Everything you need to know about being a leader

A leader can be defined as the person who is the head of the organization or group.

Leadership is one of the most important qualities that a person can possess.

Whether it's in politics, business, sports, or any other field, leaders play a vital role in guiding others towards a common goal or vision.

The purpose of a leader is to act as the head of the organization or group. The goal, the structure of the chain of command, the culture of the group, and other significant factors originates from him.

The leader, the highest-ranking one, handles the politics within the group. The rest of the commonly known duties of leadership can be delegated to managers, strategist, negotiators, and other corporate or group officials.

However, this does not mean that the leader himself does not do the following duties, he just does not have to do it.

The following are the commonly known duties of leadership:

• Establishing a vision and a direction for the organization;
• Developing strategies;
• Inspiring the team;
• Monitoring and evaluating performances; And
• Mentoring the team members.

However, there are duties that leaders, of all levels, must do in order to keep their position and prevent the organization as a whole from withering away.

The following are the duties the leader must do:

• Getting people to work; And
• Provide the necessary support and resources.

The Effective, The Good, and The Selfish Leader

The Effective Leader

An effective leader is what all people in leadership positions should strive to be. This is the type of leader that is able to persevere in hardships and produce positive results for a long time.

The Good Leader

This is the type of leader who does his job with the interest of the common good—this can refer to co-workers, employees, or the overall community.

The Selfish Leader

This type of leader refers to the ones who operate in a Machiavellian manner.

These are the types of leaders who pursues their own interests, regardless of the interest of anybody else’s.

How to be an effective Leader

Find a Mentor/Consigliere

Finding a mentor or a trusted advisor eases your thinking process and enhances your personal and professional growth.

Their main function is to help you achieve your goals as cost-efficiently as possible—The costs can refer to the financially, physically, emotionally, or spiritual aspects.

This can be a family member, a trusted colleague, an old enemy, anybody. As long as their loyalty can be obtained or bought, they can act as your mentor/advisor.

Of course, how you choose your mentors and advisors is important as well, there are several factors to consider when choosing a good mentor and advisor, but it can be summed up into three questions:

1. Do they have experience on what you are doing?
2. Can their loyalty be obtained or bought?
3. Are they competent?

Loyalty is a very important factor to consider when choosing a mentor, this is the person you entrust on keeping quiet of your problems after all.

Answer the above questions, if all of them are yes, you have a candidate, if even one of them is a no, move on and find another.

Delegate your weaknesses

Look back at the commonly known duties of leadership, and identify your weaknesses; Once identified, assign that task to another team member that is not only loyal, but also competent.

Be careful when delegating tasks as a leader, delegating your tasks also means delegating your power.

By entrusting another to do your task, you give them a part of your authority.

If you do this in excess, you risk losing your influence, and once you do, you will find yourself replaced or at the very least, dependent on them, you will find yourself in a master becomes the slave scenario.

Find good teammates

Good teammates can play a crucial role in achieving success, both in sports and in work environments, while bad teammates hinders your productivity.

You can identify a good teammate through their loyalty, competency, and reliability.

You can identify a good teammate through their:

• Loyalty: This refers to a lack of distrust and a faithful adherence either to you or to a cause;
• Competency: This refers to the person’s capabilities; And
• Reliability: This refers to the ability to get things done without failure.

* For more information about finding good teammates, click here.

Find the faults of your friends and enemies

Knowing what your enemies are like will supply you the necessary knowledge to plan your attack or counterattack;

This is why information about yourself should be shared at the minimum, the information you unintentionally provide might have the capability to put your life in jeopardy.

Knowing your friends’ or subordinates’ strengths and weaknesses will not only allow you to gauge what positions and work is most beneficial for you and for them, it can also work as a weapon you can use in an event where this person betrays you.

How do you find the faults of people?

You can find a person’s stengths and faults from their past actions and how they handle themselves in stressful situations.

History repeats itself, the chances of a person only doing something once is very slim, examine their past actions, they are bound to create them again.

When a stressful situation arises, watch carefully how the person reacts, it will tell you a lot on how this person deals with stress in their life.

Fix problems while they are still small

Timidity has ruined man time and time again, a fire no matter how small will gradually engulf your house into flames.

It is best to settle problems while it is still minuscule in size, because when left alone, they are bound to create more problems and get bigger.

Do not put off something that can be done today

Similar to fixing problems while they are still small, the problem we are facing here is timidity.

Timidity, among other things, will result you into falling behind against other rival organizations or groups.

Consequences are detrimental if even one part of the group is slow to act—especially if the head of the group is the slow one.

Create a culture you desire for your group

Culture has the ability to shape how people work and interact with each other. It's the foundation of our beliefs, values, and norms, and it has a profound impact on our behavior, attitudes, and outcomes.

When it comes to groups and organizations, culture can make or break their success. That's why it's essential to take control of your group's culture and create the kind of environment you want to work and thrive in.

Here are some ways to create a culture for your group:

• Define your values and beliefs;
• Lead by example; And
• Hold yourself and others accountable for what is expected of you and them.

Communicate properly

Miscommunication is a common occurrence, and its' results has the potential to be incredibly damaging.

The effects of miscommunications are, but not limited to:

• Slowness of the pace of work, thus the reduction of productivity;
• Misunderstandings and conflicts, thus damaging relationships and trust; And
• The spread of incorrect or inaccurate information, leading to incorrect decisions and actions.

The following reasons may cause miscommunication to occur:

• Language Barrier;
• External Distractions;
• Assumptions and Biases;
• Incomplete or unclear messages;
• Stress and other emotional responses; And
• Digital Communications, because of the lack of nonverbal cues.

Learn from other people’s failures and your own

Failure is normal, nobody is immune to it (aside from God I suppose), there is no shame in failing and there is great importance in learning from it, there is however a better way to gain wisdom, and that is to learn from other people’s mistake.

Learning from your own mistakes is not free, sometimes, it can even be costly. It is much preferable to learn from the mistake of others, so that you do not have to suffer the consequences of gaining wisdom.

You can gain wisdom from the experience others through:

• Books: History books and books of wisdom, contain much needed insights.
• Word of mouth: Wisdom can be in a form of verbal stories.
• Through your own eyes: With the use of videos or being present at the event, you can inspect other people’s successes and errors.
• Mentorship: As mentioned previously, mentorship eases your thinking process and enhances your personal and professional growth, there is great merit on having a mentor who is capable.

Benefits of Learning from your own failures and the experiences of others:

• It shows you the defects in your plan;
• Identify weaknesses that needs to be addressed; And
• Highlight undetected variable at play.

Things to keep in mind

Being first is not always good

Being first is a very rare opportunity to have, it harbors a lot of promise, but also a higher chance of failure.

When pursuing a business or personal goal, for a higher chance of success, it is much more preferable to pursue something that has been done before, not only will you know it is possible, but also gain the much needed insight to achieve your goal.

Being first is similar to going in blind, yes you might have a certain idea on what is the right thing to do and what to expect, but unexpected variables are more abundant when it comes to trying out untested things.

To illustrate, imagine a world where weightlifting exercises are not shared—no books, no visual, no word of mouth, no nothing, If you pursue body building in this type of world, your chances and the degree of hurting oneself will be immensely higher.

FINAL WORDS

A good leader can be an effective one, but not all effective leaders are good leaders. The only difference between a good leader and a selfish one is their intent for working.

There's nothing wrong with being a selfish person. You don't owe the world anything, but don't expect to get away unscathed when being selfish.

Society has expectations for you, especially people in leadership positions; if you are not that noble, then it is often best to at the very least appear to be working for the sake of the community—for the common good.