In the words of author John C. Maxwell, “A leader is somebody who
knows the way, Goes the way and shows the way”. Nobody is a born Leader.
They all have learned the skill to play leadership roles with time.
A leader may grow out into a Good leader or a Bad leader. Leaders have
different approaches to handling the teams of the organizations they are
leading. The attitude and approach of a leader not only determines the success
of the team but also impacts the Organization in many ways. Whether an
organization is climbing the ladder of success or going down the performance graph,
look at the leadership for more insight on the reason. A good leader may help
the team members grow their potential, while a bad leader may cause the team to
suffer from low self-esteem, stress, and inadequacy.
I have worked as an intern and full-time employee for several places and
have seen many types of leaders. The Emotional intelligence Quotient of Good
leaders was always good and they were mostly people with high levels of ethical
standards, large-hearted, kind, compassionate, hardworking, confident, and
secure individuals. while the bad
leaders were mostly narcissistic, insecure, incompetent, incapable people who
wanted to control things to a suffocating extent. British Author, Marcus
Buckingham says it in one sentence, “People don’t leave bad companies, they
leave bad managers”. So if a manager is good to work with, Most people will
stay loyal to the organization.
Communication is a key quality a leader showcases through his art of
managing people. The way a leader communicates to his/her team sets the tone
for the day ahead. The 10 C’s of a leader are Communication, Clarity,
Character, Confidence, Competence, Candidness, Courage, Commitment,
Competitiveness and Connection. It is up to the leader now to take these C’s
in a good direction or in a bad direction. Each C has a very relevant
significance in the right functioning and growth of a team.
Some Organizations have a very stringent and suffocating work culture
which eventually increases their fallouts with the team now and then and often
also, decrease their Employee retention rates. While some organizations put
enormous efforts in knowing and helping their employee grow which results in
employee loyalty and higher retention rates eventually resulting in greater
stability.
Higher retention rates not only impart stability to an organization but
also instills a positive work culture which reflects in the growth mindset of
each individual employee. Whereas, on the other hand, Lower employee retention
rates make an organization highly unstable. Every few days new teams keep
coming and going without delving themselves to the ethics of the institution.
This in turn makes the organization face numerous obstacles within and it
trickles down to their public interface also in the long run.
So how does a leader get in the wrong shoe or right shoe? What do the
leaders need to keep in mind while leading an organization? Below is a summary
of various things that ought to be on a Leader’s mind while in the LEAD.
What makes a good leader?
- A good leader must be an excellent Communicator,
by which not only he/she should have a command over the language but should
also have a high emotional intelligence coupled along with enhanced persuasive
skills.
· A Good leader should be Confident in
his abilities and strive for self-improvement every day and stay updated with
the current trends.
· A good leader will always keep up the optimism
in all situations. She/he will motivate the team instead of scaring them to
nervousness.
· A good leader will accept responsibility
instead of putting the blame on other team members whenever it is required.
· He/she will create Clear expectations
from the work instead of a confusing blueprint. She/he will ask goals to be
delivered in a clear systematic thought process. (This will need an understanding of
the task thoroughly themselves first).
· A Good leader shall also try to understand
the Unique capability of each team member and allot tasks likewise in
order to gain better results and realizing fuller potential. Work division
should be based on that. Don’t ask a fish to climb a tree. Value your team.
· A good leader needs to be Candid and
approachable to work with.
· A good
leader will be a Competent individual who has been through the struggles
on the way up the ladder and has proven his meddle along the journey. One
cannot be a Leader by instinct alone. It ought to be backed up by real-time
experience of the domain as well.
· A good leader will always respect time
and energy of the team members.
· An organization may be large or small but is
eventually connected with the mental health of its team, lesser work stress in
the team will be essential for running a happy organization. A good leader will
ensure that the team is in a good mental health frame by listening to
them more often and reaching out to help as and when possible.
· A good leader will be Competitive in
his energy, he/she would want to bring the best benchmarks to his team and will
try to evolve the team to higher levels of output.
· A good leader will also refrain from
making assumptions about others without knowing the true situation. He/she
will always refrain from acting on impulse over judgment or preconceived
notion and rather try to be patient and figure out what went wrong or right in
any situation before assuming anything.
· A good leader will have the Courage to
take the team forward with risks and at times confrontations as well for the
sake of his team with the external world.
· A good leader will never allow feelings of
resentment and negative behavior to grow amongst his team members. If he/she
observes any restlessness or negativity in the team, it is part of their job to
bring their team to a good consensus and a positive work environment.
· At the same time, a Leader should never
tolerate bad manners of any team members and must always point out politely as
and when required to the team member regarding the bad manners.
· A good leader will always be respected more
for his Character and moral standards. Leadership coach Brian Tracy also
encourages people to keep their word as a leader. Integrity is the most valued
trait of a leader.
· A great leader will always have a great Connection
with his/her team and will be in good bonhomie vibe with his team. A great
leader knows it is more with sweetness in tone than a stern attitude that a human
being can be made to realize his/her full potential.
· A good leader will be Committed to his
team and will always be dedicated to not only see the best in them but also do
the best for them.
· A leader should be Visionary and must
have growth-related goals mapped in his mind to take the team ahead along with
the organization.
These
were just some of the mainstream points that define what a leader should or
should not do. Every person who has an inclination towards leadership roles in
his or her organization can learn to be a leader by following best practices observed
across organizations over time. However, with experience and dedication, many
things will be learned only on the journey of leadership.
Bestselling author Shiv Khera advocates the
3C’s for decision-making powers of a leader, which are the Decision of
Command, Decision of Consultation, and the decision of Consensus. He also adds
that the best leaders have always created a consensus in the absence of one.
As John Quincy Adams, American Diplomat
states, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and
become more, then you are a leader”.
A dream to become a leader is desirable but
to be good, loved, respected and Leader of significant impact, there is a lot
to learn on the way to the top.
Our learnings remain incomplete if we skip the lessons from history. Human organic intelligence benefits a great deal from learning the facts and details of past events, visuals from art etc. Not only our understanding of the current day evolution stage strengthens, but our recognition of patterns also improves greatly. We can then see the cause effect relationship of any event and perhaps use the knowledge to repeat or not repeat a particular action.
Museums and archivists, conservators, records managers along with history writers do a rather splendid contribution to mankind – Introducing us to the history that existed years ago – Facts, stories, texts, photographs all make up a wonderful dataset for us to learn from our previous crusaders in any domain. This will also help us to formulate the future decision-making frameworks and develop effective solutions thereon.
I would advise every learner to try to explore more and more about the historical evolution of their study domain or fields that are of interest to them to gain much better insights.
1. I am in awe of how much advanced the eras before the current millennium have been (compared to what I thought earlier)!
2. I recognized pre-world war and post-world war speed of development of technology (at the peak of war, innovations are implemented so quickly than the regular day implementation time of a technology)
3. Our ancestors were far more diligent and resourceful in the non-internet era with way lesser information available than is today and this came from the very strong focused sincere work ethic they had with almost no distractions.
Happy exploring the world in reverse timeline!
I have always wanted to learn more about transportation, ancient libraries, books, civil engineering, evolution of cities and I recently started collecting photographs in my 🙂 Instagram (vintage_drive_reads) 🙂 and recently, made the page public upon insistence from my students.