What! YOU a Leader!

What is Leadership to YOU?

Leaders matter because they drive organisations forward. 

Leadership is never just a title. Leaders are people who show the way, they challenge people and make decisions, they are the people others look to as role models and for authority. Everyone can identify a good leaders when they see them in action, but what makes a good leader is always open to question as to which attributes really matter. Situational leadership, picking the right attributes of leadership for the situation you face, for the list below, is the key to great leadership, the ability to understand the leadership needs of the people you lead at any time.






I have met many leaders who try to do all these things, 'trying to be all things to all men', but in doing so fail to lead. Leading people must always start by leading yourself, that means by believing in yourself, in your abilities and that your belief motivates and empower your team to perform. GREAT LEADERSHIP IS NOT WHAT A LEADER DOES BUT WHAT THEY INSPIRE OTHERS TO ACHIEVE. This essential first element, a leader's core belief in themselves and what they stand for is the self-branding which other people buy into. 

Leadership starts with having a Clear Vision 

True leadership to me is always shown by how a leader develops and owns their vision for their organisation. Having a clear vision which reflects what they stand for, is the most demonstrable way a leader can communicate their core beliefs. Having a vision for the future pulls together a leaders core beliefs as a human person and as a leader.  What you stand for, reflected in how leader behaves to others, is the most important value a leader can portray. 

The vision a leader demonstrates not only reflects their core beliefs in themselves but more importantly in their team. That faith is reflected in the leader's intent, what they are setting out to do. How bold, how courageous their plan for the organisation is an important element in successful leadership. Many great teams fall apart as people leave, not because of poor leadership in leading people in their role, but due to a lack of inspiring aspiration from the leader. Where leader's change from being aggressive and assertive and play safe and show little aggressive intent, then aspirational teams often breakup as the aspiration breaks down.            

3 key Leadership Elements

The 3rd element of a leaders vision is in their actions. Does the leader lead form the front, or is all talk. Great leaders know that being seen to lead is easy when things are going well, but truly effective leadership is about being visible and determined during the difficult times. When nothing is going according to plan. Taking the first step into the unknown, is demonstrating our belief in your vision as is rallying the troops after a set-back is belief in your vision, these are the moments of truth for a leader, are they there at the front or hiding away leaving others to pick up the pieces.   

The 3 Elements In Effective Leadership: 

The three elements which determine a truly effective leader:

A leader’s core beliefs

A leader’s aspiration 

A leader’s actions

Each of these three elements can be defined with three simple questions:

1. What you really believe is the essence of who you are? (core beliefs)
2. What will you commit to do each and every day to ensure that those core beliefs are demonstrated to your team? (aspiration)
3. How will others recognise what you believe in what you do?  (actions)

The challenging part for any leader is how do you know you as a leader are communicating that pure belief.  The rousing speech, the motivational run around the team and the congratulations as people achieve results are not where you will find the evidence of your leadership.  

Evidence of leadership comes from where you are taking your people. Not the destination, but the direction and pace of travel. A leader's beliefs, aspirations and actions are best demonstrated when needed most, when things aren't going well, when are where there is uncertainty and confusion. 

"True leadership skills, and the leaders' character come out when setbacks occur, that's when leaders need to stand up and stand out"

When things don't go according to plan that people look for leadership and look at leaders, not just as a role model but to look at who they really are. Inspiring someone who is succeeding is just management jumping on a bandwagon: leadership is when people are struggling, or failing, and the leader comes to them listens, refocuses them and inspires them to try again with new tools or in new ways and then supports them every step of the way to success.

Here's three useful ways for leaders to see how if and how you are delivering effective leadership:-

1. Strategic Leadership 

Are you leading from the front? Have you got plan which inspires and motivates people about the future. If not then spend time to develop your strategic plan for your organisation. If you are not working ON your business, they you are stuck working IN it. 

Do your people know what your plan for the organisation is and looks like? Do they know where they are going and do they understand where and more importantly why they are going that way? Ask your people what they know about the future direction of the organisation, start with the person who knows you least and work backwards. What do you learn about how your future plan is understood and valued across the company?

 If you don't have a plan which everyone understands and values then it is time to step out and work on your forward Strategic Plan.

2. Self-reflection: 

Think about the impact you have as a leader. Are you inspiring people or managing people? Leaders motivate others to act, managers conversely tell others what to do. Leadership is not about managing, but motivating through setting an example. 

Sit down and think about what you can do to deliver more effective leadership rather than being pulled into a glorified management role. Get yourself an experienced mentor to bounce ideas around with, from outside the organisation if possible to help you focus on your leadership skill development.   

3. Feedback: 

Look at both the verbal and nonverbal cues from people you work with. Do they readily engage with you? Do they give you honest feedback openly and frequently? Do people really want to work with you, or do they try to avoid you at almost any cost, or only come to see you when they have good news to share and look for praise from? 

This type of feedback is invaluable in monitoring how you as a leader are performing day-to-day in your role. If people are generating ideas and asking effective questions which test and validate your strategic plan then you are probably leading them well. If not, then the verbal and nonverbal clues of silence and evasion are probably an alarm bell sounding in your ear to change committing quickly. 

I hope that helps YOU become a better leader, if you need more support get in touch to see how I can support you lead your people better. 

Richard Gourlay provides leaders with ideas and inspiration to lead their organisations. From strategy development to implementation, he works with leaders to work on their business rather than in their business. His online mentoring enables leaders to develop their forward strategic plan enabling them to lead their organisation forward with their plan to succeed.

