Leadership and sales training Australia

Thinking about leadership...again

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 15:46

As many will have noticed from my tweets of late, or should I say, those tweets that I send from the @NNConsulting account, I have been rather interested in leadership.

There is a plethora of blogs and information that can be accessed via twitter regarding servant leadership, situational leadership, connective leadership, character-based leadership to name a few.

It has led me to consider what are the key attributes, attitudes, skills, knowledge, abilities, talents that need to go together in order for someone to become a great leader.

And I have to acknowledge that last line – “become a great leader”. Yes, I subscribe to Warren Bennis’ view that leaders are not born, they can be made. Because I believe that we are capable of more than we demonstrate and with the right attitude and aptitude we can develop and grow.

This is my list, off the top of my head, in no particular order, of what I believe is important in order for you to become a great leader.

The ability to understand yourself, your motivations and talents.
To take 100% responsibility for yourself.
Being able to alter your communication style to better match others.
To appreciate a difference of opinion while ensuring values are aligned.
Being able to motivate others through their values.
To take the emotion out of the critical conversations that need to be had.
To have the best interests of your staff, company, manager and community in mind at all times.
To treat people with compassion and that includes yourself.
To be confident in your knowledge of the job you do but not so arrogant as to not hear another’s perspective.
Truly understand how to empower others.
Being about others and not yourself in order to create more leaders.
Understand that coaching is not telling.
Have a distinctive, empowering, leadership identity that is all your own.

Now, how do you access the mind set and skills that underpin this list? From a recent experience of one of our facilitators/coach, Sally, it is not so easy. One of our clients rang the office to speak to Sally and couldn’t help but tell one of our office staff how fantastic she was and the amazing things she had learnt. I passed this message on to Sally and she said that she had just been coaching her on what she considered “leadership 101”.

It reminded me that as new managers or leaders we are often promoted due to expertise in our field or length of service but not because we have any people management skills. The techniques that Sally was imparting and coaching this particular manager on were changing her life. Not only changing the way she interacted with her people at work, but at home, and impacting on the way she identified herself.

Now this is what I love about the work we do. And this is why I remain passionate about leadership and vigilant in keeping up with new theories of leadership. And although there are many sensational articles and fantastic books that you can read on the topic, the real experience of becoming a leader can be helped dramatically by having access to an amazing coach or mentor.

Ms Rosalinda Batson – MA, BA (Hons), NLP Master Practitioner, EQ-I Accred
Rosalinda has extensive experience in Organisation Development with a focus on practical and pragmatic approaches to people development that builds a strong relationship between internal consultants and operational management. Her 20 years of work experience spans both the private and public sector including operational management and strategic roles in Human Resources, Customer Relations, Information Technology and Organisation Development.

She has a passion for recruitment - creating connections and networks between people and organisations for their mutual benefit. A confident and collaborative facilitator, always learning and developing herself, seeking out the latest models and approaches, she offers clients an invaluable resource.