The first question to pose is Who is a Leader?
Many authors from different works of life have given different meanings/definitions of a leader or who a leader is because in their different dealings, they have been able to coin out their own description of a leader. This is similar to the six (6) blind men that were asked to describe an elephant and each described it according to his perspective.
Most definitions of a leader have been coined from the act itself – Leadership. However, we can adduce the description of a leader to someone who has followers. A leader can also be described as a person who has commanding authority or influence.
What is Leadership?
Leadership can be defined as a concept associated with giving and accepting direction in crises . John C. Maxwell, a proponent of leadership describes it as influence; the ability to get followers and impact them .
We can continue with the description and definition of leadership and even at 200 definitions, there would still be more. This is because as humans evolve, leaders do too, including their leadership styles hence more definitions of leadership would emerge.
The act of leadership is one that should propel a follower to want to act in the same manner as the leader. I must at this junction narrow this paper to a “good leader” because, a leader may be good or bad but what is most important is that he /she is leading and influencing a set of people who are followers. A leader who holds a leadership position, must impact the followers positively, set goals, and help his followers achieve this set goals. This would be our major focus today; the attributes/habits inculcated by a leader that followers can emulate to yield best results.
Types of leaders
A Leader or a Manager?
In some organizational settings, these two concepts have sometimes been mistaken for each other meanwhile they are not the same. As stated earlier, a leader is one who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a common goal
A manager on the other hand is one who sets in motion, strategies and measures needed in achieving organizational goals. As the name implies, a manager manages. A manager is usually seen in the organization as a “Boss”.
A manager drives workers within an organization while a leader coaches them. Most times, managers inspires fear but leaders inspires enthusiasm. Managers are usually given the glory when it comes to team work but a leader would rather influence and adduces the success of the team to the entire team members. Finally, a manager is in the habit of leaving his workers to figure out how a goal is to be achieved while a leader sits down with his followers to achieve the set goals. The need for these differences is to further instil in us why it is always preferable to be a leader and not just a manager.
Types of leaders
There are different types of leaders and I am sure most of us here have, in one way or the other, come across such leaders or are even the leaders themselves. They are;
i. Managerial Leader: A managerial leader is one with lesser influence. People often follow such leaders because they are in position to be served and not because they influence people to follow them. They see their followers as tools to achieve an objective.
ii. Relational Leader: A relational leader is one who builds relationships with others to influence his followers. His major focus is the network of people he can surround himself with to induce followership. Such leaders often lack specialized knowledge and not willing to make sacrifices to develop their core competences.
iii. Motivational Leader: This is a leader who seek mutual benefit for themselves and others within their circle. Their followership is usually made of people who follow them because of who they are and what they know. They are usually goal-oriented but influence others from the outside. Although, they are very focused and value people more than the position, they do not produce or mentor others to become leaders like them.
iv. Inspirational Leader: An inspirational leader is inspired by the growth of their followers. They usually mentor people to be motivational or managerial leaders. They have the desire to serve and are focused in achieving set goals. They are people based and not process based leaders.
v. Transformational Leader: If you notice the trend of types of leaders, you would notice that it is getting better as we move from one type to another. Here we describe a transformational leader as one who have passion and agenda to transform others. Like inspirational leaders, they are people and purpose driven. Their reputation speaks for them and they produce other leaders.
Having touched on the different types of leaders, I am sure all of us here can pick which leader we are and after this paper, the type of leader we aspire to be.
Furthermore, for a leader to actualize his set objectives, especially if that leader is organization inclined (like many CEOs) here, there are certain habits/traits/attributes that he must equip himself with to achieve them. The following are habits that not just a leader must have but a high performing leader should develop;
LEADERS SHOULD BE READERS:
While many would assume that leaders are readers of books and possess insatiable knack for knowledge, which I do not controvert, a leader must also be able to read situations. For example, even though I travel a great deal, any time I come back I have developed the intuition to read mood of the office and my staff. I could tell if something was going wrong and usually this would be confirmed through interrogations with my colleagues in less than an hour of being around.
