Key Ingredients for Leadership

The best kind of leadership is that which is quiet and subdued. It’s the kind of leadership where control is taken and retained, without having to make the qualities externally noticeable. It’s the kind of leadership where the hallmarks are fluid, calm and collected power that drives and inspires. True and great leadership follows several principles, which inspire great influencers as well as a sense of knowledge and command with followers. It’s qualities like honesty, caring, and mentoring, which include also enabling others to act and encouraging them to be something better than themselves. It’s also being self critical and striving for continuous improvement. These among others are what make effective leaders. But which are great leaders displaying?

Honesty and Continuous Improvement

The best of leadership is when it’s done humbly and subtly, and leading with a quiet confidence that doesn’t come out of big displays of bombast. Leadership is best delivered through owing up to mistakes, realizing imperfections, and caring about the wellbeing of others above all else. Honesty comes from being truthful not only with others, but also with one-self. Failures and missteps happen but it’s those who are truly willing to owe up to it who inspire others. Leadership doesn’t mean perfection, rather it means taking chances and calculated risks that may or may not work. In this sense, true leadership is about a sense of continuous improvement, and looking for a way to find efficiency and self-betterment. This comes with recognizing faults, respecting imperfection, and moving forward in a dignified and honest manner. This demonstrates knowledge of self and a great degree of self-control, even in situations that might not be the most favorable.

Mentoring, Caring, and Creating a Shared Vision

Leadership is everything except an individual pursuit. While the leader may be the one who is encouraging and pushing others forward, its those others who are holding the leader accountable, and so a culture of collaboration must take place. The leader is putting everyone else’s goals ahead of their own, by caring, providing focused knowledge and experience, and creating a shared vision for the entire team. This includes finding a common goal and then assisting the team in finding the best methodology based on experience. What it doesn’t mean is becoming autocratic and taking all the spoils for one-self but being able to accept criticism an feedback as any other member of the team may see fit. The best way is encouraging and not dictating, finding a reason to care and to keep the team moving while encouraging a healthy and open environment where everyone’s ideas have equal weight. In this, the leader finds themselves challenging the process, and looking at every idea and alternative and going forward with the one that is most beneficial to the entire group. While leadership conjures images of one strongperson being the influence of the entire group, true leadership is the most quiet, the most encouraging, and the most taking control of being a team player. That is how the best leaders are made.