Business_Spotlight_-_Nr.2_2020

BUSINESS SKILLS 2/2020 Business Spotlight 45

Illustration: Yann Bastard; Foto: privat

How to continue learning about leadership

Leadership has evolved over the centuries, meaning

different things to different groups of people. Cur­

rently, the trend is to see success as deriving from

many people collaborating openly across organi­

zational boundaries in flexible ways, rather than

through the exercise of authority in hierarchical

organizations led by individuals with extraordinary

qualities.

In the end, there is no simple answer to the ques­

tion “What is good leadership?” But effective lead­

ers, achieving results in a sustainable way in many

different roles, are likely to be those who adapt their

style to the specific context and task, and to the skills,

perceptions and motivations of everyone involved.

Continuous and robust feedback is essential to

allow an ongoing calibration of style to context. So,

if effective leadership is your goal, keep asking for

and giving feedback. By continuously learning, you

will enable continuous improvement. Leadership is

learning. And learning is leadership.

BOB DIGNEN

is a director of York Associates

(www.york-associates.co.uk) and author of many

business English books. Contact: bob.dignen@

york-associates.co.uk

AUDIO + PLUS

You can try our

exercises on this

topic on Business

Spotlight Audio

as well as in our

exercise booklet,

Business Spotlight

Plus. To order, go

to http://www.aboshop.

spotlight-verlag.de

HOW DID YOU DO?

28–36: Exceptional leadership potential.

It is likely that you are up to date with the

latest leadership thinking and that you are

doing more than just working hard to imple-

ment it in your own team. You are probably

also encouraging others to engage with

shared leadership to support success in

your organization.

20–27: Good leadership. You are probably

still wedded to older notions of leadership

in some respects, and possibly still too fo-

cused on your own performance rather than

on driving the performance of others. Con-

sider reading more on the topic of shared

leadership to get ideas on how to develop a

more inclusive approach to team leadership

that realizes the power of diversity.

0–19: Developing leadership. You are de-

veloping your skills and can look forward to

a steep learning curve in the fundamentals

of leadership, such as motivation, trust, per-

formance management, etc. Remain open to

new ideas that will challenge many of your

assumptions and you can progress quickly

to a more advanced level of leadership. This

will help you make a strong impact in your

organization.

engage with sth.

[In(geIdZ wID]

, sich mit etw. ausein-

andersetzen

notion [(nEUS&n]

, Idee, Konzept

wedded: be ~ to sth.

[(wedId]

, hier: mit etw.

verhaftet sein,

etw. anhängen

boundary [(baUndEri]

, Grenze

calibration

[)kÄlE(breIS&n]

, Kalibrierung;

hier: Anpassung

derive from sth.

[di(raIv frQm]

, auf etw. beruhen

hierarchical

[haI&(rA:kIk&l]

, [wg. Aussprache]

perception

[pE(sepS&n]

, Wahrnehmung

robust [rEU(bVst]

, hier: aussagekräftig

sustainable

[sE(steInEb&l]

, tragfähig

A key success

factor for leaders:

understanding

diverse reactions