In recent weeks the British people have seen a potentially defining moment in it’s political history as two opposing parties came together to form a coalition government as they take on the challenge of stabilising the country.

There are sceptics, doubters and experts that see nothing but failure. How can two parties with such opposing views really work together?

What I am wondering is would it make any difference if the two leaders were women?

Would the tactics have been the same? Would we be looking at the possibility of a successful government in a more positive light?  Come to think of it would we have voted any differently?

Before you answer, consider the following.

A few years ago I came across quote in Business week from Bruce Nussbaum who said “We are in the midst of a cultural shift that involves leadership shifting from the voice of authority to the voice of understanding. Listening, understanding, connecting and communicating are the key skills the business culture today and the essence of true leadership”

If we are to believe that this is the case, then when it comes to skills like listening, understanding and connecting women simply have the upper hand. They rock.

In her book  The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing The World, Dr. Helen Fisher argues that “The twenty-first century economic community are going to need the natural talents of women. …Women have many exceptional faculties bred deep in history: a talent for words; a capacity to read non-verbal cues; emotional sensitivity; empathy; patience; an ability to do and think several things simultaneously;…a penchant for long term planning; a gift for networking and negotiating; and a preference for cooperating, reaching consensus, and leading via egalitarian teams”

There are countless other books and pieces of research which bring out similar ideas.

Tom Peter’s author of the best seller “In search of excellence” describes in his later work that there is a set of attributes found more commonly in women than in men.

• Women practice improvisation skills with greater ease than men
• Women are more self determined and more trust sensitive than men
• Women appreciate and depend upon their intuition more than men do
• Women, unlike men, focus naturally on empowerment not on power
• Women develop relationships with greater facility than men.
• Women are far less rank conscious than men.

Men like structure. We like boundaries and rules which define or describe ‘our place.’ Which is why I commonly find that men relate to being a leader as a position that you hold as oppose to a behaviour you exhibit. Men see leadership is a task of tangible outcomes and not the emotive animal that it is.

So would the coalition government stand a greater chance of success if the leaders were women?

Well, I guess we will never know for sure but I do believe we could say that a female leadership team maybe better equipped to lead a collaborative team than their male counter parts. They would probably connect with greater ease and comfort than their male counter parts and listen far more.

There is one factor to consider above all of this that could pour cold water on to some of these arguments. The corporate world is still very male dominated and the danger would be that in order to get ahead women in more senior roles are having to take on the traits of their male counterparts, forced to operate in manner that is the opposite of what is required in the ‘new’ economy.

So what do you see in your organisations and businesses?

Do you see difference between male and female leaders? Do you agree that those differences exists and indeed are they important in today’s world?

As a business owner, leader, entrepreneur, consultant or coach speaking in public is one the most critical skills you should develop in order to bring you success.

Speaking in business means speaking at meetings, in interviews, with potential clients, colleagues, and customers. In today’s hi-tech world of video casting technology and the popularity of social media it now also includes video blogging, podcasting, teleconferencing, and making corporate videos or appearing in the national media.

Simply public speaking is anytime you need to deliver message and influence an audience through the spoken word.

It’s art that when mastered will improve your career prospects and your business results. Employers consistently rank speaking and communication skill as one of the key skills they look for. In fact both undergraduate and graduate Business school alumni who attended the University of Minnesota placed oral communication at the top of a list of skills that were relevant to overall job success

Being an effective leader requires the ability to communicate and inspire. Public speaking skills are a essential part of being able to communicate effectively. When you think about it, most problems in business are down to poor communication. Increasing your ability to get your message across means you will reduce the problems you experience and save valuable time in the long run.

You will increase your capability to express your ideas, influence your colleagues to explore options, work collaboratively with greater confidence.

There is also evidence that shows that people who good at speaking in public have higher levels of confidence and self esteem. If you can engage your audience with your message and do it with impact, integrity and credibility you will have a formula which all but guarantees you success.

Like all skills you learn the abilities you develop as a speaker will spill over in to other areas and bring about benefits in other areas of your life.

In short, speaking in public is a critical skill for anyone who is serious about their business or career.

We attended a great event yesterday and met a great guy called Joel Roberts. Joel has work in the media in the US for a number of years and he specialises helping businesses use the principles of the media world to grab and keep our attention into how they communicate their business message.

What was interesting and why we’re writing this post was that Joel referred to a book called the “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. The book is about globalisation and impact on the landscape for business.

Friedman got the idea for the book after he visited the CEO of Infosys in Bangalore – the Silicon Valley of India. Upon arriving he was taken to a huge room with great big screens that had live video streaming from London, New York, Jedda, Cape Town, LA to name but a few. What he had walked into was global conference being hosted from India in real time. The story goes that the CEO turned and with a smile said “The playing field has been levelled hasn’t it?”

So why is of relevance to you?

Well, as a result of this ‘levelling of the playing field’ your competitors are now not just on your local High Street. They are not even just in your Town or City, most probably not even in the same Country. Your fiercest competitor could now be sat any where in the world. Technology advances mean that the whole world is now connected.

Secondly, whilst technology has exported to the far reaches of the globe so has the attention span of the Western world. People’s attention spans are shorter now than ever before – we think in 30 second chunks!

So here’s the challenge for your businesses. You have to get your message to stand out from the thousands of competitors and capture the dwindling attention of the cyber generation.

Now that’s a challenge.

One of the first things you can do is to start thinking in terms of problems. There are 2 kinds of problems  - the ones you have and the ones you don’t. You are in the business of either solving the problems your customers have or help them see that they have the problem you want them to have..as Joel would say “You are in the problem distribution business”

To begin to clarify your message, ask yourself “What problem’s do your customers lay awake at night thinking about and how does what you have solve them?”

Martin, Joseph & Vinay at NLP Meets the Secret in London

What a great night we had yesterday in London with one of our inspirations Joseph McClendon III.

Joseph has been in the personal development business for over 20 years and has been working with Tony Robbins for much of that. He is a great speaker, presenter and coach and if you haven’t seen him speak you really should check him out!

At the seminar last night, Joseph was talking about creating a successful life and he focused very much on one of our key principles and teachings which is all about understanding with absolute clarity what it is that you really want.

When he asked the audience of 700 people how many knew exactly what they wanted, only about 20 arms went up. Isn’t that amazing?

You see, knowing what you really want with specificity and clarity is the first step to living the life you want. We talk about the difference between destination and direction in the FREE e-book on our website (you can sign up for it by completing the box on the left!) and how just having direction is not enough for true fulfilment and success, you need to know the exact co-ordinates. When you focus on what you want, guess what? You have a greater chance of getting it!

The crazy thing is that most people spend most of their time focusing on what they don’t want. They don’t want debt, they don’t want to be over weight, they don’t want another failed relationship.

So do yourself some good. Get some pen and paper and start to write down ALL of the things you WANT.  Don’t just settle for what you think you can have but what is it that you REALLY want, exactly want in your life!

If it’s money, how much? A new car, which one? A house? What will it look like? A better body, what will you look like?

Be specific create your self a vivid picture in your mind’s eye and the let the journey begin!