LeadershipHQ Magazine 3rd Edition September Issue | Page 28

Well, in order to lead, a leader
needs followers!
It stands to reason then, that leadership is less about the leader, and
more about the followers.
Leadership guru, Simon Sinek,
draws parallels between leaders
and parents, and as someone who
is new to both parenthood and
leadership, I can’t help but agree
with his simple assessment. Sinek
says that our goal as parents is to
provide our children with opportunities, education – to discipline
them when necessary – all so that
they can grow up and achieve
more than we could for ourselves.
Sinek suggests that great leaders
want exactly the same thing for
their people: to provide them with
opportunities and education, to
discipline them when necessary, to
enable them to try, and make mistakes, and learn, all so that they can
achieve more than we ever could.
In essence, leadership is all about
helping other people improve, every single day, so that they can become the best possible version of
themselves.

28 | © LeadershipHQ 2015

So we’ve got some great buzzwords that describe what a leader
should achieve; engage; enthuse;
inspire; motivate; etc. and we know
that it is less about ourselves, and
more about the people around us,
but what does it actually look like
in action?
How do you ‘do’ good leadership?
When a manager stands up to present on behalf of their department,
does s/he attribute success to the
individuals within their team, or do
they instinctively seize this as an
opportunity to self-promote?
When a team member has a perception of their ability that doesn’t
align with reality, does their manager place that conversation in
the ‘too hard’ basket, or does s/he
sit down and have a candid conversation about reality, motivated
by the genuine desire to h