Dear growth seeker,

Thank you for choosing to invest your time in reading this article about the importance of transformative leadership and growing the most precious asset you will ever possess – You.

So many of you have messaged me here on my website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and on WhatsUp to ask me to share some insights on the recent most spoken two topics that affect every human being – Will Smith’s violent response after the comedian Chris Rock made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith which not only shocked the live audience at the Oscars but also sparked media attention around the world and the invasion of Ukraine. So I decided to write this article and share my thoughts in a way that can start the so needed leadership conversations not only in every business and organisation but also in governments around the world.

Both incidents mentioned above are great examples of the destructive power of our inability to control ourselves when emotions, biases, and judgment get the best of us. Perhaps it is time to shape the narratives around the kind of distraction we as human beings and what Authoritarian and Transactional Leadership are capable of. But it is also a great example of how the same distraction can create a rippling effect of uniting leaders to step up and focus on the safety, growth and protection of their people and the very same foundation upon which democracy is built.

The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky, a former actor and comedian who became the sixth and incumbent president of Ukraine, is an excellent example of the traits of Transformational Leadership. He rose to the challenges he as an individual faced when the war in Ukraine started, but he also managed to mobilise his people to fight one of the strongest armies in the world and managed to galvanise the EU and NATO leaders to step up their game.

The truth is…

Transformational leaders are focused on the safety, wellbeing, growth and development of their people. They set clear expectations, honour commitments, and keep their employees accountable to goals. Transformational leadership has been shown to result in higher morale, decreased turnover, greater motivation (both for the leader and for team members), more innovation and creativity, increased productivity, better communication between employees and management, improved performance in high-stress situations (such as emergencies), increased trust among employees and higher earnings for the company as a whole.

As an employee or a manager, you’re already great at hitting your deadlines, completing projects on time and under budget, and maintaining positive relationships with your direct reports. But when there’s a big, hairy project that needs to be completed—like launching a new product or implementing an organisational change—that’s where you fall short. You feel like you’re spinning your wheels trying to rally the troops. You don’t know what steps to take to get out of this rut and gain traction.

One of the main benefits to use coaching, training, and development as an empowering tool to activate leadership in everyone in your organisation is this:

Transformational Leaders Are Excellent at Asking Quality Questions and at Listening.

They ask questions to understand how people feel about a situation. They ask questions to help people get to the root of a complex problem. They ask questions to help people find solutions. They ask questions that help people move forward in life, whether it is by identifying their blind spots or providing direction and inspiration for a new way forward.

What better way to transform your people than by asking questions that will help them think outside the box, consider new perspectives and improve their performance, decision-making and communication?

For instance, in The Unfakeable Code®, I share more about what questions could you ask your people to help them rethink their approach to a provocation or a project? What questions could you ask them to encourage them to take off the mask and be open to exploring new ideas or looking at things differently? What questions could you ask that would help them make more effective decisions? Or communicate more effectively with customers or colleagues?

Another reason to promote authentic leadership in your organisation is this:

Transformational Leaders Are Excellent at Empowering Others.

Empowerment is a simple concept to understand. It means giving people the freedom to make decisions and act on them. Empowerment is essential in an organisation since the manager won’t always be there to guide others, so they need to be empowered to make their own decisions.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure to coach and mentor businesses from all market sectors and leaders of some of the fortune 500 companies to create a culture where empowerment thrives by building trust within the board,  teams, and every employee in the organisation. As we worked together on achieving their objectives, every client has realised how trust and empowerment go hand in hand; if you don’t trust someone, you’re unlikely to empower them with decision-making authority.

In our professional careers, we all come across transactional leaders and managers. They are perceived as inauthentic, dull, and unworthy of our trust because of how they act, behave, and treat the people they manage. Such leaders don’t get many opportunities to practice being exciting and original, so they stay disempowered.

With enough encouragement, coaching, and training, anyone can be anything. So why not invest in activating leadership across your entire organisation?

Transformational Leaders Inspire Vision and Purpose.

You may have heard the old saying, “dance like no one is watching.” Maybe you’ve said it yourself. Dancing like no one is watching has become a cliché for letting go, but what if it were more than just a feel-good adage?

What if dancing like no one was watching was the first step toward achieving something you want – dancing on Broadway, winning an Olympic medal, or just shedding a few pounds and feeling better about yourself?

