Is leadership a top-down, white, male, professional class prerogative?Good leaders are made, not born. If you have the desire and will power, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.
Leadership Development Leadership is one of those things that’s often awfully hard to define but you know it when you see it, and you definitely know when it’s missing. Indeed, leadership is one of those areas about which a huge amount is said while, at the same time, leaving big questions hanging in the air unanswered.
So what exactly is a leader? Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organisation in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills. Although your position may give you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organisation, this power does not make you a leader… it simply makes you the boss. Rather than simply bossing people around, leadership makes the followers want to achieve high goals, Can you take someone who isn’t a natural leader and turn them into one? Every delegate should gain a rigorous personal insight into what makes them tick and then, with this understanding of themselves, stretch the boundaries of what’s comfortable for them. This is the one essential quality that anyone in any position of leadership must develop. The two keys to effective leadership: You must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where the organisation needs to go. Whether you’re running a company, running a church fete or running a home, you can’t excel unless you can see things from all points of view. Once you are able to see what is going on, for others, then you can move on to developing all the other essential skills of leadership:
Good Communication Being Articulate The Ability to Think on Your Feet Humour Flexibility Integrity Compelling Presence Situational leadership theory offers an alternative approach. It proceeds from the assumption that different situations call for different characteristics.. The situational leadership model of Hersey and Blanchard, for example, suggest four leadership-styles and four levels of follower-development. For effectiveness, the model posits that the leadership style must match the appropriate level of followership-development. In this model, leadership behaviour becomes a function not only of the characteristics of the leader, but of the characteristics of followers as well. Other situational leadership models introduce a variety of situational variables. These determinants include: 1. The nature of the task (structured or routine). 2. Organizational policies ( climate, and culture). 3. The preferences of the leader’s superiors. 4. The expectations of peers. 5. The reciprocal responses of followers. You are a key executive in your company. People rely on your skills, judgements and decisions and expect you to continually ‘come up with the goods’. As a matter of course, you are called upon to give keynote speeches, chair crucial meetings, develop strategy and people, focus on succession planning, handle crises and deal with the internal and external pressures that go with your position. Part of the deal is that others expect you to handle all that, and more, with grace, professionalism, energy and enthusiasm. And then there’s the rest of your life, too: all that work-life balance stuff. Fortunately, people like you aren’t expected to go it alone. You might want to be perceived as a super-person, but even you may need coaching and support. All the ‘big people’ have their own coaches, mentors, gurus, counsellors or wise person. That’s what they offer: confidentiality, objectivity, motivation, unbiased, practical support and exceptionally high-level business coaching skills. A good counsellor will teach you the steps to great leadership and the attributes every great has. They teach you to BE a professional, KNOW yourself, human nature and your job, and DO (provide direction, implement and motivate). With these three factors you can’t go wrong!
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