You Can be Great If You Really Want To

Much has been written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history. But there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognize and realize in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of things you thought you knew about leadership.

1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

*  Lewinís three basic leadership styles ñ authoritative, participative, and delegative
*  Likertís four leadership styles ñ exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative
*  Golemanís six emotional leadership styles – visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.   

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes ìaction speaks louder than words.î Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a personís character. Steven Coveyís book entitled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

How come dictatorship works for Singapore but not in the United States of America? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nationís leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Another case in point is in leading organizations. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you are reminded of these things, keep in mind that there are always ideas that we think we already know; concepts we take for granted, but are actually the most useful insights on leadership.

 

The interview was great and time flew by. Leon shared his knowledge on such subjects as building customer relationships, making that jump from Technician to Manager, shaving hours off his working day, long-term goal setting, delegation skills, sharing his passion for productivity and, of course, blogging.

Last week, I listened to the interview with Leon again as sometimes when you listen to something the second, third or fourth time, you hear something new. That is the great benefit of audio. As you are listening, your mind wanders and you miss something. Listen again and it is as if you are hearing something completely new each time.

Easy Question To Ask, Difficult Question To Answer

This last time of listening, Leon’s discussion on ‘Long-term Goal Setting’ jumped out for me.

I realised that I had never set long-term goals (i.e. 5 or 10 years away) for myself. Well not seriously anyway.

It is a bit like the question at an interview ‘Where do you want to be in 5 years time?’ An easy question to ask. A hard one to answer.

I think most individuals answer by saying ‘In your position’!

Leon’s passion is sharing his knowledge on productivity, software engineering and company start-ups. Everything Leon does today ensures he is one-step closer to achieving his long-term goals in each of his passions.

That is what gives Leon his energy, his passion, his drive to succeed and why he has been so successful in his short career.

So do you have long-term goals?

Leon suggests he would not be where he is today if he did not set himself long-term goals.

Here are six steps to support you to creating long-term goals:

You need to understand your passions. There is no point in creating a future for yourself, which you are not passionate about.

What are your strengths? You have a far superior chance of succeeding if you use your natural strengths.

Your passion can be different to your strengths. Your passion maybe writing but it just might not come natural to you.

If you are unsure of your real passions and strengths, try out new things. What are you naturally good at? What excites you? What task are you doing when time just flies by?

What task would you love to do and would be willing NOT to receive income for it?

That is a great question isn’t it.

Once you understand your passions and strengths, take your time to set your goals. Once set, see yourself achieving the goal NOW. What does it look like? Does it feel right? Does it excite you? Your answers will know if you have set the right goals.

Once you are happy with your goals, write them down and read them everyday. Also, add to each goal, all the major tasks that you have completed which gets you closer to achieving the goal. By reading them everyday it will help focus you and give you the energy to move towards them

Regularly review your goals – at least quarterly. You can always add to them, change them, and tweak them to meet your new requirements.

Therefore, if you do not have long-term goals, set some time aside over the next few days and follow the six steps. They can make a huge difference to your success and life.