Dear Leaders, this is the 99th leadership newsletter I have sent out. It’s been a pleasure landing in your inboxes each week.
I like to think I am arming you to fight the battles that come thick and fast at leaders every day.
This week I am going to show you why cheerleading is the hidden pillar of leadership.
I set myself on a quest in 2020 to speak to as many leaders as I could.
I actually do something similar every year, however, when we were in lockdowns and trying to navigate that evolving landscape I wanted to speak to leaders who were driving their company forward.
I spoke to leaders from as many industries as possible, including; secondary education, the military, sport, FMCG, creators, finance and fintech and there were three themes that arose from the calls and zooms:
(1) Leadership evolves every day
(2) Know when to lead and know when to get out of the way
(3) Communication is key - but it’s how you deliver the message that is so important to landing that vital message.
When I checked back in with a few of these leaders recently, I revisited the themes and a fresh theme bubbled up to the top:
knowing when to be the leader and when to be the cheerleader.
The role of the leader regularly changes, but the core principles are often the same.
Many learnt throughout the last three years that being leader changes but what was required most recently was being ‘the cheerleader’:
Cheerleading the strategy,
Cheerleading the culture,
Cheerleading teamwork,
Cheerleading great work,
Cheerleading the pending business pivot,
Cheerleading change, when many were proactively feared change.
The issue many leaders cited was when their middle management and their leadership team struggled to rally the teams or galvanise change, it was on them to step up and cheerlead not always just force leadership decisions and change.
Are you cheerleading enough? Are you embracing the role of the cheerleader and the impact it has on your team?
This week consider how you can embrace this pillar of leadership and cheerlead more to help drive positive change.
Thanks,
Danny Denhard
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