You = Leader

The Six Traits of LeadersEveryone can learn and build the traits of a leader if they wish to and are disciplined about it Becoming a leader does not entail anyone else allowing it awarding it or being able to take it awayThe six traits are 1 Competence 2 Time Management 3 Integrity 4 Empathy 5 Vulnerability and 6 InspirationThey are all internally driven and with discipline and time can be honed and sculptedSo if you want to be a leader you canRight now Right awayCompetenceTo be a leader in any field at any level you need to build proficiencyYou need to learn your craft hone your skills continuously improve and remain relevant and up to dateToo many quotleadersquot slip into irrelevance by letting their skills atrophy Today due to the rapid change in demography and technology the halflife of whatever one has learned rapidly decays and the fuel tank of competence needs to be continuously filled Organizations fail to keep up when their people fail to keep updated and reorient themselves as the compass of the future calls for a new navigation pathWe are all blessed with the ability to learn both independently using the world of resources online but also most organizations are now investing in training and skill upgrading In addition to these avenues one can build skills by volunteering for new assignments or switching jobsThe day we stop learning our leadership capabilities stop growing and may begin to dieTime ManagementThe three quottimequot skills that one needs to build to become a leader are that of a bifocal focus b delegationteamwork and c zero based time budgetingLeaders learn to have bifocal focus by recognizing the difference between the urgent which often must be done to live another day and the important what needs to be done to ensure longterm success They put time on their calendars every week to ensure that there is time to focus on the strategically important or they will be lost forever in a swirl of tactical urgency Take time every week to think of where you want to be or your company to be six or twelve or twentyfour months in the future and what you may need to get thereTo be a leader requires one to work with teams so one can focus on what one does best leverage and learn from others who do things best and where one can delegate tasks that you have already mastered or which someone can do much better than you Being quotirreplaceablequot or quotnobody can do this as good as mequot ensures that you will not grow and people around you will not growWe all have financial budgets and we have time budgets When you say yes to a new request ask yourself or the person who has given it to you what you can stop doing Or one ends up doing a lot of things in a halfbaked way and corners get cut which can cost the firm and you in time and trouble This is a formula for poor results burn out and a flushed and flustered demeanor which is not the look of a leaderIntegrityTrust is speedTrusted people rarely have the need to pull out multipaged power point decks to convince their teammates bosses and clients about what they are recommendingIf one is not trusted it is hard to be a leaderTrust can be earned by placing a primacy on facts being clear about one39s intentions and transparent about how one is making decisionsTo be trusted one must face reality and deal with facts Facts are stubborn things Reality has a habit of breaking Truth matters If one does not begin with these fundamentals it is very hard for people to believe you You may be able to mislead them for a time but once found out you may never recover Looking reality in its face is what a leader does versus imaginative mind gaming and selling of hallucinatory fantasies Sooner or later people wake upBe clear about your intentions What are you trying to do and what do you hope to gain This allows everyone to understand your goals and they may have better ideas of achieving them and neither you or they waste time in trying to figure out what you are up to or why they are being recruited to a causeOften decisions are made that people do not agree with But they are much easier to accept if they are built on a foundation of facts a clarity of intentions and a transparency on the thought process that led to the decision There is no confusion about a quotblack boxquot or some demonic planEveryone can be known for integrity by beginning with facts stating intention and being transparent about their processIn time this builds trustEmpathyLeaders bring about change and achieve goals by bringing other people along with themTo do so it is key to understand where people are coming from What their fears concerns challenges as well as hopes desires and dreams areA simple way is to ask four questionsWhat is on your mindWhat elseIf you were not doing this what would you be doing or how could things be betterHow can I helpThese questions allow both facts and emotions to emerge and a real conversation to ensue which is key to empathyAfter all being a leader is as much about other people as it is about youVulnerabilityVulnerability is strength and not a weaknessBy speaking about things one worries about one reveals humanity and comes off as believableIt makes other people step up to try to help and offset your concerns or lack of competence with their or other people39s complimentary skillsBut as importantly it gives people the room to also speak up and point out other weaknesses that may exist not just with you but on projects that you are working onLeadership is not being the allknowing allseeing alwaysright demigod but a human with good intentions discipline and focus trying to figure out the best way forward Does anyone truly believe the bombastic bullying blow hard We may fear them but do we follow them No way JoseInspirationAs Blaise Pascal wrote quotWe choose with our hearts and we use numbers to justify what we didquotAfter the facts and the data after the PowerPoints and the spreadsheets we often remain unconvinced disbelieving and hesitantYes we are living in a data driven silicon based computing world but all of us are story driven carbon based feeling individualsJoan Didion wrote quotwe tell ourselves stories in order to livequot and thus storytelling and examples bring a vivid reality to get people to rise to another levelLearn to communicate through words stories art and exampleIt will take you and everyone else to another levelClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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You = Leader

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Rishad Tobaccowala

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