Do you really want to be a leader? Do you know why?
Are you smarter? More deserving? Harder working? More senior?
There is not a universally accepted absolute definition of leadership, but for this post I will define leadership as a
“collaborative and influence relationship/interaction between leaders and others that become followers stimulating changes and outcomes that reflect a shared purpose.”
The concept of leadership is not complex. You simply need to achieve an outcome via others! It is not a new concept as it has been around since the start of mankind. Seems simple!
Then why are there so many ineffective leaders?
The great Chinese General, Master Sun, discusses leadership in the book “The Art of War” and uses the balance scale as the guiding principle of leadership. “It is the means for selecting the wise and good. The balance scale is used to represent leadership because a leader must above all be able to weigh and measure, assess, and evaluate all human and environmental factors relevant to an enterprise or undertaking.”
The first human factor is yourself. Before someone can become an effective leader of others, they must possess a deep reflective understanding of self-awareness. Self-awareness is unique to humans where we have the ability for exploration and insight into our unconscious mental processes.
Self-awareness follows a natural progression:
- acknowledging the blind self
- discovery of self and recognising emotions
- acknowledging real self and understanding the interactive self
Self-awareness allows leaders to understand and reflect upon their abilities and limitations. Self-awareness and the ability to understand others share the same neural process; therefore, an increased level of self-awareness provides a frame of reference for understanding others. Understanding others correlates with trusting relationships and developing followership.
If there are no followers, who are you leading?
Effective leaders understand that it is their responsibility to lead and convert subordinates to followers, and not for them to follow because of titles, hierarchal structure, or job description! Followers are organizational members affectively committed (psychological bond/trust) to follow directives and support a leader to maximize organizational performance.
The concept of leadership is simple. The complexity arises with the variables of human and environmental factors incorporated.
Do you truly want to be a leader? Do you have the commitment and abilities?
The journey to being an effective leader starts with a deep understanding of who you truly are. What are you doing to garner self-awareness? Have you started the process? How do you go about doing it?
Soteria Alliance has the program and skillset to maximize your leadership potential!
