So, my Dad's led quite a few people to various ends: in business, in local government, in military action, in sport and as a Dad. A slightly tipsy conversation with him this evening on the topic of leadership provided a rich seam of simple rules and maxims that will stick in my mind.
You have to inspire people
The secret is delegation
Good leaders sit back and let others come up with the ideas
What are you doing to prioritise your day?
People won't follow you if you're not confident about where you're going
The first thing to do is talk to everyone
If you don't give people the chance to fail, you deny them the opportunity to grow
Now, you'll no doubt reckon that I'll have an extremely biassed view of my Dad's leadership qualities. After all, my desire to please him is built in from year zero, so I can't comment on how or why he's succeeded in raising the bar for me and helping me to meet it. I think I can say for sure though, that there's a lot of years experience and wisdom crammed into those few pithy comments.
