Leadership, Persuasion

Why do you need leadership? It’s all about relationships.

By Stephen Rispoli 

As discussed in a previous post, when people think of the term leadership they often think about what CEOs do. But leadership is about building relationships so that you can rely upon or have conversations with others when you need to. It can be as simple as asking a favor of a friend (“Can you check on my dog while I’m out of town?”) to using your relationship to have a difficult conversation (“I need to talk to you about the comment you made in our meeting yesterday – I know your intentions are good but it can be hurtful to others.”). Or, it may be that you need to convince others in your organization that a particular course of action is the right one (“I want to visit with you on the vote on Tuesday on [X] issue. I believe that [Y] position is the right one because…”). All of these situations will require different approaches, tailored to the person and situation.

Through the study of famous leaders and their styles, skills, and traits, we can learn new techniques to approach different situations. It is through this study that we learn how best to build relationships and achieve our goals.

Stephen Rispoli

If this sounds like you’re “using” your relationship, it’s not. This is what we all do every day – at work, with our friends, and even with our spouses. Leadership is the art of knowing which approach to use for each situation to accomplish your goal. Through the study of famous leaders and their styles, skills, and traits, we can learn new techniques to approach different situations. It is through this study that we learn how best to build relationships and achieve our goals.

To learn more about different styles of leadership, visit: http://www.montana.edu/engagement/organizations/solc/The%20Six%20Leadership%20Styles.pdf

To learn more about different skills of leaders, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/12/27/16-essential-leadership-skills-for-the-workplace-of-tomorrow/ – 3c28614154ce

To learn more about different traits of leaders, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/03/22/11-powerful-traits-of-successful-leaders/ – 7d545c13469f

-SLR