“Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations”

– Earl Nightingale

Over the years, I have worked with and for many great leaders who delivered consistent and outstanding results, year after year. They continued to achieve outstanding business growth, and their people were engaged and constantly improving in line with the business. And by contrast, I have also worked for and with leaders who had the best of intentions, were focussed on their people, however, despite this, were unable to ‘crack the success code’. When things went wrong and they were confronted with challenges and obstacles, they would often look at ‘what’ they and the team were doing, they would question & many times criticise their people, which often led to performance management discussions, and ultimately, high staff turnover.

In observing this behaviour, I learned that, despite their best intentions, these leaders were actually focussed on the wrong area and no matter how many new people they would bring into the team, very little would change. They were placing all of their emphasis on the people and what the people were either doing or not doing, which was very noble of them, however, it was a brilliant lesson in why the environment that is created and maintained by the leader is critical to the success of the team, and ultimately the leader. Now, you may be thinking that in order to be successful, it is essential to have the right people on the team, and this is correct – however, when the right environment is created first, great people are attracted to it. And this is why the environment that you, as a leader, create, is critical to your success. Continue Reading