Principles of Inspirational LeadershipPosted by Valentine Grace on June 5th, 2021 Principles of Inspirational Leadership I have experienced leadership in many shapes and forms during my lifetime, initially at school before joining the army where I trained as an officer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and served in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles on operations across the world. When I left the army I led a team of ex-Gurkha soldiers providing security on a diamond mine in war-torn Angola, West Africa. In October 1992 the mine was over-run by the UNITA rebel army and I was held captive for 4 days. Within hours of being safely evacuated to Namibia I was asked to return to Angola to complete my contract; my team and I were back in Angola the next day. My next move was into sales of wealth management for a number of years before starting my passion in life, training and developing leadership capabilities in other people. Considering my vast and varied experience of leadership I have come up with the 5 principles of inspirational leadership and attach a real life example to each. 1. Walk the Talk If you are going to lead effectively, you must have an ability to personally demonstrate the core skills you expect from your people. This became clear to me during my early career as an officer in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles. While other officers were happy to sit on the sidelines during fitness training, I took charge of the cross-country team and trained with them every morning. In my opinion I couldn't expect my men to work on their fitness unless I set an example and worked on my own. It was the same with shooting practice; many of the officers didn't take part because they were a bad shot and didn't want to be embarrassed. Whenever I had the opportunity I worked on my shot with every weapon available so I could compete to be one of the best shots in the battalion. I didn't do this because I had to; I did it because I knew it would inspire my team to work and train to the best of their ability. I am in no doubt that my men were among the highest performing soldiers in the entire battalion in all aspects of their job. If you are prepared to put your credibility on the line you will gain more respect and admiration from your team, leading to an increase in performance and results. 2. Lead by Example I worked as a security guard on a diamond mine in an isolated part of Angola; there were no shops so each member of the 500 staff received fortnightly rations. Distribution day was always a nightmare as 500 hungry workers descended on the compound at once, so one particular week my boss decided that only 30 people would be allowed in to receive their rations at once to avoid conflict and theft. This resulted in an unhappy and very angry mob at the gates of the compound demanding answers and if I'm honest I was glad the gates were there. My boss came to the gate and asked me how it was going; I explained the situation to him before being completely amazed at his next move. He calmly opened the gate, walked out and began addressing the crowd, explaining that he was limiting numbers to avoid conflict and the chance of theft and that it would work out in their favour. When he came back through the gate all was calm on the other side and the next group of 30 people came through without a word. I was truly inspired by his actions that day; he had used great leadership to resolve a potentially very difficult situation and he had shown to the employees and his team that he was prepared to confront challenges head on. This display of leading by example has stuck with me ever since. 3. Be Passionate A few years into my career as a salesman, my team was taken over by a new manager called Alan. Part of his role was to accompany members of his team during their client meetings and assess their performance. Emprego em Angola These were always bad experiences with my previous two managers, with much criticism and very little help as standard. My first meeting with Alan turned out to be a pleasure, from the moment we left the office we were in deep conversation. He asked me what I wanted from my sales role, to which I replied, 'I'd like to become a trainer at some stage'. He said I would be good in a training role but to become a credible trainer I would need to boost my sales to get in to the top 25% of the company. We discussed what it would take for me to reach the top 25% before he offered to help me in whatever way I thought was necessary. Although Alan's ultimate goal was to increase sales in his team, just like the previous two managers, suddenly I had a target, a reason to strive to do better and I knew he would help me. Within a few days it became apparent that Alan was having these types of conversations with everyone in the team and the improvement in results was almost immediate. Alan had a passion for people. Specifically he had a passion for understanding what they wanted from the business, so that he could work with them in the achievement of their professional goals. Passion for people and the job is a pre-requisite of true leadership and when you are truly passionate about something, it is obvious from what you say and do and the energy and intensity that you bring to everything. 4. Be Honest In the context of leadership, honesty is telling your people the truth, even when that message can be difficult. If people are going to trust a leader, they are going to want to know that the things they are being told by the leader are the truth. While the truth might unsettle them, knowing that they are not being told the truth, or not being given the full picture, is guaranteed to unsettle them. Constant and open communication from the person on top is critical. Even if a team is spread across a wide geographical area, there will be times when the correct thing to do is for the leader to go and see them and talk to them face-to-face. During my commercial career I experienced this from the other side. I was working for a large company which had been in decline for about 18 months, unfortunately the only reason the staff knew about this was the media. The director of the company was so worried about leaks that he didn't tell the staff anything before he spoke to the press. We were finding out about our future job security from the local news and we had a boss that didn't trust us. The final straw came when my team was gathered in a meeting room and shown a video from the director, full of PR spin about the situation. We couldn't even ask questions; instead we were given a sheet of FAQs. This was the worst example of leadership I have ever come across in my whole life and the productivity of the team bears testament to that. 5. Be Consistent When people say they want to work with someone who is consistent, they really mean they don't want to work with someone who is inconsistent! One of the objectives of effective leadership is to release and harness the potential within the team, the individuals within that team and the individuals as part of a collective. If a leader is not consistent their team will feel uneasy, wondering what mood their leader will be in all the time. This breeds hesitancy and reduces confidence among the team which is guaranteed to lead to poor results. I once worked with a director of a large financial services company. It was quickly apparent he was the most inconsistent man I have ever encountered. I knew a good number of his team very well and they commented on this every time we met. 'We don't know which version of Bill (not his real name) is going to turn up, so we have developed an ability to try and establish this and then let the rest of the team know if they should approach him, or if they should avoid him,' they would say. The impact of this inconsistency was that everyone who reported to him was constantly on the back foot. Every time anyone undertook a task, their default mindset was: 'how will he view our actions if he is in one of his moods?' The truth of the matter is that Bill was a bully and he 'motivated' people by making them feel bad about themselves. Thankfully Bill didn't remain in that leadership role for much longer. Inconsistency destroys confidence which is so important to great business performance. If you want your people to operate with confidence, they must know that they are going to be treated in a fair and consistent way at all times.Like it? Share it! |