When I went back to grad school to pursue my Ed.D. in organizational leadership, I thought the professors were going to teach me a “paint-by-numbers” approach to becoming a great leader. I quickly realized it was way more complex and nuanced than that.
In fact, leadership is not so much a destination but a journey. It’s a journey that is filled with continuous work to become a better leader over time.
In this article, I will share thoughts on who is a leader, what leadership is and the practices that we can do to become better leaders.
Who Is a Leader? And What Is Leadership?
We’ve become used to leaders as titles or roles. But leadership is not simply a title. It’s the work that goes into it.
It’s true that one of the most basic sources of power is from the role or title you have. But, a better way to be a great leader is to earn that title or role.
Leadership is a process. It’s the process of the work that goes into becoming the great leader you were meant to be.
Leaders come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. There is not one personality specifically that lends itself to becoming a superb leader, though our culture here in the U.S. traditionally has told us that there is.
Great leaders, in fact, can have all sorts of varying traits. They can be either extroverted or introverted. They can be charismatic or analytical. Each trait lends itself to a different type of leadership.
Leadership also depends on the context. Think about the leadership styles of a professional sports coach versus a nonprofit CEO. You can probably imagine how different their approach would be.
Regardless of the personality or context, great leadership means being authentic. Be true to who you are. Find examples of leadership that you admire and want to model, but ultimately, remember that it comes down to your version of leadership.
Becoming a Great Leader
Contrary to popular belief, leaders are not necessarily born. In fact, research shows that leaders are one-third born and two-thirds made.
Peter Drucker (1909 to 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation and the management of it.
It was Drucker who recognized that leadership is not about personality or talent. But he did find that effective leaders all had one thing in common; they followed the same eight practices:
- They ask what needs to be done to gain clarity
- They think in terms of what is right for the enterprise
- They develop action plans
- They take responsibility for their decisions
- They take responsibility for communicating the vision
- They focus on opportunities not problems
- They run effective and productive meetings
- They think in terms of “we” not “I”
In addition to these practices, what are some other areas that leaders can work on to become great? Let’s look at five key areas …
1. Ethical Leadership
According to Aristotle, moral virtue is the only practical road to effective action. Here, it’s about the action rather than just how you view things. You need to demonstrate your virtues.
2. Clarity
As a leader, it’s important to give people clarity so that they know where they’re headed. Setting expectations is key. Teams are energized when they know they’re allocating their time and effort in the right way. Meet regularly. Give feedback. Have an open-door policy.
3. Blame and Credit
Great leaders share credit, but they take the blame. This builds trust among the team. Leaders can follow this up by formally or informally celebrating milestones to highlight achievements.
4. Communication
Being able to communicate effectively is one of the most important skills a leader can have. In practice, this looks like using discretion when needed (knowing when and what to communicate) and understanding communication intimacy–deciding how to communicate what information (face-to-face, email, etc)
5. Emotional Intelligence
Last but not certainly not least is emotional intelligence. Oxford defines emotional intelligence as “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.”
Daniel Goleman has done a lot of work in this area and even penned the bestselling book, “Emotional Intelligence.” What he found was that leaders had all types of different skill sets but had one thing in common: Emotional intelligence.
Goleman analyzed the ingredients for effective leadership across many organizations and found that cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking and long-term vision were important; however, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the other attributes for jobs at all levels.
Components of emotional intelligence include:
- Self-awareness: Knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses and values
- Self-regulation: Controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods
- Motivation: Working towards goals and having a high standard of work but not simply achieving for the sake of achieving
- Empathy: An understanding or awareness of other peoples’ situations
- Social skills: Building rapport with others to move them in the desired direction
Goleman also found out that while people can be born with certain competencies, everybody has the ability to enhance emotional intelligence.
How do you do this? To start, you must break old habits and establish new ones.
Goleman cites that emotional intelligence is born largely in the neurotransmitters of the brain’s limbic system, which governs feelings, impulses, and drives. And the limbic system learns best through motivation, extended practice and feedback.
Self-reflection, says Goleman, is a key step in further developing emotional intelligence. Put yourself back into the situations you’ve been in and ask yourself hard questions like: Was I truly collaborating? Was I putting myself in the others’ shoes? Was I listening to understand or just waiting to respond?
Another exercise you can do is to ask others that you trust within the organization to observe you (for example, how you interact with the team) and give constructive feedback.
Being a Great Leader Takes Work
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” With enthusiasm for change, motivation and persistence, everyone can develop their leadership skills to be even better leaders than they are today.
Don’t be self-limiting — you can and will improve!