This week, we’re asking you to answer this terrifying question, as expertly discussed by the Harvard Business Review - Why would anyone want to be led by you?
If you want to silence a room of executives, try this small trick. Ask them, “Why would anyone want to be led by you?” … Without fail, the response is a sudden, stunned hush. All you can hear are knees knocking.”
Leadership is, as always, a topic of great importance—whether in business, or the rest of what life throws at us.
Beyond the qualities absolutely necessary to great leadership—vision, energy, authority, and strategic direction—Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones discuss some of the lesser-known but utterly crucial attributes.
What’s unsurprising, at least to London Speech Workshop, is how often effective communication, whilst not explicitly mentioned, crops up as a skill that’s central to most if not all of the leadership qualities. For example, according to Goffee, communicating your passion is a “precondition” for being seen as a genuine leader, as opposed to someone who appears to be merely fulfilling a job title. Furthermore, being able to effectively communicate your vulnerabilities instead of portraying a perfect picture makes you authentic and approachable.
We’ve delved back to 2000 to Harvard Business Review for this discussion of leadership, but it’s well worth a read. Read it here.
"As long as business is around, we will continue to pick apart the underlying ingredients of true leadership. And there will always be as many theories as there are questions. But of all the facets of leadership that one might investigate, there are few so difficult as understanding what it takes to develop leaders. The four leadership qualities are a necessary first step. Taken together, they tell executives to be authentic. As we counsel the executives we coach: “Be yourselves—more—with skill.” There can be no advice more difficult to follow than that."
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