The 2012 Olympics are now taking place. We’ve been thinking about the Olympics here at Go MAD Thinking and the analogies that can be made between personal, business and sporting success. This blog takes a quick look at leadership and the expectations that others have of leaders.

We’d love to hear your views about what you expect of your leaders and what you think others expect of you. So, please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Thinking about the Olympics, the athletes in the wide range of sports represented this month will be looking to their leaders for many things. This may be the leaders involved in the organisation of the events, the team leaders of the 200 plus countries taking part, the team leaders of the sporting disciplines or the individuals that are perceived as leaders by others. What do you think these athletes might expect from their leaders? This potentially could be a long list but here are three things that immediately spring to mind:

• Inspiration: they want their leaders to inspire them to achieve. This could be through leading by example or by motivating them to do better. Something for you to think about: How do you and other leaders in your organisation inspire and motivate?

• Dedication: to see their commitment to the sport, the team, the event and the end goal of competing to win. Also these leaders will take responsibility to make things happen. Anyone can display leadership qualities by being willing to be accountable for their actions and taking personal responsibility to achieve results. A question to ask yourself: How prepared are you to take responsibility to achieve and improve results?

• Courage: to take up a challenge, to be willing to take risks to improve performance, to make hard decisions and to lead from the front. To get you thinking: How could your leadership team possibly show courage in the workplace?

What are your three key expectations of leaders? 

For more inspiration, please read our book How to Transform Managers into Leaders.