British Council-Leadership

Transcript of the podcast

Alison: Good afternoon everyone. Now you’re all group leaders with some responsibilities for people working in your teams. In today’s training session I want us to think about what make s a good leader in the workplace. Is that OK

Ian: Alison, are we talking about managers here, or all colleagues

Alison: I’d like to talk about colleagues in general, anyone in the workplace, I don’t want to limit the discussion solely to managers, is that OK

All: Fine, yeah, sure

Alison: Ian, would you like to kick off? What qualities should a good leader have

Ian: Well, you know I think the most important thing is to practise what you preach, you know, you can’t go round telling people to do something in one way and they you do it in a completely different way. You’ve got to be a good role model for people

Alison: OK, thanks, Sue, any other ideas

Sue: Well, I agree with Ian there. I just want to say that I don’t like managers who blame other people for their own mistakes. I know we’re not just talking about managers, I think it’s important for everybody to take responsibility for what they do. Noone’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes. I think you should trust people and just admit it if something hasn’t worked out, managers too, I mean, they’re human aren’t they …. some of them are anyway

Alison: OK, so we’re talking about trusting colleagues and being responsible for your work, OK, fine.. Wendy, any thoughts

Wendy: Let’s see, for me I think if you want people to be on your side, you know if you want to influence people you have to communicate and communicate well. You’ve got to let people know what’s happening and what’s going to happen, even if some of these things aren’t very nice. There’s nothing worse than finding out about something from coffee machine gossip, managers should tell it straight

Alison: OK, thanks Wendy, that’s very useful. So, to be a good leader you’ve got to be a good role model, you should accept responsibility for your own mistakes and you should communicate well and tell it straight, even if the news is bad. Now can you think about

Answers