Tag Archives: Leader

The Six Secrets of High Performing Leaders

Business is becoming more and more complex with times. It is survival of the fittest. Interestingly, opportunities are increasing. It is the dynamic way of business that is making it very complex.

Business needs a leader to flourish. Some businesses have everything it takes to flourish but lacks the leadership to lead the way. Leadership is fickle. Many people want to lead. People fight and even kill for leadership, but few have what it takes to lead.

The high tech dynamic socioeconomics of the current world demands leaders who have mastered leadership skills in order to remain relevant and productive. The end product of good leadership in a business is success.

How Do You Define Success?

I have met people with different and sometimes weird definitions of success.

Sometimes it is having lots of money, others urge the world to tone down on materialism because to them success is being happy. Others think it’s being healthy, others think it’s being powerful, etc.

So what is a success? Success is simply the ability to accomplish your aim, whatever your aim is.

So it’s true, different people will have different definitions of success, but when you come down to it you realize that it’s quite similar because human goals all over the world seem to be the same – win an election, get a job promotion, make money, etc.

All leaders want success. We are going to look at some of the things that successful leaders consistently have in common – the secrets to their success.

Successful Leaders are Servants

Servant leadership is the kind of leadership where the leader is willing to have some temporary discomforts in order to deliver to his followers what needs to be delivered. It is the selflessness of a leader. It is the kind of leadership where the leader focusses on the greater course over self-actualization.

A leader who humbles themselves for the benefits of their followers prepares themselves for a greater future. A servant leader goes out of their way to do what has no benefit to him but benefits the community and the people they are serving immensely. It is the servant leadership that drives the philanthropic world. Leaders who are servants and not bosses have the edge over leaders who love being the boss.

It’s important to note though that most current world leaders love projecting themselves as servant leaders, but in a real sense, very few of them can pass as such. Doing something for the cameras does not make you one though it might earn you some superficial respect. In the end, real servant leaders always show.

Creativity

Unlike management, leadership is fluid. Managers many times have rules they must follow, and their decisions are more limited. A leader can break the rules once in a while if that is what it takes to achieve the greater good. This concept allows leaders to be creative.

Creativity doesn’t have to be in the creation of artwork. Creativity in leadership revolves mostly around how we treat other people, how we interact with other people, partners, stakeholders, and customers. Creativity in leadership is expressive.

Creativity involves moving away from rigid structures and trying new things. A creative leader sees things that other people don’t see and may offer solutions that other people first find ridiculous but later come to appreciate very much. A 2010 survey by IBM of 1500 top business heads found that creativity was the most important quality a leader needs in order to succeed.

Creative leadership helps businesses and organizations discover new problem-solving ways. It also assists in achieving growth where creative leaders will be able to identify new routes of reaching a particular goal which may be cheaper, more effective and more practical.

A creative leader will keep the lower level employees from feeling forgotten by coming up with new opportunities for them. Creative leaders engage all levels of employees and allow everyone to brainstorm their ideas which gives everyone a sense of belonging.

Creative leaders will embrace very unpopular perspectives which many times end up being what the organization just needed. The world is changing fast and keeping on doing the same thing over and over is not good for business.

Unlimited Vision

Vision can be defined as the picture of the future that somebody has in his mind. Vision is guiding. Vision gives us the drive to keep going on and keep working hard on whatever we have been working hard on. Vision gives hope and purpose. It inspires. Vision gives a snapshot of the possibility.

The one thing that sets high performing leaders apart from the rest is their unlimited vision. Unlike many leaders who achieve one goal and feel they’ve gotten it, successful leaders keep creating new visions after the former has been achieved.

The vision shows a business where it’s headed. You can’t just run a business and keep on running it without creating a goal – a vision. You have to be moving towards something. Vision helps a leader prepare for the future and keeps the fuel burning during the hard times.

As much as a leader needs to inspire the follows, he/she needs something to inspire them too. This is how vision comes in handy.

Self Compassion

I used to do very well in Mathetics back in high school. I was always the top of the class. One day I didn’t make it even to the top ten. I was very heartbroken and criticized myself for not working hard enough.  I tore into myself mercilessly and internally made a very big deal of it until some of my friends realized it and felt I was being jealous. I wasn’t though, I was just not happy at myself.

