It’s interesting to note that ‘leadership’ is one of the most sought-after, desired and coveted qualities for people from all backgrounds, professions, races, religions, and regions. Everyone wants to be a leader, not a follower, and everyone wants to learn the precise leadership traits that are going to set him/ her apart from the crowd.

There are tons of identified leadership qualities that we all know about: a leader must be positive in his approach, a leader should be a visionary, a leader should be able to affect the change he wishes to make in his team, a leader should influence and motivate the followers and a leader should be dedicated. These are the leadership traits that we’re all aware of – nothing to sneeze at.

However, there are more leadership traits that are less recognized, somewhat intangible and are more “behind the scenes” qualities that actually separate the amazing leaders from the average leaders. These are the leadership traits that all the great leaders have in common. Let’s take a look at them:

Being Open to Learning

True, a leader has to know more than others or be more proficient or skilled or talented or insightful to be able to lead people.

But, at the same time, it’s essential to recognize, and appreciate, that a leader cannot know everything. A leader who thinks he knows everything or doesn’t want to learn new things is not going to be effective for very long. Times move ahead at a rapid pace and even someone who is a master at his craft will become obsolete unless he’s willing to learn new things.

Researching different aspects of your trade, meeting with other professionals in the industry, reading about your field of interest, attending and participating in seminars, discussions, events and more, seeking other people’s opinions and advice and being open to new ideas is the first common trait amongst all great leaders.

Emotional Intelligence

Despite the very obvious wisdom of a leader needing to be emotionally aware, sensitive and open, it still comes as a defining trait of all leaders is their high degree of Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ). The idea of EQ is a recent phenomenon in business circles, but it dates back far in the pages of history.

The best leaders of all time, be it Nelson Mandela or Lady Diana, were people who were well aware of and in tune with their own emotions and feelings, as well as the feelings of people who were around them.

Being able to understand every little feeling, predict it and use it to shape your actions and thoughts, as well as those of others around you is one of the most crucial leadership skills.

Controlling The Self Before Others

If you ask any of the best known and most loved leaders the one leadership skill that can make or break a leader’s effectiveness, the answer would be the same: self-control. Being able to master oneself is the first step to mastering other people. Not surprisingly, self-control manifests in several ways. A great leader is one who is self-aware, cognizant of his faults and strengths, able to regulate his own behavior and actions and capable of keeping himself motivated and focused.

A leader who is in control of himself will be able to stick to the plan without any distractions, won’t lose focus, won’t get discouraged by setbacks and will, to put it simply, keep his “eyes on the prize”, always. If you’re prone to giving into your impulses and emotions, if you’re all too proud about your achievements but can’t face criticism over your drawbacks, if you think you don’t have any shortcomings at all, you don’t have a hope of managing a team or a group. A self-aware and controlled leader is always calm, assured, sure of himself and happy to be accountable for his actions as a leader.

Intuitiveness Is Central To Leadership

One of the most significant, yet least acknowledged, leadership traits that almost all leaders have in common is a strong sense of intuition. Intuitiveness about one’s field, about the possible outcomes of a proposed idea or plan, about the people one is dealing with and about the situation one is in is crucial to performance.

A good leader is able to immediately gauge a situation, a person, a plan, a message and dive straight into the heart of things and appraise them, before even committing to anything. While other leadership skills can be adopted and perfected with time, intuitiveness is often said to be an in-born trait that can only be honed but cannot be procured.

Whether you’re a leader in business or in politics, you will be surrounded by people. And where there are people, there will be social phenomena, forces and currents at work. And with all the shifts in balance, there will always be something new round the corner. The ability to predict the same, look forward to it and be ready to meet every next change and challenge is what binds all leaders together.

And being able to perform in any situation requires intuitiveness. It can be as simple as understanding the person across the boardroom table and tailoring your speech to meet with their unspoken desires or something as complex as predicting what millions around the world who you don’t know personally and will never meet want to hear, see and buy, and giving it to them. It is this sixth sense of sorts that separates leaders from managers and other people, and what all leaders have in common.

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Wouldn’t the world be a better place if leaders learnt efficient time management? Leaders are charged with numerous responsibilities and are expected to deliver on tasks and projects. As a leader, your in-tray is always full to capacity, whether its managing teams, securing new markets, steering innovation, growth, renewal…you name it! But how can leaders juggle all this responsibilities and still be efficient at each one of them?

The truth may be hiding somewhere in efficient time management skills. Effective time management skills are what separate astute from inept leaders. Leaders with the requisite time management skills have the knowledge and capacity to optimize their time and complete their various responsibilities.

To better demonstrate the significance of impactful time management for leaders, let’s examine a simple story.

Impactful time management story

An old wise narrative is told of an affectionate teacher who wanted to help his students better themselves in life. Rather than delve into a long lecture on life’s lessons, he placed a jar atop a table and started filling it with large rocks. When the jar was full to the brim, he turned into the young and eager learners and asked;

“Is this jar full?” As expected, all present in the classroom shouted, “Yes.” He looked at them as if in doubt and wondered out loud, “Really?”

The teacher then proceeded to pick some gravel from under his table and filled the spaces between the rocks with it. He kept shaking the jar until the gravel had completely filled the remaining spaces between the rocks in the Jar.

He then looked up at the eager learners and asked once again, “Is the jar full?”

By now, things had changed a little bit. Rather than respond in chorus as they had done the first time, some students said yes while others just kept quite. A number nodded their heads as if in agreement while some remained mum. The teacher then proceeded to pick some sand in a bucket from under the table and poured all of it into the Jar.

