Total Leadership: What kind of a leader are you?

If your employees were given the opportunity to fire you, how soon will you be out the door? I think that is a food for thought. I believe before you finish reading this article, you will be able to answer that question. The ability to lead effectively and harmoniously harness your employee's strengths and abilities to become better people makes you an excellent boss. Remember, bad bosses aren’t good for anyone’s health. Today’s managers must be self-aware, observant, assisting and understanding in order to get the best from their employees and achieve their stated objectives. After all it is result that counts, and not just being a boss.
Total leadership is the ability of a leader to give birth to "himself". Lion gives birth to lion, monkey gives birth to monkey, and a true leader gives birth to leaders not followers. As a popular biblical verse says, "Every seed produces after its kind". Your leadership becomes questionable when people you are leading are not following your path. Following means they take after your exemplary lifestyle and foot print.

Leadership is a term that means different things to different people and in different contexts. But one thing stands out, and that is, leadership involves people and it has a lot to do with influence and sacrifice, even to your own hurt for the good of others.

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and direct an organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent, in the sense that the leader unifies, solidifies and articulate its members through influencing them to not only buy in to the vision of the organization but to also live it. Leaders carry out the process of influence by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, value skills, traits and ethics, which we shall discuss later. Therefore, a leader does not boss but leads members to become better employees.

The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to the organization. In your employee's eyes, your leadership is everything you do that affects the organization’s objectives and their well being. Effective leaders understand that leadership is not a position but the life that we LIVE! Your position or title does not necessarily make you a LEADER. Your influence in life has less to do with your position or title than it does with the life that you live. As John Maxwell rightly said, it is not the education we get, but the empowerment we give that makes a difference to others?

To be a total leader, your followers must have trust in you and they need to be completely sold out to your vision. Kon-Ferry International, an executive search company, performed a survey on what organizations want from their leaders. The respondent say they wanted people who were both ethical and who convey a strong vision of the future. Leaders can clearly communicate vision because people are motivated by a leader who knows where he is going. As a leader, how has your vision for this year been? Are you working towards it or away from it? Have you caught a vision for the future (even though in the present) which you can communicate to your people to prepare them ahead? The ability to communicate effectively your vision breeds confidence in your people. As Jack Welch said, "Building self-confidence in others is a huge part of leadership". As a total leader, your employees find refuge in you when you show the way to the future.

In an organization, a leader's action set the pace. They have the ability to study people and know what motivates them. They give credit to others first before taking it for themselves. Most importantly, they are prepared to ACT and act NOW because they are naturally "proactive" and not "reactive". This behavior wins trust, loyalty and ensures the organization’s continued vitality.

As stated earlier, one of the ways a leader can build trust and influence the employee is to display a good sense of attributes composed of beliefs, values, skills, traits and ethics: Beliefs are what we hold dearly to us and are rooted deeply within us. They could be assumptions or conviction that you hold true regarding yourself, people, concept, or things. Leaders hold strong positive belief about themselves and others. Values are those peculiar qualities that we hold on to our lives that marks our individual personality and uniqueness. For instance, values like integrity, excellence, credibility, trustworthy, service are all important to our lives. You can only pursue what you value. If you are not excellence minded you can’t pursue it.

Your values can be expressed in your attitudes about the worth of people, concepts, or things. How much value do you place on yourself? A leader not only has a strong belief about himself but also attach strong value to others. Values are important as they influence a person’s behavior to weigh the importance of alternatives. Skills are the knowledge and abilities that a person gains throughout life. The ability to learn a new skill varies with each individual. Some skills come almost naturally, while others come only by complete devotion to study and practice. Leaders devotes to continuous personal development. Traits are the distinguishing qualities or characteristics of person. It is innate and we all have a measure of it to function as leaders. Traits includes attributes like confidence, courage, charisma etc.. Ethics on the other hand, is about morals--distinguishing between good and bad, right and wrong, and then doing the right thing. Effective leaders know that the choices they make on a daily bases is crucial because they are continuously observed by their followers, and thus, they make quality decision to set a high moral standard for themselves. As a leader, you need all these attributes to be able to function effectively in leading others.
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What is Leadership?
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Are Leaders Born or Made?
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