Anni Townend

What’s your experience of being developed as a leader and of developing others as leaders, and what are some of the key characteristics? In all the time that I have been asking these questions of leaders there is one characteristic that stands out and it is ‘belief’. People say: ‘They believed in me – even when I didn’t believe in myself very much’ and ‘I believed in them, that they could do it. I encouraged them to go for it’.

I tell the story of me driving along listening to the radio, and the interviewer asking an artist about her early upbringing in rural Ireland where she lived in a caravan with her mother. Now a famous artist the interviewer was curious as to how she had got from there to here. The artist replied ‘Throughout everything my Mother believed in me, and it was this belief in me and in who I could become that sustained me and to this day sustains me’. What this underpins is just how important it is to have someone be totally committed to you, who believes in you and how this in turn helps you grow and be successful.

This week reflect on ‘Who and What is it that sustains you and has you believe in yourself as a leader?

Learn more about Anni Townend, the author of this article – click here