Most leaders experience a time when members of their team are disgruntled at decisions they’ve made but rarely do team members actually openly rebel against them.
Great leaders such as Ernest Shackleton and Nelson Mandela understood that sometimes they had to make bold decisions that would challenge the status quo and might not be well received but they still managed to get their team behind them. Polar explorer Shackleton is famous for an epic journey across the Southern Ocean after a disastrous start to his 1914 expedition to cross The Antarctic. Despite having to abandon his ship when it was crushed in the icepack, he led his crew to safety after an 18-month voyage, without losing a single member of the expedition.
Mandela is rightly celebrated by the way he led the process of reconciliation
in South Africa following his election as its first black President in 1991
after serving 27 years imprisonment for campaigning against the apartheid
regime. He managed to bring together groups from extremes of the political
spectrum through the sheer force of his personality and inspirational
leadership skills.
Knowing when to adopt different leadership styles to suit the individual or situation and being able to put across a clear vison for the future is key to helping colleagues buy into the task in hand.
CFA
Training are experts in helping managers to improve their leadership qualities
and communication skills. Please contact Neville Beardsmore if you would like
to know more about how we can help you, or someone in your team, to become a
more effective leader.