‘Courage is a leadership quality, it involves clarity of vision and preparedness to tough it out. It is backed up by careful research and meticulous planning.” Gail Kelly recently commented in her book. Live Lead Learn – My stories of life and leadership.
Leadership does not mean you have all of the answers, it means you have a clear vision of what you want the future to look like and the skills you require to get there. The leader does not need to have all of the skills necessary but it is important you know the skills required and recruit the right people on the team.
In recruiting a new team it is important the leader is open and honest, they articulate where we are today, the dream on where we want to be in the future and what we are looking for in the new role. It is important any new team member understands their role in the team and their role driving change.
“I have found that when you have the right people in the right roles alignment and commitment follow. Everything becomes a lot easier, delivering strong results tackling transformative agendas, dealing with issues and set backs. It is also a lot more fun.” Gail Kelly
As a leader is important to know, you can’t drive change on your own. Gail Kelly often refers to the “right people on the bus.” It is a matter of building a strong team encouraging innovation and thinking outside the square from your team and always giving them credit for their ideas and suggestions. An environment that encourages ideas and has a platform for new ideas is always going to encourage a high performing team.
It also makes work a fun environment as we can always achieve so much more as a team than as an individual. And it provides an environment to celebrate success together.
Leadership isn’t about being the best or doing it on your own. It is about creating an environment that encourages the best team to drive change together. When things don’t work finding an alternative approach together and when they do work, celebrating success together. The right people will always have each others back.
So why don’t you hop on board the Grant Thornton bus and together we can drive change.