Once again, he asked, “Is it full now?”

Now more aware, the teacher never got a loud chorus or nods from the students.  Instead, all he got was a mumble from the back of the classroom, saying, “Probably not.”

But the teacher wasn’t done yet! He proceeded to pick a bucket of water from under the table and emptied it into the Jar until it was full to the brim.

Now more aware, the teacher then posed to the students, “would it have been possible to fill the jar if I had started with the water, added the sand and then the gravel?” The class responded in unison, shaking their heads, “No.”

Driving his point home

To drive his point home, the teacher then taught his eager class some useful lessons. He began by asking them, “What are the big rocks in your life that ought to come first? What is important?” The class was so silent. No one said a word!

Then he proceeded, “The important stones are things such as the time you spend with family and friends, giving to others, your education, and faith….the most important things in your life.”

He summed up by telling them, “be sure to put in the big rocks first or you may never get all of them in.”

Learnt anything from the story?

This story highlights some key aspects of time management that determine how effective a leader is. In whatever you are doing as a leader, it is always important to ask yourself, “What are the big rocks? In other words, what are your priorities? An organization certainly has specific things that it considers its big rocks. The same goes for teams and projects. There are specific things that a team working on a project would consider the big rocks. These are the things that really matter and as such must be prioritized when planning and allocating time.

In the final analysis, the only thing you will ever care about, whether as a manager or individually, are the big rocks. The little rocks or sand and gravel won’t matter much at that time. However, most often we let the little rocks get in the way of doing things and end up against a wall!

Time management training

The need for time management training is thus crucial for managers and leaders. Time management training for leaders involves training on how best control to determine which demands receive the most time and attention. It is about learning to properly control available time. This can be applied effectively in the management of teams, crisis, projects or other responsibilities. It is a fact that when leaders have vague priorities, suddenly everything seems like a crisis! The overall result is typically falling productivity, both individually and at the job, as well high incidences of stress. At the individual level, developing effective time management processes is quite essential.

Here are a few time management skills for leaders:

Organize and prioritize email

It looks simplistic but organizing and prioritizing your email is central to how you manage the passage of time. This is especially true for managers who send and receive huge numbers of email on a daily basis. What this huge amount of mail does is eat into your time. Rather than focus on priority areas of your daily schedule, emails can eat into your time as you keep checking and sending. You can circumvent this by re-prioritizing your mail checking frequency. Rather than pop into your mail all the time, check at least two or three times daily. Alternatively, you can create different email accounts for your various contacts, say clients, employees, vendors etc.

How much time do you spend online?

The internet is an essential tool for knowledge and communication. But spending too much time online can eat into time for other essential things. As a leader, spending too much time glued to a computer can be distracting. Whereas it’s important to stay in touch, carry out some research for new knowledge or opportunities, communicate with customers or partners etc, regulation is important. The most efficient way to do this is to monitor your internet using habits. That is, out of the time you spend online, how much do you put into things that are important for your business? Is a majority of that time wasted on things that have little connection with your core priority: business? There are a number of Web-based time tracking and time monitoring tools that can come in handy in this endeavor.

Know when to delegate tasks

The problem with most managers is the fact they want to do everything…or at least micro-manage everything. On the contrary, delegating tasks works miracles. You cannot be everywhere and anywhere, with skills and knowledge in everything. Learn to delegate tasks appropriately to employees with the requisite skills and know-how. In fact, if you are an entrepreneur, you are better off focusing on two or three things that you can do best! Delegate the rest! Learning to properly delegate tasks can save you time a great deal. Give employees tasks in areas they are competent and can handle the tasks within stipulated time frames. Focus on what is important and whatever remains delegate down the hierarchy!

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Leadership has been defined as a process through which a person influences and motivates others to get involved in accomplishment of a particular task. This single definition, although universally accepted, fails to define the particular paths and ways of people who are deemed as great leaders. All great leaders had something unique about them and yet they were bound by greatness that helped them to lead masses to innovation and new ideologies. Since the oldest times known to men, masses have been led by efficient leaders. Such men and women have been responsible for ushering their people into a new and more modern world as we know of it now. Although times have changed, the contributions of these great leaders cannot be forgotten and although practices and ways of doing things have changed as well, the ways of these great leaders cannot be overlooked. What made them great might still be applicable in today’s day and age. Here is a look at some of the greatest leaders of all time and what made them great.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born an ordinary boy with a determination to excel at what he did. After completing law from London, he became the most important part of the Indian freedom struggle against the colonial rule.  His policy of non-violence and protest through civil disobedience eventually succeeded when he led his country to freedom in 1947. His main characteristics were resilience, knowledge, people-skills, motivational approach and leading by example. Gandhi was also a voracious reader who would read anything from books on financial planning to the holy books of every religion, and had a library containing thousands of books.

George Washington

George Washington, known as the founding father of the United States of America, was the leader of the American Revolution and the first president of US. He was a true visionary whose vision has endured for more than 200 years. What made Washington great was his foresight, vision, strategic planning and his ability to lead people to success.

