Leadership

Just adding Twitter. I don't want to invite anyone. Please Twitter. Be kind. Be kind. Why is my microphone. Okay? Hope everyone is good. Happy Friday. Have you done your Friday reflections? I will always go on about this. What went well this week? What are you happy about? What are you proud of? What did you do? What did you succeed at? What was challenging? What did you learn? What did you see for the first time? I feel like if you're learning every week, then it's good because there's always something that's new. Life is never the same. Even, like, routine and consistency. And when you have the same job or the same role or the same business, it's never exactly the same. Every week there's something new that happens. There's someone interesting you meet, or there's something you read, or there's something you see or there's something you listen to. And it changes the way you see things. Because every time you learn something new, you grow. So your perspective in life changes. Your knowledge changes, which means your opportunities change. It means you're open to something new that you weren't open to before. It means you see something in a new way or you are led down a new path. Sometimes when you learn something and you want to try that and you want to grow that. So think about what was new for you this week. What can you learn from that? What can you take from that? Because it's important and it's useful. And I'm happy for you if you can realize something that you learned every week means you're growing. Okay, so today we are talking about the importance of consistency for leaders. We have started a leadership series, and like I said earlier this week, is it this week. I feel like I was always thrown into, like, leadership situations just because of life and work and stuff. I'm also the oldest in my family, so I think all firstborns are kind of like, always in leadership situations. Also from when I was young, my dad always used to tell me his duty as a parent is to teach the firstborn, and then the firstborn is supposed to teach the rest. I was like, it's kind of lazy parenting. But all right, since I'm a child, I have no choice in the matter, but it meant that I got exposed to a lot of stuff and pushed from an early age. So if you're not the firstborn, you might have to push yourself as you grow as a leader, but if you are, you probably know how to do some things naturally. And the rest, you have to put in some effort to improve and to grow. Because all leaders are different. There's different leadership styles, the different things you can learn. Ah, it was last week in the live where I was talking about this. So there's all different types of leadership, but anyone can be a leader. Even if you are the youngest, even if you've never been a leader, even if you're shy, even if you're introverted, even if you're quiet, There is always an opportunity for you to grow into your leadership. Because anyone can be a leader. You just have to put in some conscious effort. So when we talk about consistency, I think consistency is important for everyone. Like I say, with all these lives, every week, how I'm asking, like, how was your week? Week? Did you reflect like on a Friday? Like, how did the week go? It's about being consistent because you can measure your progress, you can track things, you can start to see the trends in your life or the inconsistencies. What's different every week? What's the same every week? You start to notice these things if you consistently check. It's like when you're trying to lose weight and you have to weigh yourself every day. Or like when you're trying to improve your reading. So you read books every day. Like you read for 10 minutes every day. The only way to do something successfully is if you do it consistently, because that makes it sustainable and that's the only way you're going to make progress. You have to make many, many small steps to get the go the distance that you want. So consistency is important for everyone and everything. And I think it's really underrated. I think when you talk about, like, the important things in life or when you look at successful people or happy people, when you look at the way things get done, it's about discipline and resilience, right? And a big part of discipline is the consistency, because being disciplined is doing the right thing all the time. It's doing the right thing whether you feel like it or not, whether you want to or not, whether you're in a good mood or a bad mood or someone has upset you, or you don't like the person, or you don't like the job or the task, you still get it done. That is being disciplined. So consistency is like a big part of discipline. And consistency is not talked about enough. It's so underrated. This is like the most important thing we should be teaching children. You have to learn how to do something regularly, even if you don't feel like it, even if you don't want to do it, because that's what real life is about as adults. Come on, how often are the things you don't want to do but you have to do, like pay taxes or bills or exercise? You just have to be consistent about it. They're never going anywhere. For the rest of our lives we're gonna have to do that. So why fight it? Why be lazy about it? Why complain? Why not just get used to it? Because that's consistency. This is for the rest of your life. There are certain things you're going to have to do, like make your bed every day or drink water. You just have to be consistent forever. So it's a skill, I think, because it's really hard. It's very hard for people to be consistent. I get so many people talking about we struggle with procrastination, we struggle with imposter syndrome, we struggle with discipline. Just getting up at the same time every day is hard because we just are not consistent. We're not taught this from when we're young. It's not like a skill you develop and yet it's something you're going to need for every aspect of your life. Mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. You have to be consistent. No point going to church once in a year, okay, I'm sure God listens to you wherever you are, but I mean, if you're a church going person, you go every Sunday. If you're a mosque going person, you go every Friday. That's consistency. So it affects every aspect of your life. You can't go to the gym once every six months, go three times a week. You know, consistency. So now as leaders, you need consistency even more because it's not only about yourself. There's consistency in yourself as a leader and how you lead, and then there's how your team relies on you as a leader. They need you to be consistent. You can't change your mind and your style every day. It's volatile, it's unsettling, it's difficult. How are they supposed to know what they can count on? How do they feel safe? How do they feel motivated and inspired? Inspired by you. If you're inconsistent, some days you're there, some days you're not there, some days you're shouting, other days you're not shouting. Some days you're nice, other days you're not nice. Some days you get really good instructions, other days you just let them swim and figure it out. So inconsistency as a leader is a big challenge because your team is relying on you and the only way they can get their Work done is if they can rely on you to be the leader that you are, they can rely on you to show up for the meetings, to give them the instructions to be supportive, to be listening to them. So there are certain things as a leader, once you develop your leadership skills, you have to be consistent about them. You can't check on people every now and then, oh, it's been six months. How's the project going, by the way? Meet with the leader of the project at the beginning of the project, for example, you have to set out. This is how we're going to monitor this project. We're going to meet Every Tuesday at 10am in the boardroom and we're going to discuss these things. These are the KPIs I'm looking for. This is what I want to know about every single single Tuesday. And then you be reliable in that you be consistent because then your team knows what's important to you about this project. They know how to communicate to you. They know what they need to be doing during the week because on Tuesday at the meeting, they're going to have to report back on these certain issues. If you're not consistent in that, how are they supposed to know what they're supposed to be doing? Oh, you know, this week I felt like pushing this side of the project. Oh, you know, this week I felt like using this much of the budget. It doesn't work that way. You have to be consistent. You need to communicate that. You need to make sure that they know you're going to check. Because that's another thing about leadership and supervision. People are lazy, let's be honest, it's difficult. So if they know this one never checks, they don't ask. They're not going to check how much money we've spent or how far the project is going. They're not going to get anything done. So as a leader, it's up to you to consistently be on their case. They know you're going to show up, you're going to check the site, you're going to go check their work, you're going to open every file, you're going to look at, at every document, you're going to read every email because you are consistent as a leader and they know that and they can rely on that. So I think it goes both ways. When you think about employees, like in a good way and a bad way, you want them to feel safe and encouraged and know what type of leader you are. But also you need to supervise them and be on top of them and Be consistent about that. It's important because it creates the environment and it sets the standard for what you're doing. And also it's what builds your reputation, which when you're consistent as a leader, people can rely on that and then they can talk about that. So when there are rooms and discussions that you are not part of, like your supervisors, your own bosses or customers or clients, they can say, oh, this person is an excellent leader. Every project they do this. Every time I've given them a task, this is how they behave. They carry themselves in this way. Then that shows you have been consistent in that long enough that it has built your reputation and then they can vouch for you and then they can suggest you. I think we should give them the promotion. I think we should put them in charge of this project. I think we should suggest them for this training. That's how you get opportunities because you are consistent for long enough that it is now your reputation. In one of our podcast episodes with my dad, I think it was the first one actually