Leadership is a fascinating, slightly mysterious topic with much written about it to fuel the demand for those seeking to learn its hidden secrets.

What makes leadership so mysterious is that unlike management it is an art not a science. It is based on emotions rather than processes and therefore works with the intangible rather than the tangible. Whereas management is about working in and effecting the paradigm, leadership is about creating the paradigm.

There are a number of Skills and Traits shared between leadership and management, but in many cases used in different ways. Traditionally it was thought that Skills could be learnt, but Traits were inherent, unchanging characteristics that one either had or didn’t. We now know that Traits can also be learnt and/or re-programmed, indeed there is a fine line or even a blurred distinction between many skills and traits utilised in Leadership.

There are also a number of variations of the definition of Leadership. The one we  use is: “It is that mixture of skills and traits required to initiate and effect change from one state or location to another.” This can be applied to oneself, personal leadership, or to a collection of people. That collection of people could range from a local sports team, to a whole company, or to a whole country. The requisite skill sets and traits are the same.

We have broken down the process of Leadership into three main stages, the Vision, the Journey, and the Starting Point. Each stage requiring a different combination of skill/trait sets. The Vision is the goal we are aiming for and it may seem odd to address this first rather than the Starting Point. Yet, without a goal there is no point in understanding and defining our starting point, and there would be no Journey. So in practice, we start by defining the Vision, then the Starting Point, then taking the Journey to arrive at our Vision, our goal.

Simple – so far! As simple as going from A to B. The complication comes when we try to define “B”, our goal, and just as difficult understanding where we are starting from, “A”. Once we have done this we then need to create and maintain the momentum and direction to get from one to the other. It is these three issues that involve pure leadership. Much of the Journey involves a combination of management and leadership skills, but it is the direction and momentum aspects, or the fuel and navigation for the Journey, which are the key leadership skills/traits in that section.

Our Leadership Training Programme involves:

  • an in depth look at each Trait and Skill required,
  • determining the level of each currently possessed by each student,
  • determining an individual development plan
  • teaching how to learn and/or re-programme each skill/trait accordingly
  • how to use the new skills and traits in practice.