Abraham Lincoln

The 16^th president of the United States is also one of the most well known leaders of all time. He was in office during the American Civil War where he kept the people together and is the only reason that the nation did not break into smaller parts. He also ended slavery in the US by signing the Emancipation Proclamation. His greatest traits were his determination, persistence, beliefs and courage.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata

Indian industrialist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was a visionary and humanist whose business acumen laid the foundations of the Tata empire. His ambitious endeavors laid the foundations for India to become an industrialized powerhouse. Tata’s business ventures today produce textiles, steel, electricity, agricultural equipment, trucks, locomotives, and cement. One of the world’s top philanthropists of the 20th century, he established the Tata Group, wherein 66% of Tata Sons’ equity is held by Tata Trusts, which supports philanthropic work. A businessman who understood his role in society, he elevated the lives of those around him by providing them with a means of livelihood and charity.

Prophet Muhammad

One of the greatest leaders of all time, Prophet Muhammad led to the spread of Islam in and around Arabia. His contribution to Islam was such that it has become the second largest and the fastest growing religion of the world today. He united a chaotic society in the name of morality and humanity and led his people out of severe persecution and mistreatment. He led his people to a number of migrations and successful victories in wars against armies much larger than theirs. His greatest leadership qualities were his courage, leading by example, motivational approach, persistence and decision-making.

Mao Zedong

Mao was the leader of the Chinese Revolution and the founding father of the People’s Republic of China. He successfully endured and repelled the invasion by Japan during the World War II and subsequently transformed the economy of China into one of the major industrialized economies of the world. Because of him, China is a world power and a potent rival to the dominant United States of America.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was the first South African president elected in fully democratic elections. Mandela was also the main player in the anti-apartheid movements in the country and served a lengthy prison sentence because of the same. This did not stop Mandela and in fact motivated him to devote his life to uniting his country and he successfully managed to do so after his release from an almost 30 year prison sentence. His main characteristics were his determination, persistence, focus and will.

Julius Caesar

Easily one of the greatest military leaders of all time, Caesar was also one of the best political leaders the world has ever seen. He led several campaigns with numerous victories and was single handedly responsible for the expansion of the Roman Empire. He was also responsible for reforming the Roman government and thus laying the foundation to a great empire. His greatest traits were his decisiveness, boldness, eagerness, motivation, opportunism and strategic planning.

Fidel Castro

Castro was the leader of the Cuban Revolution and later went to become the Prime Minister of Cuba. He also became the President of Cuba from 1976 to 2008. He endured many crisis, invasions and assassination attempts and took them in the stride. His vision for Cuba still stands and he has proved to be an effective leader and commander. His traits of courage, strategy, hiring the right people and dissemination of duties made him the leader he was.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Britain from 1940 to 1945, Churchill led Great Britain against the Nazi Germany during the World War II. He teamed up with allies and consequently led to the defeat and downfall of Hitler. His tenure as the British Prime Minister was in a time of fear and destruction caused by Hitler and his allies. Churchill was known for his fearlessness, determination, unyielding perseverance and undying devotion to his goal.

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Do you instinctively know how to get a task completed or do you have to wait for directions? Do you follow rules and finish the role assigned to you or do you like to take charge and show others how to do well as well? Do you like to perform a specific task towards accomplishing a larger goal or do you like to be in control of a situation? Do you prefer being told what to do or do you like to be responsible for a number of things? Are you a leader or a follower?

In any given situation, it is essential to have both leaders and followers to meet the task at hand. Without leaders, a team cannot function and have direction and vision. Without followers, there will be nobody to execute the decisions or actually get the task done. Leaders and followers are like night and day: they have different roles and different characteristics but neither can exist without the other. For any organization or industry to prosper, there has to be a leader at the helm, guiding the team and there have to be followers who form the backbone of the ship.

So which are you, a leader or a follower? Are you satisfied with your current role or do you wish to change? Do you want to leave behind the burden of leadership and become a follower? Do you want to set yourself apart from the crowd and wear the leader badge? Let’s take a look at some essential differences that distinguish leaders from followers.

Scope Of Responsibility

To begin with, a follower is only responsible for getting his own task done. A follower has a limited, structured goal to achieve and his only responsibility is to make sure that the same is accomplished. A follower is one unit in the entire organization, accountable for a particular goal. A leader, however, is responsible for the organization at large, and not just one specific task. A leader is usually involved with managing other people, each of whom has to meet a goal. A leader is responsible for all the other team members, their individual goals as well as the larger goals. A leader has to maximize others’ potential and strength to enhance the organization.

Do You Need Others’ Approval?

Leaders do not need anybody’s stamp of approval, followers cannot do without the same. A leader is characteristically comfortable in his own skin, and proud of himself. A leader is markedly confident, self-assured and has strong faith in himself. A follower needs somebody to tell them what to do, how to do it and whether or not they are doing it right. A leader might not always know what the best course of action is, but he is confident about taking chances and seeing it through.

Being Inspired v/s Inspiring Others

A leader must be able to inspire the respect and confidence of other people. A leader has to be able to motivate other people to take action and do things a specific way to get goals accomplished. While a follower is only concerned with getting a task completed, a leader is responsible for making sure that it is done, and done the right way. For this, a leader has to have a motivating and inspirational personality. A good leader is one who is able to make people do things he or she wants done, without having to force them.

Being The First v/s Being The Rest

A leader makes the first move, a follower…follows. A leader decides what has to be done, no matter how new or unpredictable or difficult a situation might be. It is often said that the leader is the one who makes sure that the show goes on, giving cues to the others, setting the stage and directing each scene. The followers turn to the leader for direction, for advice on which role to play when and how to function in a situation. A leader is marked by the decision, as well as the willingness, to jump headfirst into every situation and take charge.

Waiting For Change v/s Changing Things

In the leadership v/s followers paradigm, one of the most interesting, and oft-quoted phrases is that, ‘”while followers ask ‘why don’t they do something about it?”, leaders say “here’s something I can do”’. This little nugget sums up the difference between leaders and followers beautifully. Leaders are always excited about taking control of a situation and they are typically the ones who have new ideas, offer solutions and come up with effective courses of action each time. Followers on the other hand use the leader’s solutions to affect the change, wait for directives and participate in the unfolding events.

Make Plans v/s Make Things Happen

Possibly the biggest difference between leaders and followers can be understood in terms of action v/s planning. Followers are people who usually wait around for things to happen, wait for someone to suggest a change or force a change, plan to do something but don’t really accomplish it without a catalyst forcing them and so on. Leaders, however, don’t just plan and wish for things to happen but actually put their ideas in motion and act on them. Leaders are characterized by their resolve to act on their ideas.

Choose To Lead, Or Follow

Whether you’re happier being a leader or a follower, remember, it has to be out of your own choice. If someone thrusts the responsibility of leadership on you, you’re probably going to buckle under the pressure. Similarly, if you are limited to taking orders and following rigid structures when what you really want to do is share ideas and offer unique solutions and your own vision and insight, you are probably not going to be content being just another team leader for long. It is important to gauge your own personality and assess your performance style before you commit to being a leader, or a follower.

Patrick Alain is the founder of the business communication warehouse LeaderPhrase.com, which is one of the top business, communication, and Leadership strategy source worldwide. Patrick Alain is internationally known for his contribution on some of the best-selling video games around the world.

The post Are You A Leader Or A Follower? appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

When people talk about leadership, they mostly want to learn how to be good leaders at work. leadership in the corporate context is one of the hottest topics in the world, and everyone wants to learn how to become a billionaire and be the best possible boss. However, leadership is not just limited to the work frontier, it extends to all of society. In fact, leadership began as a societal phenomenon much before it evolved into a professional one. In fact, many of the present-day leadership qualities that corporate and professional leaders aspire to are based on the social and political leaders of the yesteryears.

Human beings are social animals and living together in large groups naturally meant that people needed to adopt different roles and accomplish different groups. In order to give structure to society and help society grow and develop, people were naturally divided into leaders and followers. The leaders paved the way and moved from one frontier to another, directing the others, while the followers completed the tasks assigned to them and helped bring the changes about.

Understanding the role and impact of good leadership in society makes for an interesting study. While it’s easy to break down the effects of leadership in the work environment into small, easily identifiable structures, analyzing how positive leadership affects society is somewhat complex. Society is a multi-phenomena structure, with a myriad of social forces, elements and factors at play all the time. Society is not limited to a few defined goals, and hence, leadership in society is a vast, and often intangible, phenomenon.

Leadership For Adopting Social Change

Leadership is instrumental to achieving social change. All through history, whether it was for abolishing social norms, overcoming social evils or modernizing history, social change has been impossible without the right kind of leadership. When it comes to mobilizing the masses, igniting passion in people towards a common goal and motivating people to act towards the said common goal, it isn’t possible to unite the people and inspire action without leadership. One person has to spear the movement, and he may not professionally be a leader, and does not have to be a political leader, but he should have the charisma to inspire people and motivate them. A great example from recent times would be that of Anna Hazare, and Indian citizen who inflamed thousands of Indians against the injustices of the Indian political system and the rampant corruption in society and politics and launched one of the biggest civil movements Asia has seen in a long time. In terms of social change, the leader is the face of the movement as well as the backbone of it, while the people form the heart and soul.

Leadership For A Positive And Content Society

It is interesting to note that one person or a small group of people has the power to influence how millions feel. A society that is bereft of competent leaders is invariably thrown into dissatisfaction at a small scale and turmoil and anarchy at a larger scale. A leader who is good at what he does, is able to keep people motivated and inspired, works for the greater good of society and not just his own personal gains, and is able to respect his people will be successful in creating a positive and happy society. When people have faith in their leader and feel that they are taken care of, be it economically or socially or politically, they are in a better frame of mind on the whole. Good leadership creates a happy society, and a happy society can build a strong nation!

Leadership For Improved Professional Performance

It is quite remarkable that even when leadership is effective in the social, not corporate, context, it has an impact on people’s professional lives. When a society is led by a powerful, positive and forward-thinking leader, one of the main areas of focus is people’s professional development. It goes without saying the professional progress is required for economic growth and no society can do well without financial stability. Hence, good leaders are those that take all factors into consideration, even if their role is ostensibly limited to one niche. A positive leader will always be mindful of the fact that people need to be achieving something in their professional capacities in order to lead the society forward, and hence the leader will emphasize the importance of education, picking the right career, working hard and focusing on performance.

Leadership For A Strengthened Identity

Most people fail to appreciate how a common leader is often the face of the society and a symbol for it. When people elect a leader they are proud of, or they are placed under the care of a leader who does a good job, there is a sense of pride and identification with the individual that also ties the society together. An effective leader is one that people of the society are happy to call their own, and in turn, the leader ends up bringing the society together and giving them a common, positive identity that the people are all happy to have. Societies are often remembered by their remarkable leaders and not the people, and it is a unique social phenomenon that one man or woman can not only shape the future of several people but can also make them feel closer to one another and strengthen their bonds with each other and with a common identity by virtue of being an effective leader.

