In last month’s newsletter, we explored ALIGN, the first part of our Leaders Creating Impact pathway.
ALIGN is about clarifying what matters most: our aspirations, values, priorities, and the impact we want to create through our business and leadership.
Once we have that clarity, the next question is:
Who do we need to be as leaders to bring those aspirations to life?
This brings us to INSPIRE.
INSPIRE focuses on Personal Leadership and the foundations that enable us to lead with greater confidence, authenticity and impact.
Could your leaders explain what effective leadership means?
Over many years, I have asked business owners and leaders two deceptively simple questions:
- What is leadership?
- What makes someone an effective leader in this business?
The responses usually include words such as communication, integrity, vision, trust, accountability, and empathy.
However, there is often little consensus.
Ask several leaders in the same business, and you may receive several different answers.
More importantly, those answers may not be supported by a shared leadership framework, consistent language, or intentional approach to development.
Perhaps that is not surprising. Leadership is complex and contextual.
Yet, if leadership is critical to business performance, culture, change and growth, should we leave its meaning to individual interpretation?
Most businesses would not leave financial management, customer experience or operational processes to chance.
Yet leadership, which influences all three, can remain largely undefined.
If we cannot explain what effective leadership looks like, how can we consistently develop it, practice it or hold one another accountable for it?
