You Can’t Manage Magic!

1. You Can’t Manage Magic! “If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.” -Soren Kierkagaard Paul Crittenden – Transformational Thinking Ltd

2. Some things to note • The group of people who will lead the University to build the future and live the values is in this room • You are here because you are key • Most of what I’m going to talk to you about, you already know • Nothing I’m going to tell you is true • Being best is rarely about doing more • Being best is nearly always about doing differently

3. Something to be wary of!

4. Where you are going "To be the learner's first choice University for quality and opportunity".  With a leading aim to: “Achieve a high quality, student focused, learning experience".

5. SEX

6. Where you are going "To be the learner's first choice University for quality and opportunity".  With a leading aim to: “Achieve a high quality student focused learning experience".

7. The Context of Change • A somewhat unique environment – constrained by tradition, controlled by regulation • Social and political forces: • From student, to student and customer • From grant funded to (often) debt funded • From privileged to popular • The need to provide an exceptional student experience with excellent academic practice, and operate as a viable business too

8. Vision is more than ambition “The success has this over his rivals. He knows where he is going”. Mark Caine

9. Vision is more than ambition Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force... They draw us forward and energise us, give us the courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism.They pull the spirit downward.

10. Management vs Leadership – the difference? • Management – doing things right Short term – getting things done Task or objectives – ensuring targets hit Process and procedure Systems and structure Bottom line Logical and rational connection

11. Management vs Leadership – the difference? • Leadership Purpose and mission focus Longer term People and engagement Potential and development Top line and reputation Emotional connection

12. Management AND Leadership Management produces orderly results whichkeeps things working efficiently. Leadership creates useful change. We need both if we are to prosper.

13. Leadership – defining the focus Change Operations Leading Others Leading Others Self Leadership

14. Transact or Transform? Diminishing Certainty Transformational Leadership Transactional Leadership • Fast • Disruptive • Radical • Comprehensive • Structural • Iterative • Continuous • Evolutionary • Organic • Un-dramatic Diminishing Clarity

15. The transactional leader

16. The transformational leader

17. Making magic happen – Show up! Why would anyone want to be led by you?

18. Making magic happen - Passion 'Fall in love with your life's work again, my friend, or your energy will wane, your voice will falter and there will be nothing to prove but the fact that you are taking up valuable space.'

19. Making magic happen - Energy 'When the spirit of people is strong, focused, and vibrant, wonderful things happen'.Harrison Owen

20. Making magic happen - Presence "Look upon every meeting - every exchange - as an opportunity to fulfil your dream"

21. Some common frustrations You have 3 minutes tocome up with your top frustration that has been around for a while

22. A quick survey Raise your hand if you agree with each of the following ten statements My sense of accountability compels me to take control when others are struggling. Too many of my direct reports cite the failings of others as the reason for not meeting their objectives. I struggle to maintain the sense of balance between work and home. My productivity or performance has been declining under the pressure of ‘too much to do’. I notice people blaming others when things go wrong. I regularly get drawn into issues others should be resolving. I believe I could be more effective than I am if I could get ‘ahead of the game’. I find myself focusing much of my time on the urgent and tactical. I feel weary / worn out / uninspired. My direct reports seem to make the same mistakes more than once or twice.

23. The ‘Accountability Gap’ Over-responsible leaders The Accountability Gap Accountability (100%) Under-responsible ‘followers’ “There less to fear from the competition than from internal anxieties, self-doubt, and lack of trust” Maturity

24. Closing the Accountability Gap To empower: To make more powerful… But where does the power to make ‘magic’ reside? In the Person not the Position!

25. Closing the Accountability Gap • Direct • Provide direction and support • Raise the bar on performance • Inspire • Challenge what keeps them stuck • Emanate certainty and optimism • Deliver what they need to perform

26. Closing the Accountability Gap - 2 • Engage • Take responsibility for communication • Target understanding, not transmission • Connection is an essential part of communication • Understand the peril of e-mail – words don’t work that well! • Engagement is an active thing!

27. Personal Impact “Do you generate more energy when you walk into a room or when you walk out of it?”

28. Questions are sometimes better than answers • In relation to the frustrating issue identified, what are the three main blockages to resolving it?  • Of these three, what is the one thing that, if changed, would change everything?  • Just for now, imagine that you could change anything you wanted. In what ways would this one thing you have identified have to change, in order to move your problem or issue closer to resolution?  • What, specifically, stops this from happening?  • What would you and your colleagues have to do, stop doing, or do more of, in order to overcome this hurdle?  • What prevents you?  • If you decided now to overcome it, could you do it?  • If you knew you could do it, would you?  • When?

29. Performance Performance = Potential - Interference

30. Interference Self talk STATE Emotion Physiology

31. Interference

32. Interference Let’s play ball

33. Your own resourcefulness • Step back occasionally, and make time for magic • Find peers that challenge and help you to grow • Keep the commitments you make to yourself • Monitor yourself against personal best • Get comfortable with personal risk • Build trust – in yourself and others • Communicate your appreciation • Give up trying

34. Shaping High Performing Cultures • High Self Esteem • Learned Optimism • High EQ Peak Performers 'Those who have most at stake in the old culture, or are most rigid in their beliefs, try to summon people back to the old ideas.' - Marilyn Ferguson Beware Cultural Conditioning The Way It Is! • Low Self Esteem • Learned Helplessness • Low EQ Disenfranchised Sculpt Empowering Beliefs

35. Believe it or not …. “Man is what he believes.”Anton Chekhov “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.” The Buddha “If you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford “They can because they think they can.”Virgil “The world we have created is a product of our way of thinking.”Albert Einstein “I don’t believe it!”Luke Skywalker

36. Transformational Leadership Transformational Leadership is a personal journey of discovery- one thatinspiresand attracts others by itsclarity, passion, authenticity and courage

37. Our deepest fear…. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? …Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, just as children do. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson, ‘A Return to Love’, and Nelson Mandela in his ‘Speech to a Nation’

38. A call to adventure Some who are called to the adventure choose to go. Others may wrestle for years with fearfulness and denial before they are able to transcend that fear. We tend to deny our destiny because of our insecurity, our dread of ostracism, our anxiety, and our lack of courage to risk what we have. Joseph Jaworski,Synchronicity - The Inner PathOf Leadership

39. Closing Words You need imagination, some fantasy, some new ways of thinking - some Magic in fact.  You must act as if this institution is yours to create, your learning is yours to define, the leadership you seek is yours to become.

40. A call to action When will you start to make magic happen?

41. You Can’t Manage Magic!