What makes a good leader?

12/01/12 | 0 comments

Bell Pottinger chairman Kevin Murray interviewed 60 business bosses to find out how they communicate with employees to inspire them to achieve outstanding results

Take two business leaders, both equally smart and capable of devising strategies to grow their business. One succeeds in executing his plans, the other doesn't. Why? This is the question that had intrigued Kevin Murray during two decades of working with chairmen and chief executives both as a consultant and in the various companies where he was employed.

"The people I was working with were clever," he says. "They didn't get to where they were without being very smart and able to devise strategies that on the face of it should have worked. But I was constantly intrigued as to why some of them succeeded in getting things done and others didn't."

Murray thought that the key factor was how well they communicated and inspired people – both inside and outside the company – to align them to a cause. He interviewed 60 leaders including Sir Stuart Rose, former chairman of Marks & Spencer, McLaren's Ron Dennis and National Trust director general Dame Fiona Reynolds to try to support his theory. "Just about everyone I spoke to identified communication as a top-three skill of leadership, if not the second most important," says Murray. "The ability to think clearly and strategically was inevitably placed at number one. But they always pointed out that the best strategy was useless if people could not be inspired to help deliver it."

This article originally appeared in Director magazine, words by Sarah Nicolas.

To read in full click here.

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