Leading

There have been lots of tributes coming for Bob Hawke.  It seems rightly so to me.  My personal opinion is there have been great leaders on both sides of politics and Bob was one of them.
I looked at his bench.  In rugby league Queensland enjoyed a golden era.  So many good players came together at one time.  I felt a bit like that when I saw Bobs bench.  There seemed to be so many pillars.
Something his daughter said really rang true with me.  She said something like “he was a great listener and it made him a great leader.”  I guess that resounds in me because I have always felt that a leader needs to listen.
Naturally they need to have a vision and an idea where they are going, but ideas from people should not be dismissed or embraced depending on if they fall into a leaders ideas.  Not all ideas are good ideas.  One of the worst mistakes I believe someone can make is to pursue their ideas despite what anyone else thinks.
Sometimes something that is not a show stopper comes up but it should stop something going ahead.  Still, if someone is set in their ways and will not listen it is water off a ducks back.  At the very least alternative solutions need to be explored.
It seems to me that I need to listen to as many as possible and not just my peers.  When I can get it, I like to take in from as many sources as possible.  It may or may not cause me to change my mind, but as least I am making an informed decision, rather then just doing what I want, despite evidence to the contrary.
It also seems to me people will listen and respond positively to someone who has shown they are willing to do the hard yards.  Their field of endeavour may not have been the one currently followed, but along the way they have shown a willingness, seen by their contemporaries,  to get down and dirty.  Recently I read about McCarther.  His troops listened to and respected him because he had been there and done that.  But the past is just that, the past.  Although that is a good indicator, actions need to happen now, in the presence of those being led.
In many cases there is no place for ruling by decree.  I have seen diagrams of leadership that showed an upside-down triangle.  In many cases leadership is displayed as a triangle with the leader at the top, ruling.  I personally respond better to someone who leads by example.
We had a boss at work, and I was so glad to see the back of him.  Naturally what he said went, but he was unwilling to do anything.  The next boss came with us and did what we did.  He was still the boss and did other important things.  He represented us, but it was not from an ivory tower.  He could speak because he knew.
As was said in Cars “I wouldn’t worry about it, because it wasn’t me.”   I am good at theorizing.  Thankfully, I have been there and done that and really found it is import to lead by example rather than led by decree.