There are more managers and supervisors out there than leaders. And, there are even less practising leaders out of this smaller group. A formal title of ‘Team Leader’ or ‘Manager’ needs to be backed up by behaviors that demonstrate your competency, clarity, confidence, credibility and commitment as a leader (the 5 ‘C’s). It takes a lot to live up to the ‘L’ word.
It may be simple being a leader, but it is not easy. It requires soft skills, yet these skills may be hard to exhibit – no pun intended. Here are some challenges of being a leader:
1) You can be fair to your staff, yet they can accuse you of being unfair.
2) Your staff also determines how effective you are as a leader.
3) Using leadership terms (in your conversations) may make you sound impressive, but may not be expressive to others.
4) You are being monitored all the time. The moment you violate the consistency code (i.e. walk the talk), you get tanked for it. Say what you will do, and do it!
5) You are either loved or loathed. There are no grey areas of allowance. Leadership is black and white for the masses. To your staff, either you have it or you don’t. That’s how stringent their personal and professional criteria are.
6) You are expected to be open-minded and follow others. The leader is expected to follow his/her colleagues, at times.
Having said all this, leadership requires vision, motivation, decisiveness and commitment. How will you lead your people this week? How will you add to the pool of emerging leaders? How will you hone your leadership skills this week?
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