A man in shirt and tie surfing

If you have ever been to an event where someone dived from the stage to crowd surf, or better yet, you’ve done this successfully yourself, then you’ll know the confidence and courage required. Fancy having a go at the Leadership Surf Test to see how you do?

You are stood on a stage with all your people in front of you. You dive right out there into the crowd... would they... ALL rush to catch you, give you a huge cheer as you dived in, give you a supportive tour around the whole crowd, place you back on stage?

Regardless of whether you believe you’d enjoy the best surf ever or you’d hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, ask yourself these questions:

‍    1    Why did they behave like that?

‍    2    What have I said/done for them to behave like that?

‍    3    How will I discover what makes them behave in this way?

‍    4    What do I need to do differently, more of or less of to improve my surf?

‍    5    How do I engage with each person to discover their likes, dislikes, fears, ambitions?

There are many things we can do within an organisation to improve leadership and management. For now, one of my top recommendations to help you analyse how your Surf Test went and to further improve your next surfing experience, is for you to have a good look at Emotional Intelligence (EI).

Research has shown that people with higher levels of emotional intelligence are far more likely to succeed than those with high IQs or relevant experience.

EI is simple to understand. We all have it. With effort, we can develop it and make it work.

When you consider that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units (Business Journal, April 2015), they clearly need to improve their skill set and EI is a great place to start.


So, you see, there is an "I" in team and EACH individual is critically important.







Happy surfing everyone.

(This test fails miserably if you’re completely deluded and have left reality in Narnia)


“When you’re riding at the top of the wave,

Don’t forget what’s holding you up there”

~ Mac Macdonald ~

Image showing the words Assess Rick
The 4 domains of EI - Self-Awareness, Self-Mabagement, Social Awareness and Relationship Management
This image shows the word TEAM with the letter A made to also look like a letter i