Modeling Leadership E-Book

Harold Mawela

• Herausgeber: Harold Mawela
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 78

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Anyone can be a leader, but to be a successful leader can be a real challenge. A leader needs to be able to draw on a vast array of skills and attributes and be able to apply them at the right time and in the right way. Above all a leader has to recognise that his/her success will ultimately depend on the people that he/ she leads which means creating an environment in which all of these people can Tlourish.

Leseprobe

MODELING LEADERSHIP

IF YOU FAIL TO LEAD YOURSELF YOU WILL FAIL TO LEAD OTHERS

Copyright © 2017 by (HAROLD MAWELA)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

ISBN

[email protected] page; haroldmawela

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro

Chapter 2 Building blocks of a first-class leader

Chapter 3 Conduct yourself with integrity

Chapter 4 Be reliable

Chapter 5 Value your team

Chapter 6 Create a culture of high-quality communication

Chapter 7 Consider new ideas and opinions of others

Chapter 8 Give praise where praise is due

Chapter 9 Be operational

Chapter 10 Have faith and be passionate

Chapter 11 Invest in your team

Chapter 12 Upgrade yourself

Preface

IF YOU FAIL TO LEAD YOURSELF YOU WILL FAIL TO LEAD OTHERS

Anyone can be a leader, but to be a successful leader can be a real challenge. A leader needs to be able to draw on a vast array of skills and attributes and be able to apply them at the right time and in the right way. Above all a leader has to recognise that his/her success will ultimately depend on the people that he/she leads which means creating an environment in which all of these people can flourish.

What does a leader need to do to create this environment? This book suggests that it depends to a great extent on the example set by the leader whose behaviour sets the tone and creates the culture for a team or an organisation. If the leader is not always honest, how can team members be expected to be? If the leader is not committed to the vision, how can team members be expected to be? Put simply, a successful leader has to behave at least as well as he/she asks of everyone he/she purports to lead.

People are influenced by example, good and bad, and the example set by any leader will have a significant impact on the long-term success, or otherwise, of their team or organisation. People consciously or subconsciously seek role models to see how they do things and then replicate those behaviours.

Leading by example is not exactly rocket science. Many of the behaviours that are covered in this book require little more than behaving as a decent, considerate human being should behave towards others, combined with a clear vision and commitment to do the best that is possible. So whether you are a leader of a large organisation employing thousands of people, a children's sports coach or even a parent, there are ideas in this book that should help you to be more successful at what you do.

Harold Mawela is a pastor, inspirational speaker, coach, writer, teacher, preacher, providing effective, practical, down-to-earth advice based on his own leadership experience and the application of relevant management thinking.

As a trainer and coach, Harold's focus is simply to help people do their jobs better by helping them develop their self-confidence and equipping them with the necessary skills and behaviours to up their game.

The advice that Harold is able to share with his clients is based on his own leadership and management experience, he is able to offer insights into best practice and to draw on the experiences of others as to what works and what doesn't.

1 Introduction

Modeling leadership is genuine leadership

Basically leadership is about people. When people need to work together to achieve an objective, they need leadership. When people are uncertain what to do next, they need leadership. When people are struggling to overcome difficult situations, they need leadership.

Whatever definition you favour, and there are many to choose from, leadership is about getting the best from people. It is underpinned by a real belief in people and a desire to want to help those people make the most of their talents.

Success in any organisation depends on people and so great leaders believe, and behave in accordance with that belief, that real, long-term success is best delivered through embracing the skills and energies of people.

Leadership is also about vision. Leaders need a clear vision of the future goal, but they will not be able to achieve that vision unless they take the people that they lead along with them. A leader without followers is plainly no leader at all and neither is a leader who has unwilling followers. So leadership involves winning people's hearts and minds, persuading them to share and embrace that vision and then motivating them to give of their best to help achieve it. Leaders must therefore understand what motivates people, recognising that people are different and that those differences should be embraced.

Of course, the word leadership comes from the verb 'to lead', the dictionary definition of which includes 'guide or show the way' and 'guide by persuasion or example'. So leadership must be about showing the way; not only creating the vision but also showing by example what people should do and how they should behave. True leadership is not therefore about telling people what to do, giving orders and expecting them to be carried out without explanation or guidance. People are generally too bright and skilled for that to be an appropriate way to lead and so they need to be free to realise their full potential. Leaders must therefore set high standards in everything that they do for others to follow.

Leaders should be careful never to forget how much they depend on people. They should never believe too much in their own ability, never believe that they always know best and never rely purely on their status as a leader to tell others what to do. Leaders should never see themselves as better than the people that they are trying to lead and should not put themselves, or allow others to put them, on a pedestal that creates a barrier between themselves and those people that they depend on.

Achieving success for an organisation, while at the same time developing and nurturing people and taking real delight from their success, means that leadership can, and should, be a positive, exciting, energising and fulfilling role. For those leaders who find leadership a lonely, isolated role, it is most likely because they have not understood and embraced the people aspect of leadership.

So leadership is about human interactions and relationships, not about theoretical models, and a team's, or an organisation's, success depends to a great extent on the leader setting the tone and establishing a positive culture by his/her own behaviour. Truly effective leadership is about creating the right environment, recruiting the right people, and then leading by example.

Who is a leader?

Too often leadership is associated with a title, but the reality is that leadership is about what people do. Titles may give someone authority and perhaps power, but trust and respect are only given to people because of their behaviour.

Although leaders may be CEO's of large multinational organisations or heads of nations or large public organisations, most are typically ordinary people who have simply been asked to do a job which involves getting other people to help in achieving an objective. Leadership is often only a temporary role when, for example, a particular task or project requires someone to take the role of leader to accomplish a specific outcome.

For some people leadership is only a part-time role so that in addition to leading, they also spend time managing resources and carrying out tasks alongside the other team members. As such it is important that people understand when they are taking on a leadership role, and when they are not, so that they behave in the right way for the role that they are fulfilling at any particular time.

Sometimes leaders are formally given the role of leader, while in other situations people assume that role. Regardless of how someone becomes a leader, the principles of leadership apply to all situations in which a person takes on that role. It may be in work: leading a meeting, leading a project team, leading a business department, leading a business division or as head of the whole organisation. Equally there are many situations outside work where people become leaders. For example; as a parent, coaching a sports team, leading a music group, leading a young persons' group, leading a keep-fit class or leading a group on a walk up a mountain.