Debbie Mayo-Smith: How do I become a better leader?

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I'm writing today from Los Angeles, where I'm one of the keynote speakers for the Helloworld Owners Managers Conference.

They've gone through a huge rebranding over the past year, changing from their separate member businesses of Jetset Travel, Harveys World Travel and American Express TravelScene.

One of the benefits of being a motivational speaker is, that when you are at conference, and you take the time, you have opportunities to listen to other speakers that have been brought in to inspire the group; and let a little of that inspiration rub off on yourself.

How do you effectively lead your team? How do you help become the agent of change? How do you overcome obstacles? How can you be successful at it?

These four questions were asked by the opening keynote speaker John Izzo.

You can summarise his message as 'how taking responsibility changes everything'. You have to step up. One person doing one small thing. One person asking themselves 'what part am I playing and what is the one think I can do? Action. Attitude can become viral.

In example, he told the story of the first day of high school for a new student in Year 12. He wore a pink shirt to school and was bullied unmercifully by three boys because he wore the pink shirt. You can imagine what they were saying. The story went around and two boys, while walking home were talking about the incident. They said to each other. We've been in this school for four years. Bullying is bad. We've never done anything about it. It's time to step up. So they went to the store and bought a pink shirt each, and called their friends who called their friends.

The next morning 300 out of approx. a 386 student population came to school dressed in pink. It then came out that the boy always wore pink in solidarity with his mother who had suffered through breast cancer the year before.

The pink shirt day spread to hundreds of schools throughout Canada (where this took place) in support of anti-bullying campaigns.

Of course you can ascertain the message here. That one person, taking action, CAN be the agent of change. Stepping up can become viral. If there is a problem simply ask 'what can I do', then take action.

How you lead your team is by taking responsibility stepping up and saying what can I do?

John also made a point about different departments of businesses working together, Being open to feedback. He had a great story in example. He and Peter Sheehan were going to be on a show together. A top executive from Sony was also there. Peter asked the executive back stage before the taping 'How did Sony miss the Digital Revolution so badly? The executive didn't reply. You might remember that Sony had the market dominated with the Sony Walkman.

Then when the executive was being interviewed on the programme, he said '20 minutes ago a waiter asked me how we had missed the digital revolution so badly. I've been pondering this question since then and I think the answer is that we were too good in our silos. We had the knowledge. The technology. But we didn't talk to each other. There were too many barriers.

Next week, overcoming obstacles in business.

Written by Debbie Mayo-Smith, One of New Zealand's most in-demand speakers, trainers and bestselling authors. Debbie works with companies that want more effective staff. For more tips and business ideas sign up for her free monthly newsletter.