Everyone can lead but how well is the question. You come across a lot of different types of leaders in your life but to become a good leader it is important to understand some basic practices that can be learned over time. These basic practices also known as five exemplary practices as developed by Kouzes and Posner have been explained below.
Model the way:
Have you ever heard people saying ‘Talk the talk and walk the walk?’ A good leadership is exactly as that saying goes. Leaders need to talk well and follow up with action. Leader is a leader because they understand the vision but others may not. Thus it is vital for a leader to show the way to reach that vision for others to follow. Saint Teresa of Calcutta once said, “A life not lived for other is not a life” and she lived her life with the same ideology giving her entire life for the people in the slumps of Calcutta. Even to this day the Missionaries of Charity work across the globe following what Saint Teresa of Calcutta did. This is an example of a leader who modelled the way. She never imposed her value to others but they followed her none the less.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Leaders lead with a vision that they already have in their mind. So leadership is actually the process of guiding people to meet that vision. To guide, the leader has to be able to not only share what his vision is but to inspire them in such a way that they relate to it and make that vision their own. As Simon Sinek once shared, Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader because he inspired a vision. There were thousands of people who turned up for the demonstration of freedom that day from different states when there were no social media to advertise the venue and date. They did not come because Martin Luther King Jr. would be there. They came because the people believed what he believed in and commonly shared his vision. So the people took up his vision as their own and passed on the information to one another sharing it as their own. (TED (2009)
Challenge the Process
It is difficult to find people who do not know Elon Musk nowadays. We have all heard about groundbreaking innovation in electric car, Tesla, the applicability of Solar city and the Space X program. I have nothing to do with the Space X program and will probably never have but still I follow and read about it. I do this because he has done something that people would have thought impossible and laughed a few years back. Challenging the process, that space program were only for the government research and did not have return in terms of monetary value, he has revolutionized the way rockets have been designed for future space travel and possibly even inter planet habitation. The design of the rockets that can reuse the boosters have significantly decreased the cost of the program and they have even earned from building rockets for the government sectors. In Elon Musk’s own words, “If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds aren’t in your favour.” People would still think it was impossible if he had not challenge the process.
Enable Others to Act
Giving people more recognition, involving them in decision making and added responsibilities makes them feel empowered. They will feel responsible and will generate a feeling of having to prove themselves making them work even harder. As mentioned by Kouzes and Postner, “ When leadership is a relationship, founded on trust and confidence, people take risks, make changes, and keep organizations and movements alive. (Posner, 2003)” I can relate this to myself. In the recent earthquake that struck Nepal, my organization was involved in the response of initial relief distribution. I was handed the responsibility of logistics for the material coming in huge consignments from all over the world. With such a big responsibility at hand, I organized a small group of employees and volunteers for the proper handling of good in the airport and in the boarders with India and then distributing it to my colleagues in 5 different districts. The seer load of work at the time was a challenge but I feel it my duty and so encouraged the already motivated colleagues to complete all the work on time. We were later praised for the work we were able to accomplish.
Encourage the Heart
Human are emotional beings and respond more towards moral and ethics related to the heart. We relate to one another more with the behaviours than any other thing. It is seen in everyday life how true encouragement changes the mind set of people. When a subordinate is encouraged by the leader for the good work they have done it helps release dopamine that generates the feel good feeling. Subordinates respond to this and work toward better output ever at times of difficulty.
Leadership is a relationship in the sense that without followers there cannot be a leader. A good leader is able to maintain and grow relationship with his followers where as a bad leader will do the opposite and soon followers will leave. The relationship to be maintained can be accomplished and improved with the help of the aforementioned practices.
References
Posner, K. (2003). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. In B. P. Jim Kouzes, Leadership Challenge Workbook (First Edition ed., p. 13). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint.
