Winning leadership is what today should be all about.  Today is polling day here in the U.K. At 10 pm tonight the leadership contest will be over and counting will start. Votes will determine who will be Prime Minister. In the run up to

In the run up to today, we’ve heard lots about what these candidates think about governing the country. We’ve had manifestos, leaflets and messages via social media. We’ve had TV debates, radio interviews and campaign rallies. We’ve had phone calls, knocks on the door and visits to workplaces.

Winning leadership

Lots of statements. Lots of promises. But here’s the thing. Leadership is not about what you know and think. It’s about what you do and say. More than that, it’s about how what you do matches what you said you would do.

Leadership is behaviour. Its action – what you do and say.

Leadership is influence – how what you do and say inspires others to act.

And leadership is impact – how the actions of those you influence make a difference.

Someone may win the leadership contest tonight but the real judgement will be on the actions they take and the impact of those.

It’s a matter of trust

Now I don’t do politics on this blog so I won’t make any comment about the parties or candidates. But it’s worth remembering that how we judge them as leaders is true of how your people judge you as a leader.

Trust in leadership is a huge challenge in some organisations.  When I work with leaders and leadership teams, one of the first things I do is look for signs of leadership effectiveness.  The employee engagement survey usually provides some useful clues. Take, for example, one client I’ve started working with.  Their survey showed that employees were happy with the future outlook for the company and the dynamics within their team.  But they lacked confidence in the future direction and leadership.   Only 55% of employees said they trusted the leadership.

Building trust

Charles H. Green, author of The Trusted Advisor says trust is a combination of 4 things. For people to trust you as a leader you need:

1 High credibility – people believe you are capable of performing your role

2 High reliability – people’s experience is that you do what you say you’re going to do

3 High intimacy – people feel they know the real you as a person

4 Low self-orientation – people perceive you have their best interests at heart and are not just working to your own agenda.

How trustworthy are you?

These are the four things the people of this country will judge the Prime Minister on from today.  They are the four things your people measure you on daily.  How do you stack up?