What is leadership?

Leadership is a reciprocal relationship between those
who choose to lead and those who decide to follow.
James Kouzes & Barry Posner

The Industrial Society had developed a list of 38 key behaviours split into the following areas that managers need to develop in order for staff to regard them as leaders:
Liberate by freeing those closest to the job to take their own decisions.
Encourage their staff and support them when necessary.
Achieve the purpose for which the team, department, or organisation exists.
Develop people and teams.
Set an Example by their own behaviour.
Build Relationships on trust.

OWL's commentary,

This is a leadership model for the future, many managers will have great difficulty "letting go" as traditionally their role has been to "keep control".

This "new" approach to leadership is designed to get commitment to the leader [and their vision] rather than compliance.

The Indusrial Society organise courses during which participants receive feedback from their followers on how they are perceived to behave in the 38 behaviours. Our experience is that the  most critical area for improvement is TRUST.

TRUST As can be seen in the the image above relationships built on trust are the foundation of the whole model.

In his book The Seven Habits of Effective People Steven Covey  talks about an "emotional bank account" into which we make deposits and withdrawals of trust.

• Understand the individual
• Attend to the little things [Manners]
• Keep your commitments
• Clarifying expectations
• Showing personal integrity [Don't talk behing peoples' backs]
• Apologising sincerely when you make a withdrawal

Another good source is "The Trust Effect" by Larry Reynolds in this he identifies and expands on his CORE principle.

• Competence [Yours and your people]
• Openness [Willingness to give and receive feedback]
• Realiability [Keep your promises, require others to keep theirs]
• Equity [Adopt appropriate leadership style, be fair]

Note here the overlaps between the LEADER model and building TRUST. Finally, Charles Handy "The Hungry Spirit" reminds us that trust is neither a given, nor is easy.

• Trust is not blind [You have to give trust, to get trust]
• Trust needs boundaries [Expectations]
• Trust requires constant learning [Feed back]
• Trust is tough [Keeping promises and keeping others to theirs]
• Trust needs bonding [Find ways to get to know people]
• Trust needs touch [You will not trust someone you do not know]
• Trust has to be earned [You  have no right to be automatically trusted, especially if you are a Manager]

This page was last updated on: 26 October 2000
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