This is the third in the series on leadership and boards. How do boards inspire others? What inspiring behaviours are evident in great leaders?

Good leaders and therefore boards think strategically, involve and inspire others and measure their performance.

This is the third in the series on leadership and boards. How do boards inspire others? What inspiring behaviours are evident in great leaders?

My team is always discouraging me from ‘preaching the behavioural gospel’ and encouraging me to use examples to illustrate the point. So, I will desist from writing about how good leaders create an inspiring environment by influencing and persuading, building confidence and inspiring through communication and I shall simply make use of a very current example.

King Charles follows in the footsteps of a great Queen admired and respected the world over. She is a very hard act to follow. Not only does that itself present a challenge, but also, he has had his own personal challenges to overcome; some the result of prejudice and misapprehension of his own passionate views and some of his own making. So, he starts with a handicap.

As our Monarch, will he be an inspirational leader? Judge for yourselves. I declare a bias.

Is he (and has he been) an influencer? Does he identify and build alliances? His record across many initiatives suggests that he does.

Does he build confidence in him by justifying and maintaining his own position when challenged? Does he build the confidence of others in their own capacity to succeed, and make statements to build hope, optimism, and excitement in others? The success of the Prince’s Trust is sound evidence of that.

Finally is he an inspirational communicator? Well, his first address to the nation was self-assured, sincere and reflected his own personality; but more recently (and with apologies to our German readers) to make a German audience laugh is surely testament to that.

As a Board, how do you rate? Do you influence and build constructive alliances? Do you win the confidence of others and build confidence in others? How well and effectively do you communicate internally with the executives and externally to your stakeholders?