I was doing some reflecting after a workshop I undertook with an organisation around the notion of leadership and doing things differently. Quite often it seems we put people in leadership positions and do not enable them to be leaders. It is a difficult task and one that requires continuous growth and thinking. Being a decent person is simply not enough, but it does help.
I was reflecting on Beverley Alimo Metcalfe yet again. To quote: ” Leadership is a contact sport, not a virtual reality” and “Leadership is about everyone adding value to human interactions“. In other words leaders need to be engaged with their people and to enable their people. This does not mean micro management as we see so often in some public service contexts, but rather developing a relationship with people that encourages and supports and allows them to learn.
In the group that I was working with we talked about the notion of “chit chat” as they called it to develop the relationships with their staff and discovered that this was not as easy as it seemed but in fact tricky and quite hard work. Without the right support for the leaders, the default behaviour was avoidance rather than engagement or default to leadership being a virtual reality!!!!