I was saying how even when I since my whole working career, even when people don't know who I am or like that I'm his child, they always say the same things about him because he's been very consistent in his leadership style. Style from the beginning, he's been very ethical, he's been very kind. His personality is the same at work and at home. So I've never had any unpleasant surprises. I've never sat in a room where they're discussing him and they've said something that shocks me because he's been very consistent and reliable. His personality, his ethics, his discipline, the way his work style is and his leadership style has been the same. Some parts of it I don't like, some parts of it drive me crazy and I find to do about it. But I know he's not going to change. That's how he is and that's who he is and not just accidentally. That's how he chooses to carry himself. That's who he chooses to be and that's how he chooses to show up as a leader. And he's done that consistently for the last 30, 40 years. So whoever knows him or has worked with him will say the exact same things. They'll always suggest him in the same way or recommend him in the same way. This is how he gets different things. Like when he was dominated of Australia, it's not something he asked for or applied for, it's something someone else recommended him for and then they had to do due Diligence and, like, check on him and do reference checks and ask about his background. But they got the same answers from everyone who knows him because he was consistent as a leader. So it's something that I have seen and learned from him. And it's something I also try to practice and be like, consistent in my leadership style because. Because your reputation speaks beyond you. It goes further than you. You don't know how far it goes. You don't know what opportunities you're denying yourself because you are not being proactive and intentional and consistent in your leadership style. So there are very many reasons you need to be consistent. And it's one of the things I think, as a leader, you need to be aware of early on. Once you understand your leadership style or you identify the type of person you're trying to be, you have the vision of who you want to be and how you want to carry yourself, and you start to do that every day. That's how you build consistency, and that's how you build your reputation. That's how you build trust in your team. That's how they know they can rely on you. And they, and even your supervisors or people below your juniors know that this is this kind of a person they can trust that you will get things done in this kind of way. You able to be relied on to be who you are. Even if your leadership style is more exciting or loud, volatile, fun, it's consistent. You know, I'm not saying be one way or be one type of a leader. I'm just saying whatever type you choose, be consistent about it. Because if you're the same way for five years, eight years, 10 years, even four, six months, then people get to know that about you. And then that becomes a part of your brand, who you are. And in the modern day that we live in now, everybody has a brand. Not just we. There are people on social media. Everyone has a brand. So think about it that way. What's your brand? What do people know you for? One of the questions I ask in interviews is, how would your friends describe you? Because it's always interesting to me to see how people think other people see them and perceive them, because it shows how they're projecting themselves, how they're trying to be in the world. And I find that I sort of question in an interview, and when I ask, I ask you that question, how do you think other people see you? What three words would your friends use to describe you? That's what you need to think about. That's the reputation you have that's your brand. So how consistent are you in the things that those three things are? Is it just things that are natural in your personality? Are you actually putting in an effort? Are you intentional and conscious about how you're showing up in the world? Because everyone is self conscious. Everyone wants to be seen in a certain type of way. But how many of us are proactive in how we are in that type of way? How many of us actually thinking about it and saying, you know, this is the person I look up to because they have these characteristics. This is the kind of person I want to be. This is what I'm thinking I should be or I should be. Like, that's what consistency helps you with. That's how you build your brand, you build your reputation, because people know this is what this person is known for. This is how they are. I actually remember my dad saying, you need an address when I used to travel a lot for work. He's like, if you're always up and down, how will anyone know how to find you? How will you grow? And I didn't get it. But now I think it's like more metaphorical. You need to have your base, your roots. Like, these are your core values and principles and this is what people know you for. Because if you're all over the place, you can't really grow in any particular direction, you know? So be consistent as a leader. It's helpful. Let's see what questions we have. Why do people lose consistency? Hello, Mwonge. Thank you for that question. Why do people lose consistency? It's hard. It takes discipline. It's hard