The Act of Leadership

INTRODUCTION

If I were to ask you what a good leader looks like — what they do and how they make you feel — you could probably tell me. Hopefully, you could name one or two from your own experience in the workplace.

And, if I asked you what a poor leader looks like — what they do, how they make you feel — again, you could tell me. You might be able to name one or two or three. You might even have nicknames for them, and you certainly have stories about them that you tell at dinner parties to try to one-up your friends about who has the worst boss.

So why is it that in the cold light of day — perhaps when you're perusing the business section of a bookstore — you're quite clear on what good leadership is, but in the heat of the day-to-day running of your team, you sometimes act more like the leader people talk about at dinner parties?

As I see it, there are three main reasons for this, two more easily addressed than the other one:

• Reason #1: You're human. (This is the one that's not as easy to address but we'll give it a go in part I of this book.)
• Reason #2: The way you've learned about leadership. (We'll address this in parts II and III.)
• Reason #3: You don't do the things you've learned. (This book is aimed at helping you to take what you've learned and use it to form new habits and — where necessary — break old ones.)

A few years ago, I was contracted by the National Rugby League (NRL) in Australia to present workshops to teams across the competition. My workshop was aimed ...