Is leadership supposed to be easy? Should it be difficult? Or should it be somewhere in the middle? Sounds like a bedtime story that we all may be familiar with. Leadership should be leading to a defined goal or outcome and preferable by consensus which takes a whole lot more skills. Can ego’s get in the way? Absolutely; can past failures or pain be challenging for a leader? Sure thing; can these issues be overcome? Absolutely!

A close friend of mine gave me a book just recently called “GRIT” and the subject matter appropriately ties in with this “leadership” newsletter. A quick definition of Grit is: To have grit means you have courage and show the strength of your character. … When understanding character education and how character is built, one of the key words that should be used is grit. A person with true grit has passion and perseverance. Goals are set and followed through.

Setting appropriate goals is a whole other newsletter involving ethics, team building, and various other topics that we won’t get into on this letter.

We can call leadership as a process of leading, an act of leading by one or more entities. Leadership can also be defined as the ability or the capacity to change human behavior that can achieve a target assigned by leader. You can refer leadership as an extraordinary quality a man or a woman may possess. A person having leadership qualities may give direction or guidance to some other person. This is called “actual” exercise of leadership. Very few countries have been able to give excellent or even satisfactory leadership, but this is subjective.

Leadership can have informal and formal aspects. Formal aspect can be seen in most business and political leadership while informal aspect can be seen in most friendships. Leadership, which is an abstract term usually, means entities that do the job of leading possess some leadership skills. Leadership qualities have the ability to inspire and influence many associates. Leadership process can be developed through a process of training, self-study, education and experience.

Leaders accomplish their tasks by applying leadership attributes such as values, ethics, knowledge, skills and beliefs. If you are a supervisor, managers then you have the authority to achieve certain tasks. This does not mean that you are the leader. You are just a boss. Leadership makes the associates want to accomplish high goals and not bossing people around.

Some personality attributes may lead the person into leadership roles naturally.

A hostile situation or an important event in a person’s life may bring some extraordinary qualities in that ordinary person and the person may rise to that occasion. You can also learn leadership skills and choose to become a great leader. That is, you can transform yourself to become a leader. The foundation of good leadership is having an honorable character and giving selfless service to your country or organization. Self-serving leaders may not be that effective as their associates only obey them. They don’t follow the leader. A good leadership motivates and provides direction to its employees or those needing to fulfill a certain task.

An effective leadership builds confidence and trust among its associates. Employee satisfaction is a vital key to effective leadership. Leadership should be able to effectively communicate with the employees and others. Effective communication is a key to winning confidence and trust. In short, your leadership should be trustworthy. Manipulation and scheming others with half truths and straight out lies will only lead to a failed leadership and pain that will last a lifetime.

In order to develop leadership qualities:

You should seek self-improvement.

You should strength your attributes.

You should take responsibility as well as seek responsibility.

Find ways for your organization to achieve new heights.

Develop your decision-making and problem-solving skills.

If things go wrong in your company do not blame your employees. Instead, take some corrective action and look for the next challenge.

Make correct and timely decisions.

Try to know your employees and take care of them.

Make sure that tasks are well understood and accomplished.

Try to develop a team spirit among your associates and employees. By doing this your employees will work to their full capabilities.

Be technically proficient in your job and you should possess a good familiarity with the employee’s tasks.

Though the years I have seen good and effective leaders and others not so much.  The ones that excelled in their leadership roles were educated in their subject matter, had the respect of those who they lead, were humble and above all had Grit!

Allawos & Company has helped countless individuals and companies alike reach their goals and discover new potential.