“Qualities, not experience, make you a leader”
But experience of a leadership position sharpens the leader within you. Having had the leadership experience at many different positions and posts in AIESEC, YUVA and College; I’ve constantly improved as a leader & still hoping to improve a lot. Hereby, I just wish to share my way towards leadership and all the aspects that I consider in the process of team building.
PS:
- You can relate yourself with the following points. Leave a comment if you disagree with some points, have some more ideas or have some better way out.
- If you have been my team member anytime, I guess you should have a good time self-analyzing your role in my team.
- The following points are purely based upon my experience & I do not say that it should be the ideal way for you too.
While building a new team or reviving a non-functional team, I always work upon the following points:
- There should be atleast one person in the team who is as much dedicated to the team and the project as much as the team leader. He’ll be having an equal ownership towards the issue that you’re working for and he’ll be the one who will never let the project suffer in case of the leader’s sudden unavailability.
- There should be atleast one/two (depending upon the project) person(s) who are your blind followers. They’ll not refuse to any task you assign to them and will support you in everything. These people can be your close friends or mentees.
- There should be atleast two persons who can work as smartly as you. They can be guys with a sense of responsibility or guys who are your successful mentees. They’ll be the senior most guys of the team. Remember, junior team members always indirectly follow the senior ones. If the senior members are inactive, junior members won’t get a good inspiration to work, except they are self-motivated. These senior members will be the constant source of motivation for the new members.
- There should be a person who is very innovative and comes up with brilliant ideas every time.
- There should be one/two person(s) who cannot work smart, but are real hard workers. They’ll not be able to think beyond normalcy or innovate the task, but they will slog themselves & get the work done. Their goal is only to execute the task assigned to them.
- There should be one guy who has the capability of motivating other members indirectly. This guy could be someone from the seniors. This motivation mostly happens one to one. When people get constant motivation & appreciation from the leader as well as the senior members, they’ll devote everything to the project. Motivation and appreciation are the keys.
- There should be two/three persons who have leadership qualities. These guys can be provided with 2-3 members each & internal teams can be formed for separate tasks. This solves purposes like, ‘nurturing leaders’, ‘distributing work based upon competencies’, ‘efficient work distribution’. These leaders will also start having a sense of ownership towards their internal team.
- All the members should be made aware about their purpose of being in the team. The leader should make sure that any member does not develop a feeling that his not being in the team does not make any difference.
- The leader should discuss the time lines and limits with the team and should keep a check upon the same.
- The leader should constantly remind his team mates, the objective and the ultimate goal of the team. If everyone has their goals aligned, it would lessen internal conflicts. The primary nature of a predicament is simply out of in-congruency between the goals.
- The leader should maintain a perfect balance between his personal and professional life.
- The leader should find the ideal way out in case of internal conflicts or dissatisfaction amongst members. Sometimes, he should wisely act in a political way and he also might have to take strong decisions. One to one counseling for solving the matter is preferred as it makes the members involved feel important.
- By some ice-breakers or team outings, the leader should see that all the members are befriended with each other. This will boost the team unity.
- Instead of using, “We have to do this”, a leader should first convince the team in a subtle way about his theory and then frame it to ask, “So, do you think we should go ahead with this?” Instead of using, “You have to do this”, he should use “Let’s do it.”
- Also, all the well-performing members should be appreciated by apt rewards & recognition system. Also, a good leader will always hype his team so that the members feel a sense of pride in representing his team. These things again make the members of your team feel special than those of other teams.
- Finally, out of all the members, the leader should identify one person whom he keeps on grooming constantly as the next potential leader. But it should be done in a way that it does not lead to discontentment or hamper the team. Remember, the team running successfully even when the next leader has taken over, defines your success. “It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.”
I always believe that by being a leader, you are carrying a brand. Everything positive increases your brand image and anything negative, decreases it suddenly. Its upto you how effectively you can establish yourself as a brand. People will always want to be a part of your team if you’ve always carried your brand successfully.
“The achievement of a leader exposes him,
The success of his TEAM introduces him”
-Hardeep Pathak
“Management is doing things right whereas leadership is doing the right things” –Peter Drucker
