Leadership is a hot topic in the corporate world. Yet the multifaceted dimensions of leadership are largely unexplored. Leadership actually has a broad meaning outside of work, in family, society and community. If you are from a secure and healthy family, you will understand that your parents were leaders. That inspirational teacher or a coach was a leader. A leader, will inspire you to be more, do more. Leaders are not a separate group of people. Each of us have the potential to become leaders. If you want to become a leader, understand that leaders are not born, they are made. They are made by the influences of people, circumstances, challenges or formal trainings that speak to their inner most potential. This article aims to breakdown some of the common misconceptions associated with leadership for young people looking to take up leadership roles in their workplace or their community.
Become a leader – Understanding misconceptions
1. All my decisions are self made
Truth – Your environment constantly shapes you
How are some people better at leading, assisting, managing or influencing others? It is the environment from where they come from, the series of experiences they are constantly put through, that shapes their thoughts and belief systems. Why is it that many young adults who face adversity early in life, are still able to build a successful life later on? It is the hurdles that toughened them, taught them resilience, made them analyse their strengths and walk into an uncertain future with grit. Your environment is a great influencer on all your decisions sometimes consciously but most times subconsciously. None of us can operate independent of our environment.
Takeaway : Learn to look at things within their context. This will bring greater clarity to situations and help you become a leader that can see the whole picture.
2. I’m a rational person
Truth – Emotions dictate your decisions
You might assume you are the most rational being in your office but you are as much an emotional being as a rational one. All your important decisions you have ever made or you will ever make always has an emotional component to it. You may not be aware of the undercurrents of your emotions all the time. But it exists. To become a leader who can make good decisions, you need to be aware of your emotional scale first.
- How do you feel about certain topics?
- What are your constant reactions to them?
- How do you react to people around you?
- What needs internal work?
If your are still in doubt, take a look at the most important decision you have made and ask yourself honestly ‘What made you choose/not choose this?’
Take away : Observe your own biases and judgments. Be aware of your emotional scale.
3. Leaders are born
Truth – Leaders are made
A common assumption is that some people are natural born leaders. The truth is there is no such thing as ‘born with leadership qualities’. Some people might have a higher level of personal attributes but that does not automatically make them a leader. Leadership is a skill.
A skill by definition is ‘the ability to do something well because of practice.’
Take away : It means leadership like any other skill is also a practised skill. In fact leadership is not even a single skill. It is a bunch of skills masquerading as a single skill. But those skills can be learnt or unlearnt.
4. Leadership is a single skill
Truth – Leadership is an umbrella term
Leadership is an umbrella term for a host of abilities done well. It is the reason why it is tricky. If someone says, they are good at dancing, they refer to a single verifiable skill. Not so with becoming a leader. If you say you are a good leader, at the very least you are simply saying you are good at the following skills :
- Time Management
- Decision Making
- Problem Solving
- Communication
- People Management
Take away : There are many books with varied outlook on leadership. We all do not agree on any one particular ability to define leadership. It is a broad range of well developed skills over time.
5. My personality is enough to sway people
Truth – Your personality will constantly interact with your environment and create multiple scenarios each with its own end product.
Leadership is multi-dimensional. But for the sake of simplicity, lets say it has these two important dimensions among the many dimensions.
- How you are as a person?
- How you are with people?
Yes, you should have a healthy personality. Some of the most powerful leaders are people who have taken the time to know themselves, who have worked to diminish their prejudices and who have learnt to look at people and situations with objectivity. That alone will not lead you to make good decisions. Your ability to network, disseminate knowledge, look at the bigger picture with your team and understand their diverse viewpoints will be dictated by your interactions at work. This will decide how your leadership style is going to be, what kind of decisions to expect from you and what kind of influence you can have as a leader? There are multiple ways to get these right, as long as you are authentic and operate from a place of genuine curiosity.
Take away : Your personality alone is not enough. Your personality will constantly interact with other personalities around you and might give rise to some very interesting and unexpected outcomes.
6. I’m always a good leader
Truth – Leadership is a dynamic skill
If you practice an instrument for years, you might become a master at it. There could be the highest level of proficiency you can achieve with your skill in that particular field. But to become a leader, you have no set levels or highest levels of achievement as in other skills. The main reasons for this are:
- You change
- People change
- Personal and professional situations change
Take away : A person who was an excellent leader a decade ago, need not necessarily be more of a leader now. He could be a better person or he could have completely lost his ability to lead. Or it could be the reverse. A person who was an average performer a decade ago, could have become a shining example of how a leader should be. Welcome change and embrace it.
7. I have to be loud and bossy for people to take me seriously
Truth – All leaders are not extroverts. They could be ambiverts or even introverts.
In a world where even the smallest achievement is made to look huge and of independent effort, true leadership is the ability to make the right decision at the right time with the right resources whether you are recognised for that or not. I have come across some amazing leaders who are not extroverts but are exemplary with their people skills and thinking skills. They are empathetic and intuitive. To assume that to become a leader one has to be loud and bossy is a fallacy.
People respond to your vision, clarity and empathy as much as they respond to your communication style.
8. People would just listen to me once I reach the top
Truth – It takes more than just your position to make people listen
Communication is central to leadership. Many things leaders achieve are through their language, expressions and actions. To become a true leader you must be able to not simply communicate but to stand by your ideals, disseminate knowledge, negotiate, persuade and influence your people. Your non-verbal cues must validate your verbal behaviour in the right sense. You must lead them from the front, as a shining example. Only if you are able to do that, you become a leader. Otherwise you are simply a manager. All these abilities require a great personality, exceptional language, active listening as well as talent management skills.
Take away : All these are directly tied to your subject expertise and general intelligence. If you are knowledgeable, people have a reason to listen to you. To build your expertise as well as personality , be a curious life-long learner.
9. Leadership is confined to workplace
Truth – Leadership is one of those skills that will have an impact on every area of your life.
Once you become a leader, all areas of your life will become more organised and coherent. Having said that, it is equally important to look up to people in your own family or community who are highly influential. Observe and understand how they manage to do it so well. Incorporate novel ideas into your broad landscape of leadership.
Take away : Flow with the times and open to your mind to new possibilities within and outside the workplace.
10. Trust is not important in a workplace as most things change rapidly today
Truth – You will never become a true leader without learning to build trust.
Experienced people anticipate mind games and difficulties in their workplace but are not looking forward to trust their managers or colleagues easily. It is so strange that many youngsters in a workplace think just because they are jumping jobs every two or three years, they don’t have to make a genuine effort to connect with people. We live in an intense time of change, with our social media, our technological advances and the redefinition of traditional roles in our own communities. To be a leader in these times is not easy and is nearly impossible without making genuine connections and fostering trust.
Take away : Trust brings respect with it. Your people may not agree with all of your ideas but they need to respect you to listen to you.
Conclusion
Learning to become a leader is to have the courage to constantly learn positive attitudes and to unlearn deep-rooted irrelevant beliefs. Leadership is a process as opposed to some defined destination. There is no one way to do the right thing. There are things that are tied to each other in the subtlest of ways which can create a beautiful ripple effect when tapped well. Leadership enables you to do all that and more. A leader is a powerful influencer and the top contributor in his/her circle. By using these ideas, you can hone your skills the best way.
