It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

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Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Alva Edison

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Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.

Dag Hammarskjöld

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Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity.

Wernher von Braun

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Let’s start with that word.

Leadership.

It’s so open to misinterpretation. Most people don’t give it a thought. Your leader. The ‘He’ or ‘She’ who tells you what to do, when and how.

You see, I prefer not to think about management and control when I consider the issues attached to leadership. I like to focus on the provision of guidance and direction and the skills involved in getting people to lead themselves.

That’s not to say that the bricks and mortar of leadership aren’t relevant. By this I mean that if there are people in your organisation who don’t understand its proposition, have no idea what the business strategy is and how their role contributes to it… then you haven’t laid the foundations of your leadership (the bricks and mortar). Assuming that you have clarified your business proposition and strategy (at least for yourself and your senior team) then you really do need to get the internal communications right so everyone can share your thinking and direction.

No, I mean with those foundations in place, what actions have you taken to put in place a culture where people feel able to step up to the strategic plate and deliver of their own accord—because they feel they can and because they really want to. If this isn’t happening, then are you analysing the gaps? Are there political issues? Are there skill set gaps? Is the line management structure right? Are middle management leaders not on board with the idea of empowering staff? And that big question—

Are the right people in the right jobs?

It’s about your leadership… and it’s about your business’ culture.

I’ll return to that latter thorny issue next week.

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I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

General Charles De Gaulle

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I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.

Edith Ann

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life IS worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

James Truslow Adams

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