PART TWO

Performing as a Leader

The greatest ideas for performing as a leader are grouped under the key areas of setting and achieving objectives, developing leadership skills and the essential qualities of leadership.

Once you have a clear idea of the generic role and responsibilities of a leader, you need to build up your knowledge of your own strengths and weaknesses (or areas for improvement) in relation to that role.

When you identify your personal goals there should always be, I suggest, at least one that relates to learning and self-development. In the speech that President John F Kennedy was on his way to deliver in Dallas when he was shot dead on that fateful day, he was going to say: ‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.’ Let his words live today.

Focus your attention on developing your skills for the key functions that are part of the generic leadership role. That is the best foundation for leadership effectiveness. Once you can perform these functions with real skill when required, you can then progress rapidly to excellence. You can, for example, transcend the basics of motivating people and begin to inspire them – and be inspired by them.

It may seem virtually impossible to develop leadership qualities by any kind of deliberate effort – and it is certainly something that happens over a long period of time. All I can do here is draw your attention to their importance.

Reflective thinking on your part is the best way to open the door and – over time – to invite these qualities into your house.

Personally I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Sir Winston Churchill