The mere mention of a leader evokes visions of achievement, such as Elon Musk, the inventor of Tesla Motors, Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement, and Prime Minister Jacinda Adern of New Zealand. They not only lead well under very difficult conditions, but they are also (usually) widely admired.
How did they develop into outstanding leaders along their life’s journey?
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Naturally, not all leaders are effective; we can all recall managers who had bad leadership qualities. However, is understanding the distinction between the traits of effective and ineffective leadership sufficient to guarantee our success as leaders? It takes a variety of abilities to be a leader, but the good news is that all of these traits can be developed. This article outlines the abilities you may currently possess as well as some areas for improvement that you may work on to become a good leader.
1. Being a leader is not just about you
Enabling and empowering a team to accomplish both group and individual goals is the main responsibility of a leader. A desire to serve is at the core of it all, even if it may include training, teaching, and delegating. Successful leaders adhere to the team-building tenets of servant leadership. These guidelines include anything from comprehensive personal development courses to the straightforward idea of knowing how your team members like to be compensated. Servant leadership is more about enabling people to achieve than it is about ceding power.
The Master of Leadership program at Deakin University is taught by Dr. Andrea North-Samardzic. Dr. North-Samardzic cautions against committing to a single leadership style, even if she advocates for the traits of servant leadership.
Sometimes you need to be more of a manager than a leader, therefore being able to be adaptable and flexible is more important than just wearing a badge.
According to Dr. North-Samardzic, “a good leader is someone who knows when to turn it on and when to turn it off.”
Asking your team for input is crucial if you are embracing your servant leader side. Since many leaders don’t want to know the truth, they avoid asking for honest criticism, which may be a scary process! However, the challenges brought up during team feedback requests offer a road map for effective leadership. If these problems are fixed, you’ll have more motivated employees who believe their work matters.
2. Integrity, humility, and honesty
Honesty and integrity are essential qualities of a successful leader, yet both seem to be seriously missing. According to a US poll, half of all workers said their managers lie and claim credit for any positive outcomes. These leaders failed to fulfill their commitments, failed to give credit where credit was due, and covered up their faults by placing the blame elsewhere. Because of this, employees were dissatisfied with their positions, less inclined to take on further responsibilities, and more ready to quit.
Is a sports referee a leader in your opinion? They have power, they assist groups in achieving a goal (whether that goal is good or bad depends on whose side you support!), and they are nothing without honesty and integrity. Umpires and referees are also masters of humility, or the trait of humility. Identifying one’s talents and shortcomings, striving for personal growth, and realizing that no one is more significant than the collective are among the fundamental beliefs and behaviors that NRL referees have embraced.
Referees exhibit many leadership traits, but they are deficient in empathy and compassion, two essential components of constructive leadership. Referees are forced to make tough choices and cannot afford to consider players’ sentiments. On the other side, a good team leader may accomplish better results by handling disagreement with understanding and compassion. Empathy is the capacity to identify another person’s feelings, whereas compassion is the drive to assist others in their emotional, mental, or physical suffering.
To put it briefly, you are demonstrating compassion and empathy as a leader if you are aware of how a member of your team is feeling and utilize that understanding to assist them. It has been demonstrated that even a fleeting sense of empathy for a teammate might be sufficient to divert attention from our own feelings. Take advantage of this opportunity to give that team member your whole attention and assist them in reaching a common objective.
3. Take responsibility for yourself and your team.
Away from the athletic field, coaching is an essential leadership skill that enables you to keep yourself and your team accountable without embarrassing anybody. You may engage with a team or an individual to help them take ownership of a goal while ensuring that everyone is aware of the present hurdles and realities by using techniques like the GROW model. But the most crucial phase is to consider the future, where you need to find out how devoted you are to the individual you are mentoring. It will be simpler to attain accountability if you know the solution beforehand.
One of the most important leadership traits, according to Dr. Andrea North-Samardzic, is that effective leaders hold themselves accountable in addition to their team.
“You must reflect on yourself if you want to be a successful leader. You’re in a fantastic position if you can identify your own shortcomings and difficulties before someone else does.
Dr. North-Samardzic claims that the parliamentary examination of the four main banks exposed the need for introspection among Australian business executives.