Patrick Alain is the founder of the business communication warehouse LeaderPhrase.com, which is one of the top business, communication, and Leadership strategy source worldwide. Patrick Alain is internationally known for his contribution on some of the best-selling video games around the world.

The post The Impact Of a Good Leader and Good Leadership In Society appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”. Any leader who thinks he knows it all and has seen it all and is through learning is going to lose his effectiveness and strength. For a leader to be a strength to his people through time, it is important to be open to learning, improving and growing.

Enhancing your existing leadership skills is essential to stay with the times, and ahead of others.

1. Improving Your People Skills

Everyone who works under you should feel important, respected and valued. If you are great at what you do but not good at making others feel appreciated, your leadership lacks inspiration. Work on your people skills by involving everyone you work with. Seek the opinion of your employees on various counts, respect their views, have group discussion on various matters and pay attention to each individual. Even the smallest efforts such as remembering each team member’s name, asking after their families, remembering a birthday or passing a compliment about the work or otherwise can make all the difference. And as any successful industry leader will tell you, a happy employee is an effective employee.

2. Pay Attention To Your Followers

People can tell when you are genuinely interested and when you are only pretending to be interested. Pay real attention to the people you lead, or you might end up turning them against you or missing out on something important. Develop your listening skills before you work on improving any other traits. Be alter both mentally and physically when you talk to your team- it is important to listen well as well as adopt a posture and expression that displays a keen interest. While listening, let go of any biases or prejudices you might have about an individual, or your vision of them will always be narrowed. When you are in conversation with your team, eliminate all distractions. Pay close attention and make sure you remember all the important things; you never know when it might come in handy.

3. Get The Preparation Part Down Pat

Learn to plan and prepare well. Short-term as well as long-term plans have to be carefully thought-of, structured and executed. When it comes to succeeding in business, you cannot hope for success if you want to wing it or play it by the ear. You must prepare well in advance to be able to perform well when the time comes. Research the situation, evaluate all possible aspects, divide your goals into realistic milestones and create a specific, outlined task for each member of the team.

4. Work On Inspiring Others

motivating and inspiring other people is as important as maintaining your own optimizing. Keep each team member in the loop, talk to them about the goals, encourage them on staying focused and make each employee feel valued and challenged at the same time. Keep the bar high, and every time someone passes it, make sure you reward them and appreciate them suitably. Make achieving goals a positive, enjoyable process.

5. Be Likeable: Be The Leader Others Want To Follow

Being likeable is very important in the corporate environment because one of the biggest complaints of employees is that their bosses are not nice people or don’t promote a happy, healthy atmosphere at the work place. If you are enthusiastic about the work you are doing, as well as the work your team is doing, it is going to translate into more effort. Show that you are pleased with their effort, supervise all the projects and offer advice or praise as it is needed, and give as much help as you possibly can. The people you lead should see you as someone they want to grow and learn under.

6. Dealing With Difficult People

Learning to discipline your followers when they’re not doing well can be tricky. The best way is to discuss the situation quickly and nip it in the bud as soon as you can. While a problem is still fresh, it can be resolved. Leave it for too long, and you’ll have a habit on your hands. If a particular person is responsible, speak to them alone. It is important to maintain that you respect the person in public, even if you do reprimand them in private. Always give the person a chance to explain, even if you’re not seeking an explanation, because it will make him/ her feel respected. And above all else, don’t get petty or personal. Embarrassing someone who made the mistake is the worst possible way to deal with the situation.

7. Take A Leaf Out Of Henry Ford’s Book: Divide The Labor!

Henry Ford had it right with his revolutionary Model-T when he decided to break up the task into smaller, more achievable tasks. The ‘assembly line’ concept that changed the world worked on a very simple principle: each goal was broken up into smaller goals that were assigned to different people and parts. The assembly line was a long set of complementary milestones that tied up together into one final goal. Delegating well is possibly the best way to improve leadership skills. If there are people who you can train to do the work you are doing on your own, you can free up all that time and concentrate on other goals that only you can meet. Identify the individual strengths of your team-members, allocate work accordingly, keep a track of each person’s progress and oversee the entire project. This way you unburden yourself and allow yourself time to do highly specialized work, as well as getting the most out of your employees. It is an empowering move for yourself and your employees.

8. Let History Show You The Way Forward

There is no better coach than history, and no better leader than the one who allows the past to teach him. The annals of time are brightened by great men and women who have changed millions of lives, changed the times they lived in as well as changed future generations for years to come. There is much to be learnt from the leaders of the past, for some leadership traits and techniques will remain effective and relevant forever. Whether it is through the works of Mahatma Gandhi or the speeches of Nelson Mandela, or the grit and genius of Steve Jobs, one can always learn a skill from watching other strong players. The successes of other great achievers, as well as the failures they overcame to get to those successes can be an illuminating way to learn. Even if you are only running an organization or a team within an organization, studying the decisions of acclaimed industry, political, social and religious leaders from around the world can help you enhance your own strengths, as well as adopt new ones. Zero in on common leadership traits and model your own leadership style after that of history’s greats, and one day, you might be remembered just as reverentially.

9. Give Yourself A Chance To Learn

A good leader is one who is willing to grow and learn with his team. Even the best of leaders are followers: allow yourself the opportunity to learn something new or something better from someone who has a skill or a strength that you do not. Also, it is good to return to the basics every once in a while and attend training sessions or workshops or coaching or learning groups, just like the rest of the team. It might seem too simplistic to you at first, but it always pays to touch base with the roots. You might just revisit a great old idea or technique you’d forgotten, or you might learn something new. It will also enable you to watch your team as they grow and learn, thus giving you an insight into their development.

