Leadership Traits
May 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Featured, Leadership
Leadership traits are the characteristics that leaders possess that enable them to lead effectively. I’m going to run down 20 of the traits I believe are most important, it’ll be interesting to see how many you feel you already have, and which ones you’re still working on. Leave a comment below to let me know.
The Top Leadership Traits
20. Patience – A good leader needs to show their employees that they’re willing to give them as much time as necessary to see them perform. A manager who roughly attaches arbitary deadlines onto tasks and aggressively chases employees up will only antognise and stress their workforce. Good leadership management is about waiting as well as acting.
19. Continuous Development – Smart people have always sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership. Most these days tend to be rather disappointing, but one e-course that is still respected by leadership professionals such as myself is in the industry leader – ‘Apply Leadership‘ which I consider an essential ‘crash course’ in the principles you need to know to further your career and even find happiness in other areas of your life.
18. Graft – A brilliant leadership trait is the trait of grafting. There’s a simple rule that most good leaders follow – always do the nastiest job yourself. While being able to delegate dire tasks to others is one of the perks of management, t is important that employees never actually question your dedication to work hard. By simply doing the famously nasty job yourself each year, your staff will never have a doubt over whether it’s fair you have the ability to delegate menial work.
17. Fairness/Equity - Fairness is one of the key criteria by which employees measure their superiors. Quite simply, if you don’t behave in an equitable manner at all times, you will lead no more than a rabble of reluctant workers, and will never gain their respect. Fairness is one of Herzberg’s ‘hygeine’ factors from his popular leadership theory. This means that if you are fair, employees will not be inherently motivated, but merely content. If however you act unfairly and break the rules, employees will be demotivated. Very little upside if you possess this trait but large potential negative effects on motivation if you lack it. Its a tough world, but the message is clear.
16. Modesty - An important note to remember is that in every team you lead, some will be envious of your job or position. These people are also often the most active, amibitious and productive members of the group, so it’s extremely important that you keep them onside. By being modest and humble, you minimise the potential for jealousy within the team, and inspire warmth and affection instead.
15. Appreciates Quality - Simple put, a good leader recognises that quality is the most important gauge of the work done. Always. A culture that cares little for quality will demotivate employees and reduce job satisfaction. Staff must be able to feel good about their work and their skills.
14. Sense of Humour - A practical reality for most leaders is that you’ll spend an awful lot of time in meetings or speaking in public. A good sense of humour helps to put across the message you want to convey more effectively and help smooth over awkward or tense moments in board meetings etc.
13. Wide Outlook – A good leadership trait is to be able to take a step back and take a look at the big picture. This is really one the main purpose of a leader, but so many managers instead choose to get bogged down in small decisions that should really be taken care of by someone else. While everyone is cleaning the deck and preparing the sails, somebody has to be looking where the ship is going.
12. Adaptability and Flexibility - A clear fact in life is that many things you enjoy will change, and many things you despise will quickly improve. As a leader, you must be able to cope with negative change, and also be able to quickly grab opportunities as soon as they appear. Less hesitation, and more asking the question “Ok, so how can I make the best of this situation”.
11. Human Understanding – A leader that can understand their employees and really be able to emphasis with the workforce or team as a whole will ultimately be a far more effective leader. Only by being able to put yourself in the shoes of your employees will you be able to make decisions that will enthuse and motivate your staff.
10. Clarity - Job roles and positions within companies can sometimes be at best – a complete mess. Business leadership is about separately and clearly identifying those roles and responsibilities and ensure that everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing.
9. Charisma – The skill of oratory has been perfectly demonstrated recently by Barrack Obama’s surge in popularity en route to the white house, and his continued popularity now that he has gained office. The ability to speak confidently and with meaning is a rare one, and carries much merit for those few who posess it. Increased influence and persuasion is just one of the positive benefits of being a leader with charisma.
8. Ability to Delegate – As I mentioned earlier, delegation is one of the perks of being promoted to a leadership position. Why is it then that so many leaders fail to delegate enough? Why do they continue to ‘meddle’ in small, trivial matters, and refuse to give subordinates the real responsibility and confidence to be able to make their own decisions? The answer is because it’s alot harder than you’d think to be able to properly delegate control to someone else. Especially the control over a job you’ve been doing yourself for many years. By undermining your subordinate’s ability to make decisions independently, you’re being a poor leader. That’s why the ability to delegate is one of my top 20 traits.
7. Calmness – Calmness is a leadership trait that again we could do with learning from President Obama. One of the most common pieces of praise I hear from President Obama is how he has stayed so calm under pressure. With the recession, middle east conflict and recent fiascos such as Swine Flu, Piracy and torture memos – it has sincerely impressed many that this man has been able to keep his composure and present a solid front. Any leader that can achieve this will instantly earn respect.