Leaders are readers of people. President Lyndon Johnson once said that when you walk into a room, if you can’t tell who’s for you and who’s against you, you don’t belong in politics. I dare say this is not peculiar to politics alone, but life generally.
LEADERS SHOULD BE MAGNETIC
One habit that would help anyone in our world of social relationship is magnetism. We must all develop the habits of “covenanting” with all those that come across us in any sphere of life we find ourselves.
We must strive to leave an unforgettable imprints in the hearts of those we come across in life by seeking after their welfare and adding value to them. I have personally being at the receiving end of such leaders in my career. Late Chief Remi Olowude is one such men. Even though he has died many years, he still lives in the hearts of many that knew him. Let’s continually find what strikes the cord in the hearts of others and plug into them.
LEADERS SHOULD BE FIRM, BUT NOT RIGID
As much as leaders must have strength of character, they must not be stone rigid and impervious to corrections or inputs from others, regardless of their station in life. Henry Ford was a great entrepreneur, but his influence was short-lived due to his rigidity. He was ready to meet your requirement for a Ford car, provided it was black colour. If not black, then you could go for another brand elsewhere. Little wonder, he lost grounds with his subordinates and lost to the inventions of the likes of Toyota which breezed through the US from far away Japan.
Any operator who is rigid in today’s world of business would soon fizzle out in a matter of time. As leaders in our corporate world and business we must be amenable to change. We must do away with pride or hubris for our businesses to survive us. There was a time that US Postal Service was the leader in postal service in the US.
They settled and later started to renege on their promises until a young man by name Fred Smith started nursing the idea of a better postal service. It was seen as a job and laughing stock even by US Postal. Alas, like a breeze from the blues, Federick who scored D in his project written on his project on US mailing system later found what was known as FedEx which later bought up the US Postal Service. There is no stage a leader gets to that he could not come down the precipice. There are stealth competitors who have striding behind without your knowing. It takes humility and amenability to change to remain afloat.
LEADERS MUST ALWAYS HAVE THE END IN MIND FROM THE BEGINNING
In the celebrated book, “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” Steven Covey established the fact that great leaders should have the end in mind from the beginning thereof.
We must always count the cost of our actions before we undertake them. Before you start to be unethical in your business, think about the end result to your reputation from the negining. If you want to be cruel to your staff, count the cost of having disgruntled or disloyal staff at the end of the day. If you want to divorce your wife, think about the effect of living without her and probably having to live with a crueller woman. Those who think about the end from the beginning would live well and would always be circumspect in all they do. They also finish well and are renowned for a long time.
MUST HAVE “SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE”
Though this may not have attained much currency like Emotional Intelligence (EQ); Intelligent Quotient (IQ), Social Intelligence (SQ), etc, yet it is one of the most desirable of them all. Almost everyone in the world knows that there is a supreme being somewhere who authored our being.
That in itself creates a vacancy or vacuum in our hearts which we often strive to feel through our subscription to religious worships in different shades. We need to realise that there is a spiritual tone to whatever we see in physical creation as they had first been settled from somewhere and we are just walking in their manifestation. Spiritual Intelligence (SI) makes us to think “abstract” and reflective. It makes us analyse whatever happens to us as being ordained. It makes us access our relationships with people and gives us the required contentment, even when we have to rationalise.
Though this may sound esoteric or fatalistic, yet it drives us to conduct ourselves properly in this world, whether in our families, business or leadership.
William James sums it up by stating that:
“Most people live –whether physically or morally-in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon of which we do not dream”
INTEGRITY – This a habit that supersedes every other habit. It is the foundation upon which others are built. There is a common parlance that says “You cannot build something on nothing and expect it to stand”. True to that word is integrity. A leader who does not have integrity cannot be respected, loses power to lead and the trust of his followership.
SERVE, SERVE SERVE
One of the habits that great leaders must cultivate is the culture to give more to people than what most times we give to ourselves. Though this seem quite difficult in world of rabid competition like our, yet the attribute should be cultivated by all. I have realised the need to see the world as revolving and sometimes it would be the turn of everyone including those who may seem to be deprived now.
CONCLUSION
Once again, I want to thank you for your audience.
Rotimi Edu, mni, FCIB
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