to do the same thing all the time. That's why discipline is doing the thing even if you don't want to do it, even if you don't feel like doing it. And that's a skill because most people don't do things when they don't feel like it. But you can't live by your mother moods and emotions and how you feel because life is not that way. If we only worked when we felt like it, how often would we work? If we only went to the gym when we felt like it, or if we only were kind to people when we felt like it, what would life be? You have to build these things. It's a skill. And that's why I say resilience is very important as well. And it goes costly with this because you need to be able to show up and do it all the time. The easiest way to build consistency is to build habit. I suggest you read James Clear's book, Atomic Habits. It is a very useful way to do it because it takes willpower. That's the problem when you're trying to do something and it's depending on whether you feel like it or not, because you're trying to put in energy and willpower to actually achieve it. If it's a habit, you don't need willpower to do it. You already do it automatically all the time. So you just need the willpower to start the habit. You know, for the first few weeks to put in the energy and the effort to get it done. Once you build the habit, then muscle memory takes over. Your brain can just do it, your body can just do it. You can just show up because your habit is built so it doesn't take as much energy and willpower. That's where we go wrong. So if you don't want to lose consistency, I suggest you build the habit. If you feel like this type of a leader. Tuesdays we're going to show up at 10am for the meeting and these are the KPIs. If you do that for three weeks in a row, by the fourth week you're just showing up. You know what to ask, you know what to do. Everything is just happening, happening, happening because you've built the habit. You can build habits across any area of your life, whether it's mental, emotional, physical or spiritual. Your mind, your body, everything gets in sync. And you learn because you built the habit. So it's not taking all your effort and energy the way it would before. If you don't want to lose consistency, I suggest you build a habit. What tips would you say to give someone struggling to stay consistent? That's why we. I suggest you read the book. But I think there are many different ways you can build habits. And if you want to stay consistent, make it small. Don't start by trying to run a marathon in one day. Make it a really small task that you can add five minutes every day to adjust to change and then you make it 10 minutes every day. If you're trying to read more books this year, don't say, I'm going to read a book a week. If you've never read a book, please. That's trying to run a marathon in one day is what I mean. Say, I will read one page per day. That's all I'm gonna do. One page or one page this week, that's all I'm going to do. I'm going to pick the book, I'm going to read one page and understand it and Put the book down. Next week I'll try and read two pages. The week after, I'll try and read three pages. The week after, I'd try and read seven pages. You build slowly. If you're struggling with consistency, it's because you're trying to bite off too much, make it less. You know, I'm always interested. I guess I learned this a while ago, but it's always interesting to me when people are like, what? No, I can't only read one page. That's so lazy. Lazy is not reading any at all. Because you told yourself, I'm going to read 30 pages today. Did you read the 30? Better you read one than you read none because you were trying to read 30. No one is going to judge you. It's not a race of who learns the new thing the fastest or who did the most the quickest. It's about who can sustain it. There is no point in going to the gym for six hours today and then you never go back for six more months. Go for 10 minutes. There are those apps where you work out for seven minutes a day. Seven minutes. That's all it takes, seven minutes a day. You'd rather do that where you do squats or lunges or jumping jacks or push ups or something for seven minutes every day for six months. You will be way fitter and healthier than the person who went to the gym for six hours once. That's life. Use that as the example. You would rather read one page a day than say, I'll read 30. And you never, ever read them. And the end of the year comes. Did you read any books this year? Nope. Break it down. Make it smaller. There is no shame. What I'm trying to tell you is you would rather achieve the smallest, smallest thing than do nothing at all. Those are your options. Imperfect is better than perfect. Because perfect doesn't exist, because it never gets done. You would rather have something that's half done than you didn't do it at all because you wanted it to be perfect. So break it down. You're struggling with consistency. It's because you're trying to do too much. Don't worry, you'll grow. Life is long. You have time to improve. First, get the basics done. You can do it at a small, short level, like for five minutes a day. That's how you build it to 20 minutes a day. So first, start with the five minutes. Start with the one page. Start with one meeting. Start with one conversation. Start with one walk for