Leadership has never been an easy job. When leaders fail, the company suffers. When the leader stops leading, the company comes to a screeching halt. Leadership is more than meets the eye.
This article will challenge you, in the words of Brian Tracy, to "become the type of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position."
Listen
On Thursday, we saw the UK prime minister, Liz Truss, resign after 45 days in power. That brought more questions that every leader should consider. One of the comments on BBC highlighted that Liz Truss was a person that did not take advice from other people.
After her resignation, UK markets closed higher.
Most leaders want to spell out their dreams, aspirations and vision. That is very important, but leadership goes beyond that. A leader must be willing to listen and take advice.
We should not only listen to hear the words but understand why the questions are asked. But, can you listen if you don’t love?
Love
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People must be loved before they are led. The easy way to lead people is by loving them first. People should not be taken as objects and subjects for use.
Some people eliminate others for them to lead. Some people inflict pain, to be in power. Think of a leader that has inflicted pain.
We have presidents, chief executives, and human resource leaders that thrive on giving others pain. Remember, you might forget the pain you inflicted on others but they might not forget how you made them feel.
Learn to lead from the heart. The heart feels. The heart has an emotion. The heart cares. Give people your heart and it becomes easy for them to give you their hand. At the heart of leadership is learning.
Learn
Leadership is not just about the information you acquired from university, even though that might be important. Leadership is learning.
Learn how to handle different people. Learn the rules of the game. Learn to love and listen. The world is transitioning at brake neck speed because of information and communication and that demands leaders that are willing to change.
Link the dots
Life always gives us experiences. This experience gives the leaders wisdom. The hard time you faced as a leader was teaching you the ability to endure.
Life has dots of pain. Life has dots of happiness and joy. All those give us experience. If we can learn from our past, we would have no problem accepting that life is yet to bring more lessons.
Look
The power of the leader is their eye for opportunity. This kind of intuition is at times dangerous because it goes against conventional thinking, but the upshot is you could be seeing what others cannot see.
Lead
The world is still yearning for leaders. We have politicians who are hungry for fame and positions. We have managers who control instead of leading. Warren Bennis in his book, On Becoming a Leader (1989), gave significant juxtapositions between leadership and management:
“The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager is a copy; the leader is original. The manager maintains; the leader develops.The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people. The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
“The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
The manager has his eyes always on the bottom line; the leader has his eyes on the horizon. The manager initiates; the leader originates. The manager accepts the status quo, the leader challenges it. The manager does things right; the leaders does the right thing.”
