Leading effectively

“Leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women - extraordinary things happen by liberating the leader within everyone.”

Kouzes & Posner

Vision

Leadership is necessary throughout an effective organisation, whether an individual is a chief executive whose team is the whole organisation, or a project or team leader focused on a specific deliverable. Effective leaders give their team direction and communicate a sense of common purpose. They have a vision of where they and their team are going, and a sense of urgency and impatience to achieve the shared goal.

To do this requires effective communication strategies which inspire, enthuse and fully engage the team.

Empowerment

Inspiration and enthusiasm is all well and good, but in order to fully engage in the delivery of value, every member of the team needs to be able to take responsibility for his/her own work. This cannot happen with devolved authority, including authority for the necessary budget to get this job done. This of itself demands a high level of trust between leader and team. Without such trust, the team are powerless. They will not, indeed cannot, take ownership of the outcome of their efforts, and will always look for detailed direction from those seen to be "in authority". Despite the fact that those "in authority" don't really understand the complexity of the problem, let alone how to solve it.

Decision-making

The effective leader makes decisions based on evidence, demonstrating good judgement and understanding of value. The good leader understands that failures and shortcomings are all attributes of the process, not of the people, and will work to remove the obstacles which prevent the team delivering the business goals.