WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE LEADER?
Corporate environments thrive on the bedrock of human behaviour. The total of the behaviour exhibited by the leaders while interacting with customers, communities, suppliers, employees and financers, defines the prevailing culture and disposition of the organisation. Leaders operate within this inner circle with an intent to create value and channelise such effort towards the organisational outcomes. This entails operating in a dynamic and unpredictable landscape of human relationships and at times blurred business outcomes. An essential function of corporate leadership is to shape, nurture and direct people towards a chosen shared purpose to achieve the objectives of the business in a manner that balances the scorecard.
The seven essential attributes for developing leadership traits that fulfil this function are:
Feet on Ground
Often, corporate culture creates an illusion of rank specialists and role superiority. Groups get formed based on specialisations and designated roles. An inherent hierarchy gets created within such groups thereby forming various rank and file structures. This rank and file become siloed into self-managing teams which work independently of each other. A leader should be aware of such eventualities and prevent himself from identifying within any of such groups. He should always have his feet firm on the ground and endeavour to integrate self-performing teams into a greater whole. The more ‘grounded’ a leader is, the greater the clarity in deciphering where teams are getting into autonomous self-fulfilling modes.
Habit Formation
Effective leaders understand the primary habits that generate people to act. He should instil habits that fulfil the purpose for which people work in the company. Habits create routine and routines enable clarity of purpose. For example, when an employee is made to imbibe a habit of giving candid feedback, he or she will get to know the purpose of shared communication and interpersonal relationships from the context of the work they perform. A leader should allow habits to emanate from the employees themselves to achieve ownership and participation in its existence.
Foster Candour
Candour is the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. Leaders are not insecure about themselves or the people they interact with. High self-awareness results in high relationship management. Healthy relationships are irrigated by allowing candour and free self-expression. People should be given avenues and opportunities to speak up and express freely. Adequate space should be created at various levels of hierarchy to allow generation of free speech without repercussion or blowback. Candour also enables trust formation and a deep sense of respect for another point of view.
Be Curious
Corporate governance involves a continuous loop of learning and unlearning. Things happen frequently and impact the business without warning. Effective leaders should always have red flags to monitor prevailing perceptions and be ever curious to know the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of things happening around them. They should thirst for knowing where gaps exist and how they can be filled up. A good leader is always wanting to know more and should never be satisfied with just one single answer or solution. Effective corporate leaders can never stay in a zone of comfort, this would mean slipping into the toxic cesspools of ‘status quo’.
Understand the Human Being
Leaders should clearly understand the distinction between a human and a human being. The former is an entity, the latter is a personality. The ‘being’ is the persona. Each person is unique in his way of ‘being’ concerning expression, habit thought and conduct. Leaders should be mindful of this essential human trait and approach each human as a person, not a resource. A person with distinct capabilities and capacities. A person with an identity and sets of ideals and beliefs. Respecting and understanding the way of ‘being’ enables a leader to connect with the people he influences in a more empowered emotional context.
Explore and Discover
The corporate arena is a place to explore and discover. Leaders should uncover new ways of doing things and inspire people in this journey of exploration and new learning. Effective leaders are always in a mode of discovery and should share their experiences. One of the most essential attributes of an outstanding leader is one who is bold enough to take on new challenges and explore avenues seldom visited. Facets of courage, resilience and determination get moulded when a leader immerses himself in a life of self-discovery and exploration. A leader who is not eager to sail beyond the visible horizon is doomed to perish in the sea of inertia.
Cultivate Empathy
The most important and overriding step towards effective leadership is to cultivate a sustained and credible sense of empathy. A leader should be aware that he is not stepping on other’s toes while having an intent of stepping into their shoes! Respect, trust, commitment and loyalty emanate from deep-rooted empathy. Allowing the other to be what they are, how they are and why they are creating a zone of acceptance. An acceptance that is set in an emotional context and strengthens the relationship. Leaders need to empathize with another’s the view and remain steadfast with little or no bias, judgement or coloured consideration. He who accepts the other without conditions is the one who gets access into that person’s world. Leaders are not islands of excellence. They derive their leadership identity from the followers, the teams they lead and the new leaders they develop. The measure of the effectiveness of a leader is directly proportional to the degree of acceptance they enjoy from their leaders they develop. Hence, a leader is people dependent.
LEADERS JOURNEY STARTS WITH SELF AWARENESS
We at Leadership-Tribe have designed all our structures around the vital construct of ‘People Connect’. We believe it is all about the human context. Join us in our meetups and courses to delve deeper into these fundamentals and get to know more of how you can relate more with your own self and others, and in the process, develop the leader that resides in you.
