The role in leadership coaching is clear. Leadership is a balancing act. It requires the right mindset coupled with  a compelling vision, and a clear and engaging communication process that convinces others to buy into that vision. It requires an ability to deploy the right resources and talent with the energy to execute the drive to the Ideal Final Result (magnetic north).

In the end, people will only support those leaders who are creditable, reliable, trustworthy and authentic. Further, we also need leaders who are prepared to lead. I was recently with a CEO whose business was losing $70m per month and I was shocked to see him bogged down in consultation, procrastination, communication and coaching rather than grabbing the issue by the horns and making brave and courageous decisions. Decisions that will create the kind of break through action that would eliminate inertia and create the energy of execution that his business so desperately needed. My view is that these are situations when we have to lead—have to make the difficult decisions—and begin to direct the action and orchestrate the response. These times are not as unprecedented as we call them; we have been through difficulties in the past.

During periods of turbulence, human beings naturally focus on the moment. It's part of the fight-or-flight instinct. It is not enough to be able to manage uncertainty; we have to be able to manage through uncertainty, towards a more certain future, and to ‘lead the charge’. The perennial debate around whether we need an autocratic or democratic style of leadership is irrelevant; it is about what is needed at the time. When I’m lying on the operating table, I know I don’t want a consensus driven surgeon who will say: “So what do we all think?” I want know someone is calling: “Scalpel!”