The ultimate test of leadership is whether or not anyone is following.
Managing people successfully requires leadership skills in addition to the practical skills of planning, organising, monitoring and evaluating the work that takes place.
Being a leader means setting the pace, blazing a trail, facilitating the team to do more than they think they can, inspiring them by helping them to visualise the goal and motivating them to reach it.
The kind of leader most of us are happy to follow leads by example, is excited about the goal and wants the team and each individual to succeed.
That’s a really good starting point – if we have the right mindset our actions will follow. I’ve just read a very inspirational book along those lines. It’s called ‘The Energy Bus’ by Jon Gordon and gives some great principles written in an entertaining story.
