Learning English

Images: Getty / BBC

Introduction

A leader has to strike a balance. The first step to becoming an effective leader is to learn what your key strengths are. And don't underestimate what you have to bring to the table!

But it is also important to know when you are a better follower than a leader, advises Charmian Love.

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TRANSCRIPT

Charmian Love

So, leadership for me is about where and how people are able to move others, to take the necessary actions that are required for meeting whatever the challenge is that you're being faced with. 

I've been inspired by the student strikers – those who are doing Fridays For the Future. I've been inspired by many of the movements that are really standing up, and they're made of everyday people that care enough about an issue that they're willing to stand up and be a part of a signalling of: 'This is not OK.' 

Just recognising the really wide and diverse range in which people can step into leadership positions has been one of the joys of my journey. They're not always the people that you will see on the cover of a newspaper. There are really extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. 

Know yourself. Know what you have to give and know that, whatever it is, it is valuable, it is precious, because it's coming from you.

I think leaders should be very careful to not become so convinced by themselves and their own leadership model that they don't have the ability to reflect and be, sort of, quite self-critical as needed. 

I think one of the biggest challenges for leaders is to know when to step back and to be a follower.