Leadership (part 3)

In previous posts I spoke about having a vision and the importance of good people. I also think that being flexible and adaptable is important. As my career has progressed and I have experienced different businesses with very different ways of doing things I have learnt that one size really does not fit all and there is general no right or wrong way to do things, it’s more about the best way of doing things within a particular business. People can sometimes make the mistake of trying to directly replicate what they did within an old role to a new business instead of taking their experienced gained and using it to find ways of working which suit the new business. Going abroad certainly taught me about adapting my leadership style as what worked for me in the UK didn’t always work for me in Egypt. I was of course the same person but quickly came to understand the ways in which I had to adapt my leadership style, for example I have always looked for consensus however there were times in Egypt that people just expected me to tell them what to do as I was the man in charge and culturally you didn’t question your boss!
All of this has certainly helped me in my latest role and I obviously plan to take my learning a from this role and there have been many of them. My next post is going to be about how you grow as a leader and an individual.