12 TIPS FOR AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

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There are thousands of books written about leadership, thousands more videos online and numerous gurus waiting to turn you into an inspiring leader. Bad leadership leads to disasters while good leadership is probably the single way people can change the world for the better.

Does leadership take years of practice? Hours reading academic books? Do you need an important-sounding job title? Actually, no! In 1952, the great military leader Field Marshal Slim spoke to a group of officer cadets at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and said:

‘Leadership is the most personal thing in the world, for the simple reason that leadership is just plain you'.

Read on to discover 12 insights that'll help you develop authentic leadership skills.

Trying to be someone you are not might work for a while but, over time, will become exhausting.

The first thing every leader must understand is themselves: their strengths and weaknesses, how to make the most of the things they're great at, and what they can do to develop in areas that are challenging.

Don’t be afraid to accept there are some things you simply won’t excel at as a leader; that’s where having a great team comes in. Take time to discover who you are and which leadership style feels most comfortable and intuitive to you. A good starting point might be taking the personality quiz in the Go Further box at the end of this feature.

Why does that cadet in your detachment always turn up late and in the incorrect uniform? Why has a previously brilliant cadet suddenly decided to leave? Why has your second in command decided not to talk to you this evening?

To be a supportive leader, as well as a leader who can challenge when required, you need to have a good understanding of the people in your team.

Colonel Neil Jurd OBE is the Director of Initial Officer Training for the ACF and in The Leadership Book he talks about The Foundations Model (Figure A).

On the surface we see a person’s behaviour, achievements, performance and focus, but all those things are impacted by what is going on underneath at foundation level. These are things we can’t see but as leaders we need to understand. What might be going on beneath the surface for the people described above?

Can you think of a time when something didn’t go to plan? Chances are poor communication played a large part in messing up that plan. One of my favourite leadership concepts is the Communications Pyramid, because it’s a simple, relatable and easy-to-use leadership tool (Figure B, over the page).

Below the bottom of the pyramid is the dreaded Tomb, where there is no connection, no communication, nothing. This is the person you walk by every day to catch the bus and don’t even acknowledge each other. In fact, you actively choose to avoid them by looking down or away. You probably do this many times a day.

Level one is the domain of Ritual and Cliché conversations. Where I live in the northwest of the UK, most mornings I see the same people and we say, ‘Hi, you alright’? The reply is: ‘Yeah I’m alright’. We’ve spoken but it’s a ritual. It’s the same thing every morning and the answer is almost unimportant.

At Level two is Facts and Information. This is the sharing zone, where we discuss things we know or have heard. On detachment night, these might be the chats you have with cadets about kit or perhaps you're passing on instructions about the plans for the night. Some cases, like issuing a set of orders, are essential information. As a leader you’ll often have conversations at this level, but it isn’t where you really get to know people.

Personalities and ideas begin to shine through when you reach the level of Ideas and Judgements. You might begin to get this towards the end of a training session or perhaps by day two or three of an overnight exercise on annual camp. It’s where people begin to share their opinions. As a leader you want to encourage this level of communication, particularly when you are relying on a team to work together to find a solution on a cold, dark and windy night in the middle of a training area.

The magic really begins to happen at level four: Emotions and Feelings. This is the type of conversation where you get to know the team you're leading. You build trust and can have open and honest conversations on an emotional level. You might have experienced this with your best mates or maybe towards the end of a camp or course. It is where, as a leader, you should aspire to be with your team.

Beyond level four is Peak: when you don’t need to say anything to your team as a look or a nod is enough to inspire an action. It’s a pretty cool place to be and is probably where you are with your very best friends. So how do you progress from Ritual and Cliché, or even worse the Tomb, to Feelings and Emotions and Peak? In the Army Cadets we can find ourselves in many exciting and challenging situations where we must build relationships with new people quite quickly.

Tomb

Ideas & Judgements

Facts & Information

In your role as leader, you could be dropped into a team and have very little time to build connection. It can be challenging to start conversations that move you up the pyramid. It feels risky, but my best advice is to spend time listening before talking. Look for the unseen (body language) and know that by sharing your feelings you're allowing others to share theirs. That's how you get people on board and what enables a leader to support when needed and challenge when required.

Ritual & Cliché

One of the three core components of the Army Cadet Leadership Code is 'vision'. You can have all the leadership skills in the world but if you and your team don’t know what the purpose or mission is, everything becomes unfocused and people lose interest.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has a strong, clear and compelling vision: ‘To revolutionise space technology with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets’. Sports brand Nike uses: ‘Nike strives to support every athlete in the world’. That includes you and me, not just Sir Mo Farah!

Whether you are leading the same team every week in your detachment, or are assigned a team as part of a single exercise, you’ll need to know what your vision is and how to communicate it clearly.

Before I had the privilege of working for the Army Cadets, I spent many years as a radio presenter. My first job was to drive around and call back into the morning show with live, often silly, links. I spent one morning broadcasting from inside a metal dustbin on a golf driving range. In every scenario I had a very limited amount of time to brief members of the public on what to say (facts and information in Figure B above) and in every case I had to very quickly build rapport, calm their nerves and lead them through something out of their comfort zone (feelings and emotions in Figure B above). At the same time I needed to have a deep understanding of what the guys in the studio wanted, which frequently changed at the last minute. I had to be at Peak level with my co-hosts.

How did I do it? When I turned up, I tried to build a rapport by asking questions to find common ground. Sometimes that might simply be saying I was feeling nervous too and that we’d get through the moment together and enjoy it. By being honest about my feelings and emotions in that moment, I was able to move quickly from level two to level four of the pyramid in Figure B.

Leadership can be challenging and sometimes lonely. Leadership in the Army Cadets frequently requires you to step up and lead your friendship group, which can also change those relationships. You won’t always get things right, but accepting failure and learning from it is something great leaders embrace. Your leadership style will evolve and develop over the years, but the single most important thing you can do is to lead authentically. After all, ‘leadership is just plain you’.

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