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Stand Up To Lead From The Front

By Bob Malloney

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Published: 17Sep2009
Word count: 522
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Are leaders born to lead, or can effective leadership skills be trained? Leadership trainers will tell you that, of course, effective leadership skills can be developed through training and coaching. People who are natural leaders may disagree.

During my 30-year career, I have worked for born leaders and those who have obviously developed their leadership skills by learning and developing leadership theories and techniques. I think it is quite easy to tell them apart! So, in my experience, born leaders are a breed apart.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that it is not a good or productive investment to devote time and resources to develop leadership skills in those who perhaps it does not all come naturally. I am saying that natural leaders seem to have something different. They have an 'x-factor'. Something that we can all see and respond to, but is difficult to describe.

Take the recent US Presidential election. All of the people I had contact with at the time wanted Barack Obama to win. Why? Had they all taken the time to study the policies, background and experience of both candidates? Or had they, like me, seen short clips of both candidates speaking on TV and decided that one was a leader worth supporting and one was, in comparison, quite ordinary (despite being a war hero who had displayed courage, fortitude and amazing strength of purpose and character).

Effective leaders are those, who despite even a lack of track record or experience, can inspire and motivate us to join with them in a common purpose.

It therefore surprises me that so many leaders, whether born to lead or developed into the role, fail to invest in the training and development required to become effective and inspiring public communicators. I have seen leaders of large organisations speaking at public events displaying zero charisma, enthusiasm, spontiaiety, humour, passion or even delivering one clear message we can all remember. No matter where you came from as a leader, these are all skills that can be quickly and easily trained. I recently worked with a hugely talented executive of a large corporation who became physically ill at the thought of delivering a talk to a large audience. Consequently, his performance and therefore the impression he left with his audience was hugely compromised through a nervous and stilted delivery. No-one remembered what he said. They all remembered that he was not very impressive.

To lead your own team, or convince others outside your team that you have something to offer, you need to motivate people with clear messages that are interesting and inspiring to listen to. The impression you create is remembered; the words are not. Concentrate on the message (not the words) and deliver it with energy, enthusiasm and gravitas. Because of the nerves associated with public speaking, this rarely comes naturally to the vast majority of people. Find a trainer or a coach in public speaking (there is no shortage of them) and see what they can do for you. One final tip. If they promote the use of scripts, lecturns, PowerPoint, telepromters or memorising your talk - walk away!

Bob Malloney, a presentation skills trainer for over 20 years can help you to make a real difference to your ability to engage and inspire others. See how at > http://www.malloney.com

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