Dinner with Andrew Marr – His top six traits of a GREAT LEADER

As part of my work on Thought Leadership, on Tuesday 4th November I was privileged to have been invited to a Thought Leaders dinner with Andrew Marr the keynote speaker, at the amazing Simpsons on the Strand.

Andrew discussed the six traits of a great leader, based on his extensive experience interviewing and meeting the worlds best politicians.  From Margaret Thatcher to Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair to Angela Merkell and Gordon Brown to David Cameron.

Andrew talks from his experience with political leaders, but his traits apply to all leaders and all leadership styles.

Here are the six traits that Andrew discussed with us:

• Know what you stand for – have one big idea and make sure you follow it.  I find that we spend lots of our time on many tasks, whereas is we focus on one or two tasks we can be much more productive and efficient.
• Make enemies – you learn from enemies and they help challenge you and make better decisions.  This is a great point, I have always learnt more from the negative parts of my life than the positive – if nothing it teaches you what not to do!
• Speak English – Be clear and concise with your teams and partners. I have worked in a few countries and spent much of my business life with international people.  Learning to communicate clearly and concisely has been a major advantage for me and my businesses.
• Make people laugh and keep people cheerful – it helps build morale and keep the team performing. We all know that a happy team is a productive team – treat your teams with respect and try to keep them happy, especially during the tough times.
• Practice selective deafness – ignore your critics – don’t listen to the bad gossip.  This is great advice – we often need to ignore what is being said, as a leader we are the centre of attention and we will never be liked by all people around us.
• Get out before they get you out – don’t stay on too long – achieve what you want then leave.  I have experienced this first hand, when I had a business that was failing and had to get out of it before it dragged me down.

I was very privileged to have been invited to the evening and Thank Andrew for his ideas on Thought Leadership