LEAD Mnemonic

Leadership has been defined extensively and questioned more so in academic literature. Grint explains how leadership is in the eye of the beholder, and is therefore a contended concept - good/bad for one. However, it is increasingly recognised as an action made up of behaviours that can be looked at and learned from and we might ask ourselves:

Why should anyone follow you?

Mastering the Art of Lead with EASE explores the mindset shifts that help leaders grow, adapt, and empower their teams, with EASE.

The LEAD Principle

In a time when leaders are overloaded with noise, LEAD offers a grounding compass. It reframes leadership as a disciplined practice of curios learning, education, advice, and delegation. These four movements form the rhythm of trust and empowerment — the necessary conditions for EASE to flourish within teams.

When it comes to academic studies of leadership you will often find a paragraph somewhat like what I wrote in my own dissertation on the value of leadership for veterans in the transition to civilian life:

Leadership is lauded as a valuable skill, long identified through selection (Bailey, 2000; Richardson & Stanbridge, 1936), taught and trained within a military context as part of a hierarchy within a doctrine of mission command (Theunissen, 2019), potentially providing a wealth of experience and capital to carry into a new career.  Academically, leadership is one of the most researched areas of social science (Yukl & Gardner, 2020). Perhaps, because leadership development training is a significant 25% proportion of a $360Bn global industry (Westfall, 2019).

There is a lot of value placed on the shoulder of those who can truly lead. However, all too often I have found the essence of what leadership means to be a real challenge of inaccessibility, reserved primarily for rank, often as not a gendered issue too. What else could LEAD mean in our everyday activity at work?

Learn invites humility: leaders remain students of their craft and environment.

Educate converts insight into shared understanding, where learning circulates rather than pools.

Advise reminds leaders to contribute judgement but also to pause, seeking critical input before steering.

Delegate completes the loop, distributing action to where the knowledge truly sits, anchored by clear intent.

When leaders practise LEAD consistently, their teams can begin to experience EASE. Exploration is safe and can reveal new opportunities and insights.

Alignment is real, and thus we can move further, faster and with a shared purpose.

Support is mutual and challenges are shared, especially important when failure arises.

Empowerment becomes a shared habit rather than a slogan, where success of others is celebrated as we see people grow around us, and we grow too.

LEAD is how leaders act; EASE is what their teams feel.

How does this resonate for you? Make a comment below or get in touch

What thoughtful leaders ask next.

• How can I tell if I am over-advising and under-delegating? Look for decisions that bottleneck with you, delegation reveals itself in your calendar.
• How do I “educate” without preaching? Frame knowledge as an invitation to explore together, not a conclusion to impose. Knowing who knows what and your own self awareness of your expertise positions you to educate in different ways. Great questions can be better than great answers
• What if my team resists delegation? Start with clarity: explain the intent, boundaries, and trust inherent in each handover. Your trust in them may need to be persistently demonstrated and this may be uncomfortable for everyone at first. You may regress, but endure and persist. The reward is a team that knows what to do and better. Delegation becomes critical.
• Can LEAD be measured? Yes, through behavioural indicators such as frequency of learning discussions, feedback exchanges, and distributed decision-making. Consider your own decision making and that of others, how might it change. What would good look like?

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