Big Business, small Business, Sporting organizations and everything in between, when it comes time to identify potential or new Leaders, what are the secrets to successful Leadership transition? Importantly, what makes Succession Plans work? 

In reality, successful succession isn’t simply following a plan. Transition and successful succession are about honestly assessing what the organisation needs next, what it needs to take it forward.   

That raises questions, ‘who’s in the room? Is the ‘nominated’ candidate suitable and prepared, able to deliver that?  Answer, sometimes yes, sometimes no! 

Read on! 

Family Businesses, and you may be one of those who have realised the importance of Succession Planning and taken the necessary steps for a smooth transition.  You will have instilled family values, strong governance structures and supported all family members to nurture their aspirations and ambitions. Role rotation, training, and shared opportunities are important to achieve this outcome. Everyone is a winner! 

Examples of succession plans that have worked where highlighted in the story of leadership transition headlined, ‘WA Cricket’s belief in coach Adam Voges is a perfect blueprint on how to get it right’. In this article, Voges was praised as ‘he epitomises excellence in the world of head coaching’. 

Other examples.

Crisis and crises do occur despite the best laid plans! And they happen in all streams and areas of life, Business, leisure and personal. 

As a Leader, a crisis brings additional layers of complexity, responsibility and difficulty, as you are called upon to act effectively. Your Team and employees look to you for guidance, support, and answers!  

Most successful Leaders embody a range of certain traits and capabilities, adapting their leadership style to best respond to the needs of a specific situation. They can inspire, influence,and know how to act decisively. 

This moment has arrived. Are you prepared, equipped? Do you see yourself in the following? 

Research and feedback from various workforces have identified the following 7 qualities, capabilities and actions they want Leaders to demonstrate in times of crisis.  

1. Calmness is key under pressure: Keeping a level head and staying composed will help avoid panic reactions.  Displaying patience and being mentally stable will reduce anxiety and create a less stressful environment for all. The opposite, agitation, being rattled and overly excited, will have a detrimental impact on everyone.  

Leaders and Managers do you see yourself in the following!

 Are you a good Leader?  

A good leader has integrity, courage, respect, compassion and resilience, qualities they display, earning trust and loyalty. They communicate the vision and positively influence others. Learning agility is a strength.

Check these Leaders Traits and Characteristics: 

• Leading by example- earning the respect of others by your actions, reliability and honesty  

• Enthusiasm – displaying positive energy, interest, motivational   

• Self-awareness – knowing and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses  

• Decisiveness – ability to make decisions quickly if needed 

• Avoids micromanaging – steps aside, has trust and empowering staff 

• Open minded - to new ideas, knowledge and continuous improvement  

• Fairness – treating all fairly, without discrimination or favouritism 

 Being an Effective Manager:

Proverb: the fastest doesn't always win the race, nor does being the loudest voice in the room necessarily mean respected authority!  

Have you experienced this loudest voice? The Leader who never stops talking, has an opinion and controls every conversation, dominating the meeting agenda. This showmanship is tedious, tiresome, and boring. 

Enter the ‘quiet’ Leader. This Leader leads without fanfare or fuss, doesn't have to control every discussion or speak the loudest to be heard or followed. Respect is gained by quiet reserve, not the focus, bellowing instructions, and hogging the conversation. 

As modern workplaces become more fast-paced, challenging and complex, the Quiet Leader is finding their place providing reflective and thoughtful leadership. Leadership is not about how often someone speaks; a key strength is knowing when not to speak! 

Is this you? 

6 Key Characteristics, Traits and Attributes of a Quiet Leader 

1. Leading by example: Authenticity, demonstrating values through presence, and action, acting as a stabilising force rather than the centre of attention. They signal authority before speaking through non-verbal communication, and subtle cues that communicate composure and authority without dominating the room or conversation.  

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At our last Staff Christmas Party, it looks like Cinderalla has lost her shoe!!  Have you experienced a memorable Staff Party recently?

If you are an Employer as we embrace the fun festivities of Christmas celebrations are you ready, ready for what can be a very silly season for some.

8 Top Tips for Staff management during the ‘Silly' Season:

1. Establish clear guidelines, codes of conduct, for what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. Importantly ensure these are communicated directly to all employers so there is no misunderstanding or confusion about behaviour at both the workplace and work-related functions. 

2. HR Policies, Health & Safety.  Now is a good to visit all your HR policies to ensure they are current.  Update as needed and adopt and implement any gaps.  For example, most of society are now engaged in social media activity that can come into the workplace.  There needs to be a clear policy set around this. 

3. In advance, actively promote and communicate your HR policies to all employers, raising awareness of sick leave, drug and alcohol policies.   Conduct Information sessions and refresher training courses.

4. Social media policies need to be publicized. A reminder that ‘party-mood’ actions, comments, tweets and posts can be detrimental. What is thought funny by the ‘instigator’ may not be considered as such by those targeted. ‘Bad media’ can also reflect poorly on the organization.

5. As an Employer support and join in the spirit of the Festive season. No-one likes a Christmas-gringe. Small things, such as decorations can add to the ‘spirit’.  

6. Lead by example. Set the standard with your own actions and behaviours. If organizing a function consider offering pre-paid taxi vouchers, have responsible drinking bar limits and adopt similar safety strategies.

7. Understand not everyone celebrates Christmas and make sure those not joining in are not pressured by others to do so.  Promote a workplace environment that is tolerant of all beliefs. 

8. Planning for leave.  Support staff taking leave during this period as pre-organising can help with managing the workload and reduce ‘sickies’ 

Apply these simple strategies and you will help make this ‘silly’ season memorable for all the right reasons. 

Recruiting staff has never been more challenging and on the other side of the pandemic smart small Businesses are doing it smarter by adopting a more strategic approach to this task. Rather than ad-hoc and piecemeal, the process is now more refined and organised.  This framework has developed shaping the strategies for attracting and recruiting the best talent.

Recruitment Strategies for small Business include: 

• Social media opportunities: Post on all platforms. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, these are the super highways of communication. Put the word out you are hiring, looking for the ‘right’ people to join and help build your successful enterprise. 
• Sell your Brand & Culture: in all mediums, promote, show and tell what your Business is all about. Be the messenger, the story teller sharing the values, vision and what makes it great place to work in. Your job descriptions should reflect this professional and positive culture, making it attractive to applicants. 

Culture in any setting, personal or professional, recreational or business is a powerful influence. It can be good, bad, positive, or negative, healthy or unhealthy. 

Winning, or losing culture, understanding both is vital to being the best you and your Business can be. The right culture can make or break your Business! 

Definitions and key differences: 

A winning culture is exemplified in successful Organizations in any industry. Corporate or sporting teams' culture is demonstrated in how things are done and includes both the spoken and unspoken assumptions and values that guide practices and behaviours.  

When adopted a high-performance culture, team collaboration, employee motivation and boosted productivity result in successful, winning outcomes.  

On the other hand, a losing culture can surface when members are pitted against each other. It's everyone for themself, and self-survival threatens unity. This can happen in any setting. For example, when a Company introduces cost-cutting measures where personal performance and jobs are under scrutiny, the ‘winning’ team culture is lost. 

The Impact 

When this ‘winning culture’ mindset is shaken, particularly threatened by a team's poor performance over a long time, a losing culture can permeate taking its toll both on and off the field. Everyone can be affected, player, team and leader morale. This has been highlighted recently with some football players speaking out. 

In the workplace. ‘losing’ culture symptoms include disengagement, negative atmosphere, high employee turnover and sometimes toxic environment.  Poor attendance and attitude destroy team-thinking, connections and output.