Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Five Pieces of Advice to Digital Leaders

The substance of leadership never changes, it’s all about making a positive influence, and providing direction, both for oneself and others.


Leadership is complex yet simple. Complexity is in that there are so many traits and characteristics that are considered when evaluating a leader. The emphasis is on trying to determine which competencies or skills should be used in which combination and with what level of weight for each, for every different situation. The simplicity comes from knowing that there is no one competency more important than the other in the larger scheme of things and that we all have leadership skills within us. There are a lot of the negative symptoms and lack of effectiveness come from a prevalent view that leadership is power, top-down, and unquestionable. So what’re the best advice you could offer to the leaders?


Leadership is about a clear vision and a planned attitude of the free mind, risk-taking, initiative, and innovation. Leadership does not mean being followed up by followers based on titles. To be a leader, an individual has to prove him/herself of a free mind, risk-taking, initiative, and innovation. Others lacking in these qualities then would have to follow him/her to trend toward the leader’s vision. First and foremost, remove the filter of your biases in your vision. By doing so, you will be able to perceive the business opportunities and risks more clearly.


A leader creates more authentic leaders, not his/her own copy, but be authentic for their own purposes. And the capability of being humanity starts with being able to really look and feel inside, who am I really, this is a not easy task but will bring inner love and from that stage, an individual leader will be able to give humility. How? If you can find your own purpose and you can live your purpose every moment you will also encourage others to find & live their purpose. Peter Drucker said that the role of a leader is to create leaders and not to create followers. In order to do so, the essence of leadership must be close and emotional involvement with people via the communication channels more effective to them. One of the main characteristics of a leader is being deeply engaged with people in order to be able to develop them.


Besides soft quality, the hardcore of leadership is knowledge, insight, and wisdom in order to make sound judgments and solid decisions. Knowledge sharing and understanding organizational culture is a way to start. There is a lot of information and different sources to obtain information. What is key and crucial is how we adapt or align the new ideas to our business. Innovation is part of leadership. Leadership is not just soft qualities, there is also hardcore such as knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, leaders have to be life learners and insightful managers to practice expert power for gaining respect.


Leaders need to learn how to delegate and not to micromanage. Leaders need to get the work done through other people. Leaders need to learn how to delegate and how to get the best work from people, which includes giving the person the authority to do the assigned job. So often,  leaders micro-manage. They assign the job, then constantly following up, telling others how to do the job, etc. Leaders need to accept that sometimes jobs will not be done the way they would do it. Assign the job, and monitor to ensure it is being done & oversee timelines.


All great leaders are continually looking for ways to take themselves and their people to the next level. Leaders need to know their staff's strengths and provide opportunities in the workplace for staff to use those strengths. Very often managers think that the way to motivate employees are the same things they themselves are motivated by, but each individual is unique. If we all act based on our hearts, follow the golden rule, and do what we think is right for the good of others, we will be respected for that, will be trusted and will earn the title of leader. “If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be. “ -Wolfgang von Goethe


The substance of leadership never changes, it’s all about making a positive influence, and providing direction, both for oneself and others. However, transforming leadership from good to great is a journey,  leadership is about striking the balance of both the hard and soft elements. Leadership is about vision, also about alignment, integration, and delegation.




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