Many
capabilities in life are a matter of acquiring skills and knowledge and
then applying them in a reliable way. Leadership is quite different.
Good leadership demands emotional strengths and behavioural
characteristics which can draw deeply on a leader’s mental and spiritual
reserves.
The leadership role is an inevitable reflection of people’s needs and
challenges in modern life. Leadership is therefore a profound concept,
with increasingly complex implications, driven by an increasingly
complex and fast-changing world.
Leadership and management are commonly seen as the same thing, which
they are not. Leadership is also misunderstood to mean directing and
instructing people and making important decisions on behalf of an
organization. Effective leadership is much more than these.
Good leaders are followed chiefly because people trust and respect
them, rather than the skills they possess. Leadership is about behaviour
first, skills second.
This is a simple way to see how leadership is different to management:
- Management is mostly about processes.
- Leadership is mostly about behaviour.
We could extend this to say:
- Management relies heavily on tangible measurable capabilities such
as effective planning; the use of organizational systems; and the use of
appropriate communications methods.
- Leadership involves many management skills, but generally as a
secondary or background function of true leadership. Leadership instead
relies most strongly on less tangible and less measurable things like
trust, inspiration, attitude, decision-making, and personal character.
These are not processes or skills or even necessarily the result of
experience. They are facets of humanity, and are enabled mainly by the
leader’s character and especially his/her emotional reserves.
Another way to see leadership compared with management, is that leadership does not crucially depend on
the type of management methods and processes a leaders uses; leadership instead primarily depends on
the ways in which the leader uses management methods and processes.
Good leadership depends on attitudinal qualities, not management processes.
Humanity is a way to describe these qualities, because this reflects the leader’s vital relationship with people.
Qualities critical for a leader’s relationship with his/her people are quite different to conventional skills and processes:
examples of highly significant leadership qualities
- integrity
- honesty
- humility
- courage
- commitment
- sincerity
- passion
- confidence
- positivity
- wisdom
- determination
- compassion
- sensitivity
People with these sort of behaviours and attitudes tend to attract
followers. Followers are naturally drawn to people who exhibit strength
and can inspire belief in others. These qualities tend to produce a
charismatic effect. Charisma tends to result from effective leadership
and the qualities which enable effective leadership. Charisma is by
itself no guarantee of effective leadership.
Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others. Most
people don’t seek to be a leader, but many more people are able to lead,
in one way or another and in one situation or another, than they
realize.
People who want to be a leader can develop leadership ability.
Leadership is not the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and educated.
Leadership is a matter of personal conviction and believing strongly in a cause or aim, whatever it is.
Leadership sometimes comes to people later in life, and this is no
bad thing. Humanity tends to be generational characteristic. There is no
real obstacle to people who seek to become leaders if leadership is
approached with proper integrity. Anyone can be a leader if he/she is
suitably driven to a particular cause.
And many qualities of effective leadership, like confidence and
charisma, continue to grow from experience in the leadership role. Even
initially surprised modest leaders can become great ones, and sometimes
the greatest ones.
Leadership can be performed with different styles. Some leaders have
one style, which is right for certain situations and wrong for others.
Some leaders can adapt and use different leadership styles for given
situations.
Adaptability of style is an increasingly significant aspect of
leadership, because the world is increasingly complex and dynamic.
Adaptability stems from objectivity, which in turn stems from emotional
security and emotional maturity. Again these strengths are not dependent
on wealth or education, or skills or processes.
Good leaders typically have a keen understanding of relationships
within quite large and complex systems and networks. This may be from an
intuitive angle, or a technical/learned angle, or both.
A very useful way to explore this crucial aspect of leadership with
respect to wider relationships and systems is offered by the
Psychological Contract and how that theory relates to organizations and
leadership.
Nudge theory
is a powerful change-management methodology which emerged in the 2000s.
It is very helpful in understanding how and why groups of people think
the way they do, and how and why they behave and make decisions, which
can be baffling to leaders. Nudge theory also offers some very clever
ways to alter group behaviour/behavior, which are generally not taught
or understood in the conventional leadership field.
People new to leadership (and supervision and management) often feel
under pressure to lead in a particularly dominant way. Sometimes this
pressure on a new leader to impose their authority on the team comes
from above. Dominant leadership is rarely appropriate however,
especially for mature teams. Misreading this situation, and attempting
to be overly dominant, can then cause problems for a new leader.
