Learning “about” something or learning “to do” something?
Learning about playing the guitar is relatively easy, there are a lot of books that explain chords, patterns, modes, octaves and the like; you can even learn every note on every string of the fretboard without even touching a guitar
However, it is not until you actually try and move your fingers from string to string on the fretboard that you will start learning to play the guitar!
The same can be said for tennis, dancing, swimming ………
And the same can be said for leadership!
Learning about leadership is not difficult; you can read about situational leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership. You can study “great” leaders and what they did and said. You can watch films like Twelve Angy Men, To Kill a Mockingbird or Remember the Titans.
But it is not until you start trying to influence others to contribute to success of some kind that you will start learning how to incarnate your leadership.
If you want to practice scales, modes and the like on your guitar you can lock yourself away in your garage, if you want to practice backhand lobs and slicing with your tennis racket you can go down to the local tennis court; but where do you go to practice your leadership?
Where do you go to practice dealing with those contradicting your facts?
Where do you go to practice dealing with those challenging arguments?
Where do you go to practice responding to criticism of your ideas?
Where do you go to practice staying calm when under pressure?
Where do you go to practice responding to personal attacks?
Where do you go for a leadership workout?
If you are looking for a safe, yet challenging, environment to test your leadership and receive concrete and actionable hints & tips to increase your leadership impact; drop me a mail at boblarcher@boblarcher.com to set up your personalised leadership workout!
I help people to develop their interpersonal skills, usually within a leadership or teamwork context. If you are looking to develop your leadership, I might be able to help. I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years; roughly four thousand days of seminars, workshops, conferences, coaching, offsites, webinars, etc. – put back-to-back that makes almost ten “full” years.