A friend had a very important interview for a senior leadership role. We were talking about how to explain what “leadership” means in the context of this role.
We came up with a simple way to think about a 360 degree approach to leadership:
- UP & OUT: Strategic leadership of the board & external parties including politicians and government;
- ACROSS: Relationships, influencing and engagement with key stakeholders internally and externally; and
- DOWN: Organisational leadership
Each aspect has a different manifestation of leadership:
- So, UP & OUT might look at leadership as taking a leadership position on specific issues/positions;
- ACROSS might be about building credibility and trust across the spectrum of people you need to influence, in order to achieve what you need to achieve; and
- DOWN is the usual suspects in terms of organisational leadership.
Looking at it this way helped to break down how leadership can be many things, even in the same leadership position.
What do you think? Does this way of looking at it help provide you some clarity on how you’d approach a role with multiple stakeholders?
Until next week, happy reading!
