7 Empowering Styles of Leadership
We believe that the following seven empowering styles of leadership are hallmarks in promoting leadership excellence:
- Ability to develop and share an inspiring vision of the future with others.
- Ability to accept change, recognising that change is developmental and challenging.
- Demonstration of responsibility, this means taking responsibility to ensure that everything goes well within your enterprise. It also means listening well to what people have to say and inviting them to make valid contributions for improvement.
- Confidence to inspire others to take leadership and to become a leader of leaders. Develop leaders not followers.
- Be a learner. All leaders are learners. When you demonstrate your capacity to learn and show a willingness to create an environment where there is praise, encouragement and support you will often find that:
People perform best in an atmosphere of warmth, challenge and high expectations
- Humility to remain an apprentice and not a master. This will contribute to a learning enterprise where the leader and others can learn with honesty.
There is recognition of self-worth and demonstration of self-confidence. One learns more easily from experience to handle adversities effectively when there is full recognition of self-worth
- Competence in building close and mutually supportive relationships based on integrity and trust. In mutually supportive relationships people develop knowledge of how to ask empowering questions and how to listen with complete respect.
When there is existence of trust the following are palpable:
- There is an evolving culture where people give up complaining and blaming and instead take initiatives to bring about innovation and change.
- There is development of concrete plans and strategies with regular review processes
- There is confidence to recognise and handle attacks elegantly.
In conclusion, Neslyn.com believe that your influence affects eternity, you can never tell where your influence stops.
We believe that you need to have clarity on where you are going and have the courage to stay on your path.
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.
- Herbert Swope
As a leader if you are committed to developing empowering leadership characteristics as outlined in this special report on leadership excellence you will need to model and plan strategies to make such characteristics a reality.
It is essential that you develop your own vision for your leadership as well as deciding the role that you as the leader will take.
Your leadership vision is best dovetailed and supported by the goals and mission of your enterprise.
Your responsibility as the leader is to communicate the vision by stating it simply, understandably and inspirationally.
A leader with vision is one who:
- Inspires and motivates
- Projects into the future and communicates a global outlook
- Obtains significant, often extraordinary, results from people
- Is highly committed to excellence, honesty and productivity
- Is an effective listener
We encourage you to develop 10 essential leadership characteristics as follows:
- Decide on the few crucial interventions, that is, those interventions which if clearly identified and acknowledged would steer your enterprise on the right path
- Develop close, mutually supportive partnerships based on integrity and trust. This helps to build capacity, build wealth and influence others as well as to avoid isolation
- Become a leader of change. Look for the benefits of the change. Remember what you focus on will expand.
- Build networks. An essential way of bringing about change within an enterprise is to extend your network of influence and credibility through building more effective relationships with people
- Work with people who demonstrate energy for getting things right rather than concentrating on dinosaurs
- Develop practical programmes that work on key issues and supporting the energy for change
- Work at the highest level and producing quality. Starting with individuals, and then working with teams
- Develop and empower people. Release individual initiative
- Recognise success and give due credit. As a leader it is sometimes tempted to claim the credit for you. If so, you are thinking of your own advancement. A leader who seizes every opportunity to motivate people by recognising their worth, service and contributions is a far more effective leader.
- Develop support for self as leader. Support will help you to think, decide and act differently.
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.
- Andrew Carnegie
Your attitude as a leader will set the pace and tone for the people that are led. People tend to mirror each other, and the group or organisation will mirror its leader.
In your leadership you may be required to take different roles such as leader, strategist, mentor, architect, builder, coordinator and champion. Your attitude will affect effectiveness and productivity within your enterprise.
Your attitude speaks so loudly, others cannot hear what you say.
- Elwood N Chapman
When you attitude is positive and dynamic, people will reflect such traits by becoming more positive and dynamic. However, if in your leadership, you adopt behaviours that demonstrate complaints, victim blaming, and a stance of things are awful, then people who reflect those attributes will surround you.
Your attitude affects productivity through the display of trust, good relationships with people and a positive attitude in such circumstances people respond by being more productive.
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer.
References:
Adair J (1983) Effective Leadership: A Modern Guide to Developing Leadership Skills. Pan Books
Clark M (1992 Conference Paper: Vision, Leadership and Strategy. RCN Chief Nurses and General Managers
Lewis J (1991) Developing Net-works Unpublished Paper
Lundy J L (1986) How to Lead so Others Follow Willingly Kogan Page
Manning M and Haddock P (1989) Leadership Skills for Women Kogan Page
Nixon B N (1992) Developing a New Culture for Organisations in the 90’s. Management and Development. 23, part 1, 1992 pp 34-46.
Further Reading:
White Randal P et al (1996) “The Future of Leadership” Pitman Publishing
Conger J. A (1999) “Building Leaders” Josey Bass
Kouzes J M (1987) “The Leadership Challenge” Josey Bass
Lundy J (1986) “How To Lead So Others Follow Willingly” Kogan Page
Nicholas M (2008) “Being The Effective Leader” Life Success Publishing
Tichy N (2009) “The Transformational Leader” Wiley
Maxwell J (2013) “The 5 Levels of Leadership” Centre Street
BeaconOrganisationalDevelopment.com offers:
• Books
• Audios
• Webinar
• Seminars
• Breakthrough Leadership Coaching
• Consultancy
Contact: [email protected]
