Former Sportsgirl CEO Colleen Callander shares her top tips for leadership.
1. Leaders in our own lives
My definition of leadership is one life impacting another in a positive way.
You don't need a title to do that. You don't need to be a CEO to do that.
We can do that with every interaction we have with another human being.
And we have to be leading in our own lives before we can lead anyone else.
We all have the ability to be leaders, every single day with our reactions, interactions and decisions.
Every single human we come across, we have the ability to be a leader.
2. Lead with kindness
I think another key leadership message is around kindness.
I believe kindness is the new superpower for leaders. Kindness is not a weakness, kindness is courageous.
I believe the era of leadership which was about status and power and title and dictatorship and having people do what you say, is fading.
A new era of leadership about kindness, compassion, authenticity, collaboration, trust and humility is coming through.
Kindness is also about setting clear expectations, giving honest feedback, building human connection and pushing people beyond their comfort zone.
3. Leaders first, vision second
People talk about having a 'vision' and that 'great leaders have a vision', and I always say that it's fabulous to have a vision, but people follow a leader first, and a vision second.
So it doesn't matter how great your vision is as a leader, it doesn't matter how well you communicate it, if people don't believe in you, if people don't want to follow you as a leader, then it doesn't matter how good that vision is.
That's something that I've been very conscious of my whole leadership life, is that people follow leaders because they know they're there.
The leader is going to be there to support them, encourage them, coach them, nurture them, pick them up, give them boundaries and push them beyond where they actually think they can go.