Page 44 - Develop your leadership skills- John Adair. -- 2nd ed

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How to turn the core leadership functions into skills ■ 35

listening is co-equal in importance. Everyone has something to
contribute to the plan and its execution: ideas, suggestions or
information. You need to be a listening leader.

Briefing sessions or conferences – work meetings – allow you to
do some valuable work in all three circles, making general
points connected with the specific matter in hand. In the task
area, for example, you can make it the occasion for taking
charge by giving direction and focus. A certain amount of
assertiveness is often required of leaders, and the group will
accept it – even welcome it – if the situation calls for it. You can
stress the team approach to the task in hand, thus building up
team spirit. You can meet individual needs by listening to and
acknowledging the help of those who help you to achieve the
ends of the meeting. It can also be an opportunity for empha-
sising the significance of each individual’s contribution to the
success of the enterprise.

Team building: thoughts worth thinking
You do not know me, I do not know you, but we have got to work
together. Therefore, we must understand each other; we must have
confidence in each other. I have only been here a few hours, but
from what I have seen and heard since I arrived I am prepared to
say here and now that I have confidence in you. We will work
together as a team. I believe that one of the first duties is to create
what I call atmosphere. I do not like the general atmosphere I find
here – it is an atmosphere of doubt, of looking back. All that must
cease. I want to impress upon everyone that the bad times are over
and it will be done. If anybody here thinks it cannot be done, let him
go at once. I do not want any doubters. It can be done and it will be
done beyond any possibility of doubt.

(Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, extract from speech to staff
on taking over the Eighth Army, before the Battle of El Alamein)