fitness. Start with one class. One Rotary meeting. Whatever it is, start small. Just. Just do it once. Just do it a little bit, and then you build from there. You don't have to know and be an expert from day one. Don't compare yourself to people who've been doing it for years. Do a little bit, break it down small, small, small, small, small, as small as possible, and then be proud of yourself for doing that small thing. How do you maintain consistency amidst all these challenges? This is why it's easier to build it as a habit. Because willpola is hard. When you're tired, when you're stressed, when something else is going on, you won't have the willpower to do something that's difficult. You need to build it as a habit. If you make it small and you get used to doing it, then you build. So if you can do the 30 pages a day, if you can do the one hour, it's good. But on a bad day, when you're tired or you're stressed or you're cranky or you're sad or something has happened, you will only do 10 minutes, but it's okay. And you'll be able to do those 10 minutes because you built the habit, because you're used to doing it for an hour every day. You know you have to try and make it easy. Life is hard enough. Don't make things harder for yourself. Everything that you want is not easy, but it's doable. Just don't make it so hard. That's how you maintain the consistency. Also, it helps to track it, make sure that you're showing yourself you did it. Like, you know how people have to do lists and you tick off things in your to do list. It's a satisfying feeling to tick. You enjoy. Yes. I did it. Ha. I did it. You pat yourself on the back, you give yourself a reward. This week, I did this much. This week I made this much money. I showed up at the gym this many times. I did this in my fellowship. I helped my children with this. Pat yourself on the back. Reward yourself. It's important. Human beings are motivated that way. This is why in school they give you, like, gold stars on your work, or they say, well done, or this one was top of the class. It motivates you, and you have to do it for yourself. You have to be your own biggest cheerleader. So if you say, I'm going to start reading every day and you read your onepage this week, clap for yourself. Tell your friends and family and be happy and be proud of yourself, because that will motivate you to do it again next week. Shame is not a motivator. If you beat yourself up about it, that's not going to make you want to do it next week. You'll just feel rough, you'll feel worse, you'll be embarrassed. Be listening to the negative thoughts in your mind. Reward yourself. Track it. Measure it, Write it down. Every time. Oh, I can show you. See, I have a calendar on my wall and every time I work out, like exercise, I put a big X in the calendar so it looks good at the end of the month when I have many X's and I'm proud of myself. Do something that helps you feel good about what you're doing. It helps you to maintain consistency because your brain gets addicted to that pat on the back to that reward. Aha. If I do this, I'll give with myself this. If I do this much at work, I get to eat this dessert. Or if I eat all my vegetables, I get a movie tonight on Netflix. You have to like, reward yourself. Make a list of the rewards you're going to give yourself. What do you want? That extra pair of shoes. If I hit my sales target this week, I went to buy myself the handbag that I wanted. Small things. Your brain gets addicted to it because it's dopamine. It's like a hormone in your body when you reward yourself. And when something good happens you're happy about. It's also the kind of the same moment I think we get from like food and like presents or money or happy things. So you need to train your brain. Then it makes it easier because your whole physiology wants you to succeed, wants you to read those pages because you know you're gonna get a reward if you do it. So track it, Measure it. Like tick, tick, tick on the to do list so you're aware and you can see it. And reward yourself. Don't use shame. Shame is not a motivator. Don't beat yourself up. I only read one page this week. No, be like, I read one page this week. I'm so proud of myself. You might feel silly, but do it. Trust me. Just try. Try that for six weeks in a row and reward yourself with the thing you're trying to change and the habit you're trying to build and the consistency. And you will see how it motivates you and you do better next week. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were starting out? Actually, last night I was talking to some 20 year olds. I think they were like 1920, 21. And I was trying to tell them, if I could go back and be 20 again, I would work more. Knowing what I know now, what would I have done differently? I wish I knew what I knew now. Then. I wish I spent more time growing and being proactive and learning. I think I was lucky in the way that I got to learn from the people around me. I had good mentors, and I'm also curious by nature. So I'd always ask a lot of questions, but I was not intentional about it. I wasn't proactive. Yes, I had dreams and goals and hopes, but I wasn't specific. Like, I didn't have particular goals. Like, I'm trying to achieve this this year. This is how I'm going to achieve it. Because I didn't know I was young and I was just going with the flow. So