Leader's Self Belief

What are the factors that enable and facilitate the realization of one's potential. Why are some individuals so successful or others not so? How does one become successful? What is success?

Some interesting questions but we need not get too philosophical and buried, perhaps, in an attempt to address questions that arise in all individuals over time, no matter what position they might occupy. Here, we are not necessarily discussing "success" in its' totality. One might achieve the pinnacle of "success" in their own terms without having any material wealth or evidence of ostentatious living.

There is a host of examples in contemporary life and throughout history of spiritual leaders who have exercised and continue to exercise global influence on the lives of generations of people of all classes and creeds but had no material wealth. Now, in many walks of life, material wealth and only that, is used as a yard-stick of success. Success is determined by how many dollars, how much property, what kind of automobile, yacht, mansion, form your list of assets.

This article is not offering any value judgement on the innate differences inherent in such classifications, rather, it will attempt to identify what are some of the key driving factors that enable an individual achieve "success" in whatever terms it is defined.

We are each creatures of