“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations”- Peter Drucker
Leadership may be defined as a position of authority held by an individual in a group that allows him to exert interpersonal influence on the members of the group to mobilize and steer their efforts toward specific goals. He is at the apex of the organization’s power pyramid. He binds the group together, gives it vitality, drives it toward its objectives, and keeps it going ahead.
He may emerge in a group as a result of his personality traits and attributes, or as a result of group members’ majority agreement. Robin S Sharma, a leadership speaker, lawyer by education and best-selling novelist, stated “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.”
Leaders are “individuals who are compelled to make a difference by deepening their awareness of themselves in relation to the world around them. In doing so, they adopt new ways of seeing, thinking and interacting that result in innovative, sustainable solutions” (Sustainability Leadership Institute, 2016). A leader of an organization has characteristics that set him apart from the others with whom he works.
A leader must have a strong feeling of self-assurance. How can he expect his followers to believe him and his decisions if he lacks self-confidence and is apprehensive about every problem or choice? It will lead to followers believing that their leader is unqualified and does not deserve to be one, and his own followers will distrust him.
Emotional intelligence is also required for a person to be labelled as a good leader. Leaders with self-control can manage or reduce unpleasant emotions or thoughts before acting. They continually consider other people’s feelings before making decisions, have a range of problem-solving talents, and want to find a win-win solution. They place a premium on cooperation, transparency, and active responsibility.
He must be able to explain his vision or expectations to his team members in a more definite and precise manner. Even modest communication breakdowns can lead to catastrophe. As a consequence, a leader’s communication must be clear and accurate so that the entire team shares the same vision and goals, and he will win the respect of his colleagues in the process. He must also instil trust in others around him so that they will come to him when they have a problem, avoiding any potential conflict and creating a firm foundation for him and those who work in that company.
Because a leader cannot do everything alone, it is vital to disperse authority throughout the business and rely on decision-making from the people most involved in the activity. As a result, he must allow teams to self-organize in order to provide better customer service and increase work satisfaction and commitment to their team and organization. He should also be an inventor, innovative in his work, and a risk-taker.
A successful leader is original, creative, and informed, and he uses these skills to guarantee that the organization grows consistently over time and stands out from the competitors. Leaders must foresee outcomes to raise awareness; no one knows what will happen in the future, and a leader must be prepared for whatever crisis or issue may arise, and to do so, he must take risks. He is effective when he takes chances for long-term success. Even though the results seem to be the same, exceptional leaders recognize the importance of what we cannot see.
Effective leadership demonstrates honesty and integrity, confidence, skills and abilities, commitment and passion, accountability, delegation and empowerment, creativity and innovation, empathy, resilience, emotional intelligence, humility, transparency, vision and purpose, teamwork, and instructional strategies. Leaders must be aware of all of these characteristics. Aside from that, they must have faith in themselves and develop favourable attitudes about others as well as various aspects of the firm.
As a result, leadership may be defined as persuading and encouraging people to go the extra mile in order to achieve the organization’s goals. The advantage of having a leader in an organization is that he helps establish the path that employees should pursue in order to achieve the company’s goal. Furthermore, leaders contribute to greater corporate performance and productivity by motivating employees and setting performance targets for them to meet. In his book, Simon Sinek stated: Great leaders, in contrast, are able to inspire people to act. Those who are able to inspire give people a sense of purpose or belonging that has little to do with any external incentive or benefit to be gained. Those who truly lead are able to create a following of people who act not because they were swayed, but because they were inspired.[1]
[1] Sinek Simon, Start with why, 2009, Portfolio, page 6
