Anthony Landale

After my post at the end of last month several people left me messages about Jim. They recognized him. And one real life Jim even wondered if it was him. It wasn’t.

What I take from this is that we meet thousands of managers and leaders who, despite their best intentions and despite following well designed processes are failing to get the best from their people. But as I was saying to a leader this week “I have yet to find anyone who is inspired by a structure or a process”.

It’s in their conversations of course where leaders can make the real difference. And by conversation I mean not only straight speaking, but also great questioning, generous listening, powerful co-inventing and, perhaps most important of all, believing that for the individual or team almost anything is possible if they really want it.

As we often say in FED, leadership is about raising the sense of hope, purpose and ambition. Start having those sort of conversations and I promise that you will find that missing spark.

By Anthony Landale