Leadership

What is Leadership?


"Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right."

- Professor Warren G. Bennis



"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower



The word "leadership" can bring a variety of images to mind. For example:

• An army officer, charging forward to meet the enemy.

• An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his party to follow.

• An executive, developing her company's strategy to remain ahead of the competition.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization. Leadership is dynamic, vibrant, and inspiring.



Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their team to the right destination in a smooth and efficient way.





Leadership: A Definition



According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who does the following:

1. Creates an inspiring vision of the future.

2. Encourages and motivates people to engage with that vision.

3. Manages delivery of the vision.

4. Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.

To become an effective leader, you need to learn the skills needed to do these things. We'll look at each element in more detail.

1. Creating an Inspiring Vision of the Future



In business, a vision is a realistic, convincing and attractive "best case" depiction of where you want to be in the future. With a clear vision, you can provide direction, set priorities, and establish targets, so that you can tell that you've achieved what you wanted to achieve.



Therefore, leadership is proactive - problem solving, looking ahead, and not being satisfied with things as they are.



Once they have developed their visions, leaders must make them compelling and convincing. A compelling vision is one that people can see in their minds, feel, understand, and embrace. As such, effective leaders provide a rich picture of what the future will look like when their visions have been realized. They tell powerful stories, and they explain their visions in ways that everyone can relate to.



Here, leaders combine the analytical side of vision creation with the passion that comes from emotional engagement and shared values, creating something that is really meaningful to the people being led.

2. Motivating and Inspiring People



A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership. But it's a leader's ability to motivate and inspire people that will help him or her deliver that vision.



For example, when you start a new project, you will probably have lots of enthusiasm for it, so it's usually easy to support the project's leader at the beginning. However, it can be difficult to find ways to keep the vision alive and inspirational, after the initial enthusiasm fades, especially if the team or organization needs to make significant changes in the way that they do things. Leaders recognize this, and they work hard on an ongoing basis to connect their vision with people's individual needs, goals, and aspirations.



One of the key ways they do this is through Expectancy Theory . Effective leaders link together two different expectations:

1. The expectation that hard work leads to good results.

2. The expectation that good results lead to attractive rewards or incentives.



This motivates people to work hard to achieve success, because they expect to enjoy rewards - both intrinsic and extrinsic - as a result.



Other approaches include restating the vision in terms of the benefits it will bring to the team's customers, and taking frequent opportunities to communicate the vision in an attractive and engaging way.



What's particularly helpful here is where leaders have expert power. People admire and believe in these leaders because they are expert in what they do. They have credibility, and they've earned the right to ask people to listen to them, and follow them. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire the people they lead.



Leaders can also motivate and influence people through their natural charisma and appeal, and through other sources of power, such as the power to pay bonuses or assign tasks to people. However, good leaders don't rely on these types of power to motivate and inspire others.

3. Managing Delivery of the Vision



Leaders must ensure that the work required to deliver the vision is properly managed - either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility - and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully. Leaders also need to make sure they manage change effectively. This will ensure that any changes required to deliver the vision are implemented smoothly and thoroughly, with support and full backing from the majority of people affected.

4. Coaching and Building a Team to Achieve the Vision



Individual and team development are important activities carried out by transformational leaders. To develop a team, leaders must first understand team dynamics..



A leader will then ensure that team members have the necessary skills and abilities to do their job and achieve the vision. They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by training and coaching people to improve individual and team performance.



Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others. By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment where you can continue success in the long term. And that's a true measure of great leadership.

Key Points



Leadership can be hard to define and it means different things to different people.



In the transformational leadership model, leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. They also manage delivery of the vision, either directly or indirectly, and build and coach their teams to make them ever stronger.



It takes time and hard work to develop the skills needed to be an effective leader. However the returns - whether in terms of physical reward or of personal satisfaction - are enormous. Enjoy the leadership journey!