I think everyone makes mistakes. It's not about the mistakes and the failures. I think I wish I was more intentional younger, because I think I could have achieved more, I could have done more, I could have been more balanced. I could have been happier. I could have, I don't know, explored more or seen more. I think the sooner you learn to be intentional about your life, the better. And that's something I think about a lot these days, because I really try to be intentional with my time, with my decisions, with my energy. So if I could go back, I would be more specific in what I want to achieve and what I want to learn and how I want to grow. I didn't know you could grow in, like, areas that if you want to grow in this area, you grow like this. You know, I was just going with how things are and asking people around me, how did you do this? Why is it like this? How come this works this way? Which helped me. So I would say ask lots of questions. It's useful, but be specific. Be intentional. You know, it's your life. I think too often life happens to us, not by us. You know, you have to be the author of your own life. You have to be the main character, as they say in your movie. So decide where you want to go, decide what you want to do. You can be anything. It's your life. It doesn't feel like it always. You always feel like the constraints of society, your family, or like, this is the degree I did. So now I have to be this thing in my. Yeah, you don't. There's no life police. You can be who you want to be. You can do what you want to do. You can be intentional and Say, this is what I want to be and this is how I want to live my life. And you do it and nothing happens. Other people have their own problems in their own life. They don't have time to police you. They'll judge you and give you questions or comments, but, you know, they'll get on with it. So be intentional is what I would say. Can consistency be genetic or nurture? Francis I don't think people are genetically consistent. I wonder. I would be curious. Maybe some scientists somewhere are studying this. I think their character traits, like how I'm saying, I'm naturally a curious person, but I think it's more about your environment, the way you nurture children and encourage them. I think I get to be curious because I was never told, shut up or don't ask questions when I was a child. So with consistency, I think it's the examples you have, like, you can look around, look at your parents, the people who raised you, the society you're in, the people you spend time with. If they are consistent, you'll be more likely to be consistent. There have been studies about that, like if your friends gain age, you also gain weight. If your friends are still smokers, you tend to be a smoker. Because birds of a feather, right? You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with that has been tried and tested. So I don't think it's genetic. I don't know. If you're very consistent and you have children, do you think they'd also be consistent? I think it's more because they see you being consistent, because kids learn from what's around them. I don't think it's something that can be genetic because also everyone can learn, learn to be consistent. Any kind of childhood or life you've come from or background you have, if you learn to be consistent, you'll just be consistent. It's a trait you have. It's a skill you build so anyone can learn. I did read a biology book about evolutionary psychology that said people live fast lives or slow lives. Some people come from households that are very volatile and weak and tend to make hasty decisions. They have more a risk. And some people come from, like, slow, practiced, like more deliberate households. So they are more slow in the way that they make decisions and how they assess risk and the choices they make. So I think that's again, nurture. No genetics, but it's about the background you come from. And most things in our personalities and our character are set by the age of 7, so 0 to age 7. The examples you have around you, those are really your core values and the principles you're going to have for the rest of your life unless you are very, very intentional and put in a lot of work to change that. So again, it's not genetic, but it's about the environment you grow up in. But you can build consistency. What would you say is the great strength, greatest strength of great leaders? Resilience. I would put discipline in there, but I think discipline is part of resilience and resilience is part of discipline. Discipline. Because whenever you study leaders, people who are good at what they do, you can see that the reason they are better than others is because they kept going when others gave up. Like we're talking about consistency. If I'm consistent for 100 days, but you are consistent for 101, you will be more successful than me at whatever we are trying to do. So all you have to do is be more resilient. All leaders have been resilient and disciplined and kept going even when they didn't feel like it, even when it was hard, even when they had personal problems. They kept going in the area that they committed to. And that's how they became great, in my opinion. Thanks for that question, Johnson. What habits can I adopt and practice daily to become an effective business leader in the future? Asks Richard.