Authentic and Effective Leadership - 7 Success Secrets
Prakash Baskar
Ex-Chief Data Officer - Transforming companies by developing and enabling intrapreneurs to win with data.
Leadership is complicated and simple at the same time. Leaders are not born, but individuals develop as leaders over a lifetime of experiences.
Genetics, culture, and early experiences around role models can help in some ways. Still, those advantages are minimalistic compared to the unlimited potential an individual develops by getting unwavering inspiration from within and adequate motivation from around.
It is hard to distill and define all of the characteristic traits and qualities that will make a person a better leader. And even if it is done, there is no guarantee all that training will create leaders rising to the same level. Inner drive and external conditions play a bit part in the final outcome.
Even with the best training, advice, mentoring, or coaching, there is no guarantee that someone will be a better leader. There are three central angles to these outcomes. As individuals, we have control of two of the below.
But if there is no guaranteed way to develop leaders, how do we increase the odds that we can turn up as better leaders and continuously improve our leadership game, develop those high-potential, driven, and talented individuals in our teams, and ensure that we create a safe and welcoming place that proactively weeds out the intelligent jerks while rewarding high-performing, team-oriented individuals looking for collective growth?
How do we make sure our ecosystem of employees, vendors, suppliers, customers, and every other stakeholder are fairly treated, compensated, and engaged in a growth-oriented approach at individual, team, and company levels?
We cannot ensure any of these desired outcomes. We can only do what we can to the best of our abilities. Take responsibility for our actions and inactions.
If you still want a short list of items that, when consistently performed, will enable us to be better and responsible leaders and accelerate leadership growth in the people we lead, I understand.
Here are the seven leadership traits that I have found helpful. Own them and do them consistently to see results.
Seven Success Secrets for Authentic and Effective Leadership
We don't need a title to lead.??
Just intentional purpose, unwavering ethics and integrity, and relentless action in the right direction will do.??
However, when you get the title, it's important to remember that our actions or inactions can now impact a much wider group that includes employees, vendors, customers, and society - more significantly.??
For leaders at any level to succeed, they must possess a few key traits, and here is my list of top qualities. If these are there, combined with unwavering ethics and integrity, leaders can lead with their hearts and minds, overcome challenges and setbacks, and create more leaders.??
The list of qualities that define a great leader is many, and the following are what any of us are responsible for and so easier to own up.??
1. Decisive
Only the individual can decide aspects of the role with positional leadership (where titles are involved). Numerous direct and indirect team members depend on decisions made on time so that they can do their work effectively.
When a leader is not decisive, the system suffers, creating a ripple effect of stalling, uncertainty, hasty last-minute decisions, and often, plans and work must be redone or reworked. It results in chaos, and the quality of work suffers. Being decisive also means making decisions where you don't have all the answers.
We never will have the full picture. It's a myth. Decisive leaders create valuable companies.
Even when we decide, the parameters around our decisions, such as business, technology, people, and market factors, change constantly.?
2. Definitive
When a decision is made, consider the consequences. We can only make the best decision possible at a given time based on what we know. When work has been put in place, and a decision is made, great leaders resist the urge to keep tinkering with the decision. Unless the new information significantly alters the course of your plan or investment, exposes extreme risks not identified earlier, or creates a much more manageable, higher return for less investment, it's not worth revisiting.
If analysis paralysis delays our decisions, decision paralysis delays execution and results. And it will definitely send your most talented employees and consultants looking for work elsewhere.
We must periodically monitor for new information and the potential effect of our decisions. Still, constant knee-jerk reactions to every blip will disrupt teams and our ability to deliver results.
3. Delegating
The power in any leadership role comes from the power of your team. Great leaders know how to delegate priorities and win as a team effectively. There will always be items that we want to keep closer to ourselves due to information sensitivity or confidentiality needs. But those must be few.
When we engage the team better, the function can grow faster and the outcomes will be larger.
Effective delegation also helps develop team leaders to build a high-performing succession pool.?And develops more leaders that our companies and society need at all levels.
While delegating, your most promising talent must have room to experiment and fail. They must be able to take risks without fearing being overly penalized.
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Acts of carelessness and an attitude of "winging it" must still be responded to with the proper consequences. However, if there is no opportunity to make mistakes, your teams will not have the courage to step up. And that is counter-productive to what you want to achieve.
I am a fan of Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership II model; if you have yet to explore it, I highly recommend getting familiar with it. Delegation is only one part of the 4-phases, and understanding which approach to use under what situations is a valuable skill for any leader.
4. Daring
Leading takes courage. It is not for those who are feeble at heart when faced with challenging situations, and you have to make the right decisions despite those hurdles or problems. Sometimes, the people you will have to challenge are your managers. Hiding or ignoring difficult conversations will not work.
The outdated practices, red-tapism, or bureaucratic processes existed within the company long before you took over your function or department. Are you willing to accept the status quo, understand the system, and then challenge and change? The choice is yours.
Do not believe any one who says leadership is easy. Compassion and courage to make the right decisions must go hand in hand.
Being open to putting out hard facts that must be presented and discussed and challenging the assumptions or pushback from your managers, team members, and other departments needs courage. When the situation demands, a willingness to listen to different views, step in with honest feedback and opinions, or direct messaging are all required.??
(Recommended Reading: The Essential Hallmarks of a Good Leader from Jamie Dimon.)
5. Determined??
Follow-through is a critical aspect of successful leadership. We have courageously made the decision and taken it to execution decisively. But how do we confidently stick to it when challenges come up? As I discussed earlier, new information will always come up. And some of that information may even cause doubts about the initial decision.
Here is a tricky situation we all face as leaders. There are many possible directions here:
Every leader will be tested on their determination and commitment to their decisions.
The biggest challenge when that happens is to push the ego out and weigh the problems and intended outcomes in light of the new information. Sometimes, we must let the process run its course to provide the right results. At other times, when further information proves our previous decision wrong, the right thing to do is to revisit and fix it. And knowing when to do what needs a lifetime of learning, and we can still be wrong.
How often have we seen leaders make a poor hiring decision and, despite all the screamingly bad performance or lackluster results from the candidate they hired, they still don't do much to fix the problem?
6. Direct??
Great leaders prefer direct communication instead of always going through the layers of hierarchy. This is especially important when making a decision that will impact someone else. And as almost all decisions will affect others, it is better to be direct most of the time.
You can stick to hierarchical engagement when it makes sense, such as a broader policy, training, or any other decision that applies to a larger group of people. You want your team leads to handle the communication and decisions below (Refer: Delegating).
Value everybody's time, effort, and commitment. Because if you don't, they will stop caring about you. And sooner or later, karma will catch up.
But when talking with individuals, please be sure always to be direct. There are times when we cannot disclose what we know, but those should be far too few. In all other situations, being explicit shows that we respect our team members, colleagues, peers, stakeholders, and vendors as individuals.
7. Driven?
When you look into a mirror, what do you see? Do you see someone inspired from within or riding the wave helplessly, requiring external support, motivation, validation, and cheering? We all need our support system, advisors, mentors, coaches, and well-wishers. But all that is external to us.
When everything else stops, in the confines of our four walls, who is making us rise again, try once more, act with conviction and a surge of confidence and belief?
Every great leader I have encountered is mustering the self-drive and inspiration from within. We have our wins and losses, but how we return daily, doing what we do, is entirely upon us. When the sun rises again, what makes us return and do our best work? The drive is critical to all the other six I discussed earlier. Never outsource that drive.
As for this tea bag message I found yesterday, it seems everything. Go ahead, be the leader you can be. You deserve it, and the world deserves more leaders.
Want to work with me and my team to accelerate your success?
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