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eadership is about “providing hope and passion”, and by “questioning it, you learn it”. Plus, to “transform leadership we all must act as a collective, and ensure the culture of an organisation is right”. Finally: “How emotionally intelligent you are, or the mind-set you have, will determine the impression you leave. The ideal situation is to leave a positive fingerprint!” These were just some of the take-away messages from a conference organised by The Institute of Leadership & Management in the summer, entitled Why Vision Isn’t Enough: The Multi-Dimensional Leader. Its theme was “leadership is never a finished product”, so it cannot and should not be done alone. Opening the conference, Institute CEO Phil James highlighted that vision has long been an attribute of great leadership. But in an increasingly unpredictable environment, both politically and commercially, vision alone does not always lead to organisational success. So what else makes a difference? The Institute has a framework that identifies five separate dimensions of great leadership, namely: ownership, achievement, collaboration and vision, with authenticity at the heart and centre of the framework. At the conference, these dimensions were explored in the context of everyday working life.
Five dimensions of leadership
Why vision isn’t enough Leaders must be multi-dimensional and leave a positive fingerprint if they are to succeed in today’s fast-moving and capricious world Writing Neena Dhaun
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A wide range of motivational speakers addressed the event – ironman and coach Jim Rees; leadership and enterprise development professor Kiran Trehan; educationalist Dame Kathy August; and leadership development expert James McCulloch. Their subjects were derived from the Institute’s leadership framework, which is based on extensive research into the knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviours and values that enable organisational leaders to achieve successful outcomes in the workplace. Kate Cooper, the Institute’s head of research, policy & standards, chaired all the talks. Executive coach Jim Rees began by discussing achievement. He asked the conference delegates to analyse what the attributes of great performers are, and how much of those are attitudinal or skills based. It transpired that attitude has a key impact on behaviour, which then translates into what you do and what you say. Hence it is essential to performance. He ended by saying that the pursuit of high performance was characterised by constantly questioning yourself and asking “who you become in pursuit of your goals?” Next up was Professor Kiran Trehan, who
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