Live My Life Online

There are two school of thoughts about leadership, one claimed that leaders are born, whereas another school of thought said leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience.

So here are how if you are a made leader, can inspire others.

1. The importance of imagination, i.e. the perquisite of bringing the new into being, has probably never been so eloquently captured than by Einstein who said that imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points towards what there is, imagination points to what there will be. In today’s world, in which the pace of change in the macro environment is so fast, being adaptable requires imagination. And imagination means looking beyond the meetings and action points. Imagination enables the flexibility and adaptability required to survive effectively as a leader.
2. The need to think beyond oneself and to consider others. To consider others is to think with them and to ask oneself, ‘how can I serve us better?’
3. People need a sense of meaning and purpose of why they are in the organization. The root of the personal inspiration in leadership is recognizing your individual connection to the organization and purpose within it and this will be something that you recognize yourself i.e. not the party line. Finding this purpose is a prerequisite to finding inspiration. Future possibilities and your own potential are limited without it.
4. With a purpose in place, there is then the space to develop vision. The mantle of leadership depends on the extent that you are able to carry a vision and this depends on the extent to which you are followable. Vision adds meaning to peoples’ working lives. Vision is seeing what life could be like while dealing with life as it is. A vision must always deal with life’s qualities rather than just quantities. A mission statement, for example, should be based on something that adds value to the people of your organization rather than just a numerical target. A qualitative statement is just as important as a quantitative one.
5. Building a consensus around the vision requires political skills. There is a need to learn how to talk to people, to identify who you need to talk to and what they want to hear. Getting influential supporters on your side is critical to carrying out your vision. Building relationships with key people to build trust is critical to gaining support for your vision.
6. Gaining commitment and engaging your colleagues requires face-to-face contact. Inspiration can only be moved across face-to-face rather than in electronic form or by telephone. Securing commitment from others requires:

• an energy so that others can believe in the vision too;
• the vision to be in alignment with the organization’s vision;
• a balance between reason and action;
• a leader needs to think about how much planning is required;
• empowerment – a vision needs to be shared and you need to be prepared lose ownership to get things done.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Dwight Eisenhower

Share This