Leadership

Leaders are people we admire, people we look up to. All of us need role models...all of us.
Leadership takes a lot of skill. To be an effective leader is to be an exceptional communicator.

VIEWS ON LEADERSHIP

During a very varied career, my views on leadership have been influenced by three very contrasting experiences.  As a result, my views on this subject and my approach to teaching effective leadership principles may be seen as unorthodox.  In order to get a feel for where I’m coming from, I strongly recommend that you read what follows before letting me loose on this subject. This is not an area where I compromise!

THE TELEPHONE SAMARITANS

For 8 years, I was a member of the Samaritans service. In case you don’t know a lot about this service, the Samaritans do not advise or counsel people. They are not qualified to do so. They befriend people who are facing a crisis in their lives, people who may be desperate to the point of being suicidal. The team of which I was part was a team of totally selfless men and women with whom it was a privilege to serve. For 4 of those years I was a member of the night call out squad and of the leadership team. Only rarely is your own safety at risk ,but when you haven’t the slightest idea what the next telephone caller may throw at you, only that it will almost certainly be serious, and that what you say may influence whether that person decides to end his life or not, you spend most of your time afraid. The volunteers who are your team are watching you all the time. How do you handle being afraid? How do you handle being threatened with a knife? How do you react when a person who’s overdosed throws up all over you? Whatever else you say about being a Samaritan, it’s not glamorous!

THE COMMERCIAL SIDE OF THINGS

During many years in pharmaceutical sales, I spent 7 years as a Region Business Manager.  At any one time, between 6 and 8 reps reported to me. I was also responsible for negotiating Region Health Authority contracts for each of their territories. Had I lost one of those contracts, I would, in effect, have lost the “license” for one of my team to promote in  all the hospitals on his or her territory. This might have led to making that rep, a person who had also become a personal friend, redundant. You do not let your team down when you’re negotiating under pressure like this! But, you see, my “boss” believed that our managers were responsible for the well being of their team and there was always more pressure on us to perform than there was on the people working under us. That is what leading by example really means.

LEADING CHILDREN, DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP IN CHILDREN

Of the many voluntary roles I have played in my community, sharing my passion for nature with junior school children has to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable.  When you take on a role like this, you don’t do so with the idea of sorting out psycho-social problems! The reality was different. The breakup of parents is devastating for a child at this age. However much you can teach them about tracks and signs and how to get close to a wild badger without it knowing you’re there, what really binds a team of children together is how you handle the child with a broken heart: the little 9 year old girl sobbing in your arms and begging you to become her daddy because her real dad doesn’t live with her any more. Whatever you say, it had better be good. Let me tell you this: if you’ve never cried with a member of your team, you don’t really understand leadership. Perhaps the most surprising, certainly the most touching learn for me was the willingness with which children as young as this (7 to 11) accept responsibility for one another’s wellbeing. It was a revelation how, when they realized it was expected of them, they unfailingly showed the necessary courage or compassion to ensure that no member of “the gang” ever faced any kind adversity alone.

The principles of leadership are the same in commerce or in voluntary work, they are the same in adults and in children, they are the same in the home.

Whatever the age of your team, "you do not call them back to where they were, neither do you call them to where you are, however beautiful that place may seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to places neither you nor they have ever been before. "(Adapted from Vincent Donovan