Some are born with the skills to lead, others gain them.

But we probably all know people who have tried to lead without them, or more unfortunately, have  been in a team “led” by someone devoid of them.

Poor leaders can be indecisive, lack in empathy or look at leadership as control: the excuse to “strut their stuff” and boss others around when really, true valued leadership has to include empathy, guidance, fairness and recognition of others’ contributions while providing overall support and shared decision-making.

Several of us at Catapult attended a seminar which not only reinforced that but taught us a whole lot more about effective, positive leadership including how to decide on the degree of leadership required to match the skills and experience of those in the team.

The two-day course was run by the New Zealand Institute of Management, https://www.nzimleadership.co.nz/programmes   and was based on the Four Quadrant Leadership  Trust theory as developed by Wilfred Jarvis  http://wjinst.com/wjinst/4ql.htm

Now, we’re a small cohesive team here at Catapult not awash with teams and leaders and when the suggestion was made that we should attend the course some of us were a bit unsure if it was really going to be relevant.  But it was.

We all came away with some clearer ideas on how to recognise the strengths of others in a team and how we can apply the Four Quadrant Leadership theory  not just with Catapult colleagues but with those who come to us for assistance in gaining employment: we become a focused team –  in the job seeker workshops we run as well as in our broader interaction focused on working together to achieve the same goal.