Paul McNeive: A sense of purpose and clear values are hallmarks of good leadership

World events, from wars to elections, highlight the differing styles of leadership and their effectiveness, and there are lessons for professional services firms. At its simplest, one can lead by authority, like Vladimir Putin, or by inspiration, like Volodymyr Zelensky. A nd there is our first proof of the direction to take.

A constant stream of instructions and threats will work for a while, but inspiring your team to higher performance will embed a culture of engagement that produces better results. For many years I have been speaking to companies on the subject of motivation and inspiring higher performance, and a weakness I sometimes find is the lack of a clear understanding of why we are doing the job we are doing. In other words, there is no clear shared purpose.



I f staff don’t know what the goal is, they will never perform at their best..