Could you survive a Leadership spill in your company?
Jun24Written by:
Thursday, June 24, 2010 4:49 PM 
What a momentous day in the life of Australia; one minute we had Kevin Rudd as PM, the next he's deposed by his party and lost the top job to Julia Gillard! Over the next days, weeks and months, we will learn more about exactly why, but the picture emerging is of a Prime Minister who had trouble delegating and trusting his ministers to do their jobs with the result being a deeply discontented team who felt alienated from their boss.
For someone who earns my living by coaching leadership skills, this got me thinking: If your company or team was a political party, would you survive? If they had the power to topple you, would they? Would you have your own faction or any defenders? Or would it be unanimous? Or are you so well liked, admired and inspirational a leader that no one could have a hope of ever toppling you? I suspect you know the answer already in your heart of hearts, so if the answer is that you wouldn't survive, then what are you going to do, to prevent this from happening? Because you may not be sacked or deposed but people can leave your employ or they can just leave you in spirit and not attribute any leadership qualities to you.
Think about what you need to learn to be a great leader NOW. It's not the 80's anymore where you could bully people into doing things; now people want to be consulted, nurtured and valued. Are you doing that or could people do a "Gillard" on you?