Page 67 - Develop your leadership skills- John Adair. -- 2nd ed

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58 ■ Develop your leadership skills

yourself. If it was an easy path, a lot more people in leadership
roles or positions would be showing the skills of leadership as
outlined in these pages than is actually the case.

All I can do is share with you some practical suggestions and
reflections that you may find useful. I hope that you will find
them encouraging in nature, because on a journey we all need
inspiration (even to write books!). As the eighteenth-century
poet John Collier truly said, ‘Not geniuses, but average men
and women require profound stimulation, incentive towards
creative effort and the nurture of great hopes.’

Be prepared

The door into leadership has ‘Confidence’ written upon it. You
have to want to be a leader. It begins with a willingness to take
charge. If you hate the idea of taking responsibility for the
three circles, then leadership is not for you. Remain an indi-
vidual contributor. ‘You cannot put into yourself what God has
not put there,’ as a Hungarian proverb says.

Given you fulfil that basic requirement of a willingness to
accept responsibility, never write yourself off as a potential
leader. It is a question of getting yourself into the right field and
then waiting for the right situation. But remember Louis
Pasteur’s famous remark that ‘Fortune favours the prepared
mind.’ The more prepared you are, the more confident you
become. Remember as a leader or leader-to-be always to look
confident, even when you may not be feeling it inside. People
will tend to take you at face value.