While honesty, integrity, dedication and hard work are the fundamental requirements of good leadership, there are certain finer traits that are equally important. Below are a few of those that I wanted to pen down:
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Managing non-performers: The fastest and the easiest way to manage non-performers in one’s team is to give him one or two chances and then get rid of him. But certainly not the best way. A high performer can become low or non-performer under given circumstances. Similarly, a low-performer may have the potential to excel in a different field where his skills are better suited.
One of my peers was perturbed with a subordinate who wasn’t performing up to his expectation. This subordinate Mr X was hired for the position of Project Manager. Being a micromanager and having the tendency to get into the finest of details of every task, he was miserably failing to deliver repeatedly. His frustrated boss contemplated to release him on a couple of occasions. During this period of predicament, he did realise that Mr X’s strength was not project-management but technical support as his engineering skill was excellent.
So, instead of terminating him, Mr X was transferred to a new role of Engineering Manager and within a month or so, the tremendous positive transformation was palpable. Thus my smart peer turned around the situation for the benefit of himself, his subordinate and ultimately the organization.
Empathy, Warmth & Support: Treat your team as your own family and not as those machines in your factory which churn out products day in and day out. Personal matters and professional career of an individual are interlinked. One can’t leave his personal matters at home while coming to office and not bothered by those during the working hours. Efficiency at the workplace gets immensely affected by the state of mind of an individual.
As a boss, if you can’t be empathetic towards your team members, if you can’t show warmth and understanding of their issues and if you don’t extend support and guidance to resolve these problems, then you can’t motivate them to excel. You can’t expect your team members to go beyond the call of their duty on occasions when required.
As a leader, if you are able to earn respect from your team, half the battle is won. I had the opportunity to come across such a leader who happened to be a senior colleague of mine.
Mr Ramesh Shenoy was popularly known was RS. He was a thorough gentleman and an amazing leader. He treated his team like his own family, not only taking care of their mentoring and growth but also helped in their personal crisis.
Joy, the young office boy in his office was sharp, intelligent and smart. But he had dropped out after clearing the Higher Secondary School Examination due to financial constraints. RS noticed these virtues in him and coaxed Joy to enrol in a part-time graduation course and kept a close eye on the progress. Today, Joy is a graduate, pursuing a diploma in Materials Management and has progressed in the same organization to the position of a Procurement Specialist from a mere office boy.
Urmila, his secretary was a young, chirpy and a happy-go-lucky soul. Having a good boss like RS made her life even better. She was in love with Emil, her childhood chum and that’s where life took a serious turn for her. Her parents were dead against this relation and they pressurised her from all possible angles to break off with Emil.
Seeing the gloom and worry on her face, RS checked out with Urmila. She did not hold back anything while sharing her predicament with him. On an appropriate occasion, RS visited her parents and through his insightful deliberation, convinced them to recognise the relationship. A deeply grateful Urmila did not have words to express her gratitude. The trickling teardrops conveyed her feelings!
The entire team in his office worked with an unbelievable level of commitment and enthusiasm. ‘RS, when I wake up in the morning every day I get a happy feeling with the thought that it is time to go to my office again!’ His Finance Controller shared with him one day.
The longing to come to work is a something very lofty to achieve. If a leader can instil this desire in the minds of his team members, then it speaks volumes about his positive influence and the healthy work culture.
The customers whom RS’s organization catered to also had very high regard for him. The relationships that he has nurtured with them over the years by delivering high performance, sticking to the promises and the commitments, going beyond the call of the contractual commitments at the time of crisis not only helped his company to grow in terms of business but RS also developed a solid network well-wishers, few of them became good friends at a personal level.
Naturally, the management took notice of all the virtues of RS, his effective leadership skills and he was suitably rewarded regularly. He was one of the stars in the entire Asia Pacific region and his example was liberally mentioned at various forums of the organisaiton.
The ability to listen: While we all know that one has to be a good communicator in order to lead a team effectively, it is equally important that the leader has the patience and ability to listen. The power of listening is a very under-rated human trait which can create wonders.
You may be in a higher position in the hierarchy of an organization and you may possess a higher number of years of experience compared to others be it the peers or your team members. But that does not mean that you know everything or no one else can come up with a better solution.
If you are able to patiently listen to others, it helps you to look at an issue from a different angle that you weren’t able to fathom earlier. You may also realize that your assessment of a situation was not correct because of your ignorance about a few aspects which are clarified now due to a tête-à-tête with your subordinates.
Thus the ability to listen helps a leader take more effective and correct decisions. It also helps to appreciate the viewpoints of others and learn from those.
In conclusion, I will state here how John C Maxwell defines leadership, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”
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