I had some tough questions at my webinar this morning about Leadership – so that got me into reflective mode – many of the questions were about ‘difficult ‘ situations, disagreement in teams, how to get ownership in decision-making. I wondered if the reality of the Leadership challenge is ‘doing difficult things’ or the fear of doing difficult things….

I guess it all starts will ‘me’ or ‘i’ – when I think about where I get my ability, strength, confidence to tackle the ‘difficult’ things – I know it comes for knowing what the consequences are if I don’t tackle this issue well, on time and in a sensible and straight forward way – much easier to get the ‘difficult’ thing done before the morning coffee break, than wait ‘until the time is right’ – believe me the time will never be right!

Confidence and self belief is a real critical factor in being able to tackle tough situations – knowing you have back up – from your manager, your team, your colleagues or your friends – helps! There is no substitute for experience here – I find I draw on it all the time – you need to think of so many factors as a leader when you go into a tough situation – appearance, tone of voice, environment, all play a part – as do evidence, triangulated information – but sometimes you just need courage!

Leadership for me is putting yourself out there – being prepared to do things your find hard or difficult and in doing so role modelling authentic leadership