Leadership is a highly distinctive form of human behaviour that calls for character integration, knowledge, and experience. So, what can you do if you procedurally unleash the leadership potential in you? Change the world!
Many people think that they cannot make good leaders when everyone is in fact a leader. Leaders learn the art of leading, and thus great leaders are learners. So, everyone can make a great leader with a great understanding of oneself. Look at the mother back home nurturing the family, the father who confidently takes responsibility or the steward who delivers his services with excellence. They are all leaders. Have a scope of leadership from that perspective. It is what it takes to be a leader. Leaders lead from the front by confidently taking responsibility. For the triumph, they spread fame while for the failures, they take the blame.
A person can be born with the innate abilities of a leader, while another can master the skills to be a good leader at work. The bottom line is regardless of whether you are born a leader or not, everyone has the room to learn new skills and ultimately advance in leadership competency. True leaders ensure they continue to develop their skills throughout their careers through continuous learning and development activities and materials.
Apprehending your leadership style & skills
At some point in your career, you may take on a leadership role. Whether it is a team, a project, an entire department, or it’s even a meeting you are leading, you might consider identifying with a defined leadership style.
There is no doubt that while there are right and wrong ways to lead, we cannot point to any specific style that suits everyone. The only mechanism by which you identify what type of Leader you are, is through your personality assessment. You closely examine the key aspects of your personality and pay attention to how they manifest in a work, family, or friendship environment.
Think about most attributes ascribed to you by your colleagues and friends. Evaluating your character in these settings is vital to understanding how to lead a team. Think about what drives your choices, and know your values, strengths, weaknesses, and feedback by taking leadership personality quizzes. Block by block, you will gain a deeper comprehension and leaderships skills through habits and processes.
What it entails to be a good leader.
1 Self-awareness and personal development.
As Goode posits, good leaders emphasize developing their emotional intelligence. Leaders focused on refining this quality are more adaptive, resilient, good listeners, open to feedback, and change oriented.
To acquire this, it is imperative to set and prioritize goals while taking responsibility for accomplishing them. Retain awareness of your strength and weaknesses and potential biases that may impact decision-making.
2 They encourage innovation, Strategic thinking, and action.
As a leader of an organization, you have to look forward. You have to keep in mind where the organization is going. Leaders must have flexible mindsets which are conscious of real-time developments.
A leader encourages creativity and innovation through exercises such as brainstorming and prototyping and aligns the organization to technology advancement when making strategic decisions. Good leaders are vision-oriented and consider SMART reasonable goals for the team or organization.
3 They hold dear effective cross-cultural communication.
Good and respected leaders express themselves clearly to individuals, organizational units, external stakeholders, and the organization. They are therefore good listeners and open to feedback. As a leader, you must learn the nuances of communicating on both print and online platforms.
- Openness to feedback and constructive criticism.
We all aspire to hear the positive and how great we are doing. But think of it differently. Would you like to get better at your job? In fact, constructive negative feedback with helpful intentions can be a golden opportunity to learn and grow.
As a leader, you should authentically ask for feedback often and ask for clarification, examples, and constructive recommendations for improvement and develop a sound plan to address your shortfalls. In addition, you should be able to differentiate constructive criticism from destructive one, which you should treat as a distraction.
Road mark to proactive leadership.
Proactiveness is the key to productiveness. Being proactive prepares you for something before it happens. Unlike reactiveness, where a leader waits for something to happen, proactiveness helps one determine how events unfold. It prepares a leader for challenges noting that they are inevitable. To become proactive, a leader must; think long-term, seek advice, have a calm demeanour, advance his/her problem-solving skills, be a great communicator, have integrity, and inspire others.
Imposter syndrome and leadership
Many leaders experience fear and imposter syndrome, and its impacts can indeed have far-reaching consequences. As a leader, if you experience phoniness and feel like an imposter, don’t be dismayed. It is pretty common in high achievers and leaders. This feeling arises from the fear that people under you expect you to know more than you do.
To overcome, be honest with yourself about what you know and don’t know. Speak with colleagues and share this knowledge. Admittance that you don’t have all answers don’t turn you into a fraud but rather makes you human. Above all, perceive development as a series of experiments and start with one of your weaknesses, and finally, change will knock.
Finally, to be a great leader, you should work for satisfaction but not recognition. Remember that recognition is a by-product, while satisfaction is the end product. Be passionate while also remembering setbacks are inevitable and should not worry you. Be a continuous learner and be open to feedback.
Author: Emmanuel Addo
Email: emma@emmanueladdo.org
