A person in the formal role of a leader may not possess leadership skills nor be capable of leading. Leadership is essentially related to a person’s skills, abilities and degree of influence.
A good deal of leadership can come from people who are not formal leaders. Leading is the result of using one’s role and leadership ability to influence others in some way. True leaders are not “bosses” or “commanders”. Instead of power, true leadership comes from influence, congruence and integrity.
Successful leaders are committed to “creating a world to which people want to belong”. Successful leadership involves managing relationships and communicating within a team to move towards a specific goal. Leadership is the ability to: “express a vision, influence others to achieve results, encourage team cooperation, and be an example.”
Strengthening your leadership ability can help you improve your capacity to achieve results and reach personal or organizational outcomes. Leadership is not the same thing as management. Management is “getting things done through others.” Leadership is “getting others to want to do things.” Leadership is intimately tied up with motivating and influencing others.
The Four Basic Actions of World-Class Leaders
Although leadership is a complex capability, successful leadership is linked to four core actions: stretching, empowering, sharing, and coaching. These four actions support and expand the core managerial competence of the leader.
Stretching is the ability to challenge a teams habits and to take risks. Stretching involves the capacity to create challenging situations, to compel, to push towards doing more, to go beyond. Stretching is necessary to promote change and achieve results.
Empowering is the ability to help others achieve their individual potential in order to obtain more effective organizational behavior. Empowering requires the capacity to facilitate conditions which allow people to express themselves better, recognizing the value of their work and stimulating personal and professional growth as well as self esteem. Empowering is necessary to achieve results and develop people.
Coaching is the ability to be a guide and a trainer. Coaching is based on the capacity to respect people, to listen attentively, willingly, and considerately. It requires the recognition of individual potential and taking responsibility for the development of these competencies as assets in order to harvest underutilized potential. Coaching is essential in order to develop people and realize values.
Sharing is the ability to exchange information and know-how. Sharing involves the capacity to involve people with respect to objectives, including them in meetings in which ideas and information are exchanged, in order to achieve true collaboration, and permitting easy access to resources and acknowledging that they are to be enjoyed by all. Sharing is required for realizing values and promoting change.
The Four Actions of World-Class Leaders diagram and description is used here with permission from Isvor-Dilts Leadership Systems. © 2003 Isvor-Dilts. All rights reserved.
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