What is leadership?
A good while ago on a leadership course paid for by work, a question was posed: “What is leadership?”. (Rather an important question given the course’s subject matter.
The flippant anwer given by a Vice-President was that a leader was one who led. His view was that we should look around and see if there were people following. In a way, that’s right, but it’s vacuous and doesn’t define how one might become a better leader – how do you get more followers?
In an interview with The Times today, Indra Nooji, Chief Executive of Pepsi, describes leadership as the “5 C’s”:
- Competence (damn good at getting results)
- Confidence to have the courage to make the tough calls;
- Communications skills, to convey your vision and direction
- Compass pointed north to your true values
- Compassion – empathy, not sympathy.
A very fair summary I thought.
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