Are you Leading your Business or is your Business Leading you?

Whether you like it or not, if you run a business or manage a team, you are a leader.

Good leadership is much debated, difficult to define, yet we know it when we see it or experience it.

In the average business today, constant change, increased competition and the economic climate create the potential for uncertainty and chaos meaning the need for good leadership has never been greater.

At its very simplest, leadership is about cutting through the detail, deciding what needs to be done, seeing a positive way forward and leading your team towards it.

In most businesses, people rise to the top because of their technical or management skill, not because of their leadership ability. However, leadership and management are quite different. Management is concerned with doing things right, leadership is about doing the right things.

The good news is that leadership can be learnt. But, because your leadership style needs to be authentic to you, it cannot be taught through traditional teaching methods.

In my experience of running business leadership workshops there are three main characteristics that excellent leaders tend to have. These are:

Know Yourself - How well do you understand and accept yourself, your behaviours, skills and values. Can you handle feedback? Do you have integrity and honesty?

Inspire Others - If you are a leader, it implies there are followers. Do you have a clear vision of where you are going? Do you have passion, enthusiasm and energy? Are you accessible? Do you develop trust?

Make Things Happen - Ultimately leadership is about getting things done through others. Do you have clear direction and focus? Are you motivated and committed? Are you a good communicator and influencer? And perhaps the most important, do you have courage to act even when it may not be popular?

You may be asking ³How do I address these requirements?² Developing leadership skills is at the heart of the Ology Coach Approach - it builds on the authentic you, whilst embedding real skills to make you the best that you can be.

John Garrod
Ology