Using Talent Management as a Competitive Strategy

Why a Talent Strategy

Finding, winning, retaining and developing talent is at the heart of what makes a world-class organisation. Those businesses who strategically focus on having outstanding people outcompete those who are merely recruiting above average, but too few organisations recognise that focusing on talent is a distinctive business strategy. 

"Ultimately, the businesses that are going to win in the war for talent, are those that accept the challenges and opportunities presented, and adapt to a new way of recruiting..." Real Business

Talent management is not about paying higher, it is about a complete company wide strategic approach to people, focusing on them as the key strategic asset of a company. Its a different way of thinking about the total value of human capital within an organisation.

Businesses have always recognised the importance of outstanding people, but only relatively recently have businesses focused on the strategic competitive advantage that can be leveraged through talent management strategies. The benefits not only include lower costs per employee, lower staff turnover, higher effectiveness but ultimately the ability to strategically outcompete your competition with dynamic, highly motivated people.     

World-Class companies spend 27% less on HR and operate with 24% fewer staff, while still achieving higher effectiveness. (The Hackett Group)

Battle for Talent

In advanced economies the battle for talent is what drives the exceptional from the simply outstanding. Using talent to drive your organisation is becoming an increasingly viable option for brand leaders across an ever wider range of industry sectors to create a sustainable competitive advantage within businesses. The strategy of targeting the best talent, acquiring it and then developing it to enable their organisation to effectively outcompete their competition on more than product and service. 

Defining your strategic advantage through quality people is about setting out a standard of excellence to find, win and retain the best people provides a competitive advantage for many businesses. Professional services, such as legal, financial and medical have always focused on creating a vertically aligned talent development market from specialist schools, dedicated well resourced universities and then into the ivy league businesses. These originally informal models have now become established global standards competing around the world, now competing against each other in a global intellectual super race. World-class competition exists in many such high worth sectors with national and international industries established by trading blocks.

This is also a strategic model which international businesses are frequently adopting to enable them to ensure they have the human capital resources they need to succeed across a wide-range of markets, particularly those competing on a global scale from heavy engineering through to customer service.      

Integrated Strategic Approach

It requires firstly operational excellence within the Human Resources department to be successful, ensuring they are aligned with the organisations strategic goals coupled with an integrated approach to talent management. This integrated approach requires Human Resources to proactively work across the organisation rather than respond to it. Developing talent at the top end drives up not only the top performers but also raises the bar for all employees. A talent management strategy is about raising standards of excellence throughout an organisation not just for the high flyers.   

That approach also requires organisations to ensure that their vision and values are central to their talent recruitment and development strategy. Anyone can buy talent, but that is not a sustainable guarantee of success, because if you just buy talent then so can anyone else buy them off you. Sustainable talent development strategy requires more than just buying talent, it requires nurturing and developing people who believe what you believe, or as Simon Sinek says:-  

"If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood sweat and tears" Simon Sinek  

A talent strategy is not just about accelerating the high fliers, the tomorrows leaders, the most successful companies develop a complete systematic, integrated approach across 'all the talent' management throughout the whole organisation.  While talent programmes tend by their nature to focus on the top talent, actually rolling the strategy throughout all the talents within the organisation creates, realises and sustains the competitive advantage of a talent strategy.

Focusing on Talent Reduces Costs 

By developing a talent strategy organisations can effectively reduce costs inside their Human Resources departments through strategic alignment, and more significantly reduce often hidden  ancillary costs and in the use of outside agencies, as well as the huge benefits of lower staff churn and backfilling, but fundamentally through strategic alignment throughout the employee life cycle.     

Having a clear strategic vision for Human Resources is central to the success of talent strategies. Without the strategic alignment, Human resources are focused on reactive tactics rather than proactive ones.  The costs of being reactionary in human capital terms are firstly being non competitive, but also HR departments cost more to run. 

Talent is a Culture 

Organisations which are reactionary to recruitment are increasingly suffering from the inability to win the top talent as peer review and social media drive the agenda of knowledge way from the company to its employees and directly to core target employee groups. This social media shift results in the control moving from how organisations wish to been seen as, to how they are really perceived by potential talent. No matter how big your brand or your marketing budget your reputation is what matters to knowledge rich target audiences. 

Talent strategies focused around creating world-class performance require increased focus on the development and performance of employees. That dedicated investment in strategic workforce planning creates effective resource planning aligned to strategic goals, rather than tactical ones which often leads to significant savings in staff and skill investment. Investment in skills which directly contribute to tangible strategic goals rather than abstract ones. In highly competitive markets, your business culture is often the key factor in achieving talent acquisition.    

The organisations undertaking and winning talent strategies are most noticeably those playing in highly competitive, high value global markets rather than at national scale, where being world-class is not an aspiration but a reality. They are also quicker at identifying skills that are needed by their company today and in the future, and often take a multi-year perspective that enables them to develop needed skills internally. 

Strategic Talent is the Future

World-class HR organisations have nearly twice the number of internal placements that typical companies have, saving significantly on time and costs and are also able to recruit staff externally much more quickly when necessary. The final big advantage that talent strategy organisations have is the direct link between employee engagement and performance, they are far more rigorous in measuring it as well as providing people managers with the training and support they need to be effective.

Learn more by contact me here Richard Gourlay