Today’s post on being great leaders comes from my dear friend Shahrill of NuQuest. Shahrill is a dynamic and successful entrepreneur and speaker of his training consultancy firm, NuQuest. His company specializes in leadership and team building programmes. Over the years, Shahrill has developed his cutting edge materials and inspiring presentation skills that has many global companies and organizations seeking the consultancy services of his company. He is passionate about your success as an entrepreneur and leader as well.
“The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.”
~ J. Carla Nortcutt
The Self Aware Great Leaders
Leadership is all about being you and demonstrating personal authenticity rather than learning some formula from a text book. Aspiring great leaders therefore need to be true to themselves; not slavishly following other’s ideas. Role models can be powerful and it does not hurt to model excellence when found; executive coaching is based on this premise.
Great leaders are prepared to reveal their weakness, because they know they are not super-human. Obviously this does not mean technical weaknesses or functional failings; this would fatally flaw their performance. Instead, what is meant is that great leaders should reveal their personality quirks – maybe they are bad tempered in the morning, are somewhat shy with new people or a little disorganized. Such admissions show they are human and this resonates with others confirming that the great leader is a person – not merely a role-holder.
Revealing their true selves, great leaders can allow others to know and help them and this makes for better teamwork; followers can also feel better if they’ve got something to complain about. Thus by sharing at least some of their weaknesses, great leaders can prevent others from inventing damaging problems.
The Three Levels of Sensitivity in Great Leaders
True leadership is therefore much more than a demonstration of strengths. Great leaders acknowledge their shortcomings and may even make them work for them.
Great leaders always rely on their ability to read situations. They develop a ‘feel’ for an environment, and interpret soft data without having to be told. They know when team morale is patchy or when complacency needs shaking up. There are three levels of situational sensitivity, each of which has its own specific skills
- Effective and great leaders are continually learning about the motives, attributes and skills of their important subordinates. They get to know their people through formal and, often better, informal contact such as when traveling together.
- Effective and great leaders read their teams. They analyze the compound balance between team members, the tension between the tasks and processes, and how the team builds its competencies.
- Finally, great leaders are concerned with defining the cultural characteristics of their organizations and keep their finger on the pulse of the organization’s climate.
Great Leaders Care
It sounds tongue-in-cheek to say that great leaders care for their people. Ever noticed the cynicism in the workforce upon seeing a manager return from a people-skills training course with new concern for others. Effective and great leaders don’t need a training programme to convince their employees that they really care. They clearly empathize with their people and care intensely about their work.
Genuine concern is difficult because it always involves some personal risk – showing some part of yourself and your most strongly held values can seem quite scary. It may also take some detachment – the ability to stand back, see the whole picture and sometimes take tough decisions. Leadership never was a popularity contest.
Effective and great leaders use their differences and move on to distinguish themselves through personal qualities such as sincerity, loyalty, creativity, or sheer expertise.
Using these differences is a critical leadership skill. But, as always, there is a danger – too much distance makes it impossible to sense situations properly or to communicate effectively.
Are you a great leader who cares? What other critical attributes do you think great leaders should have? How do you cultivate these aspects of great leadership? Share with us.
I think the most important thing we can do for ourselves is just to be ourselves. We shouldn’t pretend to be someone we’re not. With that being said, I believe some people are natural leaders and some are not. I think leadership just comes naturally to some people and not so much for others. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that if you weren’t meant to lead don’t step into a role you’re not comfortable with.
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