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Things aren’t always what they seem. In pictures painted using the ‘trompe l’oeil’ technique, which means “trick the eye”, the artist uses his skills to create a perception, an optical illusion. Our mind attempts to fill in the details of something it either thinks it already knows, or doesn’t quite understand. This is fine, when that’s the intention – momentarily letting our world be shaped for fun. But we have the same tendency to make up the details, to fill in the gaps, more generally in life, and if you are unconscious of this, simply allowing others to create your perceptions can make for a very unfulfilling life.

These are the seven principles I come back to when I’m losing the plot or I’m feeling most challenged. Handily the list comes to seven items, so here they are – ‘The seven mindsets of effective leaders’, according to us at Leadership Lab!

Leadership skills can be learned, though along the way you may have to rethink your conception of what a great leader actually does, and overcome discomfort and anxiety in order to raise your game. One of the most uncomfortable facts is that great leadership is not about having all the answers, but about asking the right questions.

It looks as if the only way to live authentically and with complete integrity in the current environment is only to do things of which you are proud. But the latest events in Norway have shown us that individuals (and groups) can easily lose their ‘moral compass’ and find personal justification in carrying out acts which many of us find repugnant.

These are the words of an acquaintance of mine, who, I discover, has just recently taken on the most extraordinary project. This is really leadership in action.

The most common misconceptions about leadership influence your way of thinking about yourself, your life and your everyday challenges. Do you recognise yourself in the following..?

Integrity is more than honesty. A leader has integrity when there is no gap between intent and behaviour, when he or she is ‘congruent’, the same, inside and out. It’s walking the talk. Modelling the behaviours you expect of others. Leaving accurate impressions. Doing the right thing, even when it’s tough. Conveying genuine motives and not having hidden agendas.

A natural consequence of believing myths 1 and 2 – that it requires special qualities, skills, expertise and knowledge to be a leader today – is that there appears to be a shortage of the right kind of people. And if you believe that leadership is scarce, you will naturally constantly struggle to find a sufficient supply of capable leaders.

It’s easy to assume that the leaders you admire are effective and successful because of their experience, expertise and knowledge – but this isn’t necessarily so.

It’s a commonly held view that people either “have what it takes” to be a leader or they don’t – they are born with certain characteristics which fit them to be a leader, and if they don’t have these characteristics, they’ll never make the grade.