Leadership is the action of leading people in an organization towards achieving goals
Leaders do this by influencing employee behaviors in several ways. A leader sets a clear vision for the organization, motivates employees, guides employees through the work process and builds morale.
“Leadership is not about size, age, gender, and power but it is all about wisdom, knowledge, experience, maturity, and qualities. Leadership is an important and invaluable quality which could be learned and earned by practice and repetition.”
There are some unique and specific qualities of great leaders that seem to stand out as being more important and popular than the others. Great leaders know who they are and what they stand for. They know their values and the rules they will abide by, regardless of the circumstances they face. They allow their people to understand the values they are committed to upholding, which lays a foundation for the rules their people will be expected to adhere to. Great leaders both know and communicate their values openly with the people they lead, creating an atmosphere of certainty and trust.
A great leader doesn’t fight and care for his title or position. He fights for his people and makes sure to help them at every point in time. A Leader and leadership have nothing to do with any title. Leadership is about people, It is all about understanding and caring of your people. Being a great leader is not a cake walk. Every individual is different from the other and come from different background, and has a different thought process. To be a great leader, we need to understand our people and inspire them through our support and actions.
A Great leader who inspires absolute trust, who is totally dedicated to fulfilling his unique role. He understands and appreciates each person’s role in perfecting this world, and guides him or her accordingly; He rises above any individual perspective to take a global view, seeing how each person and issue fits into the entire scheme of the contemporary world. Great leaders have integrity. The integrity is the very core of their influence. Living the values they profess to believe is what gives them credibility and allows others to place their trust in them. Great leaders are able to say “do as I do” rather than just “do as I say” because they lead by example.
It is useless for a great leader to be a visionary in the abstract; Great leader comes to be a successful communicator whose vision can be translated into specific, applicable principles – not knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but the knowledge that can actually help improve the world as well as can help his people by his knowledge.
When great leaders find a bad behavior needing to be corrected, they don’t view the person doing the behavior as a bad person. They listen and attempt to understand what led to that person making the mistake or exhibiting the bad behavior in order to understand the underlying cause that needs correcting. Great leaders understand that when a person feels valued and cared for by their leader, they will be far more willing to take the feedback and implement the needed changes. They understand that no value comes from the use of sarcasm, beating around the bush, or sugar coating things that need to be communicated. They understand that using those things breaks people’s trust and leaves them feeling uncertain or belittled.
Great leaders are forthright with their people. They communicate openly and often. Great leaders take the time to communicate often to their team in order to show that their team is valued and important to them. They understand that as the leader they have an obligation to communicate directly with their people so they never allow a completely empty space that someone with mal-intent can fill. Great leaders take on the responsibility of communicating for themselves.
A great leader understands that leadership is not about them but about those they serve. They know that uplifting and supporting others could make them a great leader. We all have room to improve as leaders, but our ultimate goal should be the same: To be leaders who are loved, admired, and respected by the people we lead as we motivate and inspire those people to achieve their full potential.