Leadership: Career Development A to Z

L – Leadership

What

• noun [mass noun] the action of leading a group of people or an organization: something one does!
• different styles of leadership.
• Note the ACT of leadership

• the state or position of being a leader:
• the party prospered under his leadership
• Example: leadership Southgate. 

How

• Accountable- a leader has to be accountable. He/she must understand that he is to answer for the good and the bad of any situation.  with others. 
• Authentic - this is required to earn trust. This doesn’t mean that you know everything. The opposite actually. 
• Utilise the skills at hand - trust his subordinates to solve problems and make mistakes
• Example: leaders I’ve worked with

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In this episode we look into the subject of Leadership. One of the most important skills in life in general as well as career. Is your knowledge up to the task??

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Firstly, let me start by welcoming you all along. That's crap. So let's start again. You know, people like Sameth Gout uh Sareth Gauth Gate. Someone like Sarth. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening wherever you are, and welcome to the latest episode of the My Coach Ben podcast. Firstly, I'd like to thank you very much for stopping by. Your time, your attention is greatly appreciated, and of course, your discerning choice in podcasts. Um, thank you very much for that. And I'd like to, of course, um, as usual, extend a warm welcome to the new subscribers and followers, etc., um, on the various social media channels. So, welcome aboard to um I was gonna say the house of fun, but that doesn't really fit. Anyway, welcome aboard, and I hope you're going to continue to uh find the content to your liking and um of considerable use. Um, I want to start by mentioning that uh July is the um international minority uh mental health month, um, and this is where particular attention is given to the mental health of people of various minorities. So, this could be people that have got disabilities, it could also be um whether you're from um uh one of the diverse background, for example, um, if you're from you know any background that isn't that of the country that you're in. Um, so yes, that's a minority mental health month. Um, so let's try and observe that, and there will be various things going on throughout the month, and I will of course give that a mention as we move uh through July. Um, as always, like, subscribe, press the notification bell, uh tell your friends, your fam, and let's continue to uh to grow this project. Um, I will start by saying that it's very early in the morning. Um, the date is the 6th of July, Monday, the 6th of July. Um, it's very early in the morning, um, and I have to say I haven't had much sleep because I've been watching um England um defeat Mexico on their home turf in um in the FIFA World Cup. Um so it was a very good performance. Congratulations to the boys! Very stout defending from England, I have to say. Um, yes, backs against the wall stuff. So um yeah, really good. Bit unfortunate with uh with the red card for Joel Crancer, but um yes, what can you say? Um other than I'm very tired. Um the game was was delayed by an hour, and it's where it was already supposed to start at two, but anyway, I will not digress and turn this into a football podcast because that's not what it is. Let's move on with the next letter in the uh A to Z of uh career development. So in the last episode we looked at knowledge, um, and um in this week we will be taking the letter L and this is a juicy topic. The letter L in this episode will be that of leadership. So leadership, um, as always, let's start with uh a definition, and if we go to the Oxford English Dictionary or my notes, one of the two, then we will see that the word leadership is defined as the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Um, so it's something that one does, and the uh example is the different styles of leadership, and there is also a definition uh the state or position of being a leader, and it gives the example the party prospered under his leadership. Um, yes, you can make many things out of that one given what's happened in UK politics recently. So um there we are, that's the um definition of uh leadership, and what can we take from that? Well, the first thing uh that comes to my mind is action. Um so it mentions there the action of leading a group of people or organization, action as a leader, and I think this counts whether you're um a leader of people, um insofar as being a team, a um uh a company, an organization, but also for yourself as well. I think we're leaders of our own destiny, and it's worth that um it's worth pointing that out and making sure that we don't forget that because we all have our own individual leadership role. Um so I think action is one which is um I think many people that are watching this podcast will find this probably a little bit controversial, but in order to be a leader, you need to um you need to act. Uh a leader is one who is expected to take action, um, or at least be able to to to clearly define and be accountable, which I'll come on to later, for for actions that are being taken. So this is the first thing that comes to mind um when I think about um about leadership and we look at this this definition. So the state or position, essentially, um it's important to make this this distinction because there is the leadership in terms of the act, the action, but there is also the person behind that, and I think this is um I would say this is what is referred to in terms of um state or position of being a leader, um, and it's something that I'm gonna come on to fairly shortly. I want to keep this quite um brief today, actually, because I'm quite tired, so I have to try not to digress. But um, it's about who the leader is, and this is often mirrored in the actions that are taken, and the accountability that is taken for those actions. Okay, so there's there's two things, usually, there's three things from the what, but I'm just going to look at these two things: the action of leading and the position of being a leader, and these are two things that um that we're going to focus on as we get to um the how. How does one lead? How does one def um not define a leader? We've just done that, but how does one execute being a leader? Uh, there's a few points I've I've noted. Uh the first one is being accountable, and it's something I just hinted at recently. When it comes to being a leader or in a leadership role, it's important that you are accountable. This word accountable is something that we looked at, I believe, in the letter A, of course, um, at the beginning of the career development