Definition of a Great Leader
“At the deepest level, a leader is the symbolic soul of the Team.
His role is to fulfil the needs of others and, when each need is met,
to lead the group on to fulfill even higher needs, lifting the team’s
potential at every step (Deepak Chopra, Soul of Leadership).”
So what are five tips to being a great leader?
Communication
The capacity to generate and share assertive, timely two way communication, adapting verbal and nonverbal cues for different stakeholders, in order to attain established objectives. Ultimately to keep your employees motivated, connected and performing.
Communication is not one way: i.e., you telling your team what to do. Your team has to hear what you say, digest it, and really understand what you mean. If they don’t “get it,” you haven’t communicated well. If they don’t “get it,” they can’t “do it.”
Delegation
Lead and let go by delegating. Are you spending time as a leader on activities that is better left to your subordinates? How will they progress if you do not allow them to build the breadth of their experience by you operating at the incorrect leadership level? Eliminate overlapping responsibilities. Create a strong team and trust them to do the work. If you don't do your job & lead, it makes it difficult for anyone who works to do theirs. You want right people at the right leadership levels.
Role Model
Show up with integrity and honesty. How you behave at work, home and in life should display your values consistently. This should not change from the workplace to outside of work.
Emotional Intelligence
Great leaders constantly work on their emotional intelligence. They are mindful of themselves and knee jerk reactions so that they can self-regulate and stay calm when facing difficult situations. They demonstrate the ability to handle constant stress with energy and motivation. They have the ability to interpret and understand the thoughts, behaviours, feeling and concerns of people. They demonstrate excellent relationship building management.
Courage
True leaders display great courage. It’s having the ability to stop someone immediately when they veering off track and steering them in the right direction. Refocus their behaviours. Having the ability to handle the difficult conversations. It’s also having the courage to step up and let someone know when they doing the right thing. Courage to display constant recognition.
A strategic thinker
As Peter Drucker said “the best way to predict the future is to create it” As a leader you need to be looking at what is right for now, what is right for in a years’ time and what is right for in 3 years’ and five years’ time. Are you anticipating the 4th industrial revolution and the change that comes with that? Besides the pressing near term challenges you may be experiencing right now have you thought about the success of your business down the line.
Contact michelle@one-solution.co.za to assist you to develop a leadership development program to strengthen your future potential leadership pipeline. Through coaching and assessments we will help you each step of the way to enhance specific leadership skills, speed up the pace of change, and develop firm leadership capabilities and competencies.
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