Modelling Leadership. With Paul Bridle.

Paul began with a bit of background from his birth in Zimbabwe to his current work specialising in ‘Leadership’ Training.
Early in his exploration of ‘what makes a leader’? Paul realised that ‘Leaders’ were the wrong people to ask about their leadership qualities. As with all modelling of excellence when asking someone how they do that thing they are good at the usual response is “I don’t know, I’m just good at it!” So he focussed his attention on the followers of Leaders. One definition of a Leader is ‘People follow you’. Many qualities of leaders came from his research amongst followers and in sifting the results Paul noticed that there were five qualities that occured 90 to 95 % of the time. Others e.g. a sense of humour only occured about 65 % of the time. Paul’s training to help change behaviours and instill leadership is based on these five major qualities.

At this point I’m inclined to slip into a shorthand that will only make sense to those who were at the meeting, thus those of you who for some reason allowed life to get in the way!! :-) would be vowing never to miss another meeting and imploring me to let you know what these five magic qualities are.

That would of course be mean (tee hee) and also not in the sharing spirit of NLP. It also contravenes a belief of mine that holding onto thoughts and ideas only stifles them and eventually kills them, sharing them willingly and with love brings back greater rewards and allows the thoughts and ideas to develop and grow. So here for all who care to read this are the major qualities you need to cherish and develop in yourself to become the leader you always wanted to work for.

Vision. ..... With Passion.
If you don’t believe in your vision no one else will either!
A consistent set of .... Values.
Values that you live to and that are full of integrity.
A Love of People.
Not a sense of whether they are useful to you, or liking only people who think as you do. A real Love of their uniqueness and their potential for growth and good. Their potential to teach you something new too.
Nurturing.
Firstly yourself by being willing to learn. Cultivate an insatiable desire to keep learning.
Nurture others by encouraging them to become champions and learn in their own right and own way.
Overview.
Allowing yourself to let go of tasks and roles others need to do.
Overview with Overalls (as Paul describes it.)
To join in and support those who follow you when they need your help.
Remember:- “Manage things, Lead People.”

Paul illustrated these qualities with many anecdotes of leaders, followers and trainees and for those of us present there were powerful learnings to make and enjoy.

After the break the session became more interactive with questions and answers. All too  soon ten o’ clock arrived.
I wish we had had more time so that an opportunity to ‘get this in the muscle’ could have happened. I really feel that taking the words and making them work for us as individuals helps the learning to be truly personal and often brings new meanings as we explore our thoughts with others.
Thank you Paul for sharing your hard won research so willingly. Many of us there went away with a clearer view of how we can become our own leaders.

For all of us Paul posed these hard questions:-

Are YOU the LEADER you always wanted to work for?
Are YOU the PARENT you always wanted to have?
Are YOU the PARTNER you always dreamed of being with?

For more information or to contact Paul Bridle email proaction.international@virgin.net
or visit http://www.paulbridle.com

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