Leading to Change

Last year I chaired one day of a communications forum.  I had to think on my feet and speak in front of other seasoned communication professionals.

Author of “Lead the Room” and speaker Shane Hatton was the Chair of the second day. When I expressed my nervousness, his advice was to be myself, harness my stories, and to say yes to other opportunities – to keep practising.

In his book, he hammers home the connection between communicating and leading. He outlines four practices leaders need to commit to if they want to develop as a leader and a communicator:

– thinking – leading the brain

– investing – sharpening your skills

– asking- seeming out feedback

– failing – dealing with disappointment.

Shane’s point about failing better is great.

The pursuit of growth inevitably includes moments of failure. How you respond makes the difference. There’s a natural fear of failing. But accepting it, recognising, owning, learning, sharing, changing and moving forward is key to failing well. Failing is part of the process not the end of it.

Learning makes the failure usable. In a simple way, at the conference I felt I hadn’t failed exactly, but I hadn’t ‘done my best’, and I hadn’t led the room.  But as Shane says, start before you think you’re ready. Just start. Because every moment matters.

Find your Story. Be your Story. The Art of Why.