You are far more likely to get ahead with pragmatism and solutions.
When thinking about what a good leader is, I think an open door policy is key.
You want to be accessible. You don't want to rule with fear because what sort of team can survive on that?
For me, the key to success in any endeavour has always been communications.
Being able to articulate issues, successes, concerns and updates to clients, stakeholders, suppliers and colleagues is so important.
When you have clear communication channels, there is less likelihood for things to go wrong.
This is a point that was reiterated by Mike Chapman, chief executive of Horticulture NZ, in the recent Federated Farmers Leadership 101 course.
Mike spoke on communication, collaboration and coordination as key elements of leadership.
I tend to agree.
I think whether you are in charge of a large corporate company, a small business or even just responsible for yourself, everyone should hone their leadership skills.
Quite often, we can find ourselves in new roles without any formal training and thrown in the deep end.
I would implore anyone to invest in themselves and sign up for a course. Feds offers an entry-level leadership course, which focuses on yours and others leadership styles and fundamentals, studying how people learn differently, how to improve your presentation skills and hearing from a panel of experts in their field, such as Mike, who provide some sound advice.
In our ever-changing world where artificial intelligence looks poised to take on even more manual labour jobs, now is definitely the time to upskill and diversify.