This post is about the some of the basic concepts of leadership. It discusses just a few ideas about where leadership ability comes from and how you can develop your strengths as a leader. This is a topic that I have been thinking about lately and, as I started writing this post, I realized that leadership is something that I need to continue developing in myself. I have set some very challenging goals for myself for the next six months and the year after that. So I reckon I will need to really build up my leadership strengths to get there. The first step is to lay out a clear statement of these principles in a generally sensible order. The book that I used as a reference for this post is Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter Northouse. I have blurred the boundaries between the different approaches discussed in that book in an attempt to make it a quick tour that flows from one concept to another. Northouse draws on a wide range of research and I have only touched on a mix of some of the most basic elements of leadership here.
- Leadership is the ability to influence people around you so that they willingly act as part of a group or organization, beyond the limits of their own self-interest. The authority that you get from your position and title in your organization is power but that is not leadership. Leadership is when you get people to chose to follow you.
The Secret To Becoming a Leader
- Positional Power – This is the authority that goes with having a formal leadership role in an organization. It is more about power of force than leadership but when you use it carefully, combining your leadership skills, it becomes much more balanced and effective.
- Informal Leadership Role – When you don’t have formal leadership role but people respect you and look to your example because of the relationship that you have built with them you are still a leader. Everyone has the potential to play a leadership role by developing his or her natural abilities. This is the part of leadership that comes from within.
The secret of becoming a leader is that you don’t have to be in an official position of authority to develop your abilities as one. You don’t even have to be part of an organization to do it and you can start from where you are now. You can develop yourself as an informal leader and, as you build up your experience and reputation with the people around you, this will help you to find opportunities to take on a formal leadership role, as part of an organization. This may be a company, a non-profit, a government agency or any other kind of organization you chose to get involved with; leadership is always in demand with all kinds of organizations.
Traits of a Leader
Your ability to lead comes from you internal strengths. These strengths are the traits of your character that are aligned with leadership. The following five traits are probably the most important:
- Judgment – Your ability to make effective decisions comes from how you weigh your choices. Judgment is learned by experience and will develop over time by making decisions and carefully reflecting on the outcomes. When you don’t get the results that you want try to understand why and apply the lesson the next time around.
- Self-confidence – You have to believe in yourself to be able to take action effectively. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right! Believe in your potential for success and develop a sense of certainty that you can achieve your goals.
- Determination – Along with self-confidence is determination. Even when you believe in yourself you still have to push past all obstacles until you get the result you want. Nothing worth struggling for comes easily. Determination is the strength of will to dominate and pursue a goal to the end.
- Integrity – Your reputation with others is based on how they perceive your honesty and trustworthiness. This will determine how safe they feel working with you. People are very sensitive to inconsistency and lies; integrity is essential to building their trust.
- Sociability – If people like you and want to be like you, then you will be able to build your levels of influence with them. The bond that you develop in this way is called rapport. It is crucial to being able to lead them. Try to get along with people, take an interest in them even when they are different from you. People usually want to express themselves, so the most effective way to capture their attention is to be interested in them. A good general rule for building rapport through dialogue is that you have one mouth and two ears; talking and listening in that proportion is a winning strategy.
Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are about applying your internal leadership traits externally, as part of an organization. Leadership skills can be developed without a formal leadership role. But it does help to do it within the workplace.
- Technical Skills – Use determination to build your self-confidence as well as your competence. Master the hands-on activities that you need to create the product or service that the organization is supposed to produce. This includes routine operation and troubleshooting problems. Based on your determination to master the skills you need you will become the go-to guy or gal that your coworkers turn to in a crisis. Technical skills are most relevant at the level closest to production. They therefore are most valuable at the supervisor level and progressively less useful as you go to higher management levels.
- Human Skills – Use your sociability to build relationships that will enable you to work with people. This is the most important skill and it is equally useful at all levels of leadership. Effective communication is essential at all levels, for supporting, coaching and directing workers as well as informing higher levels above. Getting people to be receptive and willing to share information is what leadership is all about.
- Conceptual Skills – These are the skills of working with ideas. They become more important as you progress to the higher management or leadership levels. Developing your conceptual skills will help you to see the big picture. They are expressed as policy and strategic management.
Leadership Styles
Your style of leadership is a reflection of your personality and character, based on your values. To develop your strengths as a leader you really need to become aware of what your style is. When looking at your style as an approach to leadership there are two parts of your attitude that describe your behavior.
- How relationship oriented you are, or how concerned for people you are.
- How task oriented you are, or how concerned for producing results you are.
A high concern for people and low concern for results will probably make a fun place to work but maybe not going to produce results if it suddenly gets urgent. High concern for results with low concern for people may get great short-term results but create an unpleasant work environment. Try to become aware of your leadership style so that you can understand how you can adapt it to particular situations within your organization.
Situational Leadership
Applying leadership styles in formal leadership roles is about adapting your style to the situation. This is situational leadership. As a leader you need to be aware of what your team’s needs are and switch your style appropriately. In this context task oriented behavior is referred to as directing and relationship oriented behavior is called supporting.
- Directing – A low supportive/high directing style. When your team does not need to rely on relationships and has a low level of operational skill you take a directing role. You supervise them closely, setting goals and give a lot of instructions about what to do. In this style you tell them what to do and then watch over them to see that they do it.
- Coaching– High supporting/high directing. This style is a more nurturing approach, where the leader takes time to give encouragement and listen to input from subordinates. You spend time working on both relationships and on producing results. In the coaching style you take time to get input from the workers but still decides on the goal and how to get to it.
- Supporting – High supporting/low directing. In this style less time is spent on relationship building, nurturing, listening and advising. Day-to-day running of operations is left to subordinates. The leader remains available to solve problems and give any guidance that is requested.
- Delegating – Low supporting/low directing. In this style subordinates are responsible for getting the job done in the way that suits them best. When your people know what to do and how to do it, delegate. This is leadership at a higher level. Middle and senior managers will often rely on subordinate leaders in whom they trust to deal with day-today operation and goal setting. This leaves them free to to concentrate on the big picture issues of strategic management.
Putting It All Together
This post has really skimmed the surface of leadership, as a topic. I have touched on too many different ideas for it to do otherwise. Leadership is the ability to use your relationship with people so that they willingly work with you. You don’t have to be in a formal leadership role to develop your skills as a leader. You can become a leader in your relationships in an informal role. Try to become aware of the traits and skills you need to develop to be a leader and be aware of your strengths. Learn to apply your strengths in different styles of leadership. When you are in a formal role you can use these strengths to select the style of leadership that is appropriate to the situation.
You can learn how to be a leader. Start trying to build your relationships with your peers, learn as many skills as you can and try to increase your general knowledge to see the big picture. Make decisions often and reflect on the outcomes to make better decisions the next time around. With determination you will gain experience and the respect of your friends and coworkers; you will become an effective and strong leader and, very likely, you will enjoy the adventure along the way.