10. Be True To Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is to try to ignore their own morals, values and set of ethics in an attempt to move forward or adopt new practices at work. Remember, as a leader you must focus on the future, but you cannot do so at the cost of your own conscience. If you try to stifle that little voice in your head or turn the other way when you come across something that disturbs you, it is going to affect your work and your leadership style. If you are constantly bothered by a bad feeling or a sense of anxiety that nags you through the day, you will hardly be able to work yourself, let alone get others to work. The subconscious mind is a very powerful thing and can completely destroy your career if you choose to fight it. Make choices that are in tune with your values so that you are never at loggerheads with yourself. Integrity is key to being an effective leader, and it makes an already tough road much smoother!

Patrick Alain is the founder of the business communication warehouse LeaderPhrase.com, which is one of the top business, communication, and Leadership strategy source worldwide. Patrick Alain is internationally known for his contribution on some of the best-selling video games around the world.

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Freddie Mercury once said, “The reason we’re successful darling, My overall charisma, of course!” Charismatic leaders are the most successful, the most respected and the most loved of all. You can enforce your leadership with a dictatorial style, you can ensure results with bureaucratic leadership and you can affect a relaxed work atmosphere with a laissez-faire style, but if you really want results and you want to be liked while you get things done, you have to be a charismatic leader!

A very famous quote about charisma reads, “Charisma is a sparkle in people that money can’t buy. It’s an invisible energy with visible effects”. Charisma is a quality that is associated with leaders, and is often said to be that one trait that is not necessary for effective leadership but can make all the difference in the world. You do not have to be a charismatic leader to be a good leader, but if you have charisma, you will be a great leader, a revered leader and above all, a memorable leader.

It has often been said that it is easy to impress other people, win their trust and loyalty, inspire their confidence and teamwork, but without charisma, it is difficult to be liked and the love and affection of people can only be gotten with personal charm, appeal and of course, charisma. Out of the various leadership styles and traits, charisma is the vaguest, least known quality. Charisma is intangible and cannot be confined to a fixed structural definition; it is an abstract energy, a magnetic appeal that draws others to you.

So what are the charismatic leader traits and how are they different from the regular, better known leadership qualities?

Don’t Just Lead, Be Liked

If charismatic leadership traits have to be narrowed down to a single defining characteristic, likeability tops the list. Those who know a little something about leadership already will know that you don’t necessarily have to win people’s votes in order to be able to lead them. Some of the most famous leaders in history have acquired that status through the use of brute force and sheer will. However, charismatic leaders do not force others to follow them or ask them to do so or even request loyalty: they earn it and they inspire it because they are just so darn likeable! Charismatic leaders are nice, fun, caring, passionate and empathetic people. A likeable leader is always going to be a great leader because the followers will choose to be a part of the team and will do so with gladness.

Care for Others Before You Care For Yourself

A good leader makes his followers feel good about him. A charismatic leader makes his followers feel good about themselves. The first and foremost trait of a charismatic leader is the ability to make people feel taken care of, appreciated, respected and above all, important. A charismatic leader is, before all else, genuinely interested in other people.

Celebrate Life, Inspire Enthusiasm

A significant charismatic leader trait is an unbeatable sense of enthusiasm and love for life. Charismatic leaders inspire others to be happy because they are happy themselves; they love life, they enjoy every moment of their work, they take pride in their responsibilities and they are full of energy. A charismatic leader is one who simply radiates joy, enthusiasm and passion. Charismatic leaders celebrate life in the smallest moments, and it is with this ‘joi de vivre’ that charismatic leaders win followers and support. It is very basic psychology really: happy people attract other people.

See the Best in People, Channel It

Charismatic leaders are set apart from others by the fact that they can immediately see the potential of other people, they appreciate the said potential and they know how to bring it out and put it to use. Charismatic leaders do not just focus on harnessing others’ potential; they truly appreciate it and place a high value on it. A charismatic leader is one who recognizes the strengths of others in the team, respects them, and is personally glad to have the opportunity to work with other talented people. Charismatic leaders are predisposed towards seeing the best in people and expecting the best from people. They set a high bar for everyone and have the faith that each person is going to meet the expectations. It has often been said that charismatic leaders show so much faith and confidence in their teams that the others are inspired to do their very best.

Deal In Hope

To quote Napoleon Bonaparte, “Leaders are dealers in hope”. Charismatic leaders are optimistic people: they expect the best, they look forward to positive results and invariably, they get great things done. Hope, is a defining feature of charismatic leaders, and not only do they have a ton of hope themselves, but more importantly, they spread it amongst others. Charismatic leaders understand that each person wants to do well and be successful and has a deep hope of achieving something in their lives, so they work hard to strengthen this hope and give people the positivity to dream big and believe they will be able to succeed. Charismatic leaders infuse people with optimism and passion and make a bright, fantastic goal seem like an achievable reality, each time.

Spread The Goodies

A very positive trait of charismatic leaders is that they are willing to share their strengths, experiences, skills and knowledge with others. Many leaders like to keep some aces up their sleeves, keep their skills to themselves and not empower others fully in an attempt to stay one step ahead always. Charismatic leaders, however, are not afraid of losing their leadership because they want to achieve the greater good and are happy to do so by enabling others to succeed both at an individual level and as a team. Thinking about others is the founding block of charismatic leadership, and so, charismatic leaders are always looking to share their resources and wisdom and findings with others.
In respect of these traits, it is worth noting that charismatic leaders are actually true servants of their followers: they aim to please, empower and enable their followers to do all they can to achieve all they can.

