

• The need to maintain status

• The need to dominate

• The need to have the answer

• The need to win

• The need to garner attention
  

It means having enough self-mastery to make it more about them than you.

9. Live the Belief That Vulnerability Equals Courage. In Self and Others
   Embrace vulnerability as a strength.. Demonstrating vulnerability as a leader gives others the permission to do the same, creating an environment of trust and authenticity. Recognise that showing vulnerability requires courage and fosters deeper connections and resilience within your team.

10. Provide Psychological Safety for Those You Work For and With
    Create an environment where team members feel safe to express their ideas, concerns, and mistakes without fear of retribution. Psychological safety is essential for fostering creativity, innovation, and high performance. Show that you value and respect everyone's contributions, regardless of their role or status. Brains that feel safe do better thinking and make better contributions.

11. Be Kindly Honest
    Honesty and kindness are not mutually exclusive. Honesty is crucial, and it can be tempered with kindness. Deliver feedback and address issues with a compassionate and considerate approach. This ensures that honesty strengthens relationships rather than damaging them, and helps maintain a positive and supportive team culture.

12. Lean into Difficult Conversations
    Difficult conversations are inevitable in leadership. Rather than avoiding them, lean into these conversations with a commitment to resolution and growth. Prepare for these discussions with a consideration of the other person's worldview and a clear understanding of the issues at hand. Approach them with the goal of finding mutually beneficial outcomes and maintaining the integrity of your relationships.

By embracing these 12 leadership practices, leaders cultivate a style that is inclusive, intelligent and ultimately more effective in delivering success. Acknowledging diverse perspectives and fostering open communication builds trust and respect within teams. Encouraging vulnerability and providing psychological safety fuels innovation and resilience. Honest and kind communication ensures constructive feedback and continuous improvement. Together, these practices drive personal, team, and organisational success.