At our latest breaksfast, experienced career coaches Natasha Stallard and Danielle Cantillon introduced the concept of ‘vibrant leadership’.

Describing vibrantly lead organisations as ones where there is a buzzing culture where people give ‘1,000,000 per cent’ – the two coaches encouraged Breakfasters to compare their leadership styles. They asked ‘do you manage or lead?’ and took the audience through a list of attributes of both styles, encouraging the assembled studio principals (who at this Breakfast were mainly women) to analyse their own efforts. “How much time do you think you are in the management role and how much in the leadership role,” asked Danielle.

They talked about how people should operate in the workplace. So 'leaders'
· Call people to action and empower by asking employees challenging questions - they don’t do the job themselves
· They develop a ‘broad scan’ of the business and look out over the next year to 18 months.

and 'managers'
· Have a task list and work through it - they are always slightly tense
· Feel a sense of ownership of the business: they are often lonely, controlling and way too involved in the business
· Are focused on the short term and feel that if they keep going the ‘light is going to be there’, but what often happens is that the business starts to control its owner.

Natasha described her previous role as the managing director of a growing coaching company. She admitted she was initially very focused on her own vision for the company and the role employees were to play in it. The result was that she was blocking off other peoples’ ideas. Once she let go, she said she released a massive amount of creative energy. “You have to stand back and be the architect, not the one who is doing all the landscaping. Once people can find their own identity, they will give a million per cent.”

Danielle gave the audience a pointer: “If you are doing most of the talking with your people, you are probably managing them.” She explained that the key was ‘asking powerful questions’. “Once people dig deep inside themselves they realise they are more capable and creative,” she said.

She also challenged the audience to ‘speed up’ their leadership style so that employees could start to add more value to the business.

Steps to implement included:
· Scheduling a two-hour meeting to think about the direction of the business each week
· Involving employees
· Peer mentoring

“It’s about the ‘how’," concluded Danielle, "not the ‘what’ you are going to do.”