Headship attributes

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”      - John Quincy Adams

There is no organisation or company, a big corporate house or a small business, that can do without leaders. The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. Managers are there to supervise and superintend, but leaders are required to not search for consensus, which a manager does anyway, but mould it. A leader actually represents a type of edifice and without which, organisations cannot progress. In fact, it is the quality of leadership, more than any other single factor that determines the success or failure of an organization.

Good leaders make their colleagues and subordinates people feel that they are central to all organizational matters and not on the fringes. Everyone gets to experience a feeling that his or her work makes a difference to organizational success. And when that takes place, employees remain focused and that provides their work an importance and purpose.

A leader goes all out to boost the self-esteem of people working under him. Increased self-esteem generates self-belief and if that happens, their accomplishments touch the sky. A leader leads from the front and enthuses others to do likewise. Leadership is all about the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. A good leader lifts a person’s vision to high sights, raises performance levels of others to a higher standard and builds their personality beyond its normal limitations. In other words, a leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. On the way forward, he or she remains accountable for all actions, even if there is failure.  

Good leaders are in great demand and all large establishments seek them. Their indispensability is beyond any doubt because of their capability to motivate others to work. What are the qualities that go in to make a good leader?

· Pre-emptive disposition:  Leaders are supposed to be positive, upbeat and anticipatory individuals. This essentially implies that they can envision things and think in advance to preclude interferences and interruptions. In addition, their judiciousness in delegating work is of a high level, meaning that they can allocate tasks to others appropriately keeping in view all parameters of the assignment at hand. As motivators, they arouse and foster gusto amongst team members to work collectively to attain any shared objective.

· Selfless approach:  All leaders make special efforts to achieve anything. The efforts are invariably more than are expected of them; and can range from extending support to an individual for a personal problem to beating their brains out and putting blood, sweat and tears to accomplish a given task. They are not people who regard their job as one with normal daytime hours; a flexible approach is their forte. Unblemished honour, integrity and rectitude are also their strongpoints.

· Self-awareness:  All leaders are cognizant of their own capabilities and vulnerabilities as also of their respective teams. They act like friends, philosophers and guides; and encourage and motivate people because of their people skills. Acting on the strength of their capabilities, leaders train people under them to overcome their vulnerabilities and limitations. Aware of the fact that they cannot always be correct, leaders pull together appropriate people to discern popular opinions and trends. They use such findings to highlight failings and drawbacks in their teams; and propose suitable instructions to overcome them.

· Flexible attitude:  Because of their ever-readiness to embrace change, leaders find their feet effortlessly in new environments. It is a known fact that the singular factor that keeps any organisation renewed and at its best is change. It is change alone that offers it a cutting edge and steers it away from insolvency and economic failure. Good leaders invariably regard change as a test and accept and support it unreservedly.

· Farsighted outlook:  Leaders are real creative thinkers and futurists. The knowledge that they possess and the familiarity of various aspects to their credit facilitates envisioning and generation of imaginative and ingenuous explanations, resolutions and results – something that ordinary individuals cannot. Their foresight and perceptiveness is the causative factor in identifying new potentials and prospects as also means to make headway for their attainment.

All leaders are righteous; they are not simply efficient, they are just and upright. They adhere to moral values in framing their goals and exercising swaying techniques with sureness. Thus they empower their juniors and colleagues with confidence and pride. Good business leaders always create ideas and concepts; further they enunciate, passionately own and ceaselessly drive them to logical conclusions. And in the entire process, they are not bystanders. If at all there are glitches and hitches, they do not play blame-game, but instead find solutions. Their standpoint is that a vision without execution is just hallucination. In short, they are the inspiration and directors of every action.