In my last article, I shared how the growth and development of the bamboo tree mirrors what successful leaders need to create in their own businesses.

With strong foundations, you will have the people you need to believe in you and your purpose support your actions and decisions. People who will stand by you, no matter what adverse conditions you face.

With a strong core, you’ll have conviction and self-belief in the face of adversity and criticism - and the confidence to clearly communicate who you really are.

This time I’d like to share the most effective strategies for leaders to build their core and their foundations; what you can learn from other people, and what you can learn from your own self-reflection.

Just like the bamboo tree, you need to build a strong foundation (roots) so you can grow and reach your goals (branches) and help your team to reach theirs (leaves).

Leadership is demanding, and just like the bamboo, you are subjected to extremes in your environment. Not wind and rain, but challenges like big problems, missing goals, black swan events, staffing and team issues and everything else business throws at you.

You need to be strong enough to withstand them and stay true to yourself and the vision and also flexible enough to adapt to the situation; change, pivot and adjust.

People are looking for strength and conviction in a world full of uncertainty and doubt, so you need to truly believe your own why.

Before you can get anyone else to buy into your vision, you need to buy into it first. Here are two ways to start a learning journey, so you can truly live and breathe your WHY.

First, learn from others.

Everyone has a different journey to success. You need to use this to your advantage.

· Reach out to those around you and learn, build skills and absorb expertise.

· Adopt the mentality that you can learn from anyone. People with different experiences, different thinking, different beliefs and different perspectives. Embrace diversity.

· Lose your ego and be open and curious to different ways of doing things. Explore options, get in a room where you feel uncomfortable and do it anyway. It is easy to criticise people who are different, but harder to appreciate, understand and learn from them.

· Look to your competitors - look for opportunities. Explore concepts and ideas that are contrary to yours and learn from them.

· Find people who have reached the benchmark you want to achieve. Surround yourself with people who are more experienced than you. Get advice, mentoring and coaching.

Second, learn about yourself.

To understand your WHY, you need to understand what drives you. What really drives you , your thoughts , beliefs and fears.

· Those factors that are often unconscious but influence what you think, believe and feel - how you act and respond.

· Question your beliefs. Are they yours or have you inherited them? Are they empowering or emotional triggers?

· Question your standards. Do they enable you to achieve your desired outcomes or hold you back?

· Question your expectations of others. Are they realistic, consistent, clearly communicated?

· Question your biases. Are you even aware of them? Do you have strategies in place to mitigate the impact?

· Identify your triggers and the meaning you attach to stories and situations and the impact these have.

· Look at your defaults - how you think, who you like to be around, the work that you enjoy, what drains you and what expands you.

Leadership is not about having the answers.

Instead, being a leader means finding and extracting the answers from your team and environment. You need to be both flexible and strong - just like the bamboo tree - while also vulnerable and open.

Hold too rigidly to the idea that there is only one way to achieve your goal, being right and having the right answer - and you will soon find yourself stuck in no man’s land, defending your position.

Don’t hold on strongly enough to your conviction, and you will jump from decision to decision, creating confusion and distrust in your team.

It’s a dance of balance - and you can only dance when you are on your toes, creating momentum and prepared to move in any and all directions as opportunities and challenges arise.

Did you know the only way to kill a bamboo tree is to destroy the root system?

Any attempt to cut the branches and it just sends up roots elsewhere – because it is so incredibly strong, but also flexible.

It’s the same with Leadership. If you lose belief in yourself and don’t build and retain your core strength - your WHY - your team, your ‘roots’ will lose their belief too. Suddenly, you will just be a group of directionless people trying to find your way.

Be strong in who you are and people will follow.

We can all learn a lot from nature.

Leadership is like the bamboo tree - Part 2