Many companies talk about leadership and this is something that they look for in every person, no matter what position you are in. Leader is someone that most of the time may look a bit mystified – as somebody that needs to have super powers, have ability to gather masses for the common goal, have a charisma and many other things that sometimes do not look achievable.
What kind of leaders there might be in organisation?
There may be different type of leaders in different organisations. Most common are the ones that have group of people as subordinates – team leaders – and the ones who are experts of certain areas of expertise, but have no people that report to them – area / functional leaders.
How to be a good leader in an organisation?
There are very simple things to work on and not forget, when it comes to being a leader of your own area or people.
Area / functional leader should:
Keep promises – if a person has given a promise to do something, promise should be fulfilled. If a person gave a promise, which he can not make happen, he must take responsibility without blaming anybody and come forward by saying that he could not keep the promise. The rule is a foundation for building thetrust in the organisation.
Understand the area inside - out – this means simple thing – a person should know his area of expertise to very tiny detail, without any excuses “this is not my job”or “this part of the process is handled by somebody else”.
Be proactive – no person that just waits for the problem to accure instead of acting in advance, will ever be considered as somebody who has sense of ownership, which is one of the important values of a good leader as well.
Team leader should:
Keep promises – same as with area / functional leader – given promises should be kept or worst case scenario team leader should come forward and share why something did not happen. The biggest difference is that to brake the promise given to the team by the leader will be more harmful, because commitment has been given to a very close circle of people, whom you can not hide or be dishonest with.
Take care of the people – team leader should not talk only about the tasks and the progress of those tasks that the team is working on. There should be certain amount of time spend on talking of how team members are feeling, how is life, etc. – you just need to put some effort in getting to know your people.
Take full responsibility for team failures – in public settings this means that team leader should not start blaming team members, but rather soften the situation, by saying “I understand where the team is coming from, let us talk offline and we will come back with a solution”. In the public you and your team should look as united front and all the mistakes should be addressed inside of the team.
Listen – there are times when hard decisions need to be made, that not necessarily will make the team happy, but never the less should be made. In these cases team leader should give a chance for people to express their opinion, try to understand their fears and address the concerns in the best possible manner.
Final thoughts
As mysteriously the definition of a leader may sound in different trainings or slogans, the reality is that there are only handful amount of things that every person who wants to be a good leader in an organisation should do. Non of those things require any mystical powers, only certain attention to the details and the people.