WHAT IS LEADERSHIP???

LEADERSHIP:Simply put, is the action of leading a group of people or an organizationIt’s the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and colleagues with a strategy to meet the company’s needs.

 

According to some scholars;
– Leadership is the ability to evaluate and or forecast a long term plan or policy and influence the followers towards the achievement of the said strategy. Adeoye Mayowa (2009)
– Leadership (according to John Sculley) revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation.
– Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
– Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential. Warren Bennis
– Leadership is an influence process that enable managers to get their people to do willingly what must be done, do well what ought to be done. Cribbin, J.J.

In essence Leadership has to do with 3 KEY COMPONENTS
1. Influence
2. Communication
3. Attainment of a Goal

“Leadership is the process of INFLUENCING the activities of one’s followers through COMMUNICATION and it’s aimed at the ATTAINMENT of a GOAL or GOALS.”

 

Leadership captures the essentials of being able and prepared to inspire others.
Effective leadership is based upon ideas—both original and borrowed—that are effectively communicated to others in a way that engages them enough to act as the leader wants them to act.

 

10 CORE LEADERSHIP SKILLS:
The Characteristics & Qualities of a Good Leader

 

1. INTEGRITY: Is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It may not necessarily be a metric in employee evaluations, but it’s essential for the individual and the organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. According to Research, integrity is actually a potential blind spot for organizations. It’s important that your organization reinforces the importance of integrity to leaders at various levels because it can make or mar one’s brand.

 

2. ABILITY TO DELEGATE: Delegating is one of the core responsibilities of a leader, but it can be tricky to delegate effectively. The goal isn’t just to free yourself up — it’s also to enable your direct reports, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy, lead to better decision-making, and help your direct reports grow. In order to delegate well, you also need to build trust with your team.

 

3. COMMUNICATION: You need to be able to communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information to coaching your workers.On the other hand, you must be able to listen to, and communicate with a wide range of people across roles, social identities, and more.
It’s important to note that; The quality and effectiveness of communication across your organization directly affects the success of your business strategy!

 

4. SELF-AWARENESS: While this is a more inwardly focused skill, self-awareness is paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself, the more effective you can be.

 

Question!! Do you know how other people view you, or how you show up at work?

 

* Leadership Wisdom. These are insights from your experience that you can apply to the challenges you face. – The key to cultivating leadership wisdom is taking time to reflect on your experiences. This includes revisiting your experiences from multiple perspectives, engaging in “surface reflection” to identify past actions and behaviors, and practicing “deep reflection” to examine underlying beliefs and assumptions. This reflection must be done time and again, and good leaders often return to the same experiences repeatedly to gain new insights as they grow.

* Leadership Identity. This is who you are in your current professional and personal context. Your leadership identity, or social identity, influences how you lead whether you’re aware of it or not. Think of your leadership identity as 3 concentric rings (which may overlap). In the outer ring is your given identity — characteristics you have no choice about. These natural traits include age, nationality, race, some physical characteristics, and the like. The second ring is your chosen identity. These traits describe your status, characteristics you control, and skills. Common attributes in the chosen identity are your occupation, political affiliation, and hobbies, among others. The innermost ring is your core identity. These are the qualities that make you unique; some may change over your life, while others remain constant. Included here are behaviors, values, and beliefs. Knowing your own leadership identity may help you find common ground with others that leads to stronger relationships, or reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings during critical communications.

* Leadership Reputation. This is how others perceive you as a leader based on your current and previous behavior. Your leadership reputation is what others think of you as a leader. Understanding your leadership reputation helps you comprehend how you may be perceived and judged by others. Knowing how you’re perceived will strengthen your ability to communicate with and influence others. To understand your leadership reputation, ask questions about the reputation you’ve established, try to view your behavior as others may, and check to see if your reputation aligns with your values and your desired leadership brand.

* Leadership Brand. This is what you aspire to and the actions you take to support that mission. How do people know the leadership you’re capable of, and how do you communicate it? That’s what your leadership brand is. Understanding your leadership brand — how you’d like to be perceived — allows you to act to change those perceptions in a positive, authentic way. Your leadership brand should identify your unique strengths, communicate them to others, provide a consistent experience that meets others’ expectations of you, and make explicit that which is implicit.

 

5. GRATITUDE: Being thankful can make you a better leader. Gratitude can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and even better sleep. Few people regularly say “thank you” at work, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. Learn how to give thanks and practice more gratitude in the workplace.

 

6. LEARNING AGILITY: Learning agility is the ability to know what to do, when you don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster learning agility through practice, experience, and effort.

 

7. INFLUENCE: Is being able to convince people through logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals and this is a component of being an inspiring & effective leader. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically and transparently. It requires emotional intelligence and trust-building.

 

8. EMPATHY: Is the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Empathy can be learned and also help to improve work for you and those around you, as well as make one to be more effective.

 

9. COURAGE: is the ability to confront something painful or difficult or dangerous despite any fear. It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key skill for good leaders. Rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester, courage enables leaders to step up and move things in the right direction.

 

10. RESPECT: Is the due regard for the feelings, wishes, or rights of others. Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important things a leader can do. It will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and improve effectiveness. Respect is more than the absence of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways.