On Leadership: Paula Turner

How Fashionable is Leadership?
Paula Turner 

It’s 2011 and the word leadership has been around since Plato asked what qualities distinguish an individual as a leader. Across the centuries this term remains in vogue with a frequency that exploits language from the sports field, “going the extra mile,” “staying on target” or framed as a solitary journey or quest. But is leadership really like that, I wonder, and as a leadership tourist what will I find on the high street today?

Leadership talks a lot about style, and throughout your career you have probably been asked to wear a variety of leadership labels such as competence-based leadership, adaptable leadership, action-centred leadership, situated leadership and transformational leadership.  If your leadership wardrobe could do with a spring clean, what models of leadership should be on the catwalk this season and what hot tips can we pick up? What could be "the new black" in leadership terms?

Notably, shop windows of training organisations promise holy grail insights into team dynamics and leadership know-how. Go in, try them on, but don’t be afraid to mix and match to suit your leadership shape.  Some people hang their hats on models of leadership linked to behavioural, situational and contingency theories. These can be useful as they attempt to identify the common traits possessed by successful leaders such as decision taking, tolerance, co-operation, energy, persistence and dependability.  Others prefer to use a leadership diagnostic tool that can show and measure your personal habits and ways of leading.  Again, these can be a great way to start looking in the leadership mirror.

My recommendations are practical. Leadership is about organising a group of people to achieve a common goal. The main thing I believe, is that we should all develop the confidence to wear our own leadership label, and we must decide the moral and ethical value that is attached to it. So, know your leadership “colours” and stick to improving the things that work for you. Secondly, see leadership as a vehicle to get the right things done with a focus on outcomes over process.

Finally, can you tell if your leadership style is made of sustainable stuff? Is it fair to everyone in your personal supply chain and is it something you are proud to brand as your own? Would you win an award for it? It doesn't matter what you call it, as it is acutally just about acting decently. As John Adair once pointed out, "You can be appointed as a manager, but you aren't a leader till people choose to follow you."

So, for a dedicated follower of leadership, this season, try accessorising your leadership syle with a big dash of personal integrity, open-mindedness and self confidence. oh, and don't forget to look behind you!
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Paula works at the Centre for Enterprise as a Senior Enterprise Fellow. The core area of Paula's responsibility is in developing relationships to facilitate knowledge transfer activities and to mobilise new projects and services the Centre for Enterprise provides. She is particularly interested in making on the ground relationships happen between the Centre and regional, national and international public and private sector organisations.