A leader is best when people barely know they exist. When their work is done, their aim fulfilled, we will say: we did it ourselves.
Probably this is the truest thing ever written about leadership.
It’s from an American pastor John Maxwell. An old geezer. Born in the same year as me. A good vintage!
Most of us think a leader is someone standing on a tank, in the desert, geeing-up the troops before battle.
That’s a motivator.
Effective leaders also employ quiet skills; communication, delegation, decision-making. Vision setting.
Leadership is complicated.
There are books on the topic, Masters, Phd, conferences and column inches. Mostly, they discuss the bits of leadership that influence us to be a follower.
However, it is worth thinking about the inner qualities of leadership. What leaders need to know about themselves.
This is particularly apposite. Over the weekend, we witnessed the spectacular fall from grace of one of the most high profile leaders the country has had, in the last 30 years.
I suspect we have not heard the last of BoJo, but anyone interested in leadership has to be interested in Boris Johnson.
He mislead us over Brexit. Reassured us in the early days of Covid. Roused us when Putin invaded Ukraine. Irritated and lied to us in equal measure about almost everything but still manages to maintain a loyal follower-ship.
He was a hopeless manager but still was able to attract an army of the faithful, who’d like to see him back in office.
He over promised. Even persuaded a department of otherwise sensible DH+ people, they really were building 40 new hosptials.
When they found out they weren’t, he persuaded them to redefine ‘new’ and ‘hospital’ and upend the English language.
He mesmerised them. Remembered people’s names and knew it’s not what you do that matters… it’s how you make people feel.
He had a lot of the qualities of leadership you’ll learn about. And, a lot of qualities that only a showman can get away with. BoJo is, a showman, a barker.
We all like a ringmaster.
Like us, BoJo has his faults. He has an abundance of self-confidence but I think, a deficit of one critical quality that leaders must have.
Self-awareness… it’s really important and overlooked.
Without self-awareness no leader can be sure to understand their weaknesses. They can’t really know their values and beliefs. More important, their biases.
Self-awareness leads to a deeper understanding of emotions.
Being in touch with our feelings makes it possible for us to be in touch with others… and to find the hidden quality of empathy.
Knowing our biases and blindspots helps open our minds to different perspectives. Adapt our approaches to problems and the unexpected.
It creates flexibility. The ability to say; ‘I was wrong’. Draw a line. Start again.
If we can do all that, we can be resilient.
Leaders somehow instill a sense of purpose and enthusiasm, inspire their teams to go above and beyond expectations. Eke-out levels of commitment and passion.
Where people feel valued, they feel better about their job and the work they do.
Some might argue, feeling better about what we do is a quality ebbing away from the NHS, ward by ward, office by office, day by day.
What we should get from leadership is hope. Without hope there is no faith.
Faith is what we have in people who give us hope… and faith is what leaders must show they have in us.
We are living in a time where almost nothing works.
Police are discredited, nurses on strike, doctors and teachers imbroglio in industrial action. The trains don’t run on time. Civil servants, university staff, airport workers, ambulance personnel, physiotherapists, the passport office, the environment agency, firefighters… all of them striking or have or will do soon.
Economic prospects, flaky. The small boats keep coming, prices keep going up and everyone is a spectator.
If political parties were commercial companies, the Tories would be John Lewis quietly ebbing away and Labour, Blockbuster, in no way relevant to any of us.
The NHS has no prospect of getting back on its feet under five years. Like the nation, we’re muddling through.
There’s a leadership vacuum. No common goal.
The NHS faces more industrial action. A complicated strategic reorganisation, badly led, underfunded and obviously going badly wrong.
A confused hierarchy… who runs the NHS? NHSE or DH+ or Number Ten.
Warren Bennis had it about right;
‘Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality…
’Has anyone got any idea about the vision?
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
