FOUR QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP

Larry Reynolds (2006) suggests that there are four qualities essential to leaders in all circumstances and situations. 1. Challenge the status quo True leaders do not accept things as they are. They question and challenge what is there now and provoke others to do the same. Sometimes they spend some time out of favour for doing so. If they did not challenge they would merely be following and would not be leaders. The military, politics, business and sport all have well-known examples of such leaders. Nelson, Churchill, Dyson and Ramsey all challenged received wisdom and, despite having to face up to sceptics, all are now household names in the UK. 2. Articulate a vision Challenging the status quo without proposing a more attractive alternative wont get you known as a leader. Leaders are positive people. As Napoleon said, Leaders have to be dealers in hope. Leaders achieve this by developing a vision of a better future. For Nelson it was an England free from the threat of invasion from across the channel. For Churchill it was a future without Nazism. For Dyson it was high performance vacuuming without the inconvenience of a bag. For Ramsey it was an England football side playing as a team and winning the World Cup. According to Reynolds, many company visions fail because they are not clear, exciting and achievable. 3. Win commitment to the vision Having challenged the status quo, and articulated a vision, the leader now has to win support and commitment for that vision. Successful political leaders know that unless they connect with the hearts and minds of the electorate, the electorate wont back them. Winning commitment means getting close to people, understanding their needs, concerns and aspirations. It means communicating the vision in a way that makes sense and is believable.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Prepared by Tony Harvey, Trainer and HR Consultant 1 HO-LDR-07 : Four qualities of leadership

Many would argue that Tony Blair well exemplifies the truth of this point; from both his ability to connect to the British electorate when he came to power in 1997 and his loss of that connection over the Iraq war. 4. Do the right thing Reynolds final essential quality of a leader is about the morality and ethics of leadership. With our inquisitorial media, leaders in the public eye cannot get away with allowing their private life to be at odds with how the public, or their followers, expect them to behave. He uses Kennedy and Clinton to demonstrate how private behaviour was hidden from the public in the 1960s but exposed in the 1990s. Leaders in less high profile positions should similarly remember that what they say and what they do should be consistent. In our experience, the lack of consistency in senior management behaviour is the most frequently used basis for questioning the intentions behind management initiatives. Trust and respect are only earned over time, yet can be lost in a careless instant. Integrity and ethics have never been more important issues for leaders. And in a more cynical, less deferential, world, leaders who do not walk the talk, who do not act as they wish their followers to act, can find that they no longer have any followers.

As with Reynolds original paper, I have selected publicly known leaders to illustrate these qualities. This is to ensure the examples are understood. But if you can provide me with examples from your own organisation, I will be very pleased to update this handout with their story.

Reynolds, L. (2006), What is leadership, anyway?, Training Journal, April 2006 edition, pp16-18.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Prepared by Tony Harvey, Trainer and HR Consultant 2 HO-LDR-07 : Four qualities of leadership