6. Ability to Listen – The fantastic leaders thorough history were also good listeners. Drawing upon the expertise and ideas of all those around you will improve your decision making. It follows that leaders who listen well simply make better decisions.
5. Confidence – Confidence flows through a team just like cheerfulness or a hardworking attitude. If the leader shows hesistation, self-doubt, or a lack of amibition, it will infect the rest of the team. Enthusiastically following an unconfident will really test employees attitude, and this is something you don’t want to be doing. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to enthusiastically follow your lead.
4. Consistency – This is a similar point to fairness. If you fail to be consistent with your attitude, decisions or behaviour, you will be causing unrest in your team.
3. Approachability & Friendliness – While many managers dream of being a superior and ‘feared’ leader, the most effective type of leader is an approachable one. A leader who an any employee can feel like they could have a conversation with will be able to hear about what the quiet dissenters have to say, or what the ‘real’ results of their latest intiative was.
2. Passion and Motivation – It goes without saying that a leadership trait that will be admired is your passion for what you do. Whatever your role, people will respect the fact that you take pride in your work, you enjoy it, and that you will therefore try your hardest to succeed. Passion and motivation will always trump formal leadership training or leadership coaching.
1. Trustworthiness - Ethics and trust has to come right at the top of the most important leadership traits for one simple reason. Nobody will obey, follow, or be inspired by someone they distrust. A good reputation, likeability and respect will be absolutely impossible if you’re labelled as a liar. Regardless of their own mal-practises, people will never be able to associate with an untrustworthy character.
Charismatic Leadership
May 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Leadership
Charismatic leadership is all about a superhero act. In an article titled “What exactly is charisma?” published in Fortune on January 15, 1996, Patricia Sellers says, “Charisma is a tricky thing. Jack Kennedy oozed it – but so did Hitler and Charles Manson. Con artists, charlatans, and megalomaniacs can make it their instrument as effectively as the best CEO’s, entertainers, and Presidents. Used wisely, it’s a blessing; indulged, it can be a curse. Charismatic visionaries lead people ahead, and sometimes astray.”
Practitioners of charismatic leadership have a firm belief that they can lead followers by unleashing their personal charm and grace. You can recognize one by the way he or she interacts with others – making each person feel like the most special on the planet!
While charismatic leadership is most often employed in the political arena where a large number of people have to be influenced within a short time, using little or no personal contact, it can be applied equally in a business situation. The leader seeks a “fan following”, and a devotion among followers which is usually absent from other forms of leadership. You can think of at least a couple of U.S. Presidents who had an almost hypnotic effect.
Charismatic leadership involves a great deal of theatrical behavior. A charismatic leader is a persuasive speaker, and a master of body language. Charismatic leaders are great at reading the occasion, and will tailor their behavior to suit the mood. At the same time, they are willing to take personal risk and make sacrifices in order to build their own credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of their followers. Once their leadership is established, they will try to carve a distinct identity for their group of followers, and build an image of superiority for it. At the same time, these leaders identify themselves so strongly with the group that the group and the leader become nearly synonymous.
Alternatively, smart people seeking to become more charismatic have often sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership. These days, most tend to be rather disappointing, but one e-course that is still respected by leadership professionals such as myself is the current industry leading course: ‘Apply Leadership‘ which I consider an essential ‘crash course’ in the principles you need to know to further your charisma or leadership skills and even find happiness in other areas of your life.
Academics have identified the following four stages of charismatic leadership:
Creating a new vision: Charismatic leaders are able to assess unfulfilled needs and opportunities in their environment and project their vision for a future without any shortcomings.
Articulating the vision: The leader will be able to communicate his belief in the vision to his followers and convince them of its viability.
Building trust: The next phase of charismatic leadership involves engendering trust among group members and securing their commitment.
Achieving the vision: The leader will set a personal example and empower others in order to sustain motivation so that the vision can be realized.
It may sound strange, but charismatic leadership is not necessarily an inborn trait. It can be learned and perfected, usually by watching the actions of other charismatic leader role models and modifying behavior in certain ways.
It is important to note that charismatic leadership can be a double edged sword. It all boils down to the motives of the leader. Charismatic leaders can be a bit insincere, more concerned about themselves than their followers. Such a tendency towards narcissism can do a great deal of damage to organizations. On the other hand, if their heart is in the right place, charismatic leaders can work magic like no other.
Leadership Vision
May 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Leadership
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.“ John F Kennedy, Former American President.
President Kennedy’s landmark vision “Landing on the Moon” When President, Kennedy quoted the above in the year 1961, he surely believed that his nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, by the end of the decade; America would be able to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth. That statement and plan would only come from a visionary and great leader. And it exemplifies the type of leadership we expect from such great leaders. We want the leaders to motivate by setting unthinkably high aspirations; even though there may be tremendous uncertainties we should face in the future to attain the goal. Now we know that Kennedy’s visionary statement became a reality and the man landed on the moon and came back to earth unharmed, without such a vision, such a landmark goal should not have been a reality. His vision was bold that it should be done at any cost.
