In law firms the route to being elected a managing or senior partner by your peers is often used for one of two essential reasons. You prove yourself either by being extremely good at your chosen speciality such as corporate law, billing excessive hours, or you have the best client relationships and are a “rainmaker”.
 
But neither of these qualities,  whilst entirely laudable in their own right and valuable to the firm, are necessarily reasons why that person has the capability or even inclination to take on the challenging role of leading fellow lawyers successfully – a task that due to the idiosyncrasies of some professionals has been described as herding cats! Here, for example, is a blog on the unique characteristics of professional firms.
 
This applies to all professionals not just lawyers – see this ACCA blog that provides a perspective from the accountancy world observing that Leadership requires a mindset shift, with strategic vision accompanied by powerful implementation skills and plenty of resilience and Many firms have undervalued the importance of leadership capabilities, choosing their leaders according to who bills the most.
 
Given this surely it is better practice to seek out or even recruit suitable people who display the right characteristics and then recruit them and if necessary train them – send them off to business school for an MBA. And what should their capabilities be, what should be the reason for their selection?
 
Here is a Harvard Business Review article 6 Traits That Set Top Business Leaders Apart that lists the following general characteristics:

• clarify the complex
• embrace new thinking
• balance confidence and humility
• unite around a mission
• set high standards
• avoid distractions

 
See also this Forbes article 16 Essential Leadership Skills For The Workplace Of Tomorrow which adds earning others such as respect, empathy and flexibility.
 
All of these seem to me to apply equally to leading a professional team. There are however some differences in “managing equals” which are explored in depth in this CASS Business School research Who’s in charge? Exploring Leadership Dynamics in Professional Service Firms which concludes that the qualities of effective leaders of firms include:
 
• Highly respected for their skills as a professional
• Do not appear to be seeking power
• Able to inspire loyalty and commitment
• Strong personal vision – able to communicate it
• Able to build consensus and act decisively
• Transfer responsibility but intervene selectively
• Comfortable with ambiguity and conflict
• Spend a lot of time “massaging egos”
 
I think with professionals it is about gaining trust not telling colleagues what to do. As the American author Ken Blanchard says The key to successful leadership is influence not authority. This is absolutely the case in the professional world.

This expression Never Complain; Never Explain was apparently first coined by the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and has been adopted by senior British politicians figures including Winston Churchill and by the Royal Family and in particular the Queen Mother – see this article. It has also been used as a sort if mantra by public figures in other arenas such as the actress Katherine Hepburn.
 
I think this maxim which clearly applies to political also has some relevance to the working world – see this blog or this one, for example. It does however spark an interesting debate. The complaining part is fairly obvious – you rarely get anywhere in my experience in say a negotiation or business change by moaning and complaining about how things are going. It’s a negative reaction and distracts from solving the issue or implementing the change, even if it is a difficult one. In management it can be an excuse which does not impress a boss and confuses a subordinate – why is my manager complaining to me about say someone else in their team?
 
As Brian Tracy the Canadian American motivational speaker and author advises Never Complain, Never Explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses.
 
The explain part is harder and there are some different views, for example, in this Forbes blog which suggests you should always explain to millennials. Maybe this sort of expression comes from a more authoritarian world and lends itself to a hierarchical as opposed to an inclusive management style.
 
I can understand this, but I suggest there is a basic truth here about just getting on with things, however difficult the circumstances may be, and not seeking to justify decisions and actions once these have been determined perhaps after going through a consensus process.
 
I do see that it can be a positive and sometimes enlightening advantage to take colleagues into your confidence and explain why you are proposing a particular course of action. That must be a good thing. But seeking to go too far and always seeking support or validation for decisions may indicate some uncertainty about the course of action in the first place – and perhaps generate comment or debate when none is needed.
 
The art critic Dave Hickey captures perhaps the essence of this when he saidGossip is the currency of the discourse, so you should shut up about yourself. Never confess, never explain, never apologize, and never complain.
 
Anyway, as Elbert Hubbard advised Never explain; your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe you anyway!
 
On balance, whilst I think this expression can be taken and applied too literally, there is virtue around looking ahead and getting on with things and not griping or carping about events or seeking to vindicate behaviour.

According to Wikipedia Follow the leader is a children's game. First a leader or "head of the line" is chosen, then the children all line up behind the leader. The leader then moves around and all the children have to mimic the leader's actions. Any players who fail to follow or do what the leader does are out of the game. 
 
