Have you ever wondered what a leader actually is? Do you thoroughly understand the attributes of a leader? Do you know what makes one leader great and another poor. Do you know from where a leader derives their authority? What are the mistakes of leadership?
Read More …Series: Understanding Great Leadership
Understanding Great Leadership – Part 2
In this post I am going to finish our examination of the strengths and weaknesses of “UPL” Ultimate Power Leadership. The idea that leadership is about one person having all the power and authority under which everyone else is subjugated.
Read More …Great Leadership The Visionary
The use of power and authority to get things done isn’t necessarily bad. Power and authority used unwisely (and it should be used sparingly at the most) are likely to cause more problems than they fix.
Read More …The Weakness of Leading From the Front Part 1
Why does the visionary have so much power over our desire to follow you might ask? Well the answer is simple enough; the human species loves to aspire to better things and anyone who offers the hope of a better life is already ahead on the attractiveness scale. But the central reason the bringing of a better future is more effective than monarchistic/dictatorship rule is because the vision inspires hope and hope inspires engagement.
Read More …The Limits of Leading from the Front Part 2
Here are some other more common every day traps for the visionary leaders. They often don’t take people with them on the journey and expect their followers to just get it? Typically they are poor communicators and or overly bullish and don’t understand why the lead to follow. They may have a brilliant idea but they fail to inspire hope. They fail to message correctly. They may fail to engage in the pesky problems of having to communicate with the people they want to lead. Often a potentially brilliant vision is simply not thought out well enough and crumbles under the weight of scrutiny.
Read More …The Foundations Of Great Leadership
The problem in understanding great leadership is not whether one pole or the other of the leadership spectrum is right or wrong. That debate is a distraction from the central question of what great leadership is. The challenge of leadership is not a problem of deciding which is the best ideology. We now have more than enough evidence to conclude that ideologically based leadership strategies may be appealing but often have fatal flaws in them. Simply because no ideology is capable of encapsulating all the various circumstance that a leader will be confronted with in their lifetime.
Read More …A Simple Definition
I’m going to quickly explain leadership beginning with a simple definition and then slowly expand that definition from its most rudimentary form, through to its more complex. Finally I am going to end by defining great leadership.
Read More …The “What” of Leadership
Leaders must begin the process of organising by organising their own resources. There are many reasons why it is fundamental to a leader’s power, authority, and influence that the leader organises themselves. Common sense would have you understand that a mentally, emotionally, physically, psychologically and materially disorganised leader is going to be a poor leader.
Read More …“Why” – The Foundation of Great Leadership
Why you lead informs every decision and every action you make. It’s reasonable to say then understanding your motives matters. Armed with a clear understanding of why you lead means you will always know your leadership purpose and direction. At the very least clearing up your intentions and motives will have give you a certainty that builds confidence, clarity and composure in the often difficult and confusing task of leading. Without understanding why you lead you may become, indecisive, unclear and ineffective at critical moments. Clarity matters!
Read More …The Secret of Why in Leadership
IN THE LAST POST We examined the importance of having clear intentions and motivations. Intentions and motivations underpin the important question of why, or more to the point why bother. If your motivations aren’t sufficient you simply wont bother, if your intentions aren’t important enough you won’t bother. Nor will the people you want to Read More …