Was asked a few weeks back by the Leadership Trust to write a short piece on my views about Leadership for their website. Here are my thoughts. I would be interested to know what you think.

"I took a leadership role on the Board of our agency at the end of 2008, just ahead of things going bad in the economy. It’s been a baptism of fire, and there are many lessons I’ve learnt about myself that I shall take forward in life.

The recession has presented real challenges for good leadership. An issue which has arisen during this period in the economy is around staff who, because of the employment market, find themselves ‘job locked’ when they might have naturally moved on otherwise. This situation eventually creates problems in terms of managing their performance and maintaining a culture of high achievement in the organisation.

Fear of the unknown can restrict innovative thinking and risk taking. A business’s vibe or character can be lost almost overnight. During these times many companies and organisations make the mistake of focusing on the numbers, and ignoring the people.

For me leadership is about serving a community. It’s about having a clear focus and vision, and successfully communicating your intent. The most inspirational leadership happens when you capture both the hearts and minds of those around you.

The ambition of a leader should be more than an alignment of goals to resources. It should be about sharing a hope and desire and helping people find what can be done, rather than focusing on what has to be done. Leadership, whatever your personal style, should always be visible and achieved through a strong strategic narrative.

Our agency is involved in helping organisations achieve better engagement with its stakeholders, whether these are investors, consumers, service users or employees. If the global economy has been the biggest downside, the biggest upside I have experienced during my time as a leader has come from the positive and unique opportunities social media and social networks present to me as tools to engage people. There is much noise around social media (Facebook, YouTube, Linked-in, Blogs), that can make it feel inaccessible to those at the top of an organisation. It’s tempting to think that all this stuff is just for the kids and has no application in the real world.

In truth, the adoption of social networks and platforms is rapid and inclusive of all age groups and demographics in our working population. The increasing importance of mobile, which will by 2012 represent 40% of all web traffic by volume, will only make digital communication more important in the future.

It’s not the technology that is exciting, it’s the social behaviours it helps create and enable. If good engagement can be measured in terms of advocacy for your organisation, increased levels of discretionary effort, better communication between peers, improved performance and ultimately a bottom line enhancement; then appropriate social behaviours between employers and employees will be critical. It plays to every part of what we do, from finding talented people to join us, to retaining them. In a few years time, what happens in social media will impact on the reputation of an employer in a far greater way than any other activity we are involved in. If we aren’t good leaders, then this will become apparent to those inside and outside of our organisations.

For me, the rewards of using social media come in the form of an ‘always on’ means of keeping in contact with those I lead wherever they are located. The ability to share news (good and bad) and being recognised as a transparent and authentic individual is invaluable for a leader. I don’t believe social media will change what makes a good leader (as I don’t think the principles of leadership have changed in the last 2,000 years), but it will certainly help good leaders become even better".