Resistance from the team becomes a problem, and a cycle of negative
behaviours and reducing performance begins. Much of leadership is
counter-intuitive. Leadership is often more about serving than leading.
Besides which, individuals and teams tend not to resist or push against
something in which they have a strong involvement/ownership/sense of
control. People tend to respond well to thanks, encouragement,
recognition, inclusiveness, etc. Tough, overly dominant leadership gives
teams a lot to push against and resist. It also prevents a sense of
ownership and self-control among the people being led. And it also
inhibits the positive rewards and incentives (thanks, recognition,
encouragement, etc) vital for teams and individuals to cope with change,
and to enjoy themselves. Leaders of course need to be able to make
tough decisions when required, but most importantly leaders should
concentrate on enabling the team to thrive, which is actually a
‘serving’ role, not the dominant ‘leading’ role commonly associated with
leadership.
Today
ethical leadership
is more important than ever. The world is more transparent and
connected than it has ever been. The actions and philosophies of
organisations are scrutinised by the media and the general public as
never before. This coincides with massively increased awareness and
interest among people everywhere in corporate responsibility and the
many related concepts, such as social and community responsibility (see
the ethical leadership and ethical organisations page). The modern leader needs to understand and aspire to leading people and achieving greatness in all these areas.
Here is (was..) an Excellent 30 minute BBC Radio 4 Discussion about
Modern Leadership – (first broadcast 2 Sept 2006, part of the ‘Sound
Advice’ series). Its mere existence is evidence of changed attitudes to
leadership. Such a programme would not have warranted BBC airtime a
generation ago due to lack of audience interest. Today there is huge
awareness of, and interest in, more modern leadership methods. The radio
discussion highlighted the need for effective modern leaders to have
emotional strength and sensitivity, far beyond traditional ideas of more
limited autocratic leadership styles. I’m sorry (if still) this linked
item is unavailable from the BBC website, especially if the recording is
lost forever in the BBC’s archives. If you know a suitably influential
executive at the Beeb who can liberate it please
contact me.
Incidentally as a quick case-study, the BBC illustrates an important aspect of leadership, namely
philosophy.
Philosophy (you could call it ‘fundamental purpose’)
is the
foundation on which to build strategy, management, operational
activities, and pretty well everything else that happens in an
organization.
Whatever the size of the organization, operational activities need to
be reconcilable with a single congruent (fitting, harmonious)
philosophy.
Executives, managers, staff, customers, suppliers, stakeholders,
etc., need solid philosophical principles (another term would be a
‘frame of reference’) on which to base their expectations, decisions and
actions. In a vast complex organization like the BBC, leadership will
be very challenging at the best of times due to reasons of size,
diversity, political and public interest, etc. Having a conflicting
philosophy dramatically increases these difficulties for everyone, not
least the leader, because the frame of reference is confusing.
For leadership to work well, people (employees and interested
outsiders) must be able to connect their expectations, aims and
activities to a basic purpose or philosophy of the organization. This
foundational philosophy should provide vital reference points for
employees’ decisions and actions – an increasingly significant factor in
modern ’empowered’ organizations. Seeing a clear philosophy and purpose
is also essential for staff, customers and outsiders in assessing
crucial organizational characteristics such as integrity, ethics,
fairness, quality and performance. A clear philosophy is vital to the
‘psychological contract’ – whether stated or unstated (almost always
unstated) – on which people (employees, customers or observers) tend to
judge their relationships and transactions.
The BBC is an example (it’s not the only one) of an organization
which has a confusing organizational philosophy. At times it is
inherently conflicting. For example: Who are its owners? Who are its
customers? What are its priorities and obligations? Are its commercial
operations a means to an end, or an end in themselves? Is its main aim
to provide commercial mainstream entertainment, or non-commercial
education and information? Is it a public service, or is it a commercial
provider? Will it one day be privatised in part or whole? If so will
this threaten me or benefit me? As an employee am I sharing in
something, or being exploited? As a customer (if the description is apt)
am I also an owner? Or am I funding somebody else’s gravy train? What
are the organization’s obligations to the state and to government?
