Leadership is a on going process which requires constant improvements. Leaders do not stop and believe that they have nothing to improve on. When they do so, they stagnate and stoop to lead. Leaders also do not wait for things to happen, which means waiting for opportunities to come to them. They either create or go out and find such opportunities. The level of difficulty of each tasks also grows, to stretch and dvelop themselves.
Why is Challenges so Important?
Leaders can lead effectively because of the fact that they have the ability and skills to lead their followers. If their followers and themselves have the same level of competance, there will be no room for leadership to take place. That is why challenges are important to create the avenue and experience for leaders to stretch themselves which gathers followers. Such experiences are important to form the basis of leadership which is to lead by example. That is doing at least at the minimal level, but more often way beyond what your followers will be doing.
How to find such challenges?
Firstly is to actively search for them. Opportunities are for those who are prepared. Those who wait for things to happen will find themselves either not finding them, or missing the skills needed for the job. Be proactive and prepare yourself sufficiently for it.
Secondly, if all fails, one can always initiate projects and ideas and get people to buy into your ideas. thats when challenges you deem possible actually spins off and take flight.
How to overcome the challenges?
Challenges by nature will be tough and hard. It is mean to push you off your comfort zone and let you improve yourself. Stay positive in the journey and go in with an open mind. This is when your brain will be in the best state to absorb and learn. This expands your attitude towards the challenge and more often will you succeed in overcoming them. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Leading is about making yourself better in order to allow better learning and leading of your followers. It is important to keep learning by finding these stimulus for improvements. When you lose the passion to be challenged, you lose the ability to lead in the end.
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Leadership Style - Develop your own style
There is a spectrum of leadership style out there. It can be categorized into two main category, one is purpose, the other one is level of aggression.
For purpose, this includes servant leadership, which touches on why you actually want to lead. The other type is based on aggression level, from the minimal, laissez faire leadership (means not doing anything), to total control, dictatorship and the spectrum in between it. All of these leadership styles have their pros and cons and I believe as leaders, it is important to have a mixture of it to make us truly effective.
Mixture of Leadership Styles
One sole leadership style will have weaknesses and it may not be able to be applied in every situation out there. When new at leadership, it is good to develop a leadership style that is close to your personality style. For introverts, they may choose servant leadership or leadership of less assertiveness. It will help to strengthen who you are as a leader.
However, as you proceed on with leading, you will find that there are flaws in just having one. For above example, they will find themselves hard to get things done when they need to be straightforward with their followers.
Therefore, once comfortable with dominant leadership style, explore the other side which complements your weaknesses. It will be uncomfortable and may clash with our personality, but just push on as habits take time to develop. Remember, leadership is developed.
Balancing between Leadership Style
After gaining comfortable with leadership style, be flexible with the approach to things. Try balancing between giving assertion and not, and you might find yourself becoming a more effective leader, who knows how to get things done, with the human factor still taken care of. Sometimes an alternative leadership style may just bring about an unique result.
End State
After learning more styles and able to balancing it, you will then create a leadership style that is unique to you. Mixture of everything and getting the best out of the generic leadership style. This will help to maximise your charactor and shape how people look at you in a different light.
This journey of finding your leadership style is never ending. Take in mind that leadership styles is dependent on the situation. Some are just better than others in a situation, but not quite so in the other. Look for opportunities to explore other side of you to make your leadership style more comprehensive.
For purpose, this includes servant leadership, which touches on why you actually want to lead. The other type is based on aggression level, from the minimal, laissez faire leadership (means not doing anything), to total control, dictatorship and the spectrum in between it. All of these leadership styles have their pros and cons and I believe as leaders, it is important to have a mixture of it to make us truly effective.
Mixture of Leadership Styles
One sole leadership style will have weaknesses and it may not be able to be applied in every situation out there. When new at leadership, it is good to develop a leadership style that is close to your personality style. For introverts, they may choose servant leadership or leadership of less assertiveness. It will help to strengthen who you are as a leader.
However, as you proceed on with leading, you will find that there are flaws in just having one. For above example, they will find themselves hard to get things done when they need to be straightforward with their followers.
Therefore, once comfortable with dominant leadership style, explore the other side which complements your weaknesses. It will be uncomfortable and may clash with our personality, but just push on as habits take time to develop. Remember, leadership is developed.
Balancing between Leadership Style
After gaining comfortable with leadership style, be flexible with the approach to things. Try balancing between giving assertion and not, and you might find yourself becoming a more effective leader, who knows how to get things done, with the human factor still taken care of. Sometimes an alternative leadership style may just bring about an unique result.
End State
After learning more styles and able to balancing it, you will then create a leadership style that is unique to you. Mixture of everything and getting the best out of the generic leadership style. This will help to maximise your charactor and shape how people look at you in a different light.
This journey of finding your leadership style is never ending. Take in mind that leadership styles is dependent on the situation. Some are just better than others in a situation, but not quite so in the other. Look for opportunities to explore other side of you to make your leadership style more comprehensive.
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