Lessons on Leadership

Lesson 1: Leadership is the bloodline of an organisation

We have no control over the ups and downs of the economy, the uncertainty of the stock market, new technology that may render our business model obsolete over night or our competitors. The only variable we have control over is the conditions inside the organisation and that is why leadership matters, because leaders set the tone. Simon Sinek made an example with leadership in the military but basically the point is that when leaders create safe environments at work everyone thrives, toxic cultures breed paranoia and self-interest. It essential to examine the leadership of an organisation prior to joining the company, having worked for many organisations both in the public and private sector I can attest to this.

Lesson 2: We confuse rank and leaders, they’re not the same thing:

There are many professionals who are recognised as industry experts in their designated fields and sit at the highest levels of an organisation who are not leaders. We expect industry experts to be well versed in their area of expertise e.g. an accountant who has qualifications and years of experience, yet we intrust people to lead organisations and employees when they don’t have the skillset to do so. Being an industry expert does automatically make you qualified to lead; it may make you a good manager, but it does not make you a leader. We know this to be true because sometimes employees follow their leaders because they have authority but would not follow them voluntarily. This point really resonated with me, people take this for granted and often think that all industry experts are leaders.