We asked this of our strategic partner, friend, and author, Emmanuel Gobillot after a major keynote at a national conference.
His answer?
"Anything, as long as it's you at your best,” said Gobillot, a BLI provider and author ofLeadershift: Reinventing Leadership for the Age of Mass Collaboration. “Rob Goffee (a professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School) described it best when he said the aim of any leadership development is for you to be yourself – just better, with skill. (Pictured is Tom Hood - CEO of BLI with Emmanuel Gobillot in Pasadena, CA).
"I don't want to preclude it by saying, 'This is the type of leader we need.' As long as you are being the best you can be, just being yourself, with self awareness, self control, the ability to understand, then I think any style of leadership will do in terms of how it is expressed, as long as it is expressed naturally and authentically. It falls apart when you try to be someone you have never been."
In other words, as long as you stick to your values and inspire greatness and loyalty in others, Gobillot says any leadership style will do.
Which leads us to the really important stuff:
According to Gobillot, today’s leaders have roughly 14,600 days left on this planet – give or take a few hundred days here and there.
Let that sink in, then consider a recent survey that asked older Americans what they would do differently with their lives, given a second chance. Their responses: Ask bigger questions, take more risks and live life with purpose.
Gobillot's question to us is, "Why wait?" The only difference between today and tomorrow is that tomorrow's number will be 14,599. The countdown begins from there.
What will you have to show when that number reaches zero?
More on Leadership from Emmanuel Gobillot:
Reflections on leadership from the beach (Beach Retreat that is)
Leadership resources from BLI:
Leadership Academy - availabe for your firm or organization
is your training, life changing?
Leadership Training - customized and delivered to your company or firm (contact Pam Devine [email protected] for a catalog or quote)
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