Leadership: GLOBAL NEED FOR THIS CENTURY.

In the first place, Is there any reason to be a leader?

The answer is not really easy, but it is not difficult either. In fact, the world today is much more interconnected than several decades ago, and the trends show that the world will be even more interconnected in the next 5 decades.

What does it mean? In plain English: team work, group work and any other initiatives will be daily activities, and surely not only restricted to your work but to your whole life as well. So big are the implications that leaders will be required to give support to the teams reach their goals.

The odds are you’ll be in more than one team at once, and with several jobs on each of the workgroups.

Great Leadership

Do you think Gandhi,John F. Kennedy,Elizabeth the First have something in common?

It’s not hard to tell the answer:They were great leaders.

Through the years we have been delighted to look at the lives of great leaders to raise above their peers and move countries towards big achievements, to stand out over the worst circumstances.

Awesome leaders have two characteristics in common, according to Warren Bennis in the book “Learning to Lead”:

1. A leader knows that leaders are made and not born.
2. A leader keeps growing and learning every single day.

In Bennis’ book, you can trace a formula to be a leader:

1. Get the people you want to lead, to “buy” your vision (or shared objectives).
2. Generate and Sustain Trust.

Please read the steps once more and verify if any of the famous names previously mentioned pass the test. I’m sure you’ll see that all of them totally pass the test. Let’s check the steps of this formula and see how can we turn ourselves into real leaders.

Selling Your Vision

As the first step is as basic as water and sun for living to happen. If you fail selling your vision, you are not leading. Leading is opening the way towards that common goal. Your Job is to present that destination as a [desirable] land for all of your teammates. The vision must be set in the people’s minds and hearts.

Generating Trust

• Be competent, show you know what you’re doing.
• Be congruent, do what you say and say what you do. Don’t let your actions speak something different from your words.
• Be supportive, stay on the side of your team.
• Be empathic, take care of your people.

It seems too easy but the formula to turn yourself into a proficient leader is not. Leadership has to do with your competences to lead, and that group of competences is one you need to develop.

Don’t forget Leadership IS A WORLDWIDE NEED FOR THIS CENTURY.

Leadership Definitions And More

I must say something truly relevant“Learning about Leadership has come to be a global matter”.

In almost every country of the northern and southern hemispheres you are able to catch people taking notes about Leadership.

Becoming a Leader is as world wide extended as breathing in and out. It’s undeniably just another human activity.

But, What does it mean to lead?

What do you think of the following affirmations and questions? 

Leadership is about making things happen, To Lead is about achieving all sorts of goals, Leadership is about “touching” people. Do You have any idea when and how to do that? Are you in a position to make people do things? Do You know when and how to lead? How to transform yourself in a leader? Can You achieve goals? Do You know how to inspire a bunch of guys and have them help you to reach your objectives?.

Undoubtedly this kind of thinking was the engine that helped Kenneth Valenzuela, a Software Engineer from Chile to build BeALeader.Net to investigate about leading. In the words of Valenzuela BeALeader.Net is dedicated to become the “starting point” for hundreths of millions whose only access to “reading material” is the Internet.

While surfing around the site something grabbed my attention. I’m talking about the idea that Constant Learning is the main component on the recipe to be a leader. This website is nothing but a proof that students around the world is becoming aware of the big challenges of this century.

You might think you know a lot about the subject I invite you to check out the following definitions that I’ve collected from BeALeader.Net. Anyway, I think there’s a dozen definitions in the website. You can check them in Leadership Definitions if you want.

The 4 favourite definitions were:

• “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”. (Northouse, 2004) 
• “Leadership is the behavior of an individual… directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal”. (Hemphill & Coons, 1957)
• “Leadership is the ability to step outside the culture… to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive” (E.H. Schein, 1992)
• “Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…” (House et al., 1999)