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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” ~ John Quincy Adams

Ever since mankind has dreamt of achieving something, a procession of individuals has marched towards achieving it. For every procession, journey and path, the individuals seek a forerunner, one holding the night lamp and showing the way; as John C Maxwell said “a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”.

What makes a leader good, bad, excellent, great? The most obvious answer would be his ability to lead the procession of individuals to the desired destination. There have been numerous leaders in the history who have led their men to the desired goal, but the means have not been the same. Leaders are of different types and follow a certain pattern of leadership that makes them successful and that sets them apart from the rest.

Depending on whether you are running a company, leading a group, heading an institution or governing a nation, your leadership approach will be different. Leading is a complex task and a leader combines a number of techniques and strategies to lead the followers. Many different researches have come to different conclusions regarding the characteristics that make a leader. Based on what is prevalent in the world, the characteristics have been compartmentalized into various types of leadership. There are democratic, autocratic, bureaucratic, charismatic and laissez-faire forms or styles of leadership, among others. These styles of leadership coupled with the individual characteristics make the leader unique and effective.

There are five main ingredients that go into making a leader:

–          Innovation

–          Risk

–          Determination and perseverance

–          Ability to challenge the norms and bring change

–          Ability to lead the followers by command

These ingredients in different combinations decide what type of a leader you are. There are seven types of leaders:

The Commander

Talk of the Donald. Donald Trump is a well-known billionaire who likes to fire people. Trump is a commander; he believes in taking calculated risks. He is determined, is innovative and is capable of leading his followers by word. His great demeanor has allowed him to consider running for the position of the president of the United States. His only drawback is his inability to take big risks and his rigid belief in the conventional business practices. As Trump said, “part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that’s more productive.”

The Godfather

This leader makes a deal that you can’t refuse. This type of a leader is good at two things: taking unprecedented risks that pay off and challenging the convention and going for the unorthodox. Think of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. These men, the co-founders of Google, have taken risk after risk in their quest for domination in the cyber world. They have made several deals that would have seemed foolish in the beginning, but their foresight and gut feeling revolutionized the way we use the Internet today.

The Controller

Bill Gates, the cofounder and chairman of Microsoft, the world leader in software development, is a controller. This type of leader is a strategic executor with clear and concise goals and the required perseverance to follow that goal. These leaders like to run a one-man show and not let any obstacle hinder them. They like detailed and strategic plans for every objective to be met and monitor every single activity in their follower group. They like to keep a tight control over resources and people and keep expanding. Risk is a component of the daily meal and resolve is inherent in everyday activities. This plan of action has resulted in Microsoft employing more than 50,000 people in more than 80 countries.

The Prophet

This type of leader is good at leading the masses and developing a strong follower base. Come in Rupert Murdoch. They have almost all qualities of a good leader but fail to follow through on the set goals and objectives. They are motivational, innovative and determined but not persuasive enough for transforming individual followers into a profit generating cohesive unit. Murdoch, the major shareholder and managing director of News Corporation, managed to build a media empire that is counted in the top three in the world. Surprisingly, even after an advance start, News Corporation did not manage to take the lead.

The Persistent Capitalist

This type of a leader is innovative and imaginative but takes calculated risks. He makes the impossible seem possible, thereby, creating a great fan-base among his followers. He is determined and perseverant and constantly challenges that norm. He is interested in leaving a legacy behind him but fails to lead his followers by his word. Li Ka-shing, the richest businessman of Asia, heads a business that covers 40 countries and sums up to more than 11% of Hong Kong’s stock market value. Despite being the 19^th richest man in the world, Li keeps a low profile and is not famous like his counterparts.

The Spin Doctor

This category of leaders has Richard Branson written all over it. This type of leader has all the qualities of a good leader but demonstrates an inconsistent behavior and lack of conviction. These leaders can debate regarding any possible action and case and justify every single action and change to the followers. He can lead with a smile and with style. From breaking world records to making news, this type of a leader has too many distractions to stay focused on a single goal.

The Revolutionary

We are talking Steve Jobs. One who has it all; one who can take a company on its way out and make it the global leader in its particular niche. The revolutionary leader is the master of innovation, a risk player, full of determination and perseverance. His ability to challenge the normal and orthodox plan of action sets him apart and his ability to lead the followers by precise and concise command makes him great.

Steve Jobs was ousted in 1985 from his own company, courtesy a boardroom battle. He went on and bought Pixar and then joined Apple again 11 years later when it was almost over taken by all rival companies. He led a revolutionary transformation, one of the biggest and most outstanding in the history of business, and transformed a rickety institution into the most valuable company in the world (for a brief period). Starting with the classy iMacs to the iPhone, Jobs had it covered in every sphere. Apple continues to dominate the tech-market and might continue to do so due to the legacy of brilliance, innovation and leadership left behind by Steve Jobs.

You can be one of these kinds of leaders or you can be leading in a novel way, but at the end of the day, what matters are results. As Peter Drucker once said, “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

Patrick Alain is the founder of the business communication warehouse LeaderPhrase.com, which is one of the top business, communication, and Leadership strategy source worldwide. Patrick Alain is internationally known for his contribution on some of the best-selling video games around the world.

The post What kind of a leader are you? Let’s find out.. appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

Leadership is a trait known to many, learnt by some and perfected by few.

There are leaders and managers and supervisors and bosses, among others, who take up the responsibilities of getting things done through others, rather than by others. Many attempt, some learn and a few succeed. Leadership is a trait that is not passed on or inherited, it has to be earned, and on a daily basis.

The concept of leadership has been the basis for much research and a good amount of literature has been published about the same, highlighting and describing the dos and don’ts, traits of good leaders, characteristics of the best leaders, things that make good leaders and the things that make leaders good. In a world where every third person is a self-proclaimed expert on business and leadership, it is important to learn from the very best.

1. “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” : M.K. Gandhi

There was a time when the strongest person from a group, clan or kingdom used to be their leader. In the present predominantly democratic society, a leader is selected by the people from the people and for the people. It is important for a leader to be ‘concordant’ and ‘approachable’ in order to facilitate an environment of growth and intellect. If an employee cannot approach the leader of the organization, he cannot put forth his demands, suggestions or ideas, thereby, hampering his creative genius and rendering him unsatisfied. A leader that can get along with his followers, listen and appreciate to their ideas and take care of their needs is the leader of the future.

2. “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I’.” : Peter F. Drucker

The most effective leaders in the world seldom use the word ‘I’, they say ‘we’. The best leaders always think in terms of a team and believe in ‘team work’. It is the job of every leader to make the team function and the ones that understand that start thinking along the same lines and are effective. These leaders accept the challenges and work towards making their team efficient; the leader faces the song but gives credit to the team. This creates trust in the team and enables the leader to get the task done.

3. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” : Steve Jobs

Leadership and “innovation” have an intrinsic relationship. As the focus of both leadership and innovation is to bring about a better future, the relationship is inevitable. Innovation also means going out of the normal route to reach desired goals. A leader who is innovative and produces better results is respected and looked upon. Without innovation, a leader is a mere manager of a given situation.

In a research conducted in 2008 (McKinsey research), it was found that more than 70% of the senior executives believed that innovation was going to be one of the three main drivers for growth in the following three years for their companies.

4. “Don’t manage – lead change before you have to.” : Jack Welch

Managing is not easy, but it is not the high-end of leading an organization. Managing a crisis is important, but if the leader has the ‘foresight’ to see the situation coming, he can easily make decisions beforehand that can avert the crisis and lead to innovative development. Foresight has the power and potential of transforming the business industry and it is important that a leader possess foresight if the organizations is to grow. In absence of foresight, the opportunity of getting to the finishing line first and establishing market supremacy is lost. For example, Rupert Murdoch’s foresight helped him to create market monopoly when it came to disseminating news and he went on to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the world and his company ‘News Corporation’, the second largest media conglomerate in the world.

5. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” Warren Buffet

It is important for a leader to “be realistic”. Having momentum is necessary but not knowing when to stop can lead to a disaster. A leader should always know the limitations of the team he is leading and try to accomplish feats that are possible and within reach. Seven successful small feats are anytime better than one big feat, which may or may not be successful. World Com Inc., Enron Corp. and Bethlehem Steel are great examples of industry giants who failed to realize when to stop and ended up devastated and bankrupt.

6. “Sometimes your best investments are the ones you do not make”. : Donald J. Trump

One of the main responsibilities of a good leader is to ‘make intelligent choices’ and exercise restraint while making investments. The global market keeps offering luring opportunities for investments and a leader should know when to invest and when to say ‘no’. While investments can be highly profitable, they can also be expensive and unprofitable leading to crunch situations.

7. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and by falling over.” : Richard Branson

‘Learning from your mistakes’ is a general must-do for everyone, more so for the leaders. Everyone makes mistakes but the ones who learn from their mistakes move past them and become better with every fall. One who learns from an earlier mistake will never commit it again and reduce the chances of failure in the future.

8. “I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers” : Kahlil Gibran

Learning doesn’t have to be limited to one’s own mistakes and good examples set by others, one can also “learn from the mistakes committed by others” and bad examples set by them. In a competitive market, it is very important to keep a track of one’s rivals, how they perform, what they do and the outcome of their actions. One doesn’t necessarily have to follow their footsteps and do whatever turned out to be good for them, but when it comes to mistakes they make, one has to note them down on the ‘things to avoid’ notice board.

9. “As a leader, I am tough on myself and I raise the standard for everybody; however, I am very caring because I want people to excel at what they are doing so that they can aspire to be me in the future.” : Indra Nooyi

A leader should be a “role-model” for the followers. This can be possible only if the leader sets high standards that need hard-work to be matched. This not only makes the leader respectable among his followers but also motivates the followers to work harder towards achieving higher standards of work.

10. “I start with the premise that the function of a leader is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” : Ralph Nader

One of the best characteristics of a modern leader is that he creates leaders from his followers. “Creating leaders” is not easy and it takes a long time to identify potential in the team member and nurturing it in a positive direction. Assigning tasks and duties to the team member and putting some of them in charge of particular tasks makes them self-reliant and develops their leadership qualities. So, by the time the top level leaders of an organization, such as, CEOs and Directors, retire, they leave behind a legacy and new leaders.

Patrick Alain is the founder of the business communication warehouse LeaderPhrase.com, which is one of the top business, communication, and Leadership strategy source worldwide. Patrick Alain is internationally known for his contribution on some of the best-selling video games around the world.

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