Being a Leader in today's world

BEING A LEADER IN TODAY'S WORLD

With globalisation, technological innovation and emerging markets, leadership cannot be overemphasised, as leading and managing people in organisations will definitely be chaotic. Hence, an approach to contemporary leadership styles is essential. These styles are namely Charismatic, Transactional and Transformational Leadership.

With globalization, technological innovation and emerging markets, leadership cannot be overemphasized, as leading and managing people in organizations will definitely be chaotic. Hence, an approach to contemporary leadership styles is essential. These styles are namely Charismatic, Transactional and Transformational Leadership.

Charismatic leaders   such as Ex-President Barak Obama are known for motivating people through personality, character and charisma for the benefit of a community.

Transactional leaders  such as Steve Jobs from Apple is a leader that uses their power through rewards on employees to get work done. This style of leadership could be identified as autocratic leadership as employees are pressurized to receive rewards from performance than being inspired to work well.

Transformational leaders   encourage, inspire and motivate people whilst putting into consideration diversity, beliefs and collaboration. This leadership style is highlighted as the most relevant and valuable style in the business world today. The company ‘Google’

practices this style of leadership as they value effective and flexible working to reduce stress and yield job satisfaction which in turn results in employee loyalty and good performance. All people in formal leadership positions, myself included, occasionally look around in the middle of whatever they're leading and wonder to themselves why anyone would let them be in charge of anything. And yet what I've learned from being a leader is not only that absolutely anyone can provide leadership, but that the attributes that make a great leader in a formal, corporate setting also make a great leader in life.In my view, then, to be a great leader you must:

1. Be confident.

People say "I don't know" all the time. But the ones who say it confidently do tend to be more competent than those who say it nervously and uncertainly. Not knowing something doesn't make you a bad leader. Allowing that lack of knowledge to sap your confidence, or worse, not having confidence in the first place, does.

2. Be kind but firm.

Being a leader means having to set boundaries, but boundaries can be set angrily and condescendingly or gently and compassionately. Do it gently and compassionately and people will not only respect the boundaries you set but you as well.

 3. Be an expert.

However long it takes, whatever you have to do, know what you're talking about. Don't ever try to fake content knowledge. If you don't know what you need to know, find it out.

4. Be decisive.

A great leader listens to a diversity of opinions, asks probing questions, debates issues, challenges positions---but when the time to discuss and debate is over, makes a decision and moves on.

  5. Be willing to have people disagree with you.

If you're setting appropriate boundaries and taking strong positions, some people may not only disagree with you but actively dislike you. But that's more about them than it is about you. Don't take it personally.

 6. Know when to spend time building a consensus and when to make an executive decision. Sometimes everyone (or almost everyone) involved needs to agree before progress can be made. Other times waiting for a consensus risks failure. Learn to recognize when it's time to take over.

 7. Have a vision.

A vision that excites the people who follow you, that inspires them in such a way that they perform (or want to perform) at a level they didn't know they could.

 8. Care about the people you lead.

Genuine concern is always perceived and appreciated—and far more motivating than any punitive measure could ever be.

 9. Mentor people.  

Great leaders always have people who want to learn from them. Someone is always watching you, whether you realize it or not. If you're ever unsure about what decision to make, think about what each of your choices will teach the people around you. Try to pick the choice that demonstrates the greatest virtue.

10. Fully visualize every repercussion of each of your decisions in advance.

Plans often fail because of unforeseen consequences. Follow the predicted results of your decisions into every nook and cranny and take a 360 degree look around in your mind. The more concretely you can do this, the more likely you'll be able to predict results no one else can.

Prior to my becoming the Director of Research Program for a Think Tank in Burkina Faso, I couldn't really have said why the quality of the leadership in an organization actually mattered, thinking as I did that the people on the front lines were the ones who did most of the real work. Though I still believe that to be true, I now understand that without quality leadership the environment in which those front line people perform will often become poisoned, sometimes dramatically impairing the quality of their work. The only antidote available for the poison of a poor leader (other than replacing him) will then be the quality of the leadership of the front line people themselves. I was reminded of that lesson every time I made a poor decision and learned I was actually leading a group of people who were far better leaders than I.