TED (2009, S. 2. (n.d.). Simon Sinek: Start with why - how great leaders inspire action. TEDx Puget Sound Speaker . Retrieved from youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
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Everyone can lead but how well is the question. You come across a lot of different types of leaders in your life but to become a good leader it is important to understand some basic practices that can be learned over time. These basic practices also known as five exemplary practices as developed by Kouzes and Posner have been explained below.
Model the way:
Have you ever heard people saying ‘Talk the talk and walk the walk?’ A good leadership is exactly as that saying goes. Leaders need to talk well and follow up with action. Leader is a leader because they understand the vision but others may not. Thus it is vital for a leader to show the way to reach that vision for others to follow. Saint Teresa of Calcutta once said, “A life not lived for other is not a life” and she lived her life with the same ideology giving her entire life for the people in the slumps of Calcutta. Even to this day the Missionaries of Charity work across the globe following what Saint Teresa of Calcutta did. This is an example of a leader who modelled the way. She never imposed her value to others but they followed her none the less.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Leaders lead with a vision that they already have in their mind. So leadership is actually the process of guiding people to meet that vision. To guide, the leader has to be able to not only share what his vision is but to inspire them in such a way that they relate to it and make that vision their own. As Simon Sinek once shared, Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader because he inspired a vision. There were thousands of people who turned up for the demonstration of freedom that day from different states when there were no social media to advertise the venue and date. They did not come because Martin Luther King Jr. would be there. They came because the people believed what he believed in and commonly shared his vision. So the people took up his vision as their own and passed on the information to one another sharing it as their own. (TED (2009)
Challenge the Process
It is difficult to find people who do not know Elon Musk nowadays. We have all heard about groundbreaking innovation in electric car, Tesla, the applicability of Solar city and the Space X program. I have nothing to do with the Space X program and will probably never have but still I follow and read about it. I do this because he has done something that people would have thought impossible and laughed a few years back. Challenging the process, that space program were only for the government research and did not have return in terms of monetary value, he has revolutionized the way rockets have been designed for future space travel and possibly even inter planet habitation. The design of the rockets that can reuse the boosters have significantly decreased the cost of the program and they have even earned from building rockets for the government sectors. In Elon Musk’s own words, “If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds aren’t in your favour.” People would still think it was impossible if he had not challenge the process.
Enable Others to Act
Giving people more recognition, involving them in decision making and added responsibilities makes them feel empowered. They will feel responsible and will generate a feeling of having to prove themselves making them work even harder. As mentioned by Kouzes and Postner, “ When leadership is a relationship, founded on trust and confidence, people take risks, make changes, and keep organizations and movements alive. (Posner, 2003)” I can relate this to myself. In the recent earthquake that struck Nepal, my organization was involved in the response of initial relief distribution. I was handed the responsibility of logistics for the material coming in huge consignments from all over the world. With such a big responsibility at hand, I organized a small group of employees and volunteers for the proper handling of good in the airport and in the boarders with India and then distributing it to my colleagues in 5 different districts. The seer load of work at the time was a challenge but I feel it my duty and so encouraged the already motivated colleagues to complete all the work on time. We were later praised for the work we were able to accomplish.
Encourage the Heart
Human are emotional beings and respond more towards moral and ethics related to the heart. We relate to one another more with the behaviours than any other thing. It is seen in everyday life how true encouragement changes the mind set of people. When a subordinate is encouraged by the leader for the good work they have done it helps release dopamine that generates the feel good feeling. Subordinates respond to this and work toward better output ever at times of difficulty.
Leadership is a relationship in the sense that without followers there cannot be a leader. A good leader is able to maintain and grow relationship with his followers where as a bad leader will do the opposite and soon followers will leave. The relationship to be maintained can be accomplished and improved with the help of the aforementioned practices.
References
Posner, K. (2003). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. In B. P. Jim Kouzes, Leadership Challenge Workbook (First Edition ed., p. 13). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint.
TED (2009, S. 2. (n.d.). Simon Sinek: Start with why - how great leaders inspire action. TEDx Puget Sound Speaker . Retrieved from youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA