How do we lead and inspire?

This morning I meet with a friend for coffee. This friend of mine is a real inspiration to me. When we first meet, 8 years ago, she lived in a rented home and was dealing with a messy break up. Now, she is the director of three web technology businesses and owns her own beautiful home in Kingland in Auckland. She has found love and juggles it well with working sometimes 80 hour weeks.

We got talking about how she started up her bootstrap business and how she manages her time. I was interested in hearing about how she runs her life as she is very successful in doing it. It sounded like a lot of hard work and long hours.

We got talking about leadership styles and I found it interesting that she didn't feel she was a great leader. The approach she took with people is assuming they could do their jobs autonomously and she was very hands off with them. This lead me to ponder the difference between leadership and management in organisations.

Recently in class at Unitech's Mindlab the lecturer discussed with us the idea of fostering a growth mindset in children and the power of different types of leadership. I wonder if this is the case in the business world also. Can we enroll people in the possibilities we want to create for ourselves and inspire them to come along?

I came away thinking great leaders create more great leaders. We can all be a manager and manage a household, our lives and even an organisation. I see leadership in your life and in business is dreaming up the possibilities for the future. 

I am doing a self expression and leadership course which is the final chapter in the Landmark Curriculum. I am creating the future for myself where I run a yogic based early childhood education centre or school here in Auckland. I'm starting to research and plan how I can enroll a community into backing my project.

So how do we become great leaders?

Does it come down to the old adage that we become the five people we spend the most time with?

Here is some great advice from John Cleese on 

How to be what you want to become http://bigthink.com/playlists/the-serious-genius-of-hilarious-comedy

"There's nothing so practical as a good theory." 
Here are ten of them, summarized by Professor Michael Zigarelli, for those who want to lead more effectively.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo

One of the styles of leadership that resonates with me is transformational leadership. It sets out to separate leadership from the leader. Leadership does not reside in an individual but in the relationship between the individuals. This is an interesting approach to leadership, because it stresses that the quality of interpersonal relationships is as important in determining successful leadership as the particular skills and traits of individual leaders. How well do we as leaders get along with everyone?

Within the school, household, our lives or an organisation we want to create a growth mindset in those that we lead. We want those we are leading to become semi autonomous and to be the best they can be. Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0mgOOSpLU


Returning back to my point before, I believe great leaders create the great leaders of tomorrow. In a way the leaders becomes a servant to the people they lead. Great leaders motivate and guide others to achieving their full potential and realise their dreams.

My friend had the dream to start these businesses and it wasn't just luck that it all started working for her. It was because she had the vision and put the effort into taking everyone along with her. Now the question for her is where next?