In today hustle and bustle environment, do you feel that you don’t progress in accomplishing what you really want in life? Do you get frustrated because things don’t seem to be happening the way they’re supposed to be?  Then, maybe its time for you to stand up and do something about it.

Most people are content just to stand around listening for orders. And it isn’t unusual to adopt a follow-the-leader mentality. But maybe, somewhere inside of you, you feel the desire to make things happen – to be the head, not the tail. Then maybe it’s time to bring out your leadership attributes that had been buried inside you for so long.

Some people believe that great leaders are made, not born. Yes, it may be true that some people are born with natural talents. However, without practice, without drive, without enthusiasm, and without experience, there can be no true development in leadership.

You must also remember that good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their natural skills. This takes a commitment to constantly improve in whatever endeavor a person chooses.

There are many angles to define leadership but let’s us use the most basic definition of leadership in this article. To be a leader, one must be able to influence others to accomplish a goal, or an objective. He contributes to the organization and cohesion of a group.

Contrary to what most people believe, leadership is not about power. It is not about harassing people or driving them using fear. It is about encouraging others towards the goal of a vision. It is putting everyone on the same perspective and helping them see the big picture of your vision. You must be a leader not a boss.

Also, a leader must always has followers. If you turn back and look that there are nobody following you, you know that there is something wrong in your leadership!  But how do you get people to follow you?

People follow others when they see a clear sense of purpose. People will only follow you if they see that you know where you are going. Remember that bumper sticker? The one that says, don’t follow me, I’m lost too? The same holds true for leadership. If you yourself do not know where you’re heading to, chances are people will not follow you at all.

You yourself must know the big picture, the vision. Having a clear sense of purpose, having clear goals and objectives, and how the big picture fits together is the only way to show others you know what you are doing.

Being a leader is not about what you make others do. It’s about who you are, what you know, and what you do. You are a reflection of your vision.

Studies have shown that one other bases of good leadership is the trust and confidence your subordinates have of you. If they trust you they will go through hell and high water for you and for your organization.

Trust and confidence is built on good relationships, trustworthiness, and high ethics.

The way you deal with your people, and the relationships you build will lay the foundation for the strength of your group. The stronger your relationship, the stronger their trust and confidence is in your capabilities.

Once you have their trust and confidence, you may now proceed to communicate the goals and objectives you are to undertake.

Communication is a very important key to good leadership. Without this you can not be a good leader. The knowledge and technical expertise you have must be clearly imparted to other people.

Also, you can not be a good leader unless you have good judgment. You must be able to assess situations, weigh the pros and cons of any decision, and actively seek out a solution. It is this judgment that your subordinates will come to rely upon. Therefore, good decision-making is vital to the success of your vision.

Leaders are not do-it-all heroes. You should not claim to know everything, and you should not rely upon your skills alone. You should recognize and take advantage of the skills and talents your subordinates have. Only when you come to this realization will you be able to work as one cohesive unit.

Remember being a leader takes a good deal of work and time. It is not learned overnight. Remember, also, that it is not about just you. It is about you and the people around you.

So, do you have the drive and the desire to serve as a leader? Do you have the desire to work cooperatively with other people? If your answer is a resounding “yes”, then start now. Bring out the leader in you today.

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This year’s graduating seniors at Northwestern University heard three great leadership lessons from their commencement speaker, Illinois Senator Barack Obama. The lessons came from his own extraordinary life, and if the graduates are wise, they will model their own lives on what Obama told them.

Barack Obama is the son of a white American mother and a Kenyan father who left the family when the boy was just two years old. He was raised largely by his mother’s parents in a modest home in Hawaii, where Obama managed to get into a top-ranked prep school and then went to New York’s Columbia University. It was in his freshman year there, he told the Northwestern graduates, that he learned his first great leadership lesson: “The world doesn’t just revolve around you” — you have to learn to see things through other people’s eyes.

