Six habits of an effective leader: 1 - Serve others and signal the future.

 

   Being an effective leader is a big dream that everyone wants to achieve. That's because leadership is an inspiring idea in the world, and it's also the key to the success of projects and tasks. Unfortunately, some people confuse between bossing and leadership. They think that being in the head of the office and giving orders is a sort of leadership. However, leadership, by contrast, doesn't relate to hierarchy or authority. So, what are the secrets to be a real leader?

    We can imagine leadership as an iceberg, where there's a side that we can see and others that we can't, like skills, background, experience. It's necessary to have the motivation and the intention tools, skills, mood, and a desire to be a leader. But if you don't possess those kinds of skills, it doesn't mean that it's impossible for you. Since we live in a changeable world and nothing is stable, we need to believe that even our skills can be changed and developed for the better. We can build it step by step but in a successive way. We are rational humans who can learn anything. So, please put in your mind that leadership isn't attached to a specific group of people in this world. Your situation, problems, poverty, or disability can motivate you to be leaders and support others who always think that something ideal is coming from the city of Plato.

   I will surprise you that you're practicing a part of the leadership always without you knowing it. Could you please answer me this question: Is a leader a person who wants to serve others or be served by others? The leaders are there in that leadership position to serve others and work with them to make others pleased about the service. So, the first condition that ambitious people should know about being a leader is if they're able to serve others. That's the brief meaning of leadership. It's not my own definition, but I'm just trying to transmit to you, dear reader, a model of Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller about leadership presented in the book answering the question of how to develop his/her leadership?

   In this book, the authors treat the situation of Julie Brasseur, a young manager who was ambitious to make her business successful but she always confronted bad results. That's why she's thinking that she's part of the problem, doesn't lead the team well to get a good result. That's why she applied to a program of development of young leaders that changed her perspective about leadership and her way of management to a successful leader. She was able to move her business from the last range to the first one. So, here in this article, I will transmit to you the six habits that Julie followed.

   The first habit that leaders should take attention to is to signal the future. It's necessary that the members of the team know where they are, what step they are in, and where they should be going. Every member of the team should have an idea about the vision of the project, to have a clear idea with simple and clear tasks that they are in process to accomplish the short period goals. The leaders should also search for opportunities to use and prevent the obstacles that can confront the progress of the business/project and change it in a positive way. In a simple and definitive way, the leader can learn and get this first habit by answering every time the following questions:

• What are the goals of my team?
• Where should my team achieve in a long period?
• What are the values that qualify my teamwork?
• What can make them different?
• How to communicate with the team about the vision of your project and make them passionate to engage in?
• How to motivate the team to engage in the goals and the vision of the project?