What is a Vision Statement? Before deciding whether we need a vision statement, we first of all to know what this vision statement is?. A vision is a statement written or unwritten statement, which is just like our ambition to become, say what we will become after 5 years. A leadership vision should stretch an individual’s capabilities and image of himself. It gives shape and direction to our future. Our personal vision statement provides the direction necessary to guide the course of our days and the choices we make about our future. Our personal vision statement is a torch shining in the darkness to illuminate our way. Now we understood about the vision statement, now write our personal vision statement as a first step in focusing our life – for our joy, our accomplishments, our contribution, our glory, and for our legacy.
One of the qualities that a person must have is the ability to envision the future. Vision might seem an exalted ambition compared with the harsh realities of the future. But without vision, growth and achieving goals becomes difficult. Vision helps simplify the decision-making process, as organizations need to make hundreds of decisions per day to simple stay afloat in this environment. Without a view of the big picture for the future, making even a small decision can appear as a mountain to be climbed.
Alternatively, smart people have often forgone vision statements and sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership. These days, most tend to be rather disappointing, but one e-course that is still respected by leadership professionals such as myself is the current industry leader: ‘Apply Leadership‘, which I consider to be an essential ‘crash course’ in the principles you need to know to further your career or leadership skills and even find happiness in other areas of your life.
Visions range in length from a couple of words to several pages, but normally people prefer shorter vision statements because they can remember their shorter visions. Our unit has a vision too; To be the most preferred supplier of quality product in category to result in sales revenue of more than Rs.1000 crore by FY 2010 .
Here there are two examples of vision statements, one is for an individual and another is for the purposes of organizational leadership;
•“In 2010, I will be a head of a profit center in an organization of good repute in India” (Individual) •”We will become a recognized and respected hotel chain in Asia in 3 years.” (Organization)
How we can prepare vision statement:
1. First identify the goals.
2. Uncover the real, human value in those goals.
3. Identify what you value most about you, your goals how and how you will achieve your goals.
4. Combine your values & goals and polish the words until you have a vision statement inspiring yourselves enough to energize and motivate you.
To build a vision of the future requires a lot of time and effort and successful people are those who can strike a balance between both, combining vision and execution. Vision is painting a picture of tomorrow’s world before you. It is about imagining a future day in your life? With the values and goals, which you are making and keeping in mind for the changing competitive environment of future. It is about thinking through painstaking and crafting come out with productive solutions. To build a vision of the future, one needs to come at it from various angles, because technology and competition do not stand still.
Why is vision so important? If an individual is in the initial stages of his career, it cannot compete and win over others; however it can think of it in long term, as at present the others have a far better edge over you. The individual needs to envision the future advantages and disadvantages that will come and build a leadership vision based on that situation. It may take time for these opportunities to manifest. The person needs enough resources and patience for the coming years to face the uncertainties. It is not easy because today’s pressures and deadlines will tend to take precedence. Organizations have to make sure vision is not sacrificed considering the present circumstances.
To be effective, a vision must motivate people. President Kennedy’s vision to let land the first man on the moon by the end of the 1960’s and it is one of the most famous examples of effective leadership vision. To motivate people, a vision might be expressed in arousing tones. The leadership vision to first land the first human on the moon would have been motivational to the engineers and scientists who made it happen no matter how the vision was expressed. It was motivational for two reasons: it gave them a very concrete, time-bounded target and it was an exciting challenge for the people associated with the project, that is too with the support of the most powerful man on the land.
If you own a car rental company, creating a motivational vision would be harder. It is very difficult to know how much you have to do to improve the customer service at lower costs. You have no idea what the customers expect from you, meaning you have to put in lots of effort such as conducting a surveys and evaluations, what the competitors are doing for their customers. If you are already in the top 3 in this industry, you have also to know how much higher can you go? In that case, the most motivational vision for such a business might be to make it to number one over the next 3 years. If your vision is not time-related, it is very difficult to get excited about it, mainly because there is no sense of urgency to do anything new, but your vision must be having the mettle that your company will be No.1 in 5 years, but this needs a lot of bravery, since just preparing a vision statement is not enough, you have to the daringness to go ahead with your vision statement and to achieve your goals within the time period, you decided for yourself.
It is said that visionary leadership motivates staff to overcome tough challenges and to achieve goals, however for this we need to decide whether we really need a vision. We are often told that vision is an essential feature of great leader, then in that context, we also need a vision to execute our plans well for achieving our personal goals and to become successful.
Our personal success depends on how well we define and live by the vision we prepared for ourselves.