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Leadership’s changed a lot in the last 10-15 years. The pace of change means that we require different things from our leaders, and the new generation of people are after a different type of character than they were in the past. I’m going to talk through three specific qualities that I think people in business are after so you can be an effective leader.
The New Leadership
Leadership has changed, and I think in this generation, people are looking for three things. First of all, fundamentally, we’ve been through a generation with our political leaders and the leaders around us where things have been kept from people. They haven’t been truthful, and they haven’t been honest and transparent. That really frustrates people, and they don’t follow you.
- If you want to create followers, there needs to be a level of honesty and transparency about the way that you communicate and the way that you operate. Now, this is not obviously full disclosure because that’s not always useful to everyone, but it’s honesty with the audience in mind. What do they need to know? I would prefer to err on the side of telling them more than less? Because the reality is, they’ll probably find it out from the internet anyway.
- Second is authenticity. What we don’t want is cookie cutter leaders, people who are the same as everyone else. We don’t want cardboard. Cardboard cut-out leaders, just the same old, same old. There’s no difference, there’s no pizazz, there’s no spark. The best version of you is you. Whatever that is, I would argue that we want to dial that up. Whatever that unique character that you bring, dial that up.
- The third is conviction. The people that are going to change the way the world works, but also the way organisations work are the ones that have the guts to stand up and say this is broken or it needs to look different. If you can develop that courage, you’re the one that people are going to ultimately listen to. When you get listened to, you’re the one that people will follow.
The world’s a different place. If you want to be a leader for now, I would think about developing three qualities:
- Honesty
- Authenticity
- Conviction
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If you can think about how you can bring this into your leadership practise, you’re going to be much more effective. If you want groups of leaders around you to have those three qualities and you want to talk about how that might work in your organisation to create your future, let’s have a chat. I hope this has been useful for you. Talk to you soon on The Reason & The Road.
