WEEKLY FOCUS
Style over Substance?
Is there room for both?
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With the current race on to be the next Conservative Party Leader, we have two very different candidates!
On one hand there is Boris Johnson. For some the “Clown Prince”, while to others a liability and to the rest someone with the personality and charisma to pull together a divided party.
The other candidate is of course Jeremy Hunt…A far more polished individual and with attention to detail.
In difficult times, we often look to someone to galvanise together a team or business that is in danger of losing its way. Does that then become the over riding need?
Let’s consider Sir Richard Branson. An entrepreneur and with the vision to have the ideas then the ability to let others to develop and deliver. I once met The Chairman of The Guardian Group of newspapers. I asked him the skills that he believed allowed him to get to that position. His answer?
“I was not really great at anything, but I seemed to have the knack of finding the right people to work with me and with the talent to cover all of the bases and more”.
A very self-deprecating statement. Is the suggestion then that Leaders are visionaries…even mavericks but with the ability to light the fires within others, all with the unique talents to deliver whatever result required.
Reflect on the Leader with the attention to detail. Certainly, a critical skill and particularly when decisions need to be made. Macro or Micromanagement.
Under whose Leadership style would people flourish. Who would feel most empowered? Consider then who may be the better mentor…The attention to detail…Understanding the workings of the business and in away to help to develop others.
One factor that we might have overlooked are the views of others and the impression given. In this case, how other “World Leaders” would view the two candidates.
In the end, it comes back to the initial thoughts…” Style or Substance”. Can you have both. Maybe situations dictate. There again, Leadership demands a range of talents, and few will have them all!
“No amounts of talents, skills or charisma can sustain us the way integrity, character and attitude does”
Sidney Mohede