Most people are afraid to take that first step because they’re worried about what other people will think. But we believe there’s a real opportunity to achieve your goals if you ignore everyone else and focus on what you want.

Transformational Leaders Encourage Innovation.

Good leaders are open-minded, and this openness is a crucial part of what makes them suitable. They’re willing to consider new ideas and ways, encouraging others to do the same. This makes it easier for their employees to think creatively, which can help the team address challenges or identify new opportunities.

Transformational Leaders Set Challenging Goals.

Transformational leaders set challenging goals and can mobilise people to achieve them. Volodymyr Zelensky, NATO and the EU are great examples of this. They also create a sense of urgency, setting deadlines and milestones to keep things on track. Finally, they empower followers by giving them the freedom to achieve the end in their way.

This doesn’t mean that you can say: “I have a great idea! We should build an Android Artificial Intelligence Powered phone!” Then hand the team a blank canvas, walk away and expect results. Setting challenging goals is essential but not enough; these leaders also ensure that followers understand their role in achieving the outcome and providing the necessary resources. Both NATO and the EU are giving Ukraine many resources to help them fight back Russia Invasion. And finally, they make sure team members have sufficient time for reflection to plan their next steps appropriately (rather than jumping from crisis to crisis).

Transformational Leadership Assist in Creating Effective, Efficient and Energised Managers and Employees.

In one of the companies, I was hired to assist them in addressing low productivity, poor performance, and high turnover staff issues. I observed how many did not like working for the company because they felt not listened to, not necessary, and did not want to face colleagues used to moaning, criticising, and bringing other people down. Their leaders were not listening to what everyone in the company felt, which many found to be demoralising and destructive.

What I did as their coaching partner was to clarify the behaviours that fuel transactional leadership and management and use it to:

• Motivate and inspire staff to achieve their full potential
• Build loyalty and trust
• Create a positive and supportive environment
• Encourage teamwork, innovation and collaboration
• Set challenging and values-driven goals
• Improve employee’s mental health, performance and wellbeing
• Grow their reputation, productivity and profits

I love travelling the world and assisting others in creating transformational results. One thing that inspired me throughout my life to keep learning, growing, and sharing my gifts for the benefit of others is what my father, a successful restaurateur told me as I was growing up:

“My son, if you want your business to grow, then assist others to grow by leading by example.”

You’ve just read about the transformative leadership possible for you and your organisation. Now it’s time to take the next step and get started on your path to being a transformative leader and activating leadership across your entire business.

Get in touch with me today! As your coaching partner, it will be an honour to work on addressing the issues that cause you headaches, pain, and frustrations and get you the clarity, the tools, and the plan that begins to grow you and your employees into the best transformational leader possible. You’ll learn practical ways and skills that will help you to inspire your employees and elevate them above their peers at competing companies while also inspiring yourself as a leader.

There’s no reason your organisation can’t become the market leader, and I love sharing how to get the results and where you want to be by becoming a transformative leader.

Love and Wisdom

Tony J. Selimi – Award-Winning Author, Speaker, and Transformational Live and Business Coach Specialising in Human Behaviour, Leadership Excellence, and Maximising Human Potential. Winner of the London SME Most Visionary Entrepreneur 2020 award, Corporate Coaching and Recruitment Business Coach of the Year 2021 Award, Silver Winner of Literary Book Award 2021, and Maincreast Media Book Award 2021 for A Path to Wisdom, #Loneliness, and The Unfakeable Code®.

PS – I work on a virtual basis and in-person with clients all over the globe, facilitating the realisation and accomplishment of personal, professional, and business goals. Here are four ways I can assist you in creating life-changing breakthroughs, growth, and accelerating your journey to excellent health, influence, transformational leadership and success.

#1… Book a Breakthrough Consultation Session by sending an email to info@tonyselimi.com

#2 … Grab your copy of my #1 Amazon bestselling and Multi-Award-Winning books, A Path to Wisdom, #Loneliness, The Unfakeable Code®, and enrol in my Mindfulness for Higher Productivity, Performance, and Profitable Life Udemy Course! Click here to join thousands of my happy students.

#3 … Make the fastest progress by hiring me to work with you on your business and train your teams. Just reply to this message and put “private” in the subject line. Let me know a little about you or your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you the quote, invoice, and the necessary booking details.

#4 … Hire me as a speaker to educate, inspire and transform your audience at your next company or industry event. Click HERE to download my speaker sheet and fill in the form with your event info, and once I hear from you, I’ll send you the contract and fee info back.

