leadership_matters

Articles on Leadership Matters:

Leadership!

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. · Lewin's three basic leadership styles - authoritative, participative, and delegative · Likert's four leadership styles - exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative · Goleman's 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 "action speaks louder than words." 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 person's character. Steven Covey's 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 nation's 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.

Ian Fernando
24 Dec 2006

Ian Fernando is an "Iantrepreneur" creating theIanternet.com, which provides useful tools and articles to help inspire the soon to be next millionaire! Visit theIanternet.com for more informational products/ audio about online business/marketing tools/ eBooks/ and articles to your success!

To Think Big As A Leader, Think Smal First

How often have you heard, "You want me to do what? Get someone else!"

When you feel you're too important to help in some menial, but necessary task, you're only fooling yourself. You will never be exempt from the mundane. The upside is: that's what helps to build character to make you a stronger leader.

My father used to say, "Son, no matter what you do in life whether it's mopping a floor on up to leading men in the military, if you should die doing it, they should be able to say it was your finest hour."

As a result, my attitude became, "Do you want me to chair the meeting or set up the chairs for the meeting?" I encourage you to adopt that attitude and adapt it to your everyday life. Some call that "servant
leadership." It worked for me and it will work for you. That process helped me eventually get my dream job.

It doesn't matter the size of the task. That's not relevant. The question is, "Does it need to be done?" Are you the one in a position to do it? If so, get busy. We would all like prestige assignments and
jobs, but life "ain't" always cooperative that way.

In a recent episode of The Apprentice, one of the candidates refused to carry out a task that she thought was beneath her. Her team lost and she was fired because of that attitude. When you find yourself in
a situation such as that, step up and accept the challenge graciously (remember my father's advice).

People are watching, both up and down the line and they are all in a position to propel your career. But, don't do it for that reason. Do it because it's right. Small seemingly insignificant tasks are opportunities to show the size of your character.

These tasks are dues you're paying for recognition to finally come your way. How? Watch the U.S. Tennis Open some time and see young players serve the ball over 100 miles per hour into a small area over 30 feet away. You'll see an example of how little tasks helped
them graduate to bigger tasks that translated into impressive skills, recognition and monetary rewards.

Long before they served that first ball in a championship match they practiced small, seemingly insignificant tasks to become better at what they do. Unlike many less serious players they didn't start out just hitting the ball. For hours on end, day after day, month after month they practiced throwing the ball up about two feet in front of them and high enough so that their racquet would come over the top at the apex. They did this time after time before ever even swinging a racquet at it.

I know of one player, in order to perfect the toss, would wear a blindfold and practice for hours just throwing the ball up so that it became so automatic he could do it in the dark. Those small, seemingly
insignificant tasks, coupled with many others, when put together spelled championship status for those willing to do the drudge work.

Leadership is a lot like that. How do you practice leadership? You take every task, no matter how small and approach it like it's the most important task you'll ever get. Those exercises will help you make good leadership almost automatic. They will lead to recognition and rewards that others, with a self image that they are too "cool" to be so disciplined and motivated, only dream about.

Your servant leader's heart is revealed in little acts, done without fanfare or expectations, that others generally don't think of or wouldn't want to do. Rick Warren, in his book "The Purpose Driven Life" states, "Great opportunities often disguise themselves in small tasks. The little things in life determine the big things."

May you have many little tasks that lead to big successes.

©2006 Real Leaders Institute, LLC

John Nicholas
24 Jan 2007

John Nicholas, a successful leader, advises "Job proficiency is not enough! You need leadership skills to get ahead and all it takes is a slight edge." To gain the edge with more free HOW TO leadership articles and a bonus visit http://www.GainingTheEdge.com.