To me a good leader is often someone who can think through his actions before he proposes solutions. One has to come to terms with the fact the leadership is not about a title or a post. Its more to do with solving problems by co-ordinating the efforts making efficient use of resources – typically people, money, time.
Quite often we find CXOs coming up knee-jerk reactions for various issues, just because others are doing it, or because the market or the board expects them to behave in a certain way. It is important to think and act practical rather than dramatical or sterotypical.
Developing a Leadership Mindset comes before developing Leadership Skillset. The skillset is often mistaken to be something one can pickup from a part-time course, certification or some books.
Once that transformational process starts, leaders need to also do some self-reflection and analyse if they could have done better in that situation, not just based on the outcome, but also based on the approach and the process followed. These small incremental things can get people faster on the track to being a good leader.But I’d rather put it as a process which begins with the change in the thinking process – the mindset. Observing good role model leaders, constantly learning stuff from articles, books, net, TV wherever, and most importantly applying simple steps into day to day situations.
Of course having mentioned the mindset, the skill set is also very important. There are tons of material on what skill sets are essential, ranging from theoretical models, oratory skills, written skills, presentation, etc. etc. But a little higher on those skillset in my opinion would be things like – good listener, problem fixer, strong ideator, and of course less authoritative / arrogant.
Finally, leadership grooming is not an instant pill or about some coursework or workshops. Its a constant journey and people need to incrementally get better and better.
Quite often we find CXOs coming up knee-jerk reactions for various issues, just because others are doing it, or because the market or the board expects them to behave in a certain way. It is important to think and act practical rather than dramatical or sterotypical.
Developing a Leadership Mindset comes before developing Leadership Skillset. The skillset is often mistaken to be something one can pickup from a part-time course, certification or some books.
Once that transformational process starts, leaders need to also do some self-reflection and analyse if they could have done better in that situation, not just based on the outcome, but also based on the approach and the process followed. These small incremental things can get people faster on the track to being a good leader.But I’d rather put it as a process which begins with the change in the thinking process – the mindset. Observing good role model leaders, constantly learning stuff from articles, books, net, TV wherever, and most importantly applying simple steps into day to day situations.
Of course having mentioned the mindset, the skill set is also very important. There are tons of material on what skill sets are essential, ranging from theoretical models, oratory skills, written skills, presentation, etc. etc. But a little higher on those skillset in my opinion would be things like – good listener, problem fixer, strong ideator, and of course less authoritative / arrogant.
Finally, leadership grooming is not an instant pill or about some coursework or workshops. Its a constant journey and people need to incrementally get better and better.
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