How to be a Leader

What does it take to be an effective leader, and is it possible to learn how to become one? Fiona Beddoes-Jones takes the lead and explains.

Leadership can be defined as, "influencing others so that they choose to follow you". Managing is all about getting things done through the involvement of others. Leadership is no longer about individual charismatic leaders. Nor is it about differentiating between leaders and managers.

All leaders need to manage and all managers need to lead. The most effective managers are able to lead when necessary, whilst the most effective leaders are also very good at managing; people, tasks and projects.


There is a vast array of leadership models and theories surrounding leadership. Unfortunately, these often serve to confuse people rather than help them to become better leaders. It is now widely accepted that leadership skills can be developed in the same ways as any other set of competencies.

Which "set" of leadership competencies you use within a particular role will probably largely depend on your Human Resources department.
However, leadership is very personal and is closely linked to your own personality style, therefore there will often be many different versions of leadership within one organisation.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. At worst it will highlight inconsistencies across geographical and functional boundaries. At best it will highlight the most appropriate leadership styles for a particular set of circumstances or locality. If you are smart you can learn from both.

So apart from learning by experience (also known as "learning the hard way"), what can you do to develop your leadership skills? What will the leaders of the future need in order to be successful?

Here are '10 Top Exercises' to help you to develop your leadership capabilities for the future at whatever level you sit within your organisation.


1. Develop your self awareness. The most effective leaders display high levels of "emotional intelligence" of which self awareness is a major component. Understanding yourself will also help you to understand others and unless you can do that you won't be able to influence them.

2. Understand what is valued as being "intelligent" within your organisation and make sure that you develop that. There are different types of intelligence and different things that are considered to be intelligent, for example creativity, numerical reasoning, logic, problem-solving skills, strategic thinking and implementation.

3. Use 360 degree feedback to learn about how others perceive you. Potentially, this could give you some of the most valuable insights that you will ever receive in your career. It could also provide you with a 'road map' to help you to structure your future development.

4. Develop a thirst for learning. Research suggests that great leaders are always curious about the world around them and what they can do to make a difference within that world.

5. Find a mentor and be a mentor. This will teach you a lot and may help you to develop some critical strategic relationships within your organisation.

6. Get a coach and learn to coach others. A coach is not the same as a mentor. Learn to coach your colleagues and your bosses, not just your own team and you will be welcome in any meeting.

7. Understand the dynamics of teams and the psychology of relationships. Without understanding people you won't be able to influence them. Without understanding relationships and the dynamics of teams you won?t be able to build supportive and cohesive teams around you.

8. Keep your ego in check. There are more important things in the organisation than an over-developed sense of your own importance.

9. Bring passion to work with you. Be passionate about what you do. Really care about your job, the people you do it with and the people you do it for.

10. Develop your project management skills. The best project managers are great presenters and can both lead and manage. They need to lead their project team and manage their client as well as maintaining the flexibility to focus appropriately on people and task issues.


These exercises will help you to develop "good leadership". However, you can also learn a lot from examples of "bad leadership". Here, to present the other side of the proverbial coin, are the "Top 10 Executive Derailers":


1. A fundamental personality flaw such as selfishness, arrogance, vindictiveness, meanness, or an inability to manage and control emotions such as anger, which alienates colleagues and subordinates.

2. A lack of personal integrity, dishonesty or lousy ethics.

3. Only developing your strengths and not compensating for your weaknesses, either by personal development activities or by surrounding yourself with critical support personnel.

4. Incongruence. You can only fool some of the people some of the time and not all of the people all of the time. The truth will out. If you are not a very nice person (for whatever reason) people will get to know about it. If you espouse values such as honesty and integrity but do not "walk the talk" yourself, you are being incongruent and people will not follow you.

5. Inability to develop cohesive and supportive teams. Relationships are critical. You can only be a leader if others are prepared to follow you.

6. Losing touch with reality. People who are surrounded by "yes men" who tell them that they are great eventually begin to believe their own hype. Just look at certain actors, politicians and sportsmen. All great leaders have someone who helps them keep their feet on the ground, even if it is their partners.

7. Being mentally unfit. The inability to take a multi perspective approach and use flexible thinking strategies. (see www.cognitivefitness.co.uk for information on developing your cognitive fitness).

8. Being physically unfit. To be truly successful you will need to be in the best physical shape possible. You will be better able to cope with stress and a high-pressure environment if you are physically fit. Triathlon is currently the fastest growing "executive sport".

9. Poor work/life balance skills. Being a workaholic will not bring you the respect of your peers. Ultimately it is more likely to bring you divorce proceedings and if you have children you will miss them growing up. Is that the life you ultimately want?

10. Not making the time to listen to what other people think and to learn what is important to them. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care".


Your own sense of professionalism, your integrity and your concern for others will drive your leadership style; the type of Leader you choose to become is up to you. Honestly review these two lists making a note of those areas where you need to improve or could currently do better within your own leadership role.

If you follow these guidelines you could become a Great Leader. The Great Leaders of the future will have a sense of individual and corporate social responsibility. I hope that you will be one of them. Let me know how you get on.

Fiona Beddoes-Jones is a business psychologist who works with teams and executives, particularly high performing but dysfunctional ones. She is the author of the psychometric instrument, Thinking Styles. www.cognitivefitness.co.uk