Big question for you this week.

Assuming you did nothing else, how many years would it take to read everything that’s been written about leadership? 10? 20? 100?

When I was studying for a Masters in Management & Leadership way back in 2004, the figure stood at 45 years – and this was growing at an exponential rate. Wanting to be bang up to date, I asked my mate ChatGPT how many years it would take – in 2024 – to complete this task. Well, it looks like my lecturer was right about the exponential part because Chat told me that it would take many lifetimes to catch up. Wow! With the exponential rate of growth continuing, I’m looking at an eternity of reading about leadership. That’s heavy, man 😉.

I decided to research something less intense so I checked in on health & well-being instead. Same problem. Just reading the 35 million articles published on one database would take me 95,000 years. Hmmm. Not sure I have it in me to undertake this one either.

Big aspirations

The leaders I’m coaching want to be better in some way. I always start by asking them what kind of ‘better’ they want to be. This usually gets an answer like:

“I want to be a leader who inspires and motivates people. Who builds a vision that ensures people want to excel. I want to operate with integrity. I want to be a leader who sets high standards and delivers outstanding results while also taking care of my people’s well-being. I want to be emotionally intelligent and caring. I want to challenge people, in a good way, so that they develop and grow…”

Leaders aspire to impossible levels of brilliance because there’s so much written about the topic – in all those years of reading there’s a never-ending list of how we need to improve as leaders and to discover just how much we’re failing. But, I promise you, it doesn’t have to be so complex.

Ask the people you lead what they want, and you find something simpler. Something more tangible. Something that you truly can work on.

What people really want

I’ve asked many people at all levels in organisations what they really want from their leader. Here’s a typical answer:

“I want a leader who respects and values me. A leader who cares about me. A leader who trusts me and whom I can trust.”

Dig a little deeper and it gets even clearer. Ask the same people how they know their leader respects and values them; cares about them; trusts them and is trustworthy.

“They listen to me. They tell me the truth. They’re clear and fair about they expect of me. They stand up for me and fight my corner. They reward me when I’m delivering and help me get back on track when I’m not.”

Get the basics right

You see, while there’s no shortage of advice on becoming a better leader, it all boils down to simple, consistent behaviours. Get these basics right and you’ll find you excel as a leader.

It’s easy to get lost in the complexity. But it always comes back to the same core behaviours, just like health and well-being: eat well, get enough sleep, exercise, and manage stress. It’s simple, not always easy, but doable.

It’s the same with leadership. Straightforward core behaviours, applied consistently, make the biggest difference. No silver bullets, just steady progress—and that’s achievable in your lifetime and mine.

Where do you most need to put your focus?