Finding great leaders is an elusive exercise, often because we look for them in all the wrong places such as politics and sports. Great leaders - those who are effective in real, operational terms on a day-to-day basis - know how to communicate in both word and deed. Alicia Clegg's Financial Times piece yesterday (The Subtle Secrets of Charisma) points to research at the University of Lausanne on leadership and language. Key tips for wannabe leader-communicators? Set high but achievable goals, demonstrate authenticity and moral conviction, understand your audience, use metaphor and narrative to paint vivid pictures of the present and future (vision) states, and ask rhetorical questions. So here's a rhetorical question: Why are so many people in leadership positions so bad at these things?
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d085a19c-4baa-11e2-887b-00144feab49a.html#axzz2H1MD7UCp