Self-compassion is seen by many as selfish, and many leadership trainers don’t really emphasize it enough. This is a reason it is often ignored by many leaders. Many also feel it leads to mediocrity when you keep on forgiving yourself of mistakes. Self-compassion is, however, a very important attribute to successful leadership. Here are some tips for enhancing your self-compassion:-

  • Nobody is perfect. Stop expecting perfection from yourself when nobody who’s ever lived has ever been perfect. Expecting nothing but perfection from yourself is unrealistic and unhealthy.
  • Learn to prevent negative thoughts. In fact, reframe your negative thoughts and make them look like works from a miserable person who doesn’t wish you any good.
  • Learn to address yourself in a nice way. Don’t be mean to yourself in your thoughts. This is something you can practice on a daily basis.

Courage

Winston Churchill once referred to courage, as something that real leaders have to depend on.

Having courage means a leader can take risks and try new paths. Life has no certainty. Nobody knows tomorrow, so everything you do is a risk. If doing the same thing over and over is already a risk then there surely is nothing wrong with trying something new. Great leaders understand this, and that is why they keep on taking risks and making inroads.

The future is for the risk takers to take and not for the security seekers to hide. Great leaders move out of their comfort zones and take on the future and whatever it has to offer.

A leaders courage is put to the ultimate test in a time of crisis. The crisis is inevitable in leadership, and during a crisis, everyone looks at the leader for guidance and direction. The ability to take on a crisis can’t be taught in class. Courage cannot be taught in class. It’s something you train yourself to do.

A good leader should train themselves to be courageous by taking risks when there is no crisis so as to remain calm during the crisis. Just remaining calm takes you a long way in terms of how your followers respect you and maintain the faith in you. The first lesson in the school of courage is to decide that you will always remain calm even when crisis strikes.

Successful leaders give their followers a reason to stay

Studies indicate that 1/3 of employees leave because of being in bad terms with their boss. The boss is supposed to be the leader. The leader is somebody who should have followers. If people are starting not to follow you, then it simply means you are not worth following – in simple terms – you are not a leader.

Employees performance depend on how well they get along with you. A leader’s following is dependant on how the masses view the leader. A leader should not only be an example to the followers but also make them feel he cares about them. A leader is thus supposed to listen to his followers and respond to their whims appropriately. Small gestures like appreciating their hard work, recognizing them, saying hi when you meet and generally attending to their needs where necessary give them a reason to stay. Remember to carry yourself in a respectable manner too – nobody wants to follow somebody they despise.

How to be a Good Boss and a Leader

Many discussions have come up concerning bosses and leaders. We have seen many people discourage individuals from being bosses and becoming leaders. The question though is, are bosses inherently bad and are leaders inherently good?

First, we will look at the definitions of the two words.

Who or What is a Boss?

A boss can be defined as a person who has and exercises authority or supervises workers.

A leader, on the other hand, is somebody with the ability to lead or create a following and inspire and motivate people.

Generally, a boss tends to be more of a manager and a leader. A boss must have some authority over some people to get the title while a leader doesn’t need to.

A leader has positive connotations. The moment anyone gets the ‘leader’ title means he is respected and appreciated by those who follow him and draw inspiration and motivation from him. We, however, note that the word boss comes with negative connotations.  A boss is generally seen as someone who is controlling and doesn’t care about other people’s feelings.

Can Somebody be a Boss and a Leader?

Sometimes it’s hard to be a boss and a leader considering the different responsibilities bosses and leaders have. Bosses mostly are managers and trying to be a manager and a leader at the same time could be detrimental to your business.

Managers, for instance, are supposed to not feed their emotions when doing their job. Managers are supposed to dismiss when they should, give a pay cut when they should, be hard on the workers when they should. A leader is however like a good teacher who gives inspiration and motivation. A leader listens to his/her juniors. He/she can break the rules just to endear themselves to the juniors.

A manager can’t do that and doing that could see them make some really bad losses. Normally, I like to compare a leader to a grandparent of a child and a boss/manager to the mother of the child. Most of the time, grandparents are nice to grandchildren. They smile at them, play with them, tell them stories, and many kids love being around them. A parent, however, has to discipline the child. Once in a while a parent has to show a stern face, give a stern warning, ground a child, and in some countries and among some people, they even have to spank them. It is thus quite a challenge of a task trying to be a boss and a leader at the same time.

It is, however, possible to be a boss and a leader. In fact, whenever a boss is described as good, he’s already a leader because you can’t be a good boss and fail to exhibit most of the characteristics of a leader.

We are thus going to look at some characteristics of a leader and how a boss can use them to become a good boss thus becoming a good boss and a leader at the same time.

