| Google returns 16 million responses for leadership | | | | - Language: from which field do you draw your |
| training and 29 million for leadership development. | | | | examples and metaphors - the military, sport, |
| But this begs the question of what is the best | | | | science or where? Are the most-used words |
| approach to either - and a deeper question: do | | | | persuasive or authoritarian? |
| current practices work? From my experience, | | | | - Thinking: do you prefer binary concepts of win |
| much of what businesses spend is sub-optimal or | | | | lose and right/wrong or more complex ones |
| wasted. Let me explain. | | | | around constituencies, options and so on? |
| When I studied engineering, I spent most of my | | | | - Awareness: do you read people's concerns and |
| five years in lectures learning the theory and how | | | | difficulties or just their compliance? Do you mostly |
| to apply it. Steel and concrete behave in | | | | listen to their words or read their body language? |
| consistent ways and the physics and mathematics | | | | - Flexibility: do you have only one or a few |
| allow you to design things that don't fall down. | | | | leadership approaches or are you adaptive to the |
| When I learnt to dance, however, we spent most | | | | situation and the signals you're picking up? |
| of our time practicing. Yes, I needed to know | | | | Most business leaders think less about their |
| some steps but the key was learning to work | | | | leadership that other activities. They |
| with a partner so we didn't crush each other's | | | | problem-solve, plan, monitor and post-evaluate |
| toes. And, no two partners are the same, and the | | | | production, marketing and other functions. But not |
| same partner may not want to dance the same | | | | their leadership. Yet it impacts implementation of |
| way each time. From my experience, leadership is | | | | all their other plans. Notwithstanding, many people |
| more like dancing than engineering. It's much less | | | | lead from a time-worn rut of default attitudes |
| about formulae and right answers than about how | | | | across the four topics above. And much |
| best to respond to the needs of your partners. | | | | leadership training and development focuses more |
| For each of the four categories below, ask a | | | | on theories, anecdotes and personality profiling. |
| colleague what they pick up (from watching and | | | | Not problem-solving and planning. It's a huge |
| listening to you) about your dominant leadership | | | | opportunity. |
| mode in each area: | | | | |