The most effective leadership is not based on mere authority or the need to achieve certain goals. Today we are looking for leaders who know how to motivate human capital and manage three specific aspects of the workplace.
Written and verified by the psychologist GetPersonalGrowth.
Last update: 15 November 2021
There are three secrets of effective leadership and we should know them all. It does not matter if we have an important position in a large company or if we do not have a large number of employees under our responsibility. Knowing how to lead a group of people means above all knowing how to inspire others and make them feel part of our vision and our goals.
A person can become a leader at any time. This occurs when he believes in his own beliefs and finds a way to involve others in his own project. A good leader is not defined only by his personality traits or the ability to be authoritarian. In reality, the leader is someone who can master a specific set of skills that everyone can learn.
A Chinese proverb says that wild ducks follow the leader of their flock for his way of flying and his ability to lead others. and not for the volume of his squawking. This proverb invites us to reflect on the classic conception we usually have of leaders, characterized by the concepts of strength, domination and superiority.
However, times have changed. Leaders with psychopathic personalities are neither useful nor do they allow a company to grow. Neither are those who think that being a leader means commanding and giving guidelines on what needs to be done or not.
Today, an effective leader is one who manages to create a collaborative environment in which responsibilities are redistributed and where people feel comfortable developing their full potential. Succeeding is not easy, but it helps to know the secrets of leadership.
The three secrets of leadership: times have changed
Fred Fiedler, one of the most important researchers in the field of industrial and organizational psychology of the twentieth century, individua due tipi di leader.
- The former only look at the goals set by the company they work for.
- The latter focus exclusively on people, i.e. employees.
The latter base their work on training employees to take on a series of responsibilities so that each of them, can fully express his human potential for the good of the group and ultimately for the organization he works for.
It has been observed that until recently (and perhaps still today in some contexts), the goal-focused leader was the most common figure within companies and organizations. Today, needs have changed and it is essential to understand some concepts:
- An effective leader is one who trains other people to be leaders within their jobs and responsibilities. The goal is to move from vertical leadership to horizontal leadership in which each member collaborates with the others and knows how to respond to every need.
- Decision making doesn't always have to fall on the leader. Responsibilities must be decentralized.
- In an increasingly complex and evolving work scenario, leaders are needed who know how to motivate and awaken skills such as innovation and problem solving.
In order to achieve these goals, it is essential to work on three specific aspects of leadership.
The secrets of successful leadership
1. Emotional intelligence, one of the secrets of today's leaders
In books such as Being a Leader or Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman points out that training in this skill (emotional intelligence) will help us create happier and more productive work environments. For many this is nothing more than an entelechy, a compendium of good intentions that almost no one applies in practice.
However, among the secrets of leadership, this is undoubtedly the most important. For what reason? Being able to master the aspects that make up emotional intelligence facilitates the management of people by allowing them to make the most of each of them. The aspects to be developed are:
- Emotional self-awareness (knowing and knowing how to manage one's emotions).
- Self-regulation (knowing how to control one's emotions to improve social relations).
- Self-motivation (setting goals and focusing on them to inspire others).
- Social skills.
- Empathy.
2. Decentralized decision making: knowing how to delegate
Another important factor is knowing how to delegate responsibilities. Decentralized decision making is not meant to reduce the burden of the primary leader. It is about training others so that they can use their knowledge, potential and resources to be able to face the challenges that arise.
Today, a good leader doesn't need followers or people who just stand there to admire his skills. What a company needs is to have active and responsible people, employees who share the same goals as their leader and who feel they have the right to use their creativity and resources to achieve common goals.
3. The secrets of leadership: authenticity
Authenticity - closely linked to honesty - is a very important value of the human being. Those who can be authentic in their ideas, behaviors, personalities and aspirations can inspire others. Therefore, a good leader must have this magical yet rare feature.
After all, a genuine person is a person who has good self-esteem, acts fearlessly, faces challenges, does not cheat or manipulate and is authentic in thoughts, actions and words. In essence, today's leadership requires knowing how to awaken skills that go beyond technical skills and the most practical knowledge.
The human dimension must be taken into account. In this way, we will be able to create working environments in which the various teams and people act with greater freedom, respect and originality. Only in this way will it be possible to face an increasingly changing and competitive world of work.
