Fostering A Great Leadership Environment
by Harald Anderson
As top management, LEADING your people is the most important part of
the roles and responsibilities you have to fulfill. Leading can be in
terms of advising, teaching, deciding, directing or managing tasks. All
these fall under the mantle of leadership.
Quality people are the most valuable resource of any organization
today. And you must provide the most caring and inspired leadership to
nurture, develop and retain this resource.
Leadership implies using every opportunity in order to inspire and
attain excellence.
While each leader has a signature style of leadership, it is important
that the leader be adaptable in response to different situations. No one
style will work for all situations. If the variables change, your
leadership style must adapt in response to them. Yesterday's style may not
necessarily work tomorrow but as a leader, your job is to adapt to the
changing times. If you are too rigid in your style of leadership, the risk
is that you will acquire a reputation for patterned behavior. So, even if
you do find the 'correct' approach, it may be too late to salvage your
credibility with the people.
A good leader is a caring leader - he not only cares about his people,
he actively takes care of them. No amount of job pressure should prevent a
leader from taking care of his people. In fact, it's the leader's job to
help his people with the stress in their jobs or even the stresses they
may face from external sources.
A good way to figure out the quality of leadership in an organization
or group is to hear what people are complaining about. Every group or team
will undoubtedly have some cribs or the other. This is not something to be
regarded as negative - in fact, it is perfectly normal. The question is
what the pet peeves are about. If informal discussions between team
members largely focus on the team's own internal issues then its time to
look at the leadership and see what can be improved. On the other hand, if
the irritants lie at a higher level, say the corporate headquarters, then
it's a good indicator that the leadership is satisfactory.
Another important way to assess the leadership quality is to see the
participant interaction during sensing sessions. This will reflect the
morale of the group or organization. Morale means how people feel about
themselves which is a broad indicator of how the feel about their group or
organization.
A good environment fosters cooperative groups. They feel free to openly
talk about issues. They complain freely but also come up with solutions.
Their body language and tone is upbeat and shows a basic satisfaction with
the leadership. The very fact that they feel empowered to recommend
improvements shows that the leaders are open to listening to their
opinions and acting on their recommendations.
On the other hand, poor environments foster vocal and hostile groups.
Such groups will vent their frustrations at any sensing sessions. There is
a palpable feeling that the leaders don't care or understand them well
enough to solve their problems. In fact, the leaders are perceived more as
a burden rather than someone who can help them.
Poor environments can also give rise to reticent groups comprising of
people who hesitate to express themselves. It is quite apparent when you
observe such a group that they have felt nobody cares about them for so
long, they seem resigned to their lot. Reticent groups could also indicate
a repressive leader who is intolerant of criticism and threatens to punish
the 'whiners'.
If there is a poor leader at the middle management level, good
leadership at the top can help to alleviate some of these concerns. But
the converse situation will not work. If a 'wrong' leadership style is
being imposed from the top, even the most motivated junior leaders cannot
compensate much down the line.
About the Author
Harald Anderson is the co-founder of Art Inspires a leading online
gallery of motivational and inspirational posters, prints. "When Art
Inspires, Dreams Become Realities!"
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