Effective Leadership: Describe what effective leadership means to you. Who deter

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For me it is about being a good role model and also taking personal accountability for one%u2019s actions. The leader is also someone who has earned the trust and confidence of her followers based on her ability to set the big vision and at the same time not lose sight of the operational details in the process gaining commitment. The leader ensures that her followers are well supported, developed and enabled to deliver the day to day tasks mapped to that big picture.

Without effective leadership, organisations, groups, societies and even nations risk being consigned to the dust-heap of history; and they bear the scars as well as the substantial costs of deficient leadership through many generations well into the future.

There is clearly no worthwhile group achievement or accomplishment by humans or within the animal kingdom that was not swung by effective, adapted (and adaptable) and contemporaneous (time-relevant) leadership.

The most important consideration is perhaps the leadership type, and whether it is adequately "customised" to the situation requiring leadership. Although all good leaders have certain attributes in common, the measure/"quantity" of each characteristic must of necessity be different in each person, depending on the circumstances in which they are called to lead people. A few examples:

1. Successful military leaders do not necessarily make the most effective heads of state, and vice versa.

2. Inspirational faith leaders do not usually do outstandingly well in the corporate boardroom. How would Moses have fared running a multi-national multi-billion dollar conglomerate? Most probably not as well as he did leading his people out of an oppressive socio political system.

3. It is probably unsafe to expect a spectacular union leader and consummate negotiator to be equally effective in leading a group of clinicians delivering hospital-based emergency health care (leaving aside the technical skills required).

I expect that these and many other considerations would no doubt be explored at this summer's Unspoken Language of Leadership Conference. I look forward to being there!

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