John's Blog

  The Leadership Triangle: Fueling the Fire of Success A fire needs three elements to burn: heat, oxygen, and fuel . Together, they form the Fire Triangle . Take one element away, and the fire sputters out. It’s not a suggestion—it’s science. Leadership is no different. To spark success, you need the Leadership Triangle , which burns brightly when fueled by three essentials: Vision : The guiding light. A Leader : The Firestarter. A Team : The lifeblood. But if even one element was removed, the Leadership Triangle collapses. Just like a fire dies, so too will a team’s ability to succeed. No Vision, No Direction Imagine trying to navigate a forest at night without a flashlight. You’d stumble over roots, circle back on yourself, and ultimately, never make it out. Take vision out of the Leadership Triangle, and that’s exactly what happens. A team without vision is like a soccer match with no nets—players run, sweat, and kick the ball, but for what? There’s no destination, no scoreboard...

Entrepreneur, manager, and politician are roles that each require it's own set of unique skills, but does not guarantee that the title holder is a leader.  A person gets the title of leader by way of birthing a vision. The leader was, is, and always will be the vision owner and curator, responsible for taking it from inception to completion, with the effective and efficient help of a team.  Anyone that feels strongly enough to act on a vision can lead. Having a vision obviously doesn't mean the person will be a good leader. Like any skill, leadership is loaded with various principles, strategies, and techniques, requiring study and practice to master.  Many visions lay dormant on the shelf of "one day," collecting dust. The owners of the " vision-in-storage" become reluctant to dust the vision off and make it happen, because they feel unworthy of the leader position.  Instead of letting your vision decay into "regret," equip yourself wi...

When explaining basic firefighting to beginners, we teach them that the "fire triangle" represents the three core elements of a fire, namely; oxygen, heat and fuel. If you effectively remove one of these three elements, you will extinguish the fire.  Similarly, a developing leader has a "fire triangle" with three core elements: Value, mission and engagement. Remove just one of these elements and the developing leader will be extinguished.  The first "leader triangle" element is value, which talks to the value perceived by all the role players around the leader's vision. In other words, if people believe in your vision and see the need, they will invest in it. If people benefitting from your vision have the need, they will gladly receive it.  There is no point in selling your vision to an audience that doesn't recognise the need that your vision addresses. Weak or random needs will not attract a talented team nor inspire "customers...

A mission worthy of value With money too tight to mention, most people work to survive, with mission a million miles from their mind. On special occasions, people reach for the vision they hold dear, even though it is cobwebbed, starved, and fading. They squeeze out a dose of hope and put the vision back on the shelf of "maybe someday.” The majority of people do not live out their mission daily. This does not interfere with the fact they have a bold, shiny, meaningful vision, like my friend Steven. The ugly reality is that people without a mission rarely, if ever, get the chance to attain their vision. I only discovered the power of mission in my forties and now frantically labour to play catch up. Don’t allow yourself to walk the same path as I did, learn from my mistake. Learn from my message, which is - foster a healthy mission from as early as possible, for as long as possible. As a young boy, the Huntsman preferred to be outdoors. His parents introduced him to hobbies...

The Team Code has been published!

Personal Development Skill: Team Work There is no doubt that the single most important skill to define a leader; to will make or break his or her reputation is their ability to work with a team. This important skill quickly separates true leaders from the “wannabe” that wants to gloat in their own self importance. You may fool fans, but you will never fool the team.

Personal & Leadership Skill: Cultural Awareness Sadly, polarisation seems to be the current trend in the world at the moment. This is a dangerous attitude to own in the “global village” of our modern world. Our workplaces, neighbourhoods and public areas are filled with people from various culture groups and backgrounds. We are exposed to all sorts of age groups, religious persuasions and life attitudes each and every minute. This cosmopolitan environment requires each of us to be able to demonstrate some awareness and sensitivity to other culture groups.   

Leadership is a demanding role, and even more so when it comes to guiding change. As a leader you automatically step in to the role: Custodian of Change. A leader has the unenviable job of juggling two main elements – Activities for Change and Engagement of Team Members. This is no easy thing as these tasks are on opposite ends of the skills range. A Leader requires a set of unique skills, abilities and traits, and even more so when it comes to managing change. Listed here are traits that are extremely useful when dealing with Change within the team or organisation:

Change is inevitable, but progress isn’t guaranteed! Industry, technology and information changes continuously, but this is no guarantee that your team will progress as a result of the change. Successful change needs to be deliberate and managed in order for the team to gain the full benefits. All change will require the leader to observe, guide and manage team knowledge and behaviour. Managing change is the reason leaders exist!

  << 21 Laws of Leadership The 6 th Sense for Great Leadership Leadership can be equated to juggling three fragile balls: Vision, People and Tasks. With all the skills and abilities required to successfully manage these various dimensions, a leader can benefit greatly from a little magic too. Don’t worry, we not going to delve into the mystic arts as a module of leadership. We are, however, going to look at the advantages of a leader’s Intuition. Even before we discuss Intuition too deeply, let us demystify the word.

6 Steps to Engaged Leadership Whether you are arranging your own life for success, or rallying the energy and enthusiasm of a team, it is important that you and your team are fully engaged in the process.  According to Wikipedia, Engage means: 1. occupy or attract (someone's interest or attention).  2. Participate or become involved in and   3. (With reference to a part of a machine or engine) move into position so as to come into operation. As a leader focused on achievement of a vision, you will require yourself and your team members to be interested in the vision, you will require them to participate or be involved in the active achievement of the vision by moving into an operational position that will make them fruitful. Engaging people is no easy task as approximately 77% of people are disengaged from their own lives and careers. Getting people interested and involved is the single hardest task for a leader that never stops. The six steps to Engaged Lea...

5 Phases of a Developing Team As obvious as it may be to you and I, there are many people floating about claiming the title of leader when they have no team, they have no followers. What should be obvious is that “leader” is not a title, but rather a role or a function. The leader may not always be the most experienced person, nor the oldest. The leader may not walk in front of the pack, but one thing is for certain, a leader carries that label because of the job they perform. The obvious job a leader performs is to lead a group of people. The path may be from A to B, or from A to B and back again. The path a leader takes a group may cover all the letters in the alphabet, but one thing should not be overlooked: the primary function of a leader is to take his or her people from a frazzled group to a high performance team. 

Groups vs. Teams A leader will emerge as a team gathers to accomplish any sort of objective. A handful of key principles will assist a leader to lay a good foundation for his or her personal leadership style. The leader should also understand the phases of a developing team, understand what is required to keep the team on track. A working knowledge of the difference between a group and a team will help the leader identify where the team is in the development process.