Inspire excellence around you
The definition of leadership can differ but the principle is defined as ‘the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants’ and a successful leader understands people’s motivation. They engage people with the company vision and connects individual needs and interests to help reach that vision
The person that successfully gathers humans to collaborate and achieve a particular end task is a leader. A great leader is someone who can do that day after day, in a wide variety of circumstances. They demonstrate strong values and clear performance standards, but most importantly they inspire excellence and coach to meet and exceed these targets.
Back to school. Reading, taking a course online or simply enhancing your knowledge is definitely a key factor when trying to improve your leadership skills. However, after we graduate from university and become part of a company or start our own, the type of school we must focus on is not the kind that we can get a degree from.
Just take the time to learn consistently for a long period of time about leadership. Take advantage of your network, ask for feedback, get a mentor to help you develop this professional skill. The more you continually evolve and the hours you put, the more you will be able to keep up with changing times.
Another important characteristic of a great leader is listening. Being able to switch off and actively listen without being distracted will be noticed. This is where your experience and people skills will come into place. A lot of people are discouraged when you start talking but the other party is not paying attention. It is a fact that the next time this person speaks, there will be less information shared and a desire to talk.
Observe your emotions and the other party that is leading the conversation. Be mindful. Has something happened that impacted the way they talk, ask open-ended questions but never interrogate.
As a leader, you are the orchestra leader — trying to capture people’s satisfaction in the common enterprise and create fulfilment for all members, so they can hold to their role. It is a lot more than just understanding people, being nice and aware of how to motivate. There are views that democracy implies no division of authority, that everyone can be their own manager. In business, this is almost impossible to achieve. However, what strategy can be put in place is providing that recognition of responsibilities, where each person is satisfied and fulfil their major interests.
Where the secret sauce hide is where most people don’t appreciate it as much. The people you coach are the ones that can help you improve. They are following your guidance and trust your capabilities but if you don’t reflect on what you’ve done and ask them for feedback, it will be really difficult to spot the blind spots.
As the photo above suggests:
- Inspire people to move in the right direction.
- Stimulate, motivate and challenge people intellectually.
- As a transformational leader, you must consider each individual separately.
- Leaders have a huge influence, so you must think beyond the call of duty and deliver the best.
To put this into a real-life example let's review Steve Jobs. He was one of the greatest and iconic transformational leaders we have ever seen. The Apple founder had a passion for perfection, simplicity and vision for his company that he tried to engrave into every staff member. He always challenged his team to think beyond what everyone already knows and have done, which helped Apple create products that the world didn’t even know were needed at the time.