Given such uncertainties, not only is there a very unclear basic
philosophy and purpose, but also, it’s very difficult to achieve
consistency for leadership messages to staff and customers. Also, how
can staff and customers align their efforts and expectations with such
confusing aims and principles?
The BBC is just an example. There are many organizations, large and
small, with conflicting and confusing fundamental aims. The lesson is
that philosophy – or underpinning purpose – is the foundation on which
leadership (for strategy, management, motivation, everything) is built.
If the foundation is not solid and viable, and is not totally congruent
with what follows, then everything built onto it is prone to wobble, and
at times can fall over completely.
Get the philosophy right – solid and in harmony with the activities – and the foundation is strong.
Again, the Psychological Contract provides a helpful perspective for aligning people and organizational philosopy.
This of course gives rise to the question of what to do if you find
yourself leading a team or organization which lacks clarity of
fundamental philosophy and purpose, and here lies an inescapable
difference between managing and leading:
As a leader your responsibility extends beyond leading the people.
True leadership also includes – as far as your situation allows – the
responsibility to protect or refine fundamental purpose and philosophy.
See also the notes and processes for incorporating fundamental philosophy within strategic business development and marketing.
allegiance and leadership
Different leaders have different ideas about leadership. For example,
see below Jack Welch’s perspective, which even though quite modern
compared to many leaders, is nevertheless based on quite traditional
leadership principles.
First here is a deeper more philosophical view of effective modern
leadership which addresses the foundations of effective leadership,
rather than the styles and methods built on top, which are explained
later.
A British government initiative surfaced in March 2008, which
suggested that young people should swear an oath of allegiance to ‘Queen
and Country’, seemingly as a means of improving national loyalty,
identity, and allegiance.
While packaged as a suggestion to address ‘disaffection’ among young
people, the idea was essentially concerned with leadership – or more
precisely a failing leadership.
The idea was rightly and unanimously dismissed by all sensible
commentators as foolhardy nonsense, but it does provide a wonderful
perspective by which to examine and illustrate the actual important
principles of leadership:
- Always, when leaders say that the people are not following, it’s the leaders who are lost, not the people.
- Leaders get lost because of isolation, delusion, arrogance, plain
stupidity, etc., but above all because they become obsessed with
imposing their authority, instead of truly leading.
- Incidentally, leading is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do.
- It is not possible for a leader to understand and lead people when
the leader’s head is high in the clouds or stuck firmly up his backside.
- That is to say – loyalty to leadership relies on the leader having a
connection with and understanding of people’s needs and wishes and
possibilities. Solutions to leadership challenges do not lie in the
leader’s needs and wishes. Leadership solutions lie in the needs and
wishes of the followers.
- The suggestion that loyalty and a following can be built by simply
asking or forcing people to be loyal is not any basis for effective
leadership.
- Prior to expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
- A given type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of
followers. Put another way, a leadership cannot behave in any way that
it asks its people not to.
- In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern
compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must
see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership.
- People are a lot cleverer than most leaders think.
- People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think.
- People quickly lose faith in a leader who behaves as if points 10 and 11 do not exist.
- People generally have the answers which elude the leaders – they
just have better things to do than help the leader to lead – like
getting on with their own lives.
- A leadership which screws up in a big way should come clean and
admit their errors. People will generally forgive mistakes but they do
not tolerate being treated like idiots by leaders.
- And on the question of mistakes, a mistake is an opportunity to be
better, and to show remorse and a lesson learned. This is how
civilisation progresses.
- A leader should be brave enough to talk when lesser people want to
fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression. Being aggressive is
not leading. It might have been a couple of thousand years ago, but it’s
not now. The nature of humankind and civilisation is to become more
civilised. Leaders should enable not obstruct this process.
traditional leadership tips – jack welch style
Jack Welch, respected business leader and writer is quoted as
proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these
principles are expanded in his 2001 book ‘Jack: Straight From The Gut’):
- There is only one way – the straight way. It sets the tone of the organisation.
- Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
- Get the right people in the right jobs – it is more important than developing a strategy.
- An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
- Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
- Legitimate self-confidence is a winner – the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
- Business has to be fun – celebrations energise and organisation.
- Never underestimate the other guy.
- Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
- Know when to meddle and when to let go – this is pure instinct.
As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:
- knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
- building a team committed to achieving the objectives
- helping each team member to give their best efforts
As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you.
However – always remember the philosophical platform – this
ethical platform is not a technique or a process – it’s the foundation
on which all the techniques and methodologies are based.
Plan carefully, with your people where appropriate, how you will
achieve your aims. You may have to redefine or develop your own new aims
and priorities. Leadership can be daunting for many people simply
because no-one else is issuing the aims – leadership often means you
have to create your own from a blank sheet of paper. Set and agree clear
standards. Keep the right balance between ‘doing’ yourself and managing
others ‘to do’.
Build teams. Ensure you look after people and that communications and
relationships are good. Select good people and help them to develop.
Develop people via training and experience, particularly by agreeing
objectives and responsibilities that will interest and stretch them, and
always support people while they strive to improve and take on extra
tasks. Follow the rules about delegation closely – this process is
crucial. Ensure that your managers are applying the same principles.
Good leadership principles must cascade down through the whole
organisation. This means that if you are leading a large organisation
you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and
developing people are in place and working properly.
Communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done.
Some leaders lead by example and are very ‘hands on’; others are more
distanced and let their people do it. Whatever – your example is
paramount – the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you
can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are
to blame for low standards in your people.
“… Praise loudly, blame softly.” (Catherine the Great). Follow this maxim.
If you seek one singlemost important behaviour that will rapidly earn
you respect and trust among your people, this is it: Always give your
people the credit for your achievements and successes. Never take the
credit yourself – even if it’s all down to you, which would be unlikely
anyway. You must however take the blame and accept responsibility for
any failings or mistakes that your people make. Never never never
publicly blame another person for a failing. Their failing is your
responsibility – true leadership offers is no hiding place for a true
leader.
Take time to listen to and really understand people. Walk the job.
Ask and learn about what people do and think, and how they think
improvements can be made.
Accentuate the positive. Express things in terms of what should be
done, not what should not be done. If you accentuate the negative,
people are more likely to veer towards it. Like the mother who left her
five-year-old for a minute unsupervised in the kitchen, saying as she
left the room, “…don’t you go putting those beans up your nose…”
Have faith in people to do great things – given space and air and
time, everyone can achieve more than they hope for. Provide people with
relevant interesting opportunities, with proper measures and rewards and
they will more than repay your faith.
Take difficult decisions bravely, and be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.
Constantly seek to learn from the people around you – they will teach
you more about yourself than anything else. They will also tell you 90%
of what you need to know to achieve your business goals.
Embrace change, but not for change’s sake. Begin to plan your own
succession as soon as you take up your new post, and in this regard,
ensure that the only promises you ever make are those that you can
guarantee to deliver.
Here are some processes and tips for training and developing leadership.
leadership behaviours and development of leadership style and skills
Leadership skills are based on leadership behaviour. Skills alone do
not make leaders – style and behaviour do. If you are interested in
leadership training and development – start with leadership behaviour.
The growing awareness and demand for idealist principles in
leadership are increasing the emphasis (in terms of leadership
characteristics) on business ethics, corporate responsibility, emotional
maturity, personal integrity, and what is popularly now known as the
‘triple bottom line’ (abbreviated to TBL or 3BL, representing ‘profit,
people, planet’).
For many people (staff, customers, suppliers, investors,
commentators, visionaries, etc) these are becoming the most significant
areas of attitude/behaviour/appreciation required in modern business and
organisational leaders.
3BL (triple bottom line – profit, people, planet) also provides an
excellent multi-dimensional framework for explaining, developing and
assessing leadership potential and capability, and also links strongly
with psychology aspects if for instance psychometrics (personality
testing) features in leadership selection and development methods: each
of us is more naturally inclined to one or the other (profit, people,
planet) by virtue of our personality, which can be referenced to Jung,
Myers Briggs, etc.
Much debate persists as to the validity of ‘triple bottom line
accounting’, since standards and measures are some way from being
clearly defined and agreed, but this does not reduce the relevance of
the concept, nor the growing public awareness of it, which effectively
and continuously re-shapes markets and therefore corporate behaviour.
Accordingly leaders need to understand and respond to such huge
attitudinal trends, whether they can be reliably accounted for or not at
the moment.