I have seen this acted out in a business context almost to the point of absurdity. If a chief executive was a man and had a moustache then all his immediate male direct reports grew moustaches, regardless of personal taste. If he or she always went into an office and never worked from home and arrived every day at 6 am (in their chauffer driven car) and left at 10pm then so did everybody else, regardless on the impact on their personal lives and the challenges of public transport.
 
There may of course be good reason for spending long hours in offices and it can go with the territory of being a senior manager. Also, leaders are chosen to do just that, lead, and if their subordinates won’t follow then there is another problem. However slavishly following a leader without question can be a recipe for disaster in a professional practice. They may not always be right, and they may also suddenly change direction, turning up one morning clean shaven!
 
The American author Stephen M Shapiro in his book Best Practices are Stupid advocates constant innovation When you copy someone’s best practice, you are not staying ahead; you are playing a game of catch-up. By the time you implement someone else’s best practice, they are onto the next practice. 
 
Even in the military there are limits to blindly following orders. See this article which says "I was only following orders," has been unsuccessfully used as a legal defense in hundreds of cases (probably most notably by Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II).
 
So, as a leader I suggest finding ways to obtain feedback on your performance and above all listen and seek out views before acting. I always try to consult before acting if at all possible. This can be particularly important in setting direction and strategy – see this Harvard Business Review article Being a Strategic Leader Is About Asking the Right Questions which concludes Being a strategic leader is about asking the right questions and driving the right dialog with your team. In doing so, you raise the team’s collective ability to be strategic. The more competent you become in asking these questions, the better positioned you are to drive progress for your team and your organization.
 
If you are a follower, then find ways to understand and contribute to your bosses actions especially if you think there may be a better way. This should be done subtly and sensitively – not just saying “It’s totally ridiculous what you are doing” which will not go down well and be counter productive. As this article How to Tell Your Bosses They're Wrong how you go about this is important when you're graceful and adept, you can help your boss to put things right without upsetting anyone.
 
Actually if as a leader you have a growth mindset as advocated by the American academic and author Carol Dweck (see this blog) all of this should be pushing at an open door. Taking the time to understand and take on board the views of others informs good decision making. Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch wrote in his book, Winning:“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Or as British-American author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek shrewdly observed “A boss has the title, a leader has the people”.
 
Andy Stanley wisely advised that “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say”.
 
While Mao Tse-tung suggests "We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders."
 
Or put perhaps more succinctly by the American president Woodrow Wilson "The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."

Every year over Christmas and the New Year I put up coloured lights outside the front of our house which welcome us home with festive cheer in the evenings. I add to them and replace broken ones every year. I spoke to someone about this and he said he just could not be bothered. I think this is wrong and that it is a part of the seasonal celebration and lights up what can be grey or wet evenings. They will all come down this weekend and we will be back to the usual drab and dreary January.
 
It occurs to me that as my lights celebrate the festive season we should recognise and celebrate success whether it is in the professional or personal or sporting worlds. Sometimes perhaps, as a part of our Anglo Saxon nature, we play down triumphs instead of recognising and celebrating and also learning from them. A team that has succeeded in delivering a major project over a long time period should be recognised and its achievements and those of its members rewarded.
 
See this article Celebrating Achievement which suggests  Celebrating achievement can boost confidence and increase motivation. Showing appreciation can also boost your organization's reputation, improve retention, and help to attract top talent. It goes on to discuss what “achievement” is and how to make celebration meaningful taking into account preferences and personalities – and the dynamics of the team – before you hold a celebration.
 
See also this article How to Celebrate Success at Work which says Celebration breeds more success and adds to the satisfaction you experience when you take note of your accomplishments in the workplace.
 
I like this Forbes article Recognition In The Workplace: It's Not What You Think It Is which starts as follows:
 
Dan Ariely, social scientist and New York Times bestselling author, found that lack of acknowledgment of a job well done, and more importantly, downright dismissing a person’s work, has a crushing effect on workers. His study concluded that “When we are acknowledged for our work, we are willing to work harder for less pay, and when we are not acknowledged, we lose much of our motivation.
 
Sometimes it is as simple as recognition by saying “Thank you” and not about extravagant trips or expensive presents. This article Party time: How smart leaders celebrate employee success suggests  The time and cost to offer verbal and written recognition and gratitude to individuals, teams, and organizations for work well done is minimal. It is so easy we might overlook it. Don’t. It also goes on to identify other levels of appreciation available to leaders, managers, and supervisors that can be offeredsuch as informal recognition, planned appreciation, special events, recognition gifts and interestingly a reward risk approach taken by Tata Corporation.
 
It cites Tom Peters the business author who advises “Celebrate what you want to see more of.”
 
Or as the American author Dale Carnegie says "People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards."