By Ian Sampson

A few months ago I published an e-book entitled: “Misleading Conduct.” It is about the dreadful things that poor leaders do to their people in organisations. If you are a subscriber to our Experientia newsletter you may have been sent a copy with our compliments.

As with any work that describes something that doesn’t work, some readers have asked what good leaders actually do.

While the litany of poor leadership behaviours is long, the essence of leadership seems quite simple.

However you wouldn’t know that if you read all the material on the internet that has been written on the subject. As the old saying goes, and it applies aptly to leadership:  “when all is said and done, more will be said than done!” 

That is not an approach which we favour. We at Cause & Effective stand for building great leaders and great leadership in the “for cause” sector.

My working definition of a good leader is “one who guides and influences others to safely accomplish shared goals that would otherwise be unachievable.”

A guide is one who knows the terrain, or at the very least has good map reading skills. The guide knows the destination, the lay of the land, the dangers to be managed and the objective. Guiding leaders usually lead forward, even if returning over ground previously covered. They often lead from the front but not always.

Good leaders influence others. Their actions and words encourage support from their followers. Safety is paramount in leadership. Good leaders know the risks and manage them for success. Good leaders accomplish objectives. They always move the action towards the goal.They help followers achieve things that they could not achieve by themselves.

 Are you a good leader?

If you would like to discuss …..

• how to be a better guide,
• how to increase your personal and leadership effectiveness,
• how to build safety for others into everything you do,
• how to increase an achievement focus for yourself and your team and
• how to accomplish otherwise unachievable objectives

……. please contact us.

We are currently designing a one day ”guided walk” for leaders who want to build their personal effectiveness. Participants get to identify good leadership practices and develop a plan for their own leadership going forward.

If you want to build your leadership strength as an individual leader we can support you with one-on one advisory work and coaching. If you want to work with your team on building leadership capability we can support you in a variety of ways that are designed for your specific needs.

 Ian is a Cause & Effective Associate. He is a Strategic Advisor to Boards, a Leadership Coach and a Facilitator of our Powerful Leadership in Action Program . He can be contacted here