Adaptability and vision – as might be demonstrated via project
development scenarios or tasks – especially involving modern
communications and knowledge technologies – are also critical for
certain leadership roles, and provide unlimited scope for leadership
development processes, methods and activities.
Cultural diversity is another topical and very relevant area
requiring leadership involvement, if not mastery. Large organisations
particularly must recognise that the market-place, in terms of staff,
customers and suppliers, is truly global now, and leaders must be able
to function and appreciate and adapt to all aspects of cultural
diversification. A leaders who fails to relate culturally well and
widely and openly inevitably condemns the entire organisation to adopt
the same narrow focus and bias exhibited by the leader.
Bear in mind that different leadership jobs (and chairman) require
different types of leaders – Churchill was fine for war but not good for
peacetime re-building. There’s a big difference between short-term
return on investment versus long-term change. Each warrants a different
type of leadership style, and actually very few leaders are able to
adapt from one to the other. (Again see the personality styles section:
short-term results and profit require strong Jungian ‘thinking’
orientation, or frontal left brain dominance; whereas long-term vision
and change require ‘intuition’ orientation, or frontal right brain
dominance).
If it’s not clear already, leadership is without doubt mostly about
behaviour, especially towards others. People who strive for these things
generally come to be regarded and respected as a leader by their
people:
- Integrity – the most important requirement; without it everything else is for nothing.
- Having an effective appreciation and approach towards corporate
responsibility, (Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade, etc), so that the need
to make profit is balanced with wider social and environmental
responsibilities.
- Being very grown-up – never getting emotionally negative with people
– no shouting or ranting, even if you feel very upset or angry.
- Leading by example – always be seen to be working harder and more determinedly than anyone else.
- Helping alongside your people when they need it.
- Fairness – treating everyone equally and on merit.
- Being firm and clear in dealing with bad or unethical behaviour.
- Listening to and really understanding people, and show them that you
understand (this doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone –
understanding is different to agreeing).
- Always taking the responsibility and blame for your people’s mistakes.
- Always giving your people the credit for your successes.
- Never self-promoting.
- Backing-up and supporting your people.
- Being decisive – even if the decision is to delegate or do nothing
if appropriate – but be seen to be making fair and balanced decisions.
- Asking for people’s views, but remain neutral and objective.
- Being honest but sensitive in the way that you give bad news or criticism.
- Always doing what you say you will do – keeping your promises.
- Working hard to become expert at what you do technically, and at understanding your people’s technical abilities and challenges.
- Encouraging your people to grow, to learn and to take on as much as they want to, at a pace they can handle.
- Always accentuating the positive (say ‘do it like this’, not ‘don’t do it like that’).
- Smiling and encouraging others to be happy and enjoy themselves.
- Relaxing – breaking down the barriers and the leadership awe – and
giving your people and yourself time to get to know and respect each
other.
- Taking notes and keeping good records.
- Planning and prioritising.
- Managing your time well and helping others to do so too.
- Involving your people in your thinking and especially in managing change.
- Reading good books, and taking advice from good people, to help
develop your own understanding of yourself, and particularly of other
people’s weaknesses (some of the best books for leadership are not about
business at all – they are about people who triumph over adversity).
- Achieve the company tasks and objectives, while maintaining your
integrity, the trust of your people, are a balancing the corporate aims
with the needs of the world beyond.
great leadership quotes and inspirational quotes
Some of these quotes are available as free motivational posters.
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss…. The leader
works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads and the boss
drives.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
“The marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting
go. The boatsman reacheth the landing partly by pulling, partly by
letting go.” (Egyptian proverb)
“No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.” (William Penn)
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” (President Harry S Truman)
“I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” (Woodrow Wilson)
“What should it profit a man if he would gain the whole world yet lose his soul.” (The Holy Bible, Mark 8:36)
“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” (Harvey Mackay)
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to look after them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” (John Steinbeck)
“I keep six honest serving-men, They taught me all I knew; Their
names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who.” (Rudyard
Kipling, from ‘Just So Stories’, 1902.)
“A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than
the giant himself.” (Didacus Stella, circa AD60 – and, as a matter of
interest, abridged on the edge of an English £2 coin)
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” (Samuel Johnson 1709-84)
“The most important thing in life is not to capitalise on your
successes – any fool can do that. The really important thing is to
profit from your mistakes.” (William Bolitho, from ‘Twelve against the
Gods’)
“Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. In the fell
clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud: Under the
bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed . . . . . It
matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments the
scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” (WE
Henley, 1849-1903, from ‘Invictus’)
“Everybody can get angry – that’s easy. But getting angry at the
right person, with the right intensity, at the right time, for the right
reason and in the right way – that’s hard.” (Aristotle)
“Management means helping people to get the best out of themselves, not organising things.” (Lauren Appley)
“It’s not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the
strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena;
whose face is marred with the sweat and dust and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the
great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy
cause and who, at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at
worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither
victory nor defeat.” (Theodore Roosevelt.)
“Behind an able man there are always other able men.” (Chinese Proverb.)
“I praise loudly. I blame softly.” (Catherine the Great, 1729-1796.)
“Experto Credite.” (“Trust one who has proved it.” Virgil, 2,000 years ago.)
More leadership and inspirational quotes
See also the free motivational posters for leadership quotes.
leadership development exercises and games
The are various games and exercises on the free team building games
section that work well for demonstrating, assessing and developing
leadership. See particularly the ‘leading or managing’ exercise, which
is a flexible activity for illustrating the differences between managing
and leading. As regards leadership exercises for experiential
development of leadership abilities, focus on the leadership challenge
of leading and managing a team – the task itself is secondary – so
virtually any team game is suitable provided you give each leader a team
of four or more people to lead. The more people, the bigger the test of
leadership. You do not need a complicated exercise to create a
leadership challenge. The leadership challenge is produced by having to
organise, plan and motivate a team of people. In fact, if the task is
too complex it will obscure the team leadership issues, by distracting
from or hampering leadership skills and qualities. For leadership
development choose exercises that includes an enjoyable and achievable
challenge – even very basic games like newspaper towers will be a good
test of leadership if you create teams of four or more for the leader to
lead. Use games that you feel will produce variety, fun and a mixture
of activities. The round tables exercise is particularly suitable to
test and develop leadership skills. Choose a mixture of exercises which
encourage the leaders think about using a different approach, and
different people’s strengths, for each challenge.
leadership articles and leadership development justification
Many articles appear in the press and trade journals about leadership; look out for them, they can teach you a lot.
Newspaper articles – particularly those that appear in the serious
press – about leadership and management, organizational and business
culture, are an excellent source of ideas, examples and references for
developing leadership.
A journalist could have spent a week researching the subject, talking
to leading business leaders, academics and writers, and preparing
useful statistics. This is valuable material. Learn from it, use it and
keep it, because finding specific detail like this is usually quite
difficult.
Serious relevant articles in the newspapers, trade press, or online
equivalent, cost little or nothing, and yet they can be invaluable in
developing your own ideas about leadership, and in providing compelling
justification to organizations and managers for the need to adopt new
ideas and different approach to leadership development.
Particularly powerful are articles which describe corporate failings,
many with huge liabilities, arising from poor leadership behaviour and
decisions, and which appear in the news virtually every week. Recent
history is also littered with all sorts of corporate disasters and
scandals, and while these high-profile examples are of a grander scale
than usually applies in typical organisations, the same principles apply
– an organisation is only as good as its leadership – at all levels.
Business disasters and failures – be their nature environmental,
financial, safety, commercial or people-related – are invariably
traceable back to a failure in leadership, and so any boardroom that
says “That sort of thing wouldn’t happen to us..” or “Our managers all
know how to lead without being taught..” is probably riding for a fall.
Finding specific examples of cost and return on investment relating
to leadership development is not easy (measuring leadership ’cause and
effect’ is not as simple as more tangible business elements), which is
why it’s useful to keep any such articles when you happen to see them.
Certain leadership development organisations are sometimes able to
provide ROI justification and/or case studies, which is another possible
source of evidence for reports and justification studies.
And given the growing significance of corporate ethics and
responsibility, we can expect to see increasing ROI data relating to
‘Triple Bottom Line’ and ‘Corporate Responsibility’, which being
strongly linked to leadership therefore will provide a further source of
evidence and justification for leadership development.
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