One bollock at a time – Part 4
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The law that is Google shows 31 million entries for the search leadership training most of which probably point you to some consultancy or training provider offering “unique and proven interventions” to “add value to your leadership team” and “remove money from your already limited budgets in return for the emperors new clothes”. OK, you spotted I made the last one up didn’t you?
I have had the pleasure of working with and speaking to leaders of some of the biggest and most successful organisations within the UK. People running the most successful businesses within their sector and regarded by the business world as being true leaders. Without exception they either have never been on a leadership course or if they have could not remember it. Is that a coincidence?
No. These guys have something innate. Something that differentiates them from the people around them. It’s not necessarily the same trait. They are all individual and unique. But they have something that makes people follow them, believe in them, want to succeed for them. Look around at the managers near to you, think about the ones that you have worked for. I bet you can spot the difference between the good and bad. But I bet you can also spot the difference between the managers and the leaders.
It’s not training, it’s not building a raft out of orange juice cartons, it’s not getting in touch with your inner dolphin, it’s not competency frameworks or models. If it was Google would only return one result. “The key to being a leader”. But it doesn’t, because there isn’t one. Make better, improve, hone….sure. But you must have the raw materials there in the first place.
Each true leader is unique (and probably a little unbalanced) thats ok….lets keep it that way….and be done with the 4th bollock.
My Hell is Other People 
“inner dolphin”..hehe…love it!
Bang on.
I am the last one to want to be told to stand on my chair and act like a fire engine. I hate that. i didn’t go to school for all those years and climb this greasy pole just so that someone could ask me to humiliate myself in front of my peers.
Yes, and..
Asking people to ‘become leaders’ through some innate quality that you either have or you don’t is also pants. It’s a cop-out. Most managers who want to be leaders just need to learn some understanding, insight, compassion and the ability to connect with people.
Yes, you can learn that. No dolphins in sight.
/df
@Corporate Daycare – Thank you…and I promise not to slip into Sponge Bob Square Pants mode.
@David – Welcome and thanks for your comment. I’m glad we share the same view of leadership courses! But all a manager needs to do to become a leader is learn “understanding, insight, compassion and the ability to connect with people”? Really? Is that what differentiates a leader from a manager? Would you not expect a manager to have those qualities anyway?