Transcript

JEAN HARTLEY:

If you feel your leadership isn't working very well, then you may need to analyse the situation the best you can initially to try and work out what kind of help might be useful for you. But it may be good to draw in other people, as well, to help you think about what is going wrong here.

To take the first example, it may be that you are aware that, for example, somebody gets under your skin. And you tend to be more irritable with that person than, perhaps, with other members of the team. So you might want to think about- would that be something that's worth taking to my coach? Can I think about ways to not get irritated by that person? Find a different way of working with them, or whatever.

Maybe it's, actually, you analyse that it's more technical skill that you need. Maybe you need to understand this subject more. Or you need to understand your team members more. And that would indicate that you might need to read up on something. Or you might need to spend more time with those team members to understand them and their work. So, there's probably quite a lot you can analyse yourself.

But there may also be situations where you can't quite put your finger on what isn't working. Or you think it would be very helpful to have another view on yourself and what you're doing. And, in that situation, finding a really good, trusted friend who can listen well and ask questions well. Or go and talk to a mentor. Or actually read around the subject, as well. Any of these may be quite helpful. And you may need to try more than one thing.

A lot of things that we find difficult as leaders do take months, even years, to get better at. So it's a question of- there's an expression, isn't there- fall down seven times, get up eight. And it's a question of just having another go and being kind to yourself in the process. Nobody's perfect. Every leader has flaws. So, how can you be kind to yourself and try and just get better without beating yourself up about it?