When should you be Determined versus Flexible?

Folklore contains numerous sayings underpinning the idea that leadership needs to be firm, decisive and above all, resolute.

The myth goes that changing your mind is a sign of weakness and it leads to vacillation when you and a team are working to a set of objectives.

However, how valid is that model?

As any structured leadership training will confirm, much work needs to be done by way of analysis prior to an important decision being made. Decisions that are made in haste are frequently repented at leisure. Yet once all the analysis has been completed, sometimes a leader needs to make a decision and do everything in their power to help ensure that it proves to be the correct one.

It is true that leaders who suffer from constant crises of confidence will be inclined to keep changing their mind and that encourages others around them to wonder whether there is a firm hand on the tiller.

There is though, a significant danger in taking the ‘strong determined leadership’ stereotype too far.

One of the key attributes of a successful leader is also the ability to recognise that, in spite of all attempts to prevent it happening, a wrong decision has been made. This can sometimes be painful to accept and perhaps result in some personal reputation damage but it is essential to have the courage to recognise that a bad decision has been made and to take steps to correct it with the minimum impact possible on whatever the enterprise is.

Leaders who lack this attribute can become guilty of fixation and egoism to the extent that they are incapable of recognizing that they are leading things in the wrong direction. That’s sometimes best more plainly described as pig-headedness.

Sometimes a bad decision cannot be corrected by injecting more resource or more energy in to make it right. It simply has to be either reversed or a radically different decision made to replace it.

Being able to critically self-evaluate your own decisions and identify those that are not working out is a prime characteristic of mature leadership.

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How do You Deal with somebody who is Disruptive?

It’s perhaps every leader’s nightmare – an associate or somebody in the team who is proving to be disruptive in one way or another.

In fact, this can even occasionally be encountered on things such as training and development courses.

Disruption can come in many shapes and forms. In some cases it may appear to be directed at attempting to undermine the leader or presenter by constantly suggesting, with little justification, that he or she is mistaken. In other instances it might be an intentional disconnecting from the session or enterprise and a refusal to play a contributory and participatory role in it.  

Perhaps the first thing to try and do is to ascertain the probable motivations behind the disruption. That can be far from easy but if the person is involved in something that is outside their normal routine, are they there because they wish to be or because someone else has told them they must? If it’s the latter, that can cause resentment.

In other situations the motivation may simply be a misguided sense of intellectual challenge.  That often manifests itself in attempts to ask consistently difficult and pointed questions of the leader. This can often be a symptom that the individual concerned feels frustrated with their role in life or in the specific activity underway.

Of course, no indigenous leadership program can provide a single answer as to how to deal with this. Each individual situation will have its own unique parameters that need to be assessed.

The best thing to do is to try to get the person to engage productively in the session and confrontation or recrimination should be avoided at all costs.  Public squabbling usually serves no purpose other than to make others feel uncomfortable.

If the position cannot be handled subtly within the team or session, it may be necessary to take the individual quietly and discreetly to one side during the coffee break and have a heart-to-heart with them to ascertain quite what’s going on and what can be done about it.

Under no circumstances should the problem simply be ignored though, as a poor attitude and team spirit can become infectious if it is not dealt with quickly and effectively.

For, more related articles, kindly visit Youth Leadership Development Website.

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TOP TIPS for Keeping People’s Attention!

If you are running any form of seminar, lecture, workshop, training course or youth leadership development program, keeping the attention of your audience can sometimes be a challenge.


Even if the attendees are attending voluntarily, there are some aspects of human psychology you need to be aware of if you are to avoid people potentially mentally ‘switching off’ and disengaging.

•    If you are presenting something, try not to talk for more than 20 minutes without some sort of break to give people a change from needing to listen to just one voice.

•    Try to throw the session opened to questions, comments or group exercises at least once every 30 minutes.  This can help avoid people mentally dozing off.

