Leadership – at the risk of stating the obvious – is the single most important factor in whether your business dies, survives or thrives. 

If no-one’s giving a strong lead in line with a clear vision, you can kiss your chance of success goodbye.

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”

~ John Kenneth Gailbraith

Anxiety is like staring at a forest littered with bear traps. There’s a way through it, but you’d rather stand still. I’ll bet you can picture your own organisation as a forest like this. You’ve gone through a wave of redundancies; there could be more. You’ve had to restructure roles, responsibilities and entire teams. Everyone – everyone – is out of their comfort zone and there’s a bear trap everywhere you look. At best, your people will gingerly edge their way through the difficulties, micro-steps at a time. At worst, they will come to a halt.

Leadership – at the risk of stating the obvious – is the single most important factor in whether your business dies, survives or thrives. If no-one’s giving a strong lead in line with a clear vision, you can kiss your chance of success goodbye.

 John Kenneth Galbraith is right about confronting anxiety, but that’s not the whole story.

While individuals in organisations across the globe get on with the reality of leadership, academics and business theorists argue fiercely over a broad variety of evidence, keen to persuade us that their unique perspective has the most validity. Each contributes understanding about the strand on which they have chosen to focus, some with a fairly absolutist approach, but few reveal the fullness of the complex weave that is leadership.

 Lothian, Desson & Hudson, Insights Transformational Leadership

 Leadership is indeed a “complex weave”. There is no single style that suits every need, nor one type of leader who succeeds in every way. Instead – and here’s the real stretch – leaders need to draw on different dimensions to demonstrate strength of character. Insights, global learning and development experts, have developed a revolutionary leadership model based on eight key dimensions. These dimensions cover vital aspects of effective leadership such as agile thinking, fostering teamwork, delivering results and creating a compelling vision.

Okay, so what does it mean? It means that your organisation has the potential to raise its head from the pack, to step out from the cowering masses and take its first stride confidently through the bear traps. Imagine this:

• Your leaders’ behaviour is so admired by followers that they feel connected to and inspired by them.
• Your leaders communicate dynamically about realising future goals and provide a deeper meaning for the tasks at hand.
• Your leaders take risks in their thinking and in doing so, stimulate a rich culture of creativity.
• Your leaders listen – genuinely listen – to concerns and respond. How do they respond? In an email or a memo on the notice board? No, they act as a mentor and coach, respecting the contribution that each person makes.