Have you ever wondered if you have Professional Leadership? When a worker, whether employed or self-employed, has among her responsibilities to coordinate and direct a team, department, or organization, we would be talking about professional leadership.
Companies are constantly looking for a way to get ahead and be at the forefront and, therefore, it is essential to have people capable of influencing others, of achieving different goals in the company, that is, to obtain the expected results in time and shape.
Leadership is a set of capacities that an individual has to influence the way of being of people or of a certain group, making this teamwork with enthusiasm, thus achieving the goals and objectives set.
Leadership is exercised at every moment of the day, both informal aspects when coordinating the workflow, and in more informal aspects such as the tone and emotional climate experienced in the work unit.
But what kind of leadership should the professional have in the workplace? It must be a servant leadership were “a strong motivation and commitment to want to help and facilitate the development of people, groups and organizations prevail, putting the needs and interests of those before their own”.
Is professional leadership the same as persuasive leadership? According to our teacher, persuasion does not always have to assume a negative connotation. “Persuasion, as opposed to coercion, implies the use of the word to get other people to carry out certain acts, without the need to use force or threat.” Thus, professional leaders “will, of course, employ persuasion, but on an ethical basis.”
Now, persuasion can also have a negative connotation, but then it would be better to use the term manipulation. Manipulation implies persuasion with a selfish purpose, where the only beneficiary would be the leader, or rather the pseudo-leader, because “a true leader will not manipulate his collaborators, in his case, he will persuade them to strive to achieve and overcome objectives that will benefit everyone.”
But the million-dollar question that causes so much controversy is is the leader born or made? For our teacher, definitely, “leadership is done and learned .”
Leadership is not a trait or characteristic that resides in characterological and innate aspects of the leader but is a process that takes place over time, in which the leader, followers, and the context are interactively involved.
Characteristics Of A Leader
Once we are clear about what leadership is, we are going to define the characteristics that a leader should have.
Technical Skills: refer to the application of knowledge and techniques necessary to carry out an activity of the organization.
Intrapersonal skills: are those that exclusively involve self-control, both emotionally and cognitively. For example, anger management or own time management.
Organizational or interpersonal skills: are those that allow the person who leads the team to work as one more member of the team and interact effectively with people, directing the collective effort towards achieving the objectives, considering the human and emotional dimension of the workers. They have to do with the creation of structure, workflow, and control thereof, such as the design and conduct of meetings.
This supposes strong doses of empathy and humility, since professional leaders also make mistakes. For this reason, the new leaders must be an example of continuous learning and recycling.
What is really difficult is to act as a leader in all facets, and there are many who precisely fail in this. Although I do not like to generalize, and I know leaders who do it very well, others need to transmit and spread their enthusiasm and passion. Leaders must be not only technical leaders, but also emotional leaders . In other words, the key to professional leadership is to combine reason and emotion.
Another area of improvement for professional leaders is the practice of Emotional Salary, that is, emotionally rewarding employees with a sincere smile and a genuine thank you after the effort and work. It has t be genuine, in addition, t offering constructive and motivating feedback that not only focuses on the failures, but on how to improve them.