by: Sandra Sembel
These last few months we have been surrounded by issues related to economic turmoils, environmental crisis, and crisis in education. If we carefully trace down the root of the crisis, we will arrive at the core of the issue of mankind: leadership. Approaching the general election in Indonesia that will be staged next year, we've also been bombarded by headlines and issues of CALEGs or candidates for the legislative body starting to promote themselves. It's the right of every citizen to join the general election as a prospective member of the legislative body, be it in the national level or the local one. However, it is crucial to remember that signing up as a Caleg is not just a right. It entails great leadership responsibility that can break or make a nation. "But I am not interested in becoming a Caleg, so why do I have to care about being a leader," perhaps this crosses your mind. Well, we don't have to be a Caleg to become a leader. We are and have always been a leader in our own respective way: leader of the family, of a community, and of an organization. So, what can we do to effectively lead and impact the lives of the people around us? Here are some ideas to start with.
Vision-and-People Oriented, not Profit-and-Personal Oriented
Leadership without a vision is blind. Vision without leadership is non-existent. John Ryan in his article in Forbes magazine about The Three Fundamentals of Effective Leadership (www.forbes.com), puts vision as the first key to effective leadership. According to Ryan's research and 40 years of experience in the military, leadership success is vision-oriented, not profit oriented. And, to add to that: leadership success is people-oriented, not personal-oriented.
Let's take a look at some respected legendary leaders of the world. They all started with a dream. Henry Ford, a great business leader, for example, started with a dream of a car that was affordable for families. Another great leader, Nelson Mandela, had a dream of an integrated, prosperous and free from racial prejudice South African country. And, in the transition from 20th to 21st century, we were awe-struck by the dream of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who aspired to make easy-to-use and affordable personal computers.
These great leaders weren't just day dreamers. They also didn't dream for their own personal profit. Their dreams were their deep-seated passions that offered positive change for many people. No wonder, their dreams were able to inspire many people to join in to make the dreams come true. Such dreams that were worth pursuing, moved people to move forward to enjoy the fruits of the dreams. So, leaders need to start with a vision of positive change for the people around them.
Communicating, not Commanding
A great and noble vision will never move people if it stays inside the head. The vision needs to be clearly communicated in order to make it alive and have power to move people. All great leaders of the world are great communicators, that's why they were successful leaders who could convince people to move forward and make a change. Soekarno, Margareth Thatcher and Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, were all great communicators.
Great communicators are great listeners (Catey Hill, NY Dailynews.com, 2009). They listen effectively to the needs, aspirations and concerns of the people around them. Thus, they can match the people's needs and aspirations with their visions. They can match the level of knowledge and understanding of their people with the language they use to inspire the people. They can identify potential problems that spring up from the people's concerns, and address these issues even before the critical issues develop into problems.
Maintain Proximity, not Distance
Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that a good leader should not be too far from its people, but should be ahead of the people to become their model and source of inspiration. Closeness here refers not only to physical proximity, but also proximity in thinking and language for communication, and in leadership style.
A leader should maintain physical closeness in order to get to know his people well: to listen to their aspirations, to identify their challenges, and to know their needs. A leader should also maintain closeness in thoughts and language. A leader should use language that is close to his people, approach that fits his people's styles of learning.
In addition to closeness in thinking and language, a leader should also walk ahead of the people for the people to see them as their models. Thus, a leader should be a life-long learner. Only a learning leader will manage to keep improving himself to stay ahead of the crowd. A leader also walk behind the people to mentor, guide and direct the people to keep moving on the right track and stay focused to the vision.
Manage Consensus, not Approval
An effective leader is not a leader of approval, but a leader who can manage consensus. An effective leader should not merely avoid disagreement to reach consensus, but should manage consensus by going beyond agreement and disagreement to reach the goal. A leader will never satisfy everyone, but with the clearly communicated vision and well-managed consensus, a leader can inspire many people to reach the common goal.
When launching a new idea, there will be pros and cons. These pros and cons should be carefully accommodated, sufficiently addressed and effectively managed to come up with the best alternative to reach the dream for the benefit of many people.
Stay Committed
Being a leader is more than just giving directions, assignments and instructions. A leader needs to stay committed to the vision. Without strong commitment, a leader never realize the vision. Nelson Mandela stayed committed to his vision, even if he was physically imprisoned. His commitment inspired his people to strive with him to reach equal rights for all. Mother Theresa kept her commitment despite unpleasant circumstances and a lot of crisis and turmoils. In the end, her efforts bore fruits of recognition, assistance and support from all over the world to her service to help the poor.
There are many more qualities that a leader can learn to develop within himself. We are learning leaders in our own respective worlds, We can start from ourselves to develop these critical leadership skills. Only then, we will be enabled to lead and be a blessing to the world.
These last few months we have been surrounded by issues related to economic turmoils, environmental crisis, and crisis in education. If we carefully trace down the root of the crisis, we will arrive at the core of the issue of mankind: leadership. Approaching the general election in Indonesia that will be staged next year, we've also been bombarded by headlines and issues of CALEGs or candidates for the legislative body starting to promote themselves. It's the right of every citizen to join the general election as a prospective member of the legislative body, be it in the national level or the local one. However, it is crucial to remember that signing up as a Caleg is not just a right. It entails great leadership responsibility that can break or make a nation. "But I am not interested in becoming a Caleg, so why do I have to care about being a leader," perhaps this crosses your mind. Well, we don't have to be a Caleg to become a leader. We are and have always been a leader in our own respective way: leader of the family, of a community, and of an organization. So, what can we do to effectively lead and impact the lives of the people around us? Here are some ideas to start with.
Vision-and-People Oriented, not Profit-and-Personal Oriented
Leadership without a vision is blind. Vision without leadership is non-existent. John Ryan in his article in Forbes magazine about The Three Fundamentals of Effective Leadership (www.forbes.com), puts vision as the first key to effective leadership. According to Ryan's research and 40 years of experience in the military, leadership success is vision-oriented, not profit oriented. And, to add to that: leadership success is people-oriented, not personal-oriented.
Let's take a look at some respected legendary leaders of the world. They all started with a dream. Henry Ford, a great business leader, for example, started with a dream of a car that was affordable for families. Another great leader, Nelson Mandela, had a dream of an integrated, prosperous and free from racial prejudice South African country. And, in the transition from 20th to 21st century, we were awe-struck by the dream of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who aspired to make easy-to-use and affordable personal computers.
These great leaders weren't just day dreamers. They also didn't dream for their own personal profit. Their dreams were their deep-seated passions that offered positive change for many people. No wonder, their dreams were able to inspire many people to join in to make the dreams come true. Such dreams that were worth pursuing, moved people to move forward to enjoy the fruits of the dreams. So, leaders need to start with a vision of positive change for the people around them.
Communicating, not Commanding
A great and noble vision will never move people if it stays inside the head. The vision needs to be clearly communicated in order to make it alive and have power to move people. All great leaders of the world are great communicators, that's why they were successful leaders who could convince people to move forward and make a change. Soekarno, Margareth Thatcher and Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, were all great communicators.
Great communicators are great listeners (Catey Hill, NY Dailynews.com, 2009). They listen effectively to the needs, aspirations and concerns of the people around them. Thus, they can match the people's needs and aspirations with their visions. They can match the level of knowledge and understanding of their people with the language they use to inspire the people. They can identify potential problems that spring up from the people's concerns, and address these issues even before the critical issues develop into problems.
Maintain Proximity, not Distance
Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that a good leader should not be too far from its people, but should be ahead of the people to become their model and source of inspiration. Closeness here refers not only to physical proximity, but also proximity in thinking and language for communication, and in leadership style.
A leader should maintain physical closeness in order to get to know his people well: to listen to their aspirations, to identify their challenges, and to know their needs. A leader should also maintain closeness in thoughts and language. A leader should use language that is close to his people, approach that fits his people's styles of learning.
In addition to closeness in thinking and language, a leader should also walk ahead of the people for the people to see them as their models. Thus, a leader should be a life-long learner. Only a learning leader will manage to keep improving himself to stay ahead of the crowd. A leader also walk behind the people to mentor, guide and direct the people to keep moving on the right track and stay focused to the vision.
Manage Consensus, not Approval
An effective leader is not a leader of approval, but a leader who can manage consensus. An effective leader should not merely avoid disagreement to reach consensus, but should manage consensus by going beyond agreement and disagreement to reach the goal. A leader will never satisfy everyone, but with the clearly communicated vision and well-managed consensus, a leader can inspire many people to reach the common goal.
When launching a new idea, there will be pros and cons. These pros and cons should be carefully accommodated, sufficiently addressed and effectively managed to come up with the best alternative to reach the dream for the benefit of many people.
Stay Committed
Being a leader is more than just giving directions, assignments and instructions. A leader needs to stay committed to the vision. Without strong commitment, a leader never realize the vision. Nelson Mandela stayed committed to his vision, even if he was physically imprisoned. His commitment inspired his people to strive with him to reach equal rights for all. Mother Theresa kept her commitment despite unpleasant circumstances and a lot of crisis and turmoils. In the end, her efforts bore fruits of recognition, assistance and support from all over the world to her service to help the poor.
There are many more qualities that a leader can learn to develop within himself. We are learning leaders in our own respective worlds, We can start from ourselves to develop these critical leadership skills. Only then, we will be enabled to lead and be a blessing to the world.
Best Leadership Quotes to learn from
- "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." —Jack Welch
- "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." —John Maxwell
"Whoever wishes to become great among you, shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave." – Jesus (Matthew 20:26-27)