Exploring and Building Leadership

Exploring and Building Leadership

This statement of General George S. Patton Junior, prepared and circulated by Pyramid College; tells us to stay positive and proceed to achieve goals with determination.

It's must to follow our passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, we shouldn't let anyone limit our dreams. 

Leaders are known for moral values, ethical conduct, and their qualities. Before exploring the leadership qualities in self and building the same, it's must to understand a fundamental difference between "ego" and "rite". Remember - A person full of ego is pleased by bowing (down) to others, while A person full of rituals and moral values, becomes happy to honor himself by bowing down. 

It's fact that a tree with more fruits than its capacity face the problem of breaking of its branches die to heavy load of fruits. In real life, if a person gets more than his capacity to absorb, he also starts doing wrong deeds, be egostic and even start breaking relationships with others. We must remember to stay cool and build our absorbing power so that God can give us more as per enhanced capacities. The tree having more fruits than its capacity and broken branches, soon be deprived of getting fruits in future, similarly a person with full of ego and broken relationships start falling in harmonious relationships with others.  

Who is a leader?

A leader is identified by his followers, without followers, a person cannot be called a leader. How to make followers? How to take work from others? What are the tools used for effective and dynamic leadership? These all issues are the managerial issues everyone face in life. Becoming a leader is not so easy, it requires exploring leadership skills and try to inculcate the same in self. In order to become a good leader, one should follow the following equation:

Adoption of Leadership Styles + How to Lead : Discover the leader within you + Adoption of Leadership tools = A Good Leader

(a) Leadership Styles:

(i) Types of Leadership Styles:

Everyone should understand various types of leadership styles used around the world. A few of them are as under:

1)       Autocratic leadership

It is used where the leader has absolute power over his or her employees or team. Employees and team members have little opportunity for making suggestions, even if these would be in the team or organization’s interest. Autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. For some routine and unskilled jobs, the style can remain effective where the advantages of control outweigh the disadvantages.

2)       Bureaucratic leadership

Bureaucratic leaders work “by the book”, ensuring that their staff follows procedures exactly. This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances, or at heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such as cash-handling).

3)       Charismatic leadership

When a leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into his or her team, and is very energetic in driving others forward. However, a charismatic leader tends to believe more in him- or herself than in their team. This can create a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader were to leave. In the eyes of their followers, success is tied up with the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment from the leader.

It's truly said, "बुद्धिमान वह नहीं है जो अधिक पढ़ा लिखा है । बुद्धिमान वह है जो इस कला को जानता है कि कब किससे किन शब्दों और कैसी शैली में बात करनी है।"

4)       Democratic leadership or Participative leadership

A Democratic Leader invites other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process. This not only increases job satisfaction by involving employees or team members in what’s going on, but it also helps to develop people’s skills. As participation takes time, this approach can lead to things happening more slowly, but often the end result is better. The approach can be most suitable where team working is essential, and quality is more important than speed to market or productivity.

Democracy is decentralisation of Power. Perhaps more unsettling is the wealth of evidence that having power makes people more likely to act like sociopaths. High-power individuals are more likely to interrupt others, to speak out of turn, and to fail to look at others who are speaking. They are also more likely to tease friends and colleagues in hostile, humiliating fashion. 

5)       Laissez-faire leadership

This French phrase means “leave it be” and is used to describe a leader who leaves his or her colleagues to get on with their work. Most often, laissez-faire leadership works for teams in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters.

6)       People-oriented leadership or Relations-Oriented leadership

Where the leader is totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in the leader’s team. A participative style, it tends to lead to good teamwork and creative collaboration. In practice, most leaders use both task-oriented and people-oriented styles of leadership.

7)       Servant leadership

A leader who is often not formally recognized as such. When someone, at any level within an organization, leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of his or her team, he or she is described as a “servant leader”. Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest it is an important way where values are increasingly important, in which servant leaders achieve power on the basis of their values and ideals. Others believe that in competitive leadership situations, people practicing servant leadership will often find themselves left behind by leaders using other leadership styles.

8)       Task-oriented leadership

A highly task-oriented leader focuses only on getting the job done, and can be quite autocratic. He or she will actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in place, plan, organise and monitor.

9)       Transactional leadership

This style of leadership starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader totally when they take on a job: the “transaction” is (usually) that the organization pays the team members in return for their effort and compliance. You have a right to “punish” the team members if their work doesn’t meet the pre-determined standard. The leader could give team members some control of their income/reward by using incentives that encourage even higher standards or greater productivity.

10)  Transformational leadership:

A person with this leadership style is a true leader who inspires his or her team constantly with a shared vision of the future. Transformational leaders are highly visible, and spend a lot of time communicating. They tend to delegate responsibility amongst their team.

11)  Situational leadership

A good leader will find him- or herself switching instinctively between styles according to the people and work they are dealing with. This is often referred to as “situational leadership”. For example, the manager of a small factory trains new machine operatives using a bureaucratic style to ensure operatives know the procedures that achieve the right standards of product quality and workplace safety. The same manager may adopt a more participative style of leadership when working on production line improvement with his or her team of supervisors.

(ii) Adoption of Leadership Styles:

From Mahatma Gandhi to Jack Welch and Martin Luther King to Rudolph Giuliani, there are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Whether you are managing a team at work, captaining your sports team or leading a major corporation, your leadership style is crucial to your success. Understanding these leadership styles and their impact can help you develop and adapt your own leadership style and so help you become a more effective leader.

(b) Discovering, Building, and Sustaining Leadership Qualities:

Do you want to be a highly effective leader? Do you want to develop the self-confidence, vision, wisdom, motivational impact and delivery skills that the most effective leaders have? And do you want to be the person to whom, quite naturally, other people turn for direction? What to do for discovering, building, and sustaining leadership qualities? The following steps are usually used by the people for becoming an effective leader and the same may be followed in life:

Ø  Create a reliable, robust and attractive vision of the future that people will respect and believe in (meaning that they'll enthusiastically follow your lead);

Ø  Communicate your vision, and see the benefits as people work to the best of their abilities to complete the projects you initiate successfully;

Ø  Grow your self-confidence, becoming a calm and self-confident leader, and one who inspires confidence in others;

Ø  Build a reputation for expertise and a track record of achievement that teams members and your peers will come to respect, value and trust;

Ø  Make good decisions under pressure, with the confidence that you’ve done the homework needed for these decisions to be right;

Ø  Build a strong, flexible and highly effective team, expanding your ability to deliver many times over;

Ø  Develop the sureness of touch shown by the best leaders, and learn to build the empathic, mutually trusting relationships needed for maximum team performance;

Ø  Enjoy mutually rewarding, co-operative working relationships with team members and peers. And enjoy the happy, energizing atmosphere that comes with this;

Ø  Keep people on target and performing well together in a “firm but fair way” that gets the job done while respecting the rights of team members;

Ø  Learn to inspire and motivate team members so that they'll "go to the ends of the Earth" to give their very best;

Ø  Become a truly inspirational leader, and enjoy the perks that come with this.

(c) Leadership Tools:

The leadership tools are those personality traits and behavioral aspects which are noticed in most of the leaders; recognized as best support to a person for becoming an effective leader:

Ø  Empower the subordinates to think like leaders themselves:

Great leaders don’t just lead by example; they know when and where to delegate. They respect their skills and competencies to fulfill their work. They monitor, motivate, scale up goals, give ideas and direction of others to succeed in life. They prefer working relationships instead of personal relationships.

Ø  Talent Hunt followed by building skills of newcomers:

The leaders hire best from the market of job-seekers and provide sufficient training to build others’ skills in the working environment. They make others responsible with providing proper authority to complete the tasks.

Ø  Be more creative and innovative:

The leaders require to become creative and innovative constantly in each function they perform. This personality trait makes them different and they sustain themselves with focusing upon their Strengths and Weaknesses, keeping eyes upon opportunities and threats.  In other words, with SWOT analysis, they not only improve their capacities and competencies but also expand the organizational activities.

Ø  Make Vishnu’s symbols your management tools:

There are four symbols of lord Vishnu i.e. Shankh, Chakra, Gada, and Lotus. First, the Shankh of conchshell trumpet, is used to announce their presence in the organization. The team or followers must know- who he is, what are his capabilities, what is his vision, and what he expects from his followers to perform, and why, and how this will help in achieving his final objective. Second, the Chakra, works as both a weapon and a symbol of life. A leader use it as a symbol of review and he reviews his followers’ progress or organization’s progress through organizing regular meetings on daily basis or weekly, monthly basis etc. With these meetings, he ensures regular checks what has been done and also keep attention on the overall aim. He ensures that the team has not drifted from the goal. Third, the Gada i.e. Mace is used as teacher’s ruler, to punish those who do not do what they are supposed to do. Fourth, the Lotus which is rich with nectar and attracts bees and butterfly, is a symbol which reminds him to award the people who do what they are supposed to do.

Ø  Think positive:

Thinking positive make the leader able to take accurate decisions for being proceeded in the right direction.

Ø  Advisory approach/give them a place to go:

A leader is well aware that a person with a place to go (promotion chances) always work hard and sustain for the welfare of the organization. He always adopts advisory approach and shows followers a place to go for keeping them engaged throughout their life.

Ø  Provide positive workplace culture:

The positive workplace culture includes motivation, productivity, quality work, retention etc. A leader ensures positive workplace culture at the workspace and helps in building positive attitude towards the company/organization.

Ø  Behave as a friend not as a boss/ Genuine helping hand to everyone:

A leader most of the time use his emotions and behave like a friend instead of a boss. He tried to make favors whenever required i.e. keep genuine helping hand ready for the followers. Let’s recall ‘Pyar ki Ghappi’ in the hindi movie ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ to make others convinced to follow leader. A leader well knows that a human touch makes a person bright in others’ eyes and he use for taking work from others.

*Copyright © 2019 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

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