Your questions answered, Inside Track, June 2010
I've been asked to build a leadership framework - but which model is the best one to use to help senior managers raise their game?
Leadership has fashions like everything else. The charismatic leader – the cult of the single strong personality – gave way in the 2001 Collins and Porras best-seller ‘Good to Great’ to the quiet leader – someone who doesn’t seek personal glory but makes things happen behind the scenes. The fox versus the hedgehog and countless others have been offered as the silver bullet answer to successful leadership.
My view is that there is no single model of leadership that works for everyone. This piece of common sense is developed in Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones’ 2006 book, ‘Why should anyone be led by you? What it takes to be an authentic leader.’ They describe the concept of authentic leadership as ‘being yourself more – with skill’.
Our coaching and leadership work starts and works not with a fixed model of leadership, but with a question: ‘How can you be the best leader that only you can be?’
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