I love watching leaders and learning how to do things but more importantly how not to do things.

I believe we learn until the day we die and so as a leader I will always observe other leaders. Two of the key traits that I think are fundamental to leadership are positivity and accepting challenge. I have always been happy if someone from within one of my organisations challenges me. I believe it is extremely healthy and ensures we are always improving. Because if I cannot persuade the challenger that my way is best then I have to look at adopting theirs if it suits the organisation.

Leaders without challenge can perceive themselves as omnipotent and can quickly become dictators within their own organisation. When this happens good ideas and new ideas are rarely presented to them and the organisation has the glass ceiling made up of the leader's competence and ingenuity.

But I think before challenge there has to exist two things in any organisation. The first is trust. Everyone has to trust each other to do their job effectively and to be honest in a truly well led organisation. This is one of the fundamentals of a good leader and their development of trust within an organisation where in many it seems to be absent. Interesting that the CEO of Hopin Johnny Boufarhat is the youngest Billionaire on the Sunday Times Rich list. His entire organisation works entirely remotely. He works from an Airbnb house in Barcelona and his company has no offices. He has to trust his people and he has 650 of them. Hopin was founded in 2019 and is an online hosting company. I have used it several times with great success. It makes virtual large conferences easy. He founded it on the theory that email conversations were ponderous and difficult.

Compare that type of working with a company where you sign in and out and you are constantly monitored. Where work is inhibited by constant face-to-face meetings, performance is judged on how hard you work and is founded on time in the office. In Hopin there is a monthly online “town hall” meeting for all 650 members of staff and a monthly online staff survey, ensuring effective communication both ways in a trusted yet challenging environment.

Other such innovations in other companies where trust is visible include Virgin, a company that allows as much leave as you want as long as you achieve your objectives. Another software business is 10Pines where staff set each other’s salaries. Taxi company Addison Lee let’s mums bring their babies to work. And one billion pound business Octopus Energy has no HR at all within the company.

With trust comes the ability to challenge and that is evident in all these companies. Leaders need to be challenged, they need to be as good as possible. And this only comes with trust, transparency and effective communication which is another thing all these forward-thinking companies have.

During a recent Motiv-8 Board meeting we discussed challenge and we agreed that all our fellow leaders need to understand the importance of challenge, and this underpins our philosophy of continuous improvement. But everyone understands before you can challenge your team you have to show them how much you care for each and everyone of them. Challenge is the thing that keeps an organisation healthy. Challenge comes through effective communication and that only comes where there is trust.

If you are interested in learning how to challenge and care at the same time then read Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor, “How to get what you want by saying what you mean”. An inspiring read for any aspiring or experienced leader.