Effective Leadership Begins with You – 4 areas to focus on
To be an effective leader, you must first be a leader of yourself. Self-discipline matters in everything you strive for, whether it’s losing weight, finishing a degree or winning a gold medal in the Olympics. Before you lead you must have within you a desire and an ability to move mountains to get what you desire.
Belief in yourself is a tremendous asset to leadership. Your words and your actions can lead others to great heights – but only if you believe that you, too, have powers that are strong and which you strive to develop.
Mother Teresa was a leader, but if you didn’t know who she was and saw her from a distance, you’d think she was a quiet and unobtrusive nun working with the downtrodden in life. But, if you spent time with her, you’d know that she was also a great leader – able to inspire everyone in her path to the greater good of mankind.
Leadership doesn’t have to have a title such as “CEO” or “manager,” because leadership transcends a title or letters after a name. No matter what role you play in life, you can become a leader by exuding your own confidence, willpower and empathy for others.
To be an example for effective leadership and to make others want to follow, you must develop the following qualities of leadership within yourself:
Stand for something
Your values tell a great deal about who you really are. Developing a passion for your convictions indicates to others that you have core beliefs that can’t be shaken and others will look up to you for that.
How would you define your values? Values are usually fairly stable, yet they don't have strict limits or boundaries. Also, as you move through life, your values may change. For example, when you start your career, success – measured by money and status – might be a top priority. But after you have a family, work-life balance may be what you value more.
As your definition of success changes, so do your personal values. This is why keeping in touch with your values is a lifelong exercise. You should continuously revisit them, especially if you start to feel unbalanced... and you can't quite figure out why. When you define your personal values, you discover what's truly important to you. A good way of starting to do this is to look back on your life – to identify when you felt really good and really confident that you were making good choices. Identifying and understanding your values is a challenging and important exercise.
Your personal values are a central part of who you are – and who you want to be. By becoming more aware of these important factors in your life, you can use them as a guide to make the best choice in any situation. Some of life's decisions are really about determining what you value most. When many options seem reasonable, it's helpful and comforting to rely on your values – and use them as a strong guiding force to point you in the right direction.
2. Be an example for others
Preaching to others about how they should think and act isn’t nearly as effective as letting them know that you’ve been where they are now. People will know you by your actions, so let your actions reflect your values. Are you a Good Role Model? Have you ever worked with a boss who kept calm and positive, even when he or she was under enormous pressure? Perhaps you've looked up to a co-worker who consistently went the extra mile for others.
Now consider how others see your behavior. Do you think you are a good role model for the people around you? You may not realize it, but your actions, attitudes, outlook, and ethics are likely influencing your team members, and being mirrored by them. Being a good role model benefits both you and the people who work with you. Good role models are widely respected, and they often find themselves in leadership positions. People naturally look up to them, seek to do their best for them, and copy their behaviors.
To be a good role model, focus on developing the following six personal qualities: Self-awareness, Positivity, Humility, Empathy, Professionalism and Integrity.
As you engage with your team members and offer yourself as a role model, try to do the following:
Communicate effectively with your team
Support your organization's values
Work collaboratively and
Support innovation.
3. Be a mentor
You can empower others with the knowledge and leadership skills that you possess. Share what you know and what has worked for you and you’ll be appreciated as well as setting an example for leadership. Mentoring is a relationship between two people – the "mentor" and the "mentee." As a mentor, you pass on valuable skills, knowledge and insights to your mentee to help them develop their career.
Mentoring can help the mentee feel more confident and self-supporting. Mentees can also develop a clearer sense of what they want in their careers and their personal lives. They will develop greater self-awareness and see the world, and themselves, as others do.
To be a good mentor, you need similar skills to those used in coaching, with one big difference – you must have experience relevant to the mentee's situation. This can be technical experience, management experience, or simply life experience. To be an effective mentor, you need to:
Have the desire to help,
Be motivated to continue developing and growing,
Have confidence and an assured manner,
Ask the right questions,
Listen actively and
Provide feedback.
Remember, mentoring is about transferring information, competence, and experience to mentees so that they can make good use of this, and build their confidence accordingly. As a mentor, you are there to encourage, nurture, and provide support, because you've already "walked the path" of the mentee. Also remember that mentoring is about structured development – you don't have to tell the mentee everything you know about a subject, at every opportunity.
4. Self-discovery
Always be on a path of self-discovery – even after you’ve reached the pinnacle of success. Knowing ourselves is a constant awakening process to the things we’re capable of and of realizing our true convictions. All leaders must take a journey within and discover their values and why those are their values. You can’t become a leader from a place of weakness. Internal guidance is necessary to navigate through the obstacles in life and bring you to ultimate success.
If you need support to identify your inner compass (your values), setting up a fruitful mentoring relationship or want to deep dive into yourself further as part of your leadership role my coaching will support you to achieve your targets faster. Here is a link to book a discovery session with me to find out if I am the right coach for you.
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