The recent local elections have provided some basic leadership lessons for those in leadership positions in politics, business and sport. The Labour party have seen votes for them falling away in areas of their traditional support. Some of the reasons given by voters provide food for thought for all potential leaders.
The three main reasons cited in interviews were that;
- The Labour Party didn’t understand the voters and what was important to them.
- The voters felt they were being taken for granted.
- The Labour Party didn’t appear to have a vision of the future that they were willing to share with voters.
What Leadership lessons can we learn?
If we want people to follow us we need to take time to listen to our people, understand their concerns, their fears, their dreams. Listening is not enough though, we need to be able to demonstrate that we have heard them by taking action that will enable them to move forward. We need to support them to achieve their own goals. The challenge we face is to show how their goals can help achieve our vision of the future. Demonstrating empathy, listening and supporting them builds trust in the relationship and helps drive loyalty.
Articles on empathy, an important Leadership lesson!
Research covered in this article shows the importance and impact of empathy. It also shares some simple steps to demonstrate empathy. This articles in Forbes also talks about empathy being an essential Leadership skill.
Many of the clients I work with want to look at how they can increase their impact and influence across the business, whether that is with their team, their peers or up the line. In our coaching sessions it often becomes clear to the individual that they need to allocate more time to understanding what is important to the other person, what drives and motivates them. Too often people look at what is important to them and don’t take into account how this might impact onto others. People need to feel valued and we can increase our impact with greater use of empathy.
The Leadership lessons we need to take from the local elections are about listening and demonstrating through our actions that we have understood. Andy Burnham, for example, was able to show that his vision was aligned to the needs of the local population. As a result he won his Mayoral election in Manchester as his message was something voters could relate to.
