Leadership can be described as the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal or purpose. Being so easy to define, it is much harder to execute.
Are you born a leader, or can you learn to become a leader? These are the important questions we need to answer in order to unlock our fullest leadership potential.
Yes, leadership may come easier to some than others. This differs from person to person and ultimately depends on the person’s personal attributes, previous work and life experiences, as well as their drive to succeed. However, this does not mean that you are either born with leadership qualities or not.
William Shakespeare said: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”.
So, if every person has the underlying ability to unleash and foster their leadership potential, how does one do this? This question, unfortunately, cannot be answered by way of a rigid and closed list of “criteria for success”. I believe, through the understanding of the three major factors of great leadership, we can each begin to visualise the type of positive behaviour that could propel us towards greatness.
- Inspire, instead of order: The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority. This concept has everything to do with positive reinforcement. Ordering a co-worker or team member to complete a task in which he or she has had no input and fosters no interest, will almost always lead to undesirable results. Being a leader involves not ordering, but inspiring others to engage in the task of achieving common goals, whilst highlighting the fact that the respective persons’ contribution towards such goal is nothing short of invaluable. When people believe in, and are excited about the goal that they have been tasked with achieving, such a goal is not only achieved over a shorter period of timebut yields results far more advantageous that initially conceived.
- Don’t place all the focus on seniority or status: Leadership has absolutely nothing to do with seniority. Believing you will become a leader once you are appointed as a director or CEO of a company only keeps you from ever achieving this goal. A leader learns how to lead from behind before they are able to lead from the front. A leader is someone that, despite their status or seniority, is invested in the common goal and proactively ensures that steps are taken by them and their team to achieve their stated goals.
- Focus on managing delivery of vision: In order to inspire others, you need to have ideas and provide vision. Vision is the only thing that fosters direction.Only once a team has a vision in mind will they be able to set the requisite short-term and long-term goals. Monthly meetings, where common goals are discussed, along with the route each team or person must take to achieve their goals are excellent ways to focus on your company’s vision and inspire people to work towards it.
Great leaders don’t set out to be leaders, they set out to make a difference.
Focus on the goal, not the role.
Author: Paige Courtney Sharman – Candidate Attorney, Biccari Bollo Mariano Inc.