Are you an uninspiring leader?

New research suggests Aussie business leaders are falling short. Here’s how to buck the trend.

Effective leadership is essential to any businesses, but research suggests Aussie business leaders are falling short. Here’s how to buck the trend.

While business leaders across Australia are highly rated when it comes to technical and professional expertise and the ability to drive results, research from global consultancy and training firm rogenSi suggests that their ability to inspire and motivate others to high performance is critically lacking.
 
“The good news for business leaders is that the ability to inspire and motivate can be modelled, replicated, and rehearsed, even by those who might more naturally shy away from the limelight that leadership brings,” says Terry Reynolds, regional managing director, Asia Pacific, rogenSi.
 
“I’ve seen technical experts with no inclination to take the stage, grow into highly accomplished speakers and – through this and other platforms – become extraordinarily inspiring from what they would concede was a very low starting point. I’m not suggesting that this is easy, but it is absolutely possible.”
 
Part of the issue could be attributed to our leaders’ “preoccupation with reaching the targets and deliverables”, says Natasha Hawker from Employee Matters.
 
“In my experience, we haven’t factored in time for leaders to invest in their people and in particular, getting to know them very well. In reality, we need time for leaders to engage with their team and invest the time to inspire them,” she says.

“We need to inspire our employees to greatness and I see this as the number one trait of an exceptional leader. If you were to think about some of the world’s most inspirational leaders Mandela, Branson and Churchill, do you remember them for their technical ability – or for their ability to inspire the masses?”

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