For Brilliant Leaders We All Want to Have (or Want to Be)
This article was first published on LinkedIn on April 8, 2026
The Benefits of Brilliant Leaders
Brilliant leaders have become the defining factor of whether an organisation will thrive, or not. When you have leaders who are consistently high performing you see them shape a positive culture, influence outcomes and set foundations for long term and sustainable success.
They go beyond meeting minimum expectations and truly empower those around them, they are leaders that their teams want to show up for.
Leaders who can shape and translate strategic direction into clear goals, provide support and psychological safety whilst effectively holding themselves and others accountable. These leaders aren't there for the quick wins and sugar rush, they are looking to build for repeatable and evolving success.
They provide clarity, they ease decision-making and they set really clear expectations. They bring their team and the organisation together and they unlock challenges by reducing friction.
But, we are clearly getting something wrong in the approach to leadership development. The data shows that even with roughly £11 billion invested yearly, 86% of organisations continue to report leadership gaps and an estimated £84 billion is lost annually by UK businesses due to ineffective leadership.
Brilliant leadership demonstrates, and drives, high-performance; it is not a luxury and neither is it unattainable.
High-performing leaders aren’t born; they are selected, shaped, developed, supported and nurtured. We can’t have high-performing organisations and teams, without high-performing, brilliant leaders.
Are your leaders brilliant? If you are ready to shape a bespoke approach that goes beyond a one-off programme and delivers on sustainable high-performance through brilliant leaders, book a call by email me at anwen@purpleskyconsulting.co.uk.
How to build consistently high-performing leaders your teams love working with.
This starts and continues with a deliberate focus on enabling and empowering leaders so they can be consistently high-performing. Like with a healthy lifestyle, exercise and eating well needs to be regular and it needs to be the right type to be effective for each individual.
Eating well and going to the gym every day for just a week doesn’t result in keeping you healthy all year round.
Not everyone benefits from the same forms of exercise, for some its cardio and weights and others it might be swimming and yoga. Some benefit more from certain eating habits and others have to adjust depending on their allergies.
Yes, there are core principles that apply but everyone needs their own approach based on where they are and what needs to be achieved. That's the same for achieving high-performance and being a brilliant leader. Each leader, based on some core principles, needs their own bespoke diet and exercise plans, requiring varying levels of support.
But, repeatably, organisations give their leaders the same regime of leadership development. The typical approach to leadership development sees one-off programmes. The feel good factor fades quickly and consistent high-performance is rarely achieved.
A truly brilliant approach is like staying fit and eating healthy, we have to do it regularly and in a consistent way for it to have a positive and lasting impact. It needs to be shaped around the individual to keep it sustainable and evolving.
If you want to take a step towards Leadership Performance rather than stick with the sugar rush of traditional leadership development, book a call by sending me an email to anwen@purpleskyconsulting.co.uk. I’ll help you create a plan to move towards an approach that meets the needs of your individual leaders and your organisation, in a sustainable way to achieve high-performance for more brilliant leaders
The results of a Leadership Performance approach rather than a continuation of traditional leadership development.
“I’ve never done this before, and this has given me the space to think and focus. I wouldn’t have approached it as confidently without this support.” The feedback from a Senior Leader, reporting to the Executive Team.
This is the reality of leadership at a more senior level for the first time. These are high-performing talented individuals moving into leadership roles, operating for the first time at a more strategic and demanding level.
High-performing talent does not equal high-performing, brilliant leaders our teams love to work for, unless they have a system around them that helps them operate successfully in their leadership role.
There can be many reasons why a leader won’t be consistently high-performing. By being deliberate in creating the experience they need, you can all succeed.
If you know your leaders aren’t consistently performing or you are promoting talent without support, arrange a call here and I'll help you to identify the priorities for action to enhance leadership performance so that your organisation can have more brilliant leaders.
All the best!
Anwen
P.s. Have you discovered my podcast "HR Strategy in the Hot Seat"?
In this episode, I share my take on how to operate strategically as an HR Leader and Pro. You can listen here.