•    It is an extremely good idea to stop for some sort of physical out-of-the-room break every 45-60 minutes.  Try to get people on their feet and moving around for a coffee or something else, even if only for 5 minutes before the session re-starts. It gets the blood oxygen flowing.

•    Try to speak spontaneously rather than reading verbatim from prepared notes. 

•    Make sure you use plenty of visual or other aids.  Looking at somebody’s face and listening to them speak for extended periods can be extremely tiring.  Projections, flip charts, and other graphical aidsall help stimulate people’s visual interest.

•    Ask the odd spontaneous question.  This isn’t meant to intimidate people and your questions should be open without a right or wrong answer.  It is an old technique but if delegates suspect they may be engaged with a question at any time it can be effective in keeping their adrenaline levels up.

•    Keep plenty of fresh air circulating.

•    Share the podium and avoid ‘grandstanding’.  A change of face, voice and delivery style can help freshen up a session and stop attendees becoming stale.

These are all basic tips but can be very useful in helping to keep your youth leadership development program or other sessions on course and delegates firing on all cylinders! 

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50 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders...

Through our collective experiences over the last 35 years, along with our research and observations we have come up with 50 healthy habits which we believe successful leader live by.

Leadership is not a position or title.

Leadership is a LIFESTYLE!

Checkout our Leadership Blueprint Resource 2 called 50 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders. You can find it in the RESOURCE SECTION of our websitewww.starsleadershipinstitute.com

Here are a taste of the Habits Effective Leaders live by:

* leaders don't s have an attitude of "I'll try". Leaders have an
attitude of "let's get the job done corrections are always an option
when needed and required
* leaders create other leaders
* leaders are patient but don't tolerated irresponsibility, injustice or
toxic attitudes
* Leaders are willing to take risks that other people wont

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Youth Leadership Development - Can anyone make a leader?

Whether leaders are born or made has been one of the greatest philosophical debates in leadership development over thousands of years.

It doesn’t matter how many learned academic works you read, you won’t find a single cohesive answer in response to the question.  It tends to be an emotive subject and one in which passions can occasionally run hot.

Many authorities would agree that before starting the debate, you need to decide what type of leadership you are talking about.  Some people provide what is termed inspirational leadership by setting an example of desirable behaviours others can follow.  They may not have a position of authority as such but they show people around them what can be achieved by having the right mind-set and application etc. 

In a sense, that is a pretty sound definition of leadership.

Of course, leadership is sometimes rather more direct and requires people to motivate a group of individuals around them and occasionally make decisions where consensus cannot be reached.  Those individuals also have to position the group to help them deal with failure or problems just as effectively as they do success.

These issues and challenges are universal.  Groups need to be motivated and led just as much in say European societies as they do in Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander leadership societies.  

Almost anyone who has worked in coaching people to step into leadership roles where decisions will need to be made, will perhaps privately admit that some individuals are rather better positioned, in terms of psychological makeup, to assume the mantle of such a role than others.  That doesn’t mean that other people are not capable of being developed and grown into such positions but the techniques required to do so may be different to those applied to individuals who have more latent orientation in that direction.

In a sense, it is possible to make a case for saying that some people are born with a greater predisposition towards assimilating leadership responsibilities than others.  However, that doesn’t mean that they will necessarily make good leaders unless they have appropriate training. 

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Leadership Development and Training – The Role of Failure

For some people, failure is one of the great non-subjects.

Common speech is littered with platitudes on the subject, including things such as describing failure as an opportunity or being something that one should never admit to.
Much more worrying is the occasional suggestion that somehow the peoples of the First Nations are fatalistic about failure and simply shrug it off with indifference. This, of course, is simply wrong and shows a marked lack of understanding of the cultures and individuals concerned.

In fact, members of the indigenous communities are just as determined to achieve success as anyone else and don’t welcome failure lightly.

Here at the Stars Institute of Learning and Leadership, we know a thing or two about leadership development and training.  We also, as you might expect, understand how to apply that in some of the very specific cultural circumstances of the Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples.

