A quick reflection on what I heard loads over various media outlets last weekend. You may have heard it too if you’re into sports, or just happen to have the radio or TV on at the wrong time! The lament is a familiar one:
“This team needs more leaders!”
One pundit was going on about how when England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, that was a team full of leaders. Another was adamant that the current England cricket team was ‘sadly lacking leaders’.
On the one hand, no team needs a whole load of ‘classic’ leaders – multiple people trying to set the direction, establish rules, assert their opinions above others. That’s where we get the common refrain “Too many chiefs….”. Too many people wanting things their way and not enough people being team players.
So what do we mean when we say that more leaders are required? It is something right at the heart of my work with organisations and core to the LMI philosophy. We assert that:
“The best organisations develop every person to become a leader. Leadership is not a position. It is a way of thinking, believing and behaving.”
This, and what I think the sports pundits are getting at, is about the attitude and character displayed by team members. Leaders take responsibility. They roll their sleeves up and put a shift in when the odds are stacked against them. They handle disappointment well and can maintain a positive outlook. They make it their role to encourage their teammates. They find solutions to problems rather than complain. They innovate. The do what it takes to get results. They are great people to be around.
Every team does, in fact, need more of these kind of leaders! This is Personal Leadership. It’s not the role you play. It’s the person you are.
Nick Howes 
In sport though the comment is so transient, because if Ireland lose in Wales or France and lose the Grand Slam and Triple Crown then the first comment from the pundit will be “we didn’t have enough leaders out there.”
All the teams have leaders in the dressing room, in the tent pre battle, in the boardroom. We have to accept that even with great leaders we might sometimes fail. The difference is that great leaders are followed again after adversity.