Don’t have Favorites

Good leaders care about the emotions of their followers. They use emotions to create inspirations and attach themselves to their juniors. This means good leaders avoid doing things that may hurt some of the workers. One of these things is being unfair to particular individuals. Luckily enough for the bosses, you don’t really have to run on emotions to achieve this. You can completely run on logic and still be able to be impartial. Of course, as a human being, it’s quite impossible never to have a favorite – the point is – never show it.

Always Remember your Employees are Human.

In business, managers are advised not to run on emotions. This has led to many managers completely disregarding the feelings of their employees. Some bosses only focus on production – anything else is out of the question. You can, however, pick this leadership trait of being human without compromising your work standards and production. Happy workers are more productive than unhappy ones. Treat your workers humanely, and they’ll be happy.

Listen to your Workers’ Ideas and be Open to Change

One characteristic of a good leader is the capability of listening to their workers or juniors or followers and trying out the ideas they come up with. However, leaders interact with their juniors way less than their bosses, and this is a tricky thing to try out like a boss. We, therefore, advise bosses to moderately listen to their juniors once in a while. This creates an environment of harmony and a feeling of belonging among the workers.

Accountability Shouldn’t be Limited to your Workers

A leader is someone who motivates and inspires. A leader can lead by simply being there and not actually interacting with their followers on a one on one basis. A leader just makes themselves the golden standard which he/she wants his/her followers to emulate.

A boss however also has the responsibility of instilling the discipline he/she expects in the workers. Many bosses end up just shouting orders and giving punishments to their juniors without even looking at the person. A good boss who wishes to be a leader should make sure they live up to the standards they intend to instill in their workers. If you want a corruption free organization, don’t be corrupt. If you want a clean environment, be clean. Always be accountable for your mistakes and never project mistakes you did to your workers. You’ll be shocked how you’ll have an easier time implementing your standards when you live up to them yourself.

Be Polite

Leaders create a connection with the people. To have people follow you, you must inspire them. You can’t inspire people if they fear you. Bosses, on the other hand, need to create a professional environment with their juniors which in many cases can’t be compromised with too much familiarity. Familiarity breeds contempt. However, a boss loses nothing by being polite.

You can exhibit leadership qualities by being polite when you speak to your workers. Sometimes always barking orders projects you as insecure and trying too hard to stamp your authority.

Support your Team

This leadership quality doesn’t necessarily mean you hold your worker’s hand. You can simply give them guidance where necessary and acknowledge their hard work.

Remove Obstacles for your Team

Good leaders make it easier for their followers to progress. Good leaders can accept temporary discomfort for the benefit of their followers. Generally, managers are forced to limit the choices of their workers. For the sake of productivity and meeting deadlines, managers may be forced to increase the working hours of the workers and be strict on reporting time for instance.

A good boss, however, can try their best to remove obstacles for his workers rather than increase them.  Providing a better working environment, improving their working conditions and generally showing care is a good step. A small task like ensuring the computers used by the workers are always in good condition can see you go a long way.

Don’t Just Ask, Demonstrate

Good leaders can be good leaders for just being there and being themselves. They don’t have to make orders or ask for anything to be done. They create a kind of lifestyle such that just being there inspires the workers to do something.

Many bosses just bark orders without understanding what the workers go through. Some workers may be going through challenges and may not exactly understand what they should do – a boss wishing to be a good leader demonstrates rather than ask or order. Once in a while pick that tool and start working with your workers.

Avoid Micromanagement

One prominent characteristic of a good leader is the ability to trust and have faith in his/her followers. Some bosses, however, don’t understand that it’s the people under them that make a company successful. They act as if they are the only ones who know what they are doing in the company and would want to supervise every little thing happening in the company.

Micromanagement slows your team, demotivates your team, slows the growth of members of your team and causes you not to perform more important tasks that you should be performing rather than micromanaging your team.

A good boss delegates duties to juniors. This improves their self-esteem and respect for you.

Develop People Rather than Using Them

I once worked for a construction company and was the supervisor of the casual laborers. One day I noticed that the workers had left some of the tools outside the store. I took them back to the store. My immediate boss came and found me opening the store and was very mad that I was doing a casual laborers job. I explained to him that they had already left, but he barked and insisted I should have called one of them back because he pays them to do that job and they must do it. I later realized many bosses have a similar mentality – they pay their workers and thus must use them as much as they like.

That’s really a bad approach to business. A worker is a human being who just like you also wishes to progress in life. Developing your workers earns you respect and makes you an example surrounded by successful people who respect you. Good leaders support, they don’t use.