"Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition". Steve Jobs.
What makes effective leaders? An examination of leadership and management research over the last 150 years demonstrates wide differences in approaches to the understanding of the role, purpose and skills of leadership. Scientific management, trait approaches, style and behavioural theories, situational and contingency models and transactional versus transformational leadership to name just a few of the early approaches. These approaches have something in common. They all reflect the times in which they belong and they are useful to a point.
More recent approaches have focussed upon embedding leadership across the community and the need for self development resulting in people finding their own voice as leaders. Kouzes and Posner in "The Leadership Challenge" state "Leadership is important, not just in your career and within your organisation, but in every sector, in every community, and in every country. We need leaders who can unite us and ignite us. In the end, we realise that leadership development is self development. Meeting the leadership challenge is a personal, and a daily challenge for all of us".
The nature of leadership has changed to reflect the ever increasing complexity and speed of change in our world. Leaders can no longer be all knowing and all powerful. The world is too complex. They have to become the hosts of different perspectives from a range of diverse sources. They need to realise that they can trust in other people's commitment knowledge, analysis and creativity no matter where they are in or outside of the organisation. They need to know that everyone can demonstrate leadership because leadership is a role everyone can perform given the right conditions.
So, how can anyone find their leadership voice? Finding your leadership voice involves understanding your journey, your beliefs, and the core values which underpin your behaviours. it means knowing who you are and where you are going. Leadership is always about the future so being able to translate your values and beliefs into a coherent vision of the future is a key leadership skill.
Our coaching process can lead to significant, self - supported and sustainable change for both individuals and organisations.
Figure 1: Finding your leadership voice - a self sustainable approach.
What is my story?
where do my values and beliefs originate?
taking stock of my development
what is the arc of my journey?
Who am I now?
what do self assessments and other feedback say about me?
what is my personal balance sheet?
how emotionally intelligent am I?
My future self
what is my personal vision?
what are the skills, attitudes and behaviours I require?
what are the major themes and passions in my dreams?
My learning agenda
what are the gaps between my current and future self?
what are my learning and development goals?
has this process changed my attitudes, values and beliefs?
Experiment and practice
how will I put my learning and development goals into practice?
how will I change my behaviours?
what will I experiment with?
Critical reflection
how will I monitor, review and evaluate my learning and development
what should I reflect on?
how do I use my reflections to change my behaviours?
Supportive relationships
who should I involve in my supportive team?
how will I engage with my supportive team?
how do I ensure that their feedback will enable me to self - sustainable in my learning and development
Bill Christopher
if you are interested in this process or require any further information please email me at billc@bcaleadership.co.uk