“It is in respecting, manging, and using your time effectively that you stay focused, clear, sharp, present, and build an extraordinary life.” -Tony J. Selimi

Weather you acknowledge it or not time is a precious and limited commodity of which we all are given in equal measure. Everybody gets twenty four hours per day…no more, no less…

It matters not how much money you have or don’t have, how educated you are, what your social position you belong too, if you are married, single, gay or straight, white, black, Asian, or other, the fact is…

You still get only twenty four hours a day, no more and no less. You can’t buy, beg, borrow or steal another one minute.

As much as we would like to think we are in charge of these twenty four hours, the truth is what we do with those twenty four hours is not entirely up to us.

We all have obligations that must be met each day. We have jobs that provide us with necessary income, a certain amount of time is required for eating and sleeping and our relationships with our loved ones require some amount of time each day but the entire twenty four are not all spoken for.

These are the few hours each day that we can use as we want to use them. What we decide to do with them will mostly determine how successful or unsuccessful we will be in life.

If we spend all of our “unspoken for hours” on fb, playing games, or on the couch in front of the TV eating chips and drinking coke, in five years we will still be doing the same boring job. When I decided to write my book A Path to Wisdom: How to live a balanced, healthy and peaceful life, I had to put in my diary minimum of 2 hours a day writting time. This helped me to remain focused, in the flow, and publish my book on time.

Some of those free hours if, used to learn new things or to try different things, could mean that in a short amount of time we would have better jobs, better relationships or even better health.

That seems like a good idea but where does one begin when clouds of confusion surround our brain?

#1: Get clear of the outcomes you wish to create. Write down in details what you want to achieve, why you want those things, and how they would make you feel once you have accomplished your goals. You can use TJS Evolutionary Method to help you in this process to help you listen from within what your being is asking you to do. Learnign how to use and apply this method will save you time and help you get step closer to your desired success.

# 2: For a plane to reach its destination safely it needs both a physical pilot and an auto pilot. Both are needed to safely reach a pre-set destination. So do you. Trying to do everything on your own will not get you the results that a good coach can help you navigate safely through the adversities that may pop out on your way to attaining your desired outcomes. Ask for help, sometimes people go for free advice, I believe if you want outstanding outcomes you might have to pay the expert that in long term saves you time, money, energy and the emotions. If you try an re-invent the wheel, you are just wasting that valuable resource that you have, time.

One thing to keep in mind when getting a good coach to help you in your journey, there’s a big difference between spending money and investing money. Any time you spend some money on learning something that will take you closer to what you want, that’s investment!

# 3: Use your time effectively by making sure you set aside a certain amount of hours each
week to work on your goal, and stick to it. Be persistent, consistent, and productive. The time that is not used effectively is the time that could be used to attain your goals.

#4: Acknowledge within you that you are part of life, part of the greater picture that knows in order to create success it must also experience the failure. Nature does the same, in order to create it must destroy life. The progress in becoming successful is messy. The very nature of any type of growth being personal, business, finance, health or spiritual means that you’ll experience distraction, disruption, confusion and what at first sight appears to be difficulty. It is in these moments you need to keep in mind that difficulties are improvement in wolf’s clothing. And that rather than falling backward, you choose to fail forward, stand up again with a knowing that your challenges are actually showing you you’re moving ahead. It’s a simple yet brilliant way to keep your perceptions balanced through your journey to attaining success.

#: Love is a powerful force that forces us to go into war with one another and equally makes us love our enemies. Align the outcomes you wish to create with your highest values, it is only then that your heart opens up and gives you the energy to create the success you desire. Success will come much faster when you don’t waste your time trying to do it all on your own.

I trust the above five steps help you bring success faster your way, get clear of what you want, and use the infinite wisdom of love as the antidote to your frustrations, fears, and stress that may come up in your pursue for success. Appreciating your time in times of crisis is what takes you from living an average life to creating an extraordinary success.

Believe in the call on your life to do amazing things by making today the day you listen to your hearts call to Success!

And, if what you have read has inspired you, please get in touch and let me help you honour your talents, be successful, unleash your leader, and make awesome things happen for you, your organization, and the clients you serve. It gives me a great pleasure through coaching, mentoring, speaking, and team work to help you and your company be successful. To get in touch please click HERE!

Be great, awesome, and healthy,

Tony J. Selimi

Coach, Human Behaviour and Cognition Specialist