What is leadership?- Redefining Leadership and how it affects your personal growth and success
Leadership is a powerful word, and it has several definitions from different people. Do these definitions contradict each other? What is leadership?
Leadership is the ability to influence oneself or others to achieve a goal or a purpose. It involves the capacity to have a vision and translate it to reality by maximizing your efforts or the efforts of your team. To achieve this, you need to define leadership for yourself, what it means to you, and master leadership qualities.
We did intensive research on this, and we have put together a wealth of information on what leadership is, what many perceive it to be, but it is not, and why you should define it for yourself. We have also put together leadership qualities to help you boost your productivity and stand out from the crowd. Let’s do this.
What does good leadership mean?
Below are definitions of leadership from our research.
According to Peter Drucker, the only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.
Warren Bennis defines leadership as the capacity to translate vision into reality.
Simon Sinek defines Leadership as the ability to empower others to achieve things they did not think possible.
John Maxwell says Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.
According to Kevin Kruse; Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal.
Mindtools definition of leadership; Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to “win- as a team, organization.
From the above, it is clear that leadership involves a vision that translates into reality, the ability to empower others, influence, and direction to achieve a goal.
Personal leadership is, therefore, the ability to influence oneself to achieve your goals effectively.
What Leadership is perceived to be but it is not
To understand leadership better, let’s explore common perceptions on this matter.
Seniority or hierarchy in a company, organization, or set up
Having a senior position in your home, family, church, or at work doesn’t translate into leadership because a post is a name. And it takes more than a name or a position to have a vision, interpret it, and see it to fruition.
Titles
A title like a manager, CEO, chairperson, choirmaster, king, or prince doesn’t translate to leadership. We have seen people get titles only to tear down a team or an organization.
Titles don’t make leadership people do. And these are the people who have a vision, a hunger to empower others and make them better, and a desire to be better people every day.
Leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes
Tall, powerful, domineering, charismatic, outgoing, all these don’t make an effective leader or give one advantage of becoming one.
There is a general perception that outgoing people make good leaders. There is no dispute that such people have an advantage of articulating things, but having such traits doesn’t automatically qualify one to be a leader.
Leadership isn’t management
Management is showing people how to do things right, while leadership influences people through motivation and inspiration to do the right things willingly.
Someone who has followers
Having followers does not necessarily qualify you for leadership. As a young Christian professional, you may inherit followers from acquiring a title at your workplace, in the church, or the community. These followers are with you because of the title. Are you able to lead these people effectively with a positive impact?
The influence, impact, and inspiration you have over your followers will determine if you are a good leader or not.
What does leadership mean to you?
Define leadership on your terms.
As a young Christian professional, you are going to face situations that will call for your leadership on a personal or non-personal level.
It is important, therefore, to define what leadership is and what it isn’t to enable you to succeed in such situations.
Besides, for you to succeed in life, you need to lead yourself effectively. To achieve this, you need to understand and define leadership for yourself.
Below are the characteristics and qualities of good leadership. Use this as a guide to develop into a great leader with optimal productivity and success.
Characteristics and qualities of good leadership
Vision and a purpose
Great leaders are visionary. They make a connection with the future they want to create and generate ideas with calculated risks to achieve that goal.
Having a vision and a purpose gives you direction in life. It enables you to audit yourself, get to know who you’re, and what you need to reach your destination. You can then create a path to align your plans, values, and your goals.
Integrity and honesty
Integrity and honesty go hand in hand, and people tend to trust you more and follow when you have unquestionable integrity. It also affects how people value and treat you or your business.
Your character also attracts people of the same values and likeness. And the people you attract in your life will determine your growth and success. These are the people who make your inner circle and influence the choices you make.
Believe in the ability of other people
People feel valued when you believe in them, and this makes them ready to either help, emulate, or take up more tasks. In the process, it becomes easy to delegate duties.
If you are a family person, the ability to trust your partner and children means you don’t have to do everything for them, but you guide them through it. As a colleague at work, you don’t have to do all the work by yourself, as you trust your coworkers to do a good job. As a manager, you don’t have to micromanage your team because you trust your team to handle their duties well. In return, you have more time to focus on more important responsibilities and your personal growth.
Empower and inspire
Great leaders are known to build others. They know it is better to teach one to fish than feed them every day with their catch. If you keep helping people, instead of making them independent, you will get exhausted. Teach your colleagues, friends, and family members to handle duties within their capabilities. And encourage them to learn more as you relinquish more responsibilities with time.
What is in for you? If you keep doing the same thing day in day out, you will never grow. Empowering others and inspiring them to handle duties on their own gives you time to focus on more challenging tasks. And it also gives you time to grow yourself. In the process, you will be grooming leaders to take over from you as you step to a higher status of governance.
Communication
Learn to communicate effectively to and with people. Effective communication clears misunderstandings, delivers the right message, creates conversations, and strong bonds in relationships. Whether you are fostering family, work, or social relationships, effective communication is key to achieving that goal.
Strong relationships come in handy when you need help or creative ideas. And great conversations can boost teamwork and productivity. Make your message clear and concise so as not to confuse people.
Words can build or destroy. Guard what you say and ask yourself if it is constructive or destructive because great leaders grow and pull others up.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness helps you to thrive and make your strengths shine as you work on your weaknesses. It also guides you in choosing working colleagues in projects at work or in the community.
Knowing yourself will also help you to manage your team well and choose projects that complement your strengths. How do you impact those around you, negatively, positively? What can you change to make you a better person or leader.
Gratitude
Learn the art of gratitude and how it boosts your productivity. Learn to appreciate the good things in life that God has given you and count your blessings.
Appreciate your colleagues, family, and church members. Say thank you even for the smallest things and to the least recognized in society. You will be surprised by how many good relationships and followers you will create this way. And that is because few people take time for others, and many are craving appreciation.
Continuous Improvement
Great leaders are always in the process of learning and keeping up with the changing trends. There is no limit to how much you can learn and grow. Every day is a chance to learn a new thing and give yourself a new challenge.
Read as many books as you can and learn a new skill that will help you create healthy relationships with others. Learn an art that will grow your spouse, colleagues, team, your church, or business. And remember to pass it on, as you don’t learn for yourself, but to grow others.
Influence
The ability to influence, inspire, and grow people is one of the greatest attributes of leadership. Mother Teresa inspired charity and compassion across the world. Wangari Mathai influenced and motivated people to plant and conserve trees. What is your level of influence, and how do you inspire those around you to be better?
Great leaders know the importance of influence, and they use it to grow themselves and those around them. As a young Christian professional, you need to evaluate your impact on people. If it is not positive or not according to your desire, learn how to influence people to leave a positive effect and make them do the right things.
Empathy
Great leaders create an emotional connection with others through empathy because they know its power. Understanding what others go through and being able to show compassion opens doors for you to help. And a helping hand is always appreciated, and it earns you trust.
When people know that you are compassionate, they are willing to share their challenges giving you an avenue to guide and help. You also create healthy relationships this way. People are ready to assist you in the hour of need.
Courage and Confidence
Courage and confidence saw the emergence of great leaders like Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, Mother Teresa, Barack Obama, and the like.
It is not easy to speak up for what you stand for, but leadership demands confidence and courage to voice your thoughts and your dreams. You are more believable when you stand by what you believe in and articulate your ideas with confidence.
Being courageous and confident doesn’t mean domineering. Mother Teresa was a humble person, but she dared to voice and stand for a purpose. Learn to build your confidence in humility.
Respect
Great leadership is about respecting yourself, your colleagues, and your family members. It doesn’t cost anything to be respectively. On the contrary, disrespect can cost you healthy relationships and close doors to your success.
Let everyone who comes in contact with you feel respected, and you will earn the same in return. Besides, people listen and follow when they know you value them.
Commitment and passion
Great Leadership is being committed to your dreams and goals. A lack of commitment reflects itself in shoddy jobs and unfinished projects. When you’re true to your purpose, devotion comes effortlessly. Following your dreams opens more doors and gives you the motivation to go on even in difficult times.
Resilience
Having the capacity to adapt through hard times and in unexpected situations is what leadership is all about. You’re not in a position to control circumstances or changes that come with innovations, calamities, or governance. But you do have the ability to adapt to those changes or come up with strategies to ensure you don’t burn in the process.
Be agile, and remember that change is inevitable. The world is continuously changing socially, economically, and digitally. Be prepared to adapt to those changes.
Ownership
Great leadership is taking responsibility for your life, your actions, and your team or followers. Starting from what you eat, the friends you choose, the media you consume, and the values you choose to follow. You can’t sit around and wait for someone or something to make your situation better. Take the initiative towards finding a solution.
Learn to own up to your mistakes and correct them. Avoid pointing fingers when things go wrong, and don’t wait for others to action when you can make situations better for yourself and others. Take the lead.
Emotional intelligence
Great leaders know the importance of controlling their emotions at all times. Emotional intelligence opens doors for seamless communication and social awareness. You create more health networks and a positive environment for yourself and others.
Control and be in charge of your emotions and resist the urge to make decisions based on them. Emotional intelligence helps you to connect with people on an emotional level. You can understand what people are going through, be a good listener, and resolve conflicts better.
Humility
Be humble as you grow and become more successful. Remember your beginnings, your struggle, and note that there is someone else who is going through the same phase. Take time to appreciate those who’ve helped you through and pass the support forward.
Pay the same respect to the cook as you would the CEO, and always have an open mind to learn more. There is no limit to how much you can grow. They say the sky’s the limit, but have ever seen the end of the sky? There are endless growth opportunities, and there is always someone ahead of you and someone behind. Reach out for help ahead of and lend a hand to those behind you.
Transparency
Great leaders know that they’re not islands and that they can’t grow in isolation. They are ready to share their vision with others to get the support they need to achieve their goal. Performance is optimal when a supportive environment.
Be open with information concerning your purpose and goals. People are willing to help when they know the kind of help you need. And it’s the only way you’ll draw those who share the same vision to your side.
Creative and innovative
Your purpose and goals can be static, but your strategies will always evolve with the changing times. Well, they have to. You’ve to be innovative and creative to overcome some challenges and obstacles that may come along the way as they usually do.
What used to work ten years ago no longer works now, and there is a possibility that what is working today may be obsolete soon. To reposition yourself for success, you’ve to anticipate change and be innovative in how you approach your goals.
Decision making
As a young Christian professional, you have to develop the ability to make decisions at the right time. Sometimes the decisions you make are not going to be popular with your family or peers, but a decision has to be made.
You can’t dwell in a state of indecisiveness for long. Some decisions are going to be hard to reach, but you have to make a choice anyway. If you need to pray and consult before making a decision, do so. But, do not remain on the fence as this results in confusion and procrastination. Indecisiveness doesn’t wish problems or situations go away. But it only delays the process.
Positive attitude
A positive attitude is a fuel that drives you through life. Refuel yourself by surrounding yourself with the right people and consuming the right media. Life is not going to be a bed of roses, and even if it were, roses have thorns. A positive attitude opens doors that may otherwise remain closed and enables you to see more opportunities as others close behind you.
There are enough naysayers in this world. If you are not careful, they will stifle your efforts, and your dreams will die. Surround yourself with positive people to keep your attitude in the right direction.
How leadership affects your personal growth and development
You learn to face your fear
Effective leadership enables you to face your fears and unearth your full potential. You will be surprised to know how much you are capable of once you explore your leadership capability.
You develop the courage to take up more projects
As you learn more about yourself and the potential you have, you take more challenges in life. You explore more opportunities and move beyond your comfort zone.
Personal growth
Leadership tends to push you to grow beyond your comfort zone. You get to learn more, solve problems, and face new challenges every day.
And as you seek to learn more, you acquire a wealth of skills and wisdom.
Learn to face your weaknesses
Learning the art of Leadership develops your courage and confidence. In the process, you face your weaknesses with no shame or apology. You master those weaknesses and work on them as you focus on your strengths. Also, you get to understand that everyone has flaws and that it is nothing to be ashamed of.
Final word
Leadership means different things to different people. But, all definitions converge in the ability to influence, inspire to achieve a goal. You have to define leadership for yourself and master the attributes of great leaders to stand from the crowd.
What is your definition of leadership?
Leave your answer in the comments below. And don’t forget to share this post with your friends and followers. That is what great leaders do.