As Nigeria celebrates Fifty-Nine (59) years today, leadership has play a vital role in the state of the economy. So also in our businesses in Oyo State.
Leadership is the ability to get others commitment to believe and work towards achieving the goal of the team. Please note this definition carefully. The definition pronounced some very important features of a leader. Ability; this refers to the skill of the leader. Commitment; The team member’s perception of their leader that brings out voluntary willingness to follow. Belief; this is as a result of the integrity of the leader. If you lack integrity then be ready to face serious challenges with the team members. Goal; this refers to direction. The team goal must be well communicated to the members in an effective communication and understandable manner. The members must know where they are going. Achieving; there must be a set target for the team. The team must have dead-lines and goals shared to individual target for members of the team.
Challenges that faces organisations are not challenges of followership but of leadership. If you are having a hard time with your staff, then you may want to work on your leadership style. The role of leaders in any organization is to ensure that the team gets good level of comfort that the organization would take care of them no matter what happens to them in the course of discharging their duties.
There is a popular saying that people don’t leave their jobs but they leave their managers. If the people don’t have trust in you then you should be ready to face hard time in the business. You cannot do it all by yourself. How do you address your staff? Do you talk to them in derogatory manner? It is not about what you pay, it is about what you say. One hundred percent of the time people would prefer to keep their self-esteem than your fat pay-cheque.
As an effective leader you should be able to foster team work among your staff and identify the ones with negative attitude to work.
Five C’s of Avoiding Leadership Error
Connection
Any leader and or manager that lacks the qualities extracted above would definitely loss touch with the followers. When there is disconnect between the leader and the team then there would be disconnect between the team and the goal of the team. Remember that the goal of the team is communicated by the leader; he/she is the symbol of the goal. However, when the goal has been communicated and the team members are seeing disconnections between the goal being communicated and the team leader, how to achieve it and the team leader communicating the goal, then the reality of achieving such goal would only be on the paper. The team members must see connection between them and the leader.
Commitment
As a leader if you are unable to show commitment to the team goal, if your kind of leadership is the one that passive and only criticizes the authority, either government or business, then your team members would follow suit. You cannot get others to be committed to what you have not commit yourself. It can never happen. When the team is not seeing any commitment in their leader, like a ripple effect, they would not be committed. Remember that your attitude would rub-off on your team members. As a leader show commitment and your team members would follow.
Quite a lot of time I have heard the saying that ‘people don’t leave their jobs; they only leave their bosses.’ Maybe not in the exact words, but in that line. If as a leader, you want to get others to believe in the set goal, not only
Courage
Since there is always target and challenges in achieving the set goal; sometimes discouragement may set in and the team members may lose faith, just show courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the belief that faces and alleys all fears. Since the team members look up to the team leader for direction and guidance, they are sure to get discourage when challenges come. Their only hope is ‘you’ and when they do not see the courage and comfort they expect, they will definitely desert you. When you show discouragement, they would read it as ‘no hope’, ‘no solution’ and ‘no way-forward.’ Never be discourage, always show courage. It is okay when you are alone to cry and beat yourself, just to let out your fear, but never show it in the presence of your team members.
Charismatic
One thing about being a leader, is to be a leader that can inspire. A leader must be able to inspire the team members. The team members must want to be your mentee; they must want to talk like you, act like you or even think the way you will. They must know what your response could be to issues and have the same mind towards it. When you are charismatic, it will be easy to influence and lead the members.
Though leadership is not about popularity contest but your members must be inspired by everything that you do. You would agree with me that the most difficult set of team to lead are solders; some would definitely want to run away as they fight for the course of the leaders even when they get paid peanuts. However, looking back in history, King David inspired his soldiers to the extent that even when he thinks aloud they will execute. He just spoke to himself that how he longed to drink from a certain well in Bethlehem and some of his men volunteered without being instructed nor without his consent that they must get the water for him. To get the water, they must risk their lives through enemies’ camps.
Inspire your team members. Be a positive influence on them and they will get your back covered even when you did request.
Communication
Communication has been a very good weapon in the hands of good leaders. A good leader is a good communicator. You cannot claim to be a good leader when you are not a good communicator. Communication is a powerful tool that can break even the strongest team and it can build the weakest team. Communication is everything to any leader. If you have a poor communication skill, you will not be able to connect with your team members; they will not be able to see your commitment; they will not feel or see how much courage you have and you will not be able to inspire the team.
Communication is not all about spoken works or verbal, it is everything about the way you pass the message across; the way you sound; the way you look at your team members; the way you work and walk. Communication is everything about you. When goal is being communicate.
Conclusion
Leadership is everything; leaders identify the qualities of each of their team members and knows the right role where they would be effectively utilized to achieve the organisatinal goal. As a leader you must see yourself as part of the performance chain as well as the fulcrum rather than seeing yourself as being on top of everybody. Always remember that your team performance is a direct reflection of who you are.
Improve your leadership style and I believe strongly that success is sure!
Happy Independence!