He was partying too much and studying just enough to get by, he said, and one night he and his friends spilled a lot of beer, broke a lot of bottles, and trashed the dorm so thoroughly that a cleaning woman, viewing the wreckage next morning, broke into tears. To his credit, that shook Obama, and so did his girlfriend when she told him, “That woman could’ve been my grandmother, Barack. She spent her days cleaning up after somebody else’s mess.” What he had, he concluded, was an “empathy deficit.” And so does our country, he told the graduates: “We lack the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.”

Mike Abrashoff learned that lesson as captain of USS Benfold, a dysfunctional guided missile destroyer that he was determined to make into the best damn ship in the Navy. He realized that to do that, he would need the active help of the crew, and he set about getting it by talking with every last one of them, 310 men and women, one by one until he really got to know them. They were a mixed lot, many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds and with very little education. A hotshot young officer might be tempted to think of them as losers. But when he got to understand them — their home lives, their backgrounds, what they took pride in, the dreams they all had — he saw that they could be winners, and their strong points could make up for their weaknesses. And together, they succeeded; in less than a year, Benfold won the coveted Spokane Trophy as the best ship in the Pacific Fleet.

Barack Obama warned the Northwestern graduates that they live in a culture that discourages empathy, where those in power tell us that the poor and homeless are lazy or weak, that inner-city children can’t and won’t learn, that innocent people being killed in distant lands are someone else’s problem. Don’t believe it, he said — “because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential — and become full-grown.”

About the Author:
Donna Carpenter is an award-winning writer and editor and founder and chief executive officer of Wordworks, Inc.
Article source: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976823779.

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Leadership in a “Nutshell”

Leadership is the art of influencing others to accomplish individual and organizational goals by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Management is the process of working with and through individuals and groups and other resources such as equipment, capital, and technology to accomplish organizational goals. There are several distinctions between leadership and management. Warren Bennis, one of the foremost experts on the scholastics of leadership, differentiated the extremes of leadership and management by stating that “Leaders conquer the context—the volatile, turbulent, ambiguous surroundings that sometimes seem to conspire against us and will surely suffocate us if we let them—while managers surrender to it.”(Bennis, p.12) There are a number of ways to distinguish the differences between leadership and management.

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It has been the fact since the start of ancient civilization till today, one of the main jobs of a leader is to motivate others. If there were no leaders, most people wouldn’t have the drive or determination to do anything. Society would literally fall apart. That’s why employees in an organization have a boss or a manager, a country will have a President or prime minister or someone who people trust as their leaders.

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The three pillars on which leadership thrives are actually three areas of personal mastery – focus, feedback, and leadership. They will pay the greatest dividends for the time invested. With them, you’ll lead effectively at the highest levels. Without them, your execution excellence potential and consistency is severely limited regardless of your role or station in life.

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Leadership and management are intertwined. They have knowledge, skills and attitude to lead and manage in a planned and purposeful organised business activities.

Henry Mintzbert who spent much time observing managers at work, identified three major managerial traits - interpersonal (figurehead, leader and liaison agent), informational (monitor of information, dissemination of information and spokesperson) and decisional (entrepreneur, resource allocator and negotiator).

Leaders in organisations must be motivators, influential, mediator and organisation designer. The personal influence of leaders becomes evident as they perform their roles as communicator and motivator. They become the ideal model of an entire organisation. They educate and influence people in their organisation by example.

Leaders are responsible to achieve results from the previously laid plans. They must continually focus and be informed and ready to take decisive actions when results fall below expectations. Leaders can also establish performance standards expected of their staffs according to their own manner and behavior.

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Have you ever heard of a business where there is no leader or in a more technical term, a boss? Perhaps it is quite inconceivable, since it highly significant in every field that one directs them towards their goal. For instance, if you want to employ a change in system within your business, a leader would have to stand out for you to get through the swamp.

Changing an entire business won’t come easily especially if the employees do not have faith with the capacity of the senior who is leading them towards their end. But, doing so is never really that impossible as you have thought it was.

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