“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” – Jack Welch
One of my mentors and an extraordinary leader himself Mr.
Suresh Dadlani, always used to quote Mr. Jack Welch during our numerous
discussions on topics ranging from business strategies, operations, leadership
etc. Based on his thoughts I started reading a few of Jack Welch’s books and
quotes.
The one above stuck with me the most, “success is all
about growing others”. This is a key factor in defining a leader or
leadership qualities. Leadership positions are all about human resource
management, if a leader is able to master that then the team’s success is for
granted.
My ongoing metamorphosis from being a normal employee to a
leader is filled with such multiple learnings from my bosses, mentors and
seniors. Each experience teaches me a new lesson in leadership, so even though leadership
as a concept is extremely fluid and has to change with every generation that
engage with your leadership, the base for any leader remains the same.
In this article, I wish to share some points which I, based
on my on-ground experiences, feel is important for all leaders.
-
Don’t just Hear…“Listen!!”:
o
One needs to understand the stark difference
between “hearing” and “listening”.
o
Hearing is simply the act of
perceiving sound by the ear, it is involuntary, effortless. Listening however
is something an individual consciously chooses to do, which means that an
effort is put in this action. Which makes it a focused and concentrated action.
o
So, for any leader listening to
team-mates is very important, be it their work plans, grievances,
appreciations, complaints, even gossip. This gives the leader a good
perspective and reasoning on what is actionable and what is not.
-
Actions speak louder than words:
o
A leader needs to take action on any actionable
inputs from the team.
o
Actions might include taking hard decisions; however,
these actions need to be impartial.
-
Give Chances…Take Chances:
o
Identify raw talent in team members, be it
freshers or experienced, and give chance for them to grow.
o
Leaders should be ready to give free hand to
team members who show promise at the same time supervising to ensure that
nothing goes wrong.
o
In case of mistakes ensure that you show them
the right direction and encourage them to move forward instead of cutting them
off in fear.
o
Taking these calculated risks can create
wonders in terms of resource development, encouragement at the same time
ensuring that your team trusts you.
- What you
Sow, so shall you Reap:
o However senior a leader, as long as he/she
respects everyone straight to the junior most team member, is when he/she gets
the respect back from the team.
o Trust and
respect are two of the strongest pillars for any leader to lead his/her team to
success and both these values are reciprocal in nature. Also, you cannot force
any of these values onto your team, they need to be earned.
o Every
leader should be conscious of this and work on their actions accordingly.
- Conflict
Management:
o
Effective conflict management is one of the
most important tasks of a manager.
o
Leaders should not mistake conflict management
as conflict resolution, not always can all conflicts be resolved.
o
So, the task for a leader is to ensure that
conflicts are managed in a manner to not impact the business or working
relations in the organization.
I am sure there are many more aspects to leadership, but as
long as the above baseline remains, the rest can be tweaked and tuned as
required. Leadership is just like Excellence; it is a continuous process
and a true Leader never ceases to learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment