In the book we describe these five leadership qualities. They're a flexible, integrated
framework, and they're applicable to leaders from those who are just starting out to those
who are quite experienced. What they do is help people to grow their core skills but
also they allow people to grow their maturity. We drafted these about ten years ago and they're
a synthesis of all the leadership literature, but they've also been validated across various
live leadership populations in organizations we've been working with. Working with over
the last ten years, indeed. You can see them either as an essential checklist of skills
which you need to acquire, or you could see them as five archetypal qualities which you
can grow into and expand into. Why don't we have a look at a couple of them, a couple
of the qualities, see what they are, see what they bring, and perhaps how we can develop
with them. Let me start by talking about the visionary motivator. This is one of the five
qualities. This is a very loved and yearned for quality, it's one of the ones that we
find is missing often in our political lives. The gesture of it is an invitation to engage,
so we talk about this sort of gesture, sort of a heartfelt 'join me in this agenda'. We
give it the strapline 'let's all move towards a brighter future', so Martin Luther King
'I have a dream' is a typical way of expressing that. And in terms of skills, it's the use
of words, images, stories, paying attention to people's motivation, and what it brings
is this open-hearted quality, and builds trust, and allows the imagination into what could
perhaps be a sort of dry business context. An example of this is maybe in a team talk,
you talk about why an outcome is important, and not just what the outcome is. So not just
a list of tasks or goals, but who cares whether we complete them, what do we care about that,
how does this touch our values and passions, what are the users going to feel if this is
done in the right way. An experiment - in the book we talk about experiments to just
expand your use of this quality - one is to try doing something that you do everyday,
but do it in a very different way. So it's just kind of tapping into your imagination.
Another thing is to think about, and imagine, how things are going to be in six months time
for you and your team, and to maybe get some pictures to sort of echo that and share them with the team.
The edgy catalyser is, in a sense, a different kettle of fish because
the research shows that it is one which people like to have had as a manager, but isn't the
most pleasant of experiences because the edgy catalyser quality is the one which focuses
on what's wrong, what needs to change, and creates discomfort around the person accessing
this quality. In a nutshell, we might say 'look, this is a serious problem, let's focus
our energy on resolving this'. It's something about prodding and probing, being observant,
at what the situation is, then being quite penetrating and incisive to get to the core
of what is wrong, and sometimes that ruffles feathers. A couple of examples would be having
to deal with a coworker who you feel is underperforming. You have to access the edgy catalyser to be able to have
that tough conversation. Another situation, more on an organizational level, would be
where you turn the spotlight on some defecits in the organizational culture, 'the way we
do things around here', and by focusing the attention on it, you're saying 'come on, now's
the time to move on this'. It's a difficult one to develop sometimes, for some people,
because like I say you're going to ruffle some feathers, but being more observant, being
able to be more persistent and perceptive are key qualities. If you were to do something
over the next week to access this edgy catalyser, how about at work in a team meeting, or on
a one-to-one basis, spot something which irritates you, or you know is not quite right, find
out who's responsible, and have that tough conversation. Or, in a social setting, if
you're in a restaurant and there's something not quite right, hold the person to account.
Start off in less threatening situations, and then build up to the really important
things. I think the key is to not be aggressive, nor overdetermined, have grace under fire,
and always have good intent. So people can read about the other three that we haven't
covered here in the book, and there are lots of exercises and experiments and all sorts
of things that you can try out.