This is similar to “the one who yells loudest gets heard.” Just because that person is loud certainly doesn’t mean they’re right. You don’t have to be going 90 mph (140 km/h) leaving a trail of rubble behind you to be a good leader. Actually, you shouldn’t be doing that. Your time should be spent interpreting, molding, and offering solutions.
Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline … Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence. Excessive discipline and sternness in command result in cruelty. When one has all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a leader. — Sun Tzu
None of the old theories successfully address the challenge of developing “leadership presence”; that certain “something” in leaders that commands attention, inspires people, wins their trust and makes followers want to work with them.
Ideally, leaders become leaders because they have credibility, and because people want to follow them. Using this definition, it becomes clear that leadership skills can be applied to any situation where you are required to take the lead, professionally, socially, and at home in family settings. Examples of situations where leadership might be called for, but which you might not immediately associate with that, include:
According to the annual Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor, (KLCM) which measures the link between effective leadership and effective communication, the top five traits most associated with an effective leader are:
But leadership really isn’t about a particular position or a person’s seniority. Just because someone has worked for many years doesn’t mean he has gained the qualities and skills to lead a team. Getting promoted to a managerial position doesn’t automatically turn you into a leader. CEOs and other high-ranking officials don’t always have great leadership skills, either. Read more to find out Why Top Performers Have Nothing to Do With Their Ages
Believe that anyone can be a leader. Truth be told, everyone is looking to be led. Think of life as a dark path — the more leaders you have, the more people are in front of you holding industrial strength flashlights. Which would you rather have? Not only do people want leaders, but also they are looking for them. For that reason, anyone can do it. You just got to fill the void.
It is both scary and exhilarating. Once you decide to become a leader in your life, you cast off the shackles of fear and dependency that hold most people back and pursue life with a positive attitude. With your own hands, you design your own future. You set yourself fully on the path to becoming everything you are capable of becoming.
achieve – achieve success – achiever – also-ran – best bet – bestselling – big-time – blockbuster – blockbusting – blowout – boffo – breakout – brilliant success – bring home the bacon – clean getaway – do brilliantly – do well – do well for yourself – fire up – flourish – flourishing – fly high – get ahead – go a long way – go far – go gangbusters – go places – go to the dogs – golden couple – golden era – golden girl – good management – great success – have it made – high achiever – high note – high performer – high-flyer – high-flying – hit – hit show – hit the target – hot-shot – hotshot – make a go of it – make good – make it big – make something of yourself – market leader – number one
Apart from having a futuristic vision, a leader should have the ability to take the right decision at the right time. Decisions taken by leaders have a profound impact on masses. A leader should think long and hard before taking a decision but once the decision is taken, stand by it. Although, most leaders take decisions on their own, but it is highly recommended that you consult key stakeholders before taking a decision. After all, they are the ones who will benefit or suffer from your Today: Get the start dates from HR for your team if you don’t have them. Remember their work anniversaries so you can start recognizing them and get in front of potential retention problems. These two posts can help you get started:
Success is about getting all that you wanted to have. It’s finding that you have achieved your goals or fulfilled your plans and it’s waking up in the morning feeling victorious rather than feeling defeated.
Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions. Creativity gives leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead followers in new directions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, “What if … ?” Possibly the worst thing a leader can say is, “I know this is a dumb question … ”
Not everyone has the greatest of childhoods, and no one is expected to share wealth with their siblings just because of blood. Not every entrepreneur has a soulmate, not will we all have children. It is important, however, to think about success beyond just the material or power one might ultimately yield. Real success lies in having a positive influence on those who you call family and those who will eventually remember, and hopefully continue, the legacy you leave behind.
Luckily for most of us, personal success is not a matter of background, intelligence, or native ability. It’s not our family, friends, or contacts who enable us to do extraordinary things. Instead, the keys to success are our ability to get the very best out of ourselves under almost all conditions and circumstances. It is your ability to adapt and change your life.
Bosses may consider themselves to be an “expert in everything” and may think of themselves as the only person able to deliver a solution to the entire team. A leader may facilitate brainstorming and encourage their team to ask smart questions. They may be more inclined than a boss to make a decision based on discussions they’ve had with their team. A leader may say what they think needs to be done, but the team members may help decide how it’s actually executed.
Reinforce positive behavior when employees are accomplishing their goals and objectives. This could be recognition in front peers and other rewards that don’t cost money, but are meaningful to the employee.
What also emerged from the research was the damaging effect of operating in a constrained environment. Where people lacked either the time or the resources, then generally the first thing to be sacrificed was a focus on purpose and ethics.
Be personal and share lessons: Help your team avoid mistakes by sharing with them the lessons you’ve learned that got you to where you are. Never be afraid to give constructive feedback. Teaching is not only valuable for the one learning the lesson, but also helps you hone leadership skills through communicating and connecting.
Imagine that you are the leader of a small team. You have been given a problem to solve, and for a while you all have struggled over it. Suddenly you come up with a great idea solves the problem, but time is running out… what style of leadership do you choose?
In leadership, people and relationships are more important than tasks. Tasks do matter, but the main role of a good leader is to motivate and inspire other people to do the tasks well. You need to know how to delegate and be the leader of other leaders. The leader is the conductor of the orchestra, not the first violin. But you also need to know when to step in and take responsibility. Don’t be afraid to say ‘stop’ or ‘no’ if you think things are going wrong. And don’t let other people push you into a decision which you are not comfortable with.
To create a vision, leaders focus on an organization’s strengths by using tools such as Porter’s Five Forces , PEST Analysis , USP Analysis , Core Competence Analysis and SWOT Analysis to analyze their current situation. They think about how their industry is likely to evolve, and how their competitors are likely to behave. They look at how they can innovate successfully , and shape their businesses and their strategies to succeed in future marketplaces. And they test their visions with appropriate market research, and by assessing key risks using techniques such as Scenario Analysis .
[Focus on the objective (the Vision), not on leading. The means can and should be developed collaboratively, though the team leader is the final arbiter. You inspire others by engaging people justly, managing yourself, acting with integrity and passion]
Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your business leadership develop. As you tell your leadership vision to others, you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other people will start to see you as a person who’s “going places” and recognize you as a person with leadership potential.
In the transformational leadership model, leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. They also manage delivery of the vision, either directly or indirectly, and build and coach their teams to make them ever stronger.
Rational also means, logically. That means that your thinking should be founded on fact, not opinion. Your thinking should be organized, sequential, systematized, defined, numerical, clear and distinct. Logical thinking centres on looking for chains of “cause and effects”. Logical thinkers ask: What is the cause of this? What would be the probable effects of that? This is the role of the intellect, in leadership.
Share your vision. As a leader, you can see the bigger issues, but you can also see how things could be so much better if we could just remove those obstacles. To get people to help you in changing things, you need to share that positive vision with them. Inspire them. Motivate them. Guide them. Show them how their actions are bringing everyone closer to that dream.
Leaders also need tools to help them understand the way that others behave, and create positive interactions. As a first step, it may be helpful to understand more about emotional intelligence—another vital quality for leaders to possess—but there are a number of other tools that may also be useful, including Transactional Analysis, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicators.
John F. Kennedy was a successful democratic leader. When Kennedy handled the Bay of Pigs situation, he gave everyone in his circle a voice. The way he made decisions had changed decision-making for the modern era.2
Great leaders know that there’s always something to learn from everything they have experienced before. They are able to connect the present challenges with the lessons learned in the past to make decisions and take actions promptly.