Leadership - Part 3

What happens when a leader isn’t successful? The simple answer is that no one follows them, but this is sadly not always true. A person may be already in a position of leadership due to prior successes but then begins to get it wrong. Or, a person may have been placed in a position of leadership in error, a surprisingly common situation. Even worse, people may follow false leaders, acting the part but having little substance.

So, what are the warning signs of failure as a leader? Here are some things to watch out for. The first list requires some explanation, I’ve kept it short.


Traits of a Leader Associated With Failure

Shifting Focus - Losing sight of the big picture.
Poor Communication - Great leadership is about communicating ideas.
Averting Risks - Avoid fear of failure.
Declining Ethics - What a leader does shows what a leader is.
Negative Self-Management - Fulfil your physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs.
Lost Love - Stay on track; don’t lose sight of the ‘vision’.


Enemies of Leadership

Selfishness
Power Struggles
Behaviour (lose of control)
Jealousy
Greed
Incompetence
Rigid
Callous
Corrupt
Intemperate
Insular
Evil

Summary

As a leader, be aware of the role you play. Develop the right traits while watching for and avoiding the wrong ones. Model your behaviours on the leaders you admire and wish to be like, select the very best examples.

If I were asked what was the one key trait to becoming a successful leader, I would say the skill you need to acquire is to learn to serve and not demand.

Leadership - Part 2

Traits of a Successful Leader

There are two main areas that influence a person’s decision (consciously or unconsciously) to follow your leadership, your character and / or skills. Other things do affect the decision process but it is these aspects that will be the deciding factors.

I’ve pulled together some straightforward lists of characteristics and skills that are considered the key to good leadership. These are known as leadership ‘traits’. I am not claiming these are the definitive areas for development, I’m merely showing some examples of the opinions that are out there. You must never forget to take your own personality and environment into consideration when considering any of these.

I have always had an issue with how individual’s interperate lists of single words. The context, the reader’s point of view, his or her own motivations and so on can skew any definition of a word. This is not the place to start a catalogue of leadership definitions, but keep this in mind when reading the following lists.

Chris Widener on http://www.top7business.com/ suggests that these are the ‘Top 7 Character Traits Of Extraordinary Leaders’. I think there is a lot to be said for this simple approach, see what you think.

Top 7 Character Traits Of Extraordinary Leaders

Integrity
Optimism
Embraces Change
Risk Taker
Tenacious
Catalectic
Dedicated / Committed

I’ve had the following acronym floating about for some time and forgotten where I’ve had it from; I think this is a handy reference and seems to cover all the major leadership traits.

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE

Justice
Judgment
Dependability
Initiative
Decisiveness
Tact
Integrity
Enthusiasm
Bearing
Unselfishness
Courage
Knowledge
Loyalty
Endurance

The U.S. Army have done quite a bit of work in leadership, as you might expect, and have come up with some interesting stuff. I have selected their ‘Leadership Principles’ and ‘Character Traits’ to include here. I have edited their list of ‘Leadership Principles’ slightly to make them a little more relevant but the basic principles are in tact. As you consider these next two lists, keep in mind the environmental ‘structure’ that they were developed for.

Leadership Principles

Understand and be functionally proficient in whatever you do
Know yourself and seek self-improvement
Know your followers and look out for their welfare
Keep your followers informed
Set the example
Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished
Develop your followers as a team
Make sound and timely decisions
Develop a sense of responsibility in your followers
Employ your followers in accordance with their capabilities
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions

Character Traits

Bearing
Confidence
Courage
Integrity
Decisiveness
Justice
Endurance
Tact
Initiative
Coolness
Maturity
Improvement
Will
Assertiveness
Candour
Sense of humour
Competence
Commitment
Creativity
Self-discipline
Humility
Flexibility
Empathy/Compassion

If you compare these with the ‘JJ DID TIE BUCKLE’ list you can see how the environment, and even potential followers, have changed what traits we think a leader should possess. This is nothing to be overly concerned about; it only suggests that the positive traits of a leader can be somewhat bespoke.

Leadership - Part 1

Identifying what exactly makes a good leader is hotly debated and will probably continue for some time yet. Every time someone thinks they have the formula, a successful leader comes along that just doesn’t fit that criterion.

There seems to be no absolutes, no finite rights or wrongs. Just a general consensus that most experts in the field would agree is the right direction.

However, I do think that researching successful leaders and modelling their behaviour is one of the best ways to identify our own development needs.

Meanwhile, to start you on your quest to find the essence of a good leader I have assembled a few ‘quick hit’ ideas for you to consider. It is a sizable subject so I have broken it down into a series of three very short parts. This is intended as the laypersons guide to leadership, something to make you think and explore further. It is not an all-inclusive study of the subject.


The Environment

To understand what leadership is, you must first identify how a leader ‘fits’ within their environment. All environments typically consist of three components.

1. STRUCTURE
Each environment has a structure of some description, which gives it form and dictates the way it interacts with the other components. In the business sense, the environment would be the organisation you work for. But it could just as easily be a person’s home and family. Sometimes, it may seem difficult to identify the environmental structure. You may be looking too hard; it may be society itself, your country, the world. You get the idea.

2. FOLLOWERS
The followers respond to, and interact with, the structure and the leaders. We are all followers at some time, in countless environments, even if we are leaders in others.

3. LEADERS
The leaders determine the ultimate evolutionary direction of the environment. Their character and skills, their leadership ‘traits’, determine the approach used to resolve issues and how tasks are accomplished.


Definition of a Leader

In my opinion the following quote pretty much sums up what a leader is.

Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. - Warren Bennis, Ph.D. On Becoming a Leader

To add to that, in an ideal world - good Managers need to be good leaders and good leaders need to be good managers. Each supports and is influenced by the other, but neither is dependant on the other.


Becoming a Leader

There are three major theories of how people become leaders.

Trait
Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles.
Great Events
A crisis or significant event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out leadership qualities in a person.
Transformational Leadership
People can choose to learn leadership skills and become leaders.

There is only a small amount of people who slot into the ‘Trait’ and ‘Great Events’ theories. The ‘Transformational Leadership’ theory is the most widely accepted today. This then links in nicely with the behavioural modelling I mentioned earlier.

Here are a couple of leadership models you might be interested in.
Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991)
The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (1985)