series. And when it comes to leadership, yeah, it's important that you're accountable, that when things um go right, you can take the credit if you want, but of course, you need to extend that to those that have um that have executed the the plans and strategies, but also when things go wrong as the leader, this is where um one needs to step forward and um you know, as well as take the plaudits, uh take the rap, let's say. Um, and often I think many people in um in various organizations or companies or positions will be able to give me numerous stories of so-called leaders who unfortunately are not accountable. And in my working experience, which is spanning, I would say, the best part of 40 years now, I can say of I don't know how many jobs I've had, maybe the eight or nine jobs I've had, or different companies, I would say there's probably been a couple of people that I can there, maybe two or three people that I can really look at and say, this is a real leader, this is someone who is accountable, this is someone who stands up, this is someone that can hold their hands up and say, Well, look, I don't really know what's going on here, but let's try and figure it out together. And this brings me on to the next point, and this is about being authentic. I saw there is a an old um CEO from the company that I work for who mentioned recently on LinkedIn that work is akin to private life, which I agree with 100% because work is actually a part of life along with many other things. Um you all know I don't believe in work-life balance, I believe in life balance, but it's important as a leader that the leader is authentic. And when I say authentic, I mean they bring themselves to the table. Um, and it's not to say that because you're a leader or in a leadership position that you have to have all the answers. The next point I've got, and I just mentioned that before, is to utilize the skills at hand. And when I say utilize the skills at hand, again, I think it's something that many people could point to where leaders or those in leadership positions feel that it's their job to do every job. Um, and I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but this is nigh on impossible. And so, what a lot of leaders need to do is to trust the people that they have working for them, and if you don't trust them, well, then you need to get new people. But essentially, leaders are nothing without the people who are executing their strategies and their plans and everything else, and this is vitally important, it's a question of trust at the end of the day. When you have a leader, if you trust that leader, then he's going to survive, and if not, then not. And I think Cair Starmer is someone who is probably going to vouch for that. Um, this is how it is. Leaders make mistakes, leaders um you know are able to develop talent as well. Um, so not just you know about making mistakes, it's also about doing good things as well, making sure that people progress, making sure that you progress as well, making sure that your organization or yourself progresses. If we look at the personal leadership aspect of it as well, and then I'm gonna come on to the example. So, the example I was thinking of as a very good leader is um none other than a Mr. Gareth Southgate. Now, I don't know if this is going to be a polarizing choice, but I think I think Gareth Southgate, when he was the England manager, he done an absolutely fantastic job, not just as the manager, but also as a leader and as an organizer of men and people. And so, for example, those that follow football, this is by no means a football podcast, but I think football and sport is always a very good, um, it's a very good analogy for life in general because there's a lot of effort that goes into it. A lot of the times you fail, and sometimes you succeed, and a lot of the time people take notice only of the times you succeed, um, and give you probably more stick for the times you don't, and this happens a lot in sport, uh no no less than in football. But one thing that Garrett Southgate was um credited with was that previously the the England teams were always made up of players from I don't know, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, essentially maybe a Tottenham player here or there, whatever, West Ham, various other teams. Um, and they're always these cliques. I've heard Ian Wright and a few of the other players or former players talk about this situation. But Gareth Southgate was somebody who is credited with breaking that down, someone who can break down barriers and bring people together in a common cause and to make them understand that actually, regardless of what your day-to-day allegiance is, here we are one, and this is something that I think he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for. So, yes. Um, on that note, I will summarize because I think that's that's about it, really, in terms of leadership in this context, anyway. So, what did we look at? We looked at the what, and uh, the what was uh the action, so this is leading um a group of people or organization, or of course oneself, as I mentioned as well, and then there's the state or the position of being a leader, which we've tried to make the distinction between, um, and it's very important that uh we make these these distinctions, and then we went on to um the how, which was um you know, the leader having to be accountable in the same way that us as leaders of ourselves we have to be accountable for the actions that we take. Someone like Gareth Southgate has been um accountable over his tenure as uh the England boss, um, and then we got on to, of course, being authentic as well, and this is making sure that you know, as a leader or in a leadership position, you try and be yourself. Um it's vital that you bring this self to whatever in um whatever endeavour you're doing as a leader. Um, and we looked at utilising the skills as well. We have to utilize the skills that um that we have at hand, be they our own skills or other people's skills, make sure that we get the most out of those and they're used fairly. Um, and then as the example, of course, Mr. Southgate. So I'm going to wrap it up there. Um, I would like to thank you all for your time and attention. It's been very greatly appreciated. Remember, of course, like, subscribe, press the notification bell, leave a comment as well. Let me know what your version of leadership is and how you how you manage yourself as being a leader of your own uh your own course. Um let me know what you think. I'm always happy to hear other alternatives. Um so, yes, um, on that note, I will wind it up there. Look after yourselves and one another. I think it's going to be very warm next week, so let's all take care. And until the next time, peace. Your coach Ben.