The Leadership Coaching Blog

I’ve been re-reading an article from People Management magazine which was basically posing the question - “Given the general hunger for good Leadership, why are leaders in such short supply?” The writers (Rob Goffe and Gareth Jones) put forward 2 main reasons:

1. Organisations desire leaders but structure themselves in ways that kill leadership - they encourage conformists or role players with little sense of who they are and what they stand for.
2. People’s understanding of leadership is blinkered - they focus on the characteristics of leaders and what they do to others, rather than seeing it as something they do ‘with others.’

What I believe they are saying here is that leadership should always be viewed as a relationship between the leader and the led. That there is no set recipe to follow, and that attempting to imitate other successful leaders is doomed to fail - this is because what will work for one leader will not necessarily work for another.

In many ways I agree with this - as aspiring leaders need to discover what it is about themselves that they can mobilise in a leadership context, and not purely rely on trying to ‘do’ what others do.

On the other hand, I do think that this can be a useful way of testing your effectiveness as a leader and coming to terms with your true self - in terms of what feels comfortable and natural, and what feels forced.

Anyway, there was more to this article than I have time to get down here, so will try to come back to it shortly

What do you think of when you hear the word momentum? I think of movement, motion, action, progress.  In fact the dictionary definition of momentum is “impetus gained by movement.” 

I believe that one of the biggest things missing in many people’s lives today is momentum - that impetus you need to keep moving forward. Once you gain momentum, continued movement becomes easier.  But it doesn’t happen all by itself, and it doesn’t happen overnight!

It needs you to start taking actions, to take the small steps that put you in motion. These small steps initially lead to small gains; but these small gains in turn eventually lead to bigger gains, because you’re using the power of momentum.

So, where do you need to gain momentum?   And what’s stopping you?

In the words of one of my mentors - “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going!”

Gain momentum and watch your life, your leadership role, your business, even your world change.