Top tips on how to be a great leader from Redsky entrepreneur

WITH Dragons’ Den back on the TV, we are faced with a group of business leaders who are lauded as top of their respective fields.

But what makes a good leader? Does being a good leader mean you have made millions, and does one size fit all in the search for an ‘ultimate’ leader?

TheBusinessDesk.com spoke to Diane Coolican, managing director of Redsky Learning, a firm which develops leadership skills at management level.

The company has recently invested in a move to the Round Foundry after being based in Harrogate for a decade, to be more accessible to their main clients, and in an “energetic and engaging” city like Leeds.

Ms Coolican herself is a veteran of the industry, having worked largely in retail management training at River Island, and at fashion conglomerate Arcadia, which includes brands such as Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge.

She and RedSky have in the past worked with the public sector, but this has “inevitably tapered off in the aftermath of the recession,” said Ms Coolican, “and it will be about 5 years until they’re back fully.”

Now, core clients for the firm are corporates, with Ms Coolican’s experience lending itself to the retail sector.

Ms Coolican said: “We quickly evolved from just retail into a variety of businesses and individuals from the professional services, property, manufacturing and even Members of Parliament.

With a team that includes 10 leadership experts, of which 4 are office-based, the 10 year-old firm has clients including Pets at Home, Tesco and William Hill.

RedSky delivers 3 to 12 months programmes, and, says Ms Coolican, “the impact on the business is the bottom line. A longer programme will mean that new behaviours can be properly embedded in a business’ culture.”

“We also do 360 feedback, which pulls in different stakeholders in an assessment. It’s part of our training and development programme, where your peer group, clients, internal and external people assess you, and can help identify the skills you need to become a better leader, quicker.”

“KPIs and business outcomes are our main judging criteria. It’s about explaining to people that being a better leader can provide better strategic and financial outcomes. It’s about making a difference in business.”

The team have done extensive research into leadership styles, with innovation programme ‘Catch the Bug’ helping clients become innovative and creative, and “communicating and creating engagement and passion.”

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of company though.

Ms Coolican said that there is no such thing as an ‘ultimate leader’. It depends on what your definition of a good leader is, and what a business actually needs from its leadership. She said “Does being a good leader mean that you’ll be a millionaire and own a multi-million pound turnover company? Not necessarily.

“Some of the best leaders are strategic thinkers, they have seen things in the market that others couldn’t. But all of them still have their faults, none of them are perfect.”

But is a good leader born or made?

Ms Coolican said: “It can be about personality and innate charisma, but solid leadership skills are learnable, any one can learn to be a good leader.

“Communication and listening are key, leaders can understand where their business and their staff are at by listening. People have good ideas on the ground, they know what their challenges are and it’s about helping them do the best job they can. Sometimes very basic changes like this can make all the difference.

“You also need to have some emotional intelligence, and be able to identify your own strengths and weaknesses. Then you can assemble a team around you that is good at the things that you might not be. It’s all about self awareness. They can complement what you offer.

“A good leader will also be strategic, anticipate problems before they arise as much as possible, and see the bigger picture. It’s not just creative people that can be innovative.

“It’s also a good idea for business leaders to get back to the floor. You can’t lead a business until you get to grips with its day-to-day activities, we recommend that tactic all the time.

“One thing I would say is that limitations can be sorted out.

There are common issues that crop up regularly in management training.

“There should be strategic and long-term planning in a business. Delegation shouldn’t amount to doing a handover the day before you go on holiday, and this is one point where businesses really let themselves down.

“One exercise we get people to do is imagine your job in 12 months. It’s probably going to be a bigger job, more complicated and busier, and it takes a lot of preparation to get to that position.

It’s not all just about the business however, and the work-life balance we’re always hearing about is just as important in creating a good leader as in other staff.

Ms Coolican said: “Our reputation is based on developing leaders, and we’re psychologists as well as everything else. If we need to help sort out personal problems to make them an effective leader, we will go that extra mile.

“We measure everything, what is stopping them being an effective leader, if there has been a behaviour change after the programme. The leaders are scored out of 5 in a 360 review. 12 months later they are scored again.

“We look at objectives, how much more profitable would your company be if you were a better leader? It’s still about delivering on KPIs. Programmes are bespoke and work on what an individual and the business wants to get out it.”

“One of the main challenges we see people facing is winning work, and that’s how we measure our success as well.

RedSky has gone from strength to strength, and with many clients based in London, Ms Coolican hasn’t ruled out moving there, but she has said that the firm’s next office will be in Bahrain. It won’t be hard seeing the firm take whatever country they chose by storm with Diane at the helm.