Charisma and Political Leadership

I was quoted in the Sunday Times last week and thought I would share the quote:

Quote “For some people, charisma and leadership are innate, says Darren Robson, executive coach at HR consultancy Penna, which recently completed a series of films with leading CEOs to see what makes them tick. Could we teach Gordon Brown to have charisma? No, its something in your DNA. If you have that X factor, you just have it. But I do think leadership can be taught. It is possible, for example, to learn the emotional intelligence that comes with good leadership – things such as listening to people, building rapport with others, giving people space to develop, he argues. But you also have to consider what sort of person or leader you are. If you have got to a high level in an organisation it will be because people like what you do. If you suddenly turn around and change your approach completely, that may look quite curious”

I think that it is going to be interesting over the forthcoming months to see how the new political cons/lib dem government deals with matters of philisophical as well as practical difficulties. All of the indicators and commen sense views align to suggest the UK has a vtough time coming at it. This as the background we need political leadership that can make the right tough calls and balance the pragmatic financial needs with the softer skills to ensure we dont depress a nation.

Interesting and rich times lie ahead!