This document discusses learning leadership and provides guidance on developing effective leadership skills. It acknowledges that leadership can be a sudden responsibility and outlines common worries people have when taking on a leadership role. The document recommends focusing on selecting the most appropriate leadership style for each team, task, and situation. It also emphasizes learning leadership experientially and progressively over time through experiences and reflection. An effective leader matches their communication style to the team, understands business rules and procedures, and applies motivational leadership styles.

1. Discover
The Essence
Of
Leadership
© Helmsmanship Go Lead 2010

2. It’s your turn to lead!
How did that happen?

3. Is it because you’re a member
of a team and they turn to you
- because of your expertise,
experience or knowledge – to
take charge – to lead - putting
you in the role of ‘leader’,
for the first time?

4. Or have you been promoted as a
manager for the first time and
now have others working for
you?
Or were you elected to chair a
club committee or charity?

5. It doesn’t matter how
you got to lead

6. Where do you turn for advice
on leadership?
How do you learn to be an
effective leader – and fast?

7. What’s the immediate
problem you face?

8. Have you seen others faced with the sudden
challenge of leadership?
How well did they do?
Are you worried about making a fool of yourself?
Did you feel panic or even fear when asked to lead?
Who will help you or are you expected just to be
able to lead – just like that!

9. Did some of these thoughts
cross your mind?

10. You’ve only witnessed poor or bad leadership - and
you don’t want to use those leadership styles as
examples
You were a school monitor and the other kids
really played you up – will the people you’ve been
asked to lead now do so again?
People have told you that you need charisma to
lead – but you do not know how to ‘do charisma’

11. Could academic theories
of leadership help?
Yet, these theories continue to survive – some even after being disproved.
Over 1 million pages on ‘leadership theories’

12. Theories don’t provide easy answers
Leadership has been studied extensively by
academics who have developed many theories to
describe what leadership is or to help leaders
practise leadership.
Many survive long after being disproved.
It’s said there are over 300 definitions of
leadership!

13. Many theories are just too complex to
be of practical use
For example, try learning 81 different
leadership styles from a grid – such as
offered by Blake and Mouton and
others.
Or how about ‘The Continuum of
Tannenbaum and Schmidt’ - similar to
the Leadership Grid but with an
infinite variety of leadership styles.

14. Can you learn from ‘Great Men and Women’?
Many books are written on ‘great leaders’ which lead you
to hope you can extract the qualities and traits that made
Churchill or Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton a leader.
It is seemingly easy to express what is observed in leaders.
But research shows conclusively that a person possessing
and practising any or all of these qualities and traits will
not necessarily be followed or recognised as a leader.
You cannot mimic past leaders and their leadership styles
as a way to lead.

15. What about examples in your workplace?
Here’s a leadership style you might recognise ...
Have you worked for someone who bullied
everyone?
Did they really get the best out of the team?
Does bullying ever work?
Would you want to be a bullying type of leader?

16. The leader who is everyone’s friend?
Sounds appealing ...
There are people like this – have you met
one?
For instance, the manager who kept
changing their mind because they didn’t
want to upset anyone?
Did it work or did you find that because
they tried to please everyone they actually
pleased no-one?

17. People who hide behind emails?
There’s more and more of these ...
The boss who sits at a desk just a few
feet away but prefers to send every
instruction by email.
Ever worked for one of those?
It is so unrewarding – and yet why did
they do it?
Are they just shy or never had any social skills?

18. Maybe you just need ‘charisma’
- and people will follow you?
‘Charisma’ is a trap that many novices make
when learning leadership.
Charisma is an accolade awarded to a leader by
his or her followers, but only after you have
demonstrated you are an excellent and well-
respected leader.
You cannot learn to be a charismatic leader.
If you try to behave with charisma, all you do is
look foolish and pompous – and people will
probably try to trip you up.

19. So how can you
learn to lead –
and fast?

20. First, you need to know the essence
of effective leadership
Put simply, it’s about you
selecting the most appropriate
leadership style to use for
each:
Team
Task
& Situation

21. As the team leader you need to give
purpose and meaning to the task
You bring your team together to achieve a
task together.
You create an understanding of the role
each individual plays as a part of the team
which is also understood by the other
team members.
You also need an understanding of the
needs of each individual in your team.

22. The situation is key in leadership
Is it a new situation or familiar to your
team?
Is it a new team or are there individuals
with little or no experience in your team?
Your leadership style selection will
depend on your analysis of the situation.

23. And what do we mean by leadership style?
How you
listen &
engage
Your Your
manner stance
It’s
about...
Your Your
implied voice
status
Your eye &
body
movement

24. More tips on learning to lead
Match your communications to your
team, giving the reasoning behind
decisions and clear instructions.
Know the rules and procedures of
your business or organisation.
Leadership is learnt experientially, so
set aside time after each leadership
experience to learn and improve.

25. Over time, with confidence, you
will learn how to get more from
your team...
...by applying motivational styles

26. Route to success is to learn
from experience progressively
Research has found that leaders failed in
strategic positions if they had not been
through basic leadership learning.
To succeed as a leader, therefore, you
need to learn basic leadership before
progressing to higher levels of leadership.

27. A learning framework can help
From childhood
to adult, the
Helmsmanship
Framework
makes it easy
to learn
leadership
progressively

28. The Helmsmanship Framework
contains only the essentials
of leadership learning
Sufficient leadership styles for any situation, team and task.
Key knowledge a leader needs to achieve a task with a team
in a situation.
Behavioural tips for leaders.
Techniques for communication with teams and other
stakeholders.
Its is suitable for adults, apprentices and children.

29. This presentation on leadership is by Roddy Mullin and Tess Harris
Please post this freely on your blog or email it to anyone you believe might benefit from
reading it.
Visit our website to find our more about leadership and the Helmsmanship Framework for
Leadership Learning
www.helmsmanship.co.uk
© 2010 Go Lead Ltd
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