Leaders set direction, align and motivate people. Leaders set direction through vision and strategies. A leader must be credible to effectively communicate a message to their team. Many things contribute to credibility- integrity and trust of the person delivering the message, content of message, and consistency between words and actions.
Good leaders motivate their team in a variety of ways. They articulate the vision in a manner that emphasizes the values of their audience, and involve people in deciding how to achieve the vision- giving ownership to team members, encouraging responsibility and success. Leaders provide support through coaching, feedback and role-modeling, helping individuals to grow professionally. They recognize and reward success, giving the team a sense of accomplishment and reaffirmation that the organization cares about them.
Through studies of personal-best leadership experiences by Kouzes and Posner, they’ve found that leaders follow common patterns of action. It’s not about the personality, but practice. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership are 1. Model the Way, 2. Inspire a Shared Vision, 3. Challenge the Process, 4. Enable Others to Act and 5. Encourage the Heart
Model the Way: Titles are granted, but it’s your behavior that wins you respect. Leaders must be clear about their guiding principles, to effectively model behavior they expect of others. They have their own voice and lead from what they believe. Modelling the way is earning the right and respect to lead through direct individual involvement and action. People first follow the person then the plan.
Inspire a Shared Vision: Leaders have a desire to make something happen. They see pictures in their mind’s eye of what the results will look like even before they’ve started their project. They want to change the way things are, creating something no one else has created before. The clear image of the future pulls them forward. To enlist their team in a vision, they must understand their needs, values and interests in the heart.
Challenge the Process: Leaders venture out. They are willing to step into the unknown, searching for opportunities to innovate, grow and improve. But leaders aren’t originators of new products, services or processes. In fact, innovation comes more from listening than from telling. Leaders recognize and support good ideas, and challenge the system for new systems to be adopted. Leaders are learners, they learn from failures and successes.
Enable Others to Act: Leaders foster collaboration and build trust- leadership is a team effort. They enable others to act by giving power away and not keeping it. Giving their team trust and responsibility to make decisions encourages innovation and smart decision making. Leaders strengthen the each team member’s capacity to deliver on promises made.
Encourage the Heart: Leaders should encourage the heart of their team through the journey, leading the team forward through the frustration, exhaustion and difficulties encountered along the way. Leaders must be genuine and show appreciation for people’s contributions and create a culture of celebration. Genuine and true actions from the heart build strong collective identity and community spirit that can carry the group through tough times.
Material summarized from Business Leadership, by Joan Gallos