However, we also understand that things in life don’t always go according to plan.  Sometimes in spite of the best endeavours of the individual or organisation concerned, things simply fail to materialise in line with our expectations and efforts.

One of the primary objectives of leadership development and training is to try and reduce the possibilities of such events occurring but it is also extremely important to understand the techniques for dealing with problems when they arise.

One of the first things to try and break is the association of things not going to plan with ‘failure’. Failure has extremely negative semantic connotations that often imply fault and the allocation of blame to an individual or group.  In fact, problems should be seen as no more than problems and strategies need to be adopted to deal with them without recrimination and blame – particularly when it’s self-inflicted.

Our leadership development and training programmes aim to instil confidence into individuals and teach them how problems need to be used as a platform for learning and improvement rather than destroyers of self-confidence.Out of that will grow the realization that failure isn’t inevitable and rarely is it ever total or irredeemable.

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WE ALL HAVE A STORY TO TELL

Yurra Yurra!

There are many interesting STROIES being spoken about by Fist Nations peoples leading up to the National conversation and deliberation on Constitutional Recognition. 

I have to wonder if White Australia is really aware of, let alone ready
to make a decision on this? I have noticed a space of silence around Constitutional Recognition by Mainstreamers and it is quite unsettling I must say...

Is the future of my Great Grannies in the hands of todays voting public?

Now White Australia might say they're willing to, and welcome the recognition of First Nations peoples within the Constitution. BUT are they able to collectively make the Mind Shift that interrupts the status quo? Are they capable of and prepared to take fair, appropriate and just ACTIONS which gives voice to a NEW Australian Story and Identity?

So far much attention again has been focused on the Indigenous peoples of Australia as a problem....it is a model of deficit that has been applied to us throughout history and continues to follow us around like a naughty lost puppy looking for a home and a good feed. Sure everyone knows it's there, it may get a few scraps from the table to fill its belly and the occasional pat on the head, but no one wants to own it really...its like everyone expects that someone else will take pity on it and either take it home, put it in the pound or if it's neglected long enough - for its own good it may die...

We as First Nations people need to talk Constitutional Recognition up with each other - no matter if we support it or not - it needs to be talked about! We also need to begin talking to our Non-Indigenous families and friends and communities....

Don't wait hoping someone else will do it...The future of your Great Grannies depends on the decisions and actions you take today.

Yurra Yurra
Wendy

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What is success - Leadership Development and Training

A very famous and very successful public figure in business once said, with not a trace of irony, that he had pushed his business to the very top having started with absolutely nothing – apart from the first “half million his father had given him to get his business going in the first place”.

Okay, that’s an amusing story but it does call into question quite how we all define success.

What does success mean to you?

At the Stars Institute's Youth Leadership Development, we wouldn’t presume to tell you what success should mean in your particular circumstances.  That is something that each of us as individuals must define for ourselves.

Even so, there are a few things that we think need to be thought of in this context.

·         Is someone who has a business worth $1,000,000 a success?  It may sound as though that is a no-brainer but what if their business was worth five million dollars a year ago?

·         Would you describe someone who has a team working for them of 50 people as an important and successful leader?  Maybe so but what if that person is loathed and detested by their team? 

·         Is the person who is phenomenally busy and with a reasonable income successful?  What about if that means that they never see their family?

Ultimately, there can be no universal definition of success.

At the Stars Institute, we’d like to see this in terms of the extent to which you as an individual are content and happy that you are utilising your potential to the maximum amount possible.   Leadership development and training in this context transcends ideas of status and income.

What this means is that it is important to define personal success criteria that are meaningful to you.  Surprisingly, not everyone who is a self-made millionaire is happy and content and some, by their own admission, will tell you that they do not consider themselves to be successful.

So, the question at the outset repeats itself - what do you think of as success in your context?

Frankly, we haven’t a clue to that in isolation and we can only help you to think about it further if you join us on one of our development sessions.

We’d love to see you there! 

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STARS - Making a Difference

YOU CAN DO IT!

Believe it or not self-doubt is very natural. Its your brains way of keeping you safe by avoiding having you doing anything that with put it or you under threat!

To make the difference you are here to make, and live the life you are excited to lead you must learn to master self-doubt. 

STARS loves to re-educate people in how to focus your emotions and redirect your thoughts so they don't run away with your dream...

Practice redirecting your thoughts each time self-doubt creeps in. It does take time, intention and attention.

Enjoy Yarra Yarra

http://www.starsleadershipinstitute.com/

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Leadership for Indigenous People of Australia

BEING, BELIEVING, BELONGING...BECOMING!
Yarra Yarra...

This is a bit of a long post but I hope you will stay with it until the end it could be the game changer in your life and in your leadership?

My Spirit is so renewed after an empowering and deadly weekend walking on Country, eating my traditional foods, sharing stories and educating my sons Lawson and Archie about our lore. Even in the 21st Century I know there are basic principles and rituals we can practice daily which gives us who we are as First Nations peoples.

Walking my Ancestral Grounds powers me up to continue the work needed to de-colonizing my own mindset. It amazes me how quickly I am able to tap into the sacred knowledge that is encoded within my DNA...

And I got to tell you it is sooooo darn liberating to be able to think free from the constraints of the colonial fog & clutter which has invaded my mind.

Now I want to share with you that STARS Instituted is about to call for applications for 2nd Annual: DADA GANA NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP PROGRAM...

One of the many things which makes Dada Gana unique from other Indigenous Leadership programs and courses, is that we get that in order to have SUSTAINABILITY of any kind be it our own long term employment, career aspirations, workplace results, building healthy family's and strong community well-being and economic capacities...IT is dependent on us;

1. Recognizing that we are all continually impacted by inter-generational trauma, and institutional oppression. If trauma is left unresolved it becomes even more complex and wounds our DNA...make no mistake we are physically passing this trauma onto our children even whilst they are in the womb...

Now you might say "yeh I know all that!" BUT do you know how to begin really healing from the past so that it is out of your body, mind and spirit? 
Do you know how to run your own brain, decolonize your thinking, reduce your stress, build your wellbeing, and build up all your SUSTAINABILTY leadership muscles???

YOU are sure going to need them in this new political climate. 

You see nothing is sustainable if the very FOUNDATION of who you are is built on ROCKY grounds. Half the time we don't even know we are on rocky grounds until IT hits the fan...and then we still try and push on and EXHAUST ourselves rotten. Sound familiar!

If you're filled up with unconscious beliefs of "not being good enough," "you cant trust people," "white people are out to get you," "I am a hopeless..." AND the mother of them all "Blackfullas aren't as good as Whitefellas," then these are the toxic energies running your life and impacting your leadership.

Dada Gana is not like any other program or course you will experience on Leadership...as Dr Jackie Huggins said
"There is no other leadership organization in the country like STARS Institute doing this kind of work with our Mob, it's amazing...."

If we want a different result we have to start thinking and doing things differently...the future of our kids depend on the courage we have today to make the decisions which we know in our hearts and spirits need to be made.

So keep a close eye on our Website www.starsleadershipinstitute.com for the Application release dates,.

Please help us connect with Mob from right across the Nation and share this message around your networks, families, and communities.

In Unity and Spirit
Wendy

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Caring for the Indigenous People Of Australia

SHARING IS. CARING!

Yarra, Yarra...
This weekend me & my family have come home to our Ancestral Land - Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island).
Whilst I was showing my sons Lawson & Archie our Middens & telling them the stories of Our Old People & Our Old Ways - I felt a Deep Spiritual shift happen within me. 
I was so present to the sacredness of our "Old Ways".
I got that all that special knowledge continues to give me who I am as a Gorri woman & my Belonging to Country - it has never left me - it is encoded within my DNA. 
As I shared with my boys today I passed these Quandamooka stories onto them AND into them. 
I know as long as we keep our Stories alive in this modern time our Quandmooka Culture & Identity will continue to Thrive...
Cultural & Family Leadership is all Our Responsibility...
Yarra Yarra. Wendy

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Critical: Self-Evaluation versus Self-Confidence

One of the biggest inhibitors to the development of leadership potential in First Nations peoples is that of a lack of self-confidence.

To be fair, this isn’t just an issue for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.  All around the world, leadership development programmes have to work hard to try and empower people who, for one reason or another, suffer from low self-esteem and low self-confidence.

Of course, in the context of Australian history, this is a particular problem for the First Nations – as we see regularly at the Stars Institute.

Yet being self-confident as a leader needs to be balanced against the need to also be capable of realistically assessing how well you are performing.

This isn’t easy to balance for any indigenous leadership program because there will be a tendency on the part of many people to fall into one of the following traps:

·         That they are somehow lacking the pre-requisites for effective self-development and leadership meaning, by a faulty logic extension, that they must always be wrong when a difference of opinion or problem arises;

·         That their performance in a given activity or task by definition cannot have been good enough because for most of their life they have been told that they aren’t capable;

By complete contrast, that leadership means never being wrong or at least if you are, that you can’t admit to it.

In a brief blog of this nature, there is no way that we have the space to outline how effective leadership programmes deal with these sometimes conflicting tendencies.

What is important is to teach techniques to assess the realities of a situation and to be able to differentiate between an allocation of responsibility and blame. 

If something goes wrong, you can’t learn from it unless you understand how the problem arose and who was responsible including, if necessary identifying objectively that the fault was yours. Of course, that doesn’t mean beating yourself up either. 

Blame, whether personal or directed at others, is simply recrimination and that’s usually pointless and counter-productive. 

Developing the strength of your personal character is all about being able to objectively decide when you are right and when you are wrong.  It’s not an easy skill to learn but we’ll help you! 

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Procrastination - What is it?

Hi Peoples

How often do you Procrastinate? Did you know that it can cause serious illness and stress.

Here is our take on it. eg: Procrastination = Fear most of the time. 

You are scared of what people think of you so you avoid making decisions.

You are scared of failing, scared of succeeding, scared, scared, scared.

Have you noticed that often you make decisions based around making other people happy while you suffer in silence.

Delaying the action to make a decision can make you ill. There are many studies out there that back us up on this. 

Breathe deeply and just do it. You can always make another decision and take a different action.

So take a leaf out of Richard Bransons Book. Weigh up all the pros and cons on a piece of paper, and then take action. In other woords "Screw it ,just do it.!"

Just believe in yourself, seek advice and then take massive action. 

Happy Days
Wendy & Vicki

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“Leadership Is A Natural Part Of Who We Are As First Nations People!”

Recognizing and acknowledging Our Mob who served our Country in Australia's Military conflicts is a long time in coming...

My tears of pride, sadness, joy and love flowed freely when my Pop Private Archibald Newfong and my Great Uncle Private Robert Edward Crouch were amongst 66 other Quandamooka Servicemen and Servicewomen who were Honoured at by the Quandamooka community, Redland City Council and the wider Redlands community on Monday at the official Opening of NAIDOC Week.

As I listened to Aunty Rose Borey and Uncle Bob Anderson give Welcome To Quandamooka Country and felt our Spiritual Ancestors gather as the Yulu Burri Ba dancers sung them up I knew with every fibre in my being that leadership is not something that you do. It is part of who we are...
"Lest We Forget"

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Muckaty Community Leadership is an Example for Us All...

I was enlivened by the news of victory for the Muckaty Community near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Finally after 8 long years of battling with the Australian Government their Ancestral Lands will no longer be consider as the location for a nuclear waste dump. What is going to be the communities next biggest challenge is healing the family & community divisions & trauma that has now become the emotional & social legacy of this battle...it makes me weak that in spite of the empowerment experienced by Muckaty people they are also now left to deal with a now fractured community. I wonder how & if the Australian government is going to support the Muckaty people through this???

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