Why It's Your Job To Be Interesting

“It's not their job to be interested. It's your job to be interesting.”

I heard these words last year from speaker and former TV reality producer, Maz Farrelly, and they really stuck with me.

As a leader, are you interesting?

And how can you become an interesting leader in your organisation?

To become interesting, you have to be prepared to show your true self to your people; to share your personal stories and be vulnerable.

I know that for some leaders this can be absolutely terrifying because they just want to put their suit on, come into the office, keep their head down, do the work and share very little of themselves.

But you know what? If I don't know who you are, if you're not interesting, then why would I want to follow you? Why would I want to listen to you, and to stick around in this team? Why would I choose to perform at my best?

• If all I know about you is what’s written on your business card, that you're for example  “The Queensland General Manager for Logistics”….. that's not very interesting.

• If you come in to make a presentation and you use some firm-branded PowerPoint with a whole lot of numbers in it…… that's not very interesting.

• If when you communicate, you just read from a script that HR has given to you….. that's not very interesting.

In leadership, you have to bring your own personality into your role and make it real, genuine and authentic. You have to build a leadership brand that really connects with your people. It's about building rapport with your team members and showing them that you're more than just their boss.

You've got to understand your personal values and mission statement, legacy and magic, and share all of that with your team. They need to understand the bigger picture and that starts with you. Why do you do what you do? What are you passionate about? How does the work you do connect with your values?

It's also about being a powerful storyteller and communicator, and being able to draw people into your key messages and your vision. You want to capture their imagination and make them want to come along for the ride.

If you can do that, then you’ll gain people's commitment, their trust and respect. You’ll build a strong connection with them and create a sense of belonging. People are quite simply just going to want to follow you. Your people will step up and do their very best work for you. They'll go above and beyond.

As a leader, it's your job to be interesting!

Champagne and Sunshine,

Midja x