What does this Leader-Leader Culture really mean?

As Emma Ewing and I have been prepping for a masterclass — Creating an Empowered, Leader-Leader Culture — for next week’s ICCO conference in Lisbon, I am reminded that all it takes is ONE leader that is courageous enough to see who they really are as a leader and stretch their leadership agility in order to foster a leader-leader culture.

So, what does this Leader-Leader Culture really mean?

It’s when a leader can create an environment of trust, safety, truth and feedback that leads to radical success — basically your team knows you have their back and this gives them confidence to take ownership, risks and innovate.

Many leaders are so busy they default to the overall company culture which more often than not is bureaucratic, performance-driven and fear-based. The key is for leaders to foster a leader-leader culture for their team despite and within their company culture — a sort of satellite way of being a respite for their team. This is the secret sauce to equipping your people to make better quality decisions and be motivated to take appropriate accountability for getting results and driving projects forward. 

Emma and I will be talking all of this through next week — if you are in Europe, you should join us in Lisbon. We will cover how leaders in agency and in-house can actively create the conditions for a successful leader-leader culture through a combination of powerful conversations, questions and feedback and I will be telling my own stories of leadership failures, ah-ha moments and turnarounds.