“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
-John Quincy Adams
With the difficulties of the United Kingdom’s journey through Brexit, from the Referendum to the multiple failures of Parliament to agree on a plan to exit the EU, it is safe to say that the general public are feeling what might be termed Brexit fatigue. We are all sick of hearing about it and many of us just want it to be over. However, the failure of Parliament have highlighted to myself that we have a lack of good leadership in the places that we need it most, and now that the Prime Minister has given a date for her departure from this position we have an up and coming leadership race for the contenders to fight for the top political position.
In this blog post I am going to lay out some of the qualities that I believe good leaders should have. Now, not all leaders are in positions like that of the Prime Minister, as I will discuss further on in this blog post.
Vision
I have talked about vision before on my blog and I believe it is one of the most important things a leader needs to have. A company, or a group of any kind, is going to be active in some way, they are producing something, providing a service or trying to change the world. Whatever it is, they have a point A, where they are now, and a point B, where they are aiming to go.
A vision is more than this, however, it is a vision of a reality that does not yet exist. The vision of the Alzheimer’s Association is “A world without Alzheimer’s disease.” Simple and potentially out of reach, but a good vision should be an unattainable goal that we will strive for with our every thought, speech and action.
The bi-product of having a vision is that the collective have a shared destination, a fixed point of navigation towards which they strive. How they get there is up to the collective, but the destination is like a summit of a mountain, something that brings the collective together in a common mission. It can galvanize a group so they can achieve more than they ever thought they could individually. Together is better.
Communication
Having a vision is all well and good, but if you cannot communicate your vision to those around you, then they will not understand it, nevermind buy into it and follow you on the journey to the visions destination. The ability to use words to inspire others to be more than they think they can be is a key quality of a leader. Often we do not believe in our abilities, as we focus more on our failure than we do our successes.
However, if we have a clearly articulated vision that aligns with our values and beliefs and we are encouraged to be our better selves, then we will follow the leader anywhere. Nelson Mandela, Jesus and Gandhi, they all had these qualities of both vision and communication and their followers would follow them to the ends of the earth in service of their vision.
Inspiration
This I have already touched on, it is the ability to inspire others to be better than they believe they can be. If you look at Donald Trump in comparison to Nelson Mandela, the contrast is stark. The main differences that I can see are that Donald Trump is often self serving and divisive and Nelson Mandela was a servant leader that brought a warring society together in peace and forgiveness.
Good leadership inspires people to make a better society and a better world. This can never be achieved by dividing people, it can only be achieved together. Most people have lives that can be tough, causing us to focus on our own worries and dilemmas, but inspiration can bring our consciousness to a higher level, where we focus on ‘us’ rather than ‘me’.
Taking Care of Others
One of the qualities that defines a good leader for me is taking care of those around us. Whether this is our colleagues, friends, family or strangers. If you take care of those around you and help them overcome their challenges and become their better selves, then you are a leader. You may not have a position of authority, but such a position does not make you a leader.
Being a Manager, a Supervisor or a CEO does not make you a leader, it just means that people will follow your orders, because of your authority. The difference with a leader is that those who follow them do so by choice. They will choose to follow you wherever the leader is striving to go, whatever the vision may be. They will do this because they know that whatever happens you have their back, that you will look after them. It means you put people over numbers. Heart counts over head counts.
There is a company in America, whose name escapes me, that lost its income from projects by a massive amount following the 2008 market crash. The Board wanted to lay people off to balance the numbers, but the CEO refused. Instead all staff, no matter the position, were told they have to take 4 weeks unpaid holiday, because it is better that they all suffer a little rather than some suffer a lot. Moral went up and those who could afford it more traded with those who could afford it less, so they took 5 weeks off so others only had to take off 3 weeks. This company began to thrive, as all the staff felt that they were looked after and they worked doubly hard to help the business grow and achieve.
Courage To Take The Lead
A leader needs to have the courage to follow their vision and chart a path into uncharted waters, to take the risk first, so others do not have to. A good leader will give away all the praise for good results to those they lead and take responsibility for all the problems. They take care of the difficult things so those they lead do not have to. This is the burden of leadership. If you pass problems onto those you are leading, if you pass the buck, then cynicism sets in, trust plummets and those you are leading collect together as a pack against you.
This is not out of spite or malice, it is self protection. If a groups leader is not protecting the group, they will protect themselves, sometimes against the leader. Good luck inspiring others to follow your vision if you have alienated them by not taking responsibility for the tough decisions. This is why we are so frustrated with the politicians in Parliament, who are promoting policies they do not believe in order to shore up their position or using the whims of public opinion to dictate their values.
The farce that is Brexit is an example of failed leadership. It has regularly been a strive for votes over what is best for the UK public, and I fear the coming change in leadership in the position of Prime Minister will make this situation worst. We need a excellent leader now to navigate us forward to manage the Brexit process to find a positive solution. I hope that this comes to pass, but we will see.
Something to think about
What leadership qualities do you have from the list above? What qualities do you think a good leader should have? Feel free to comment below or take the discussion over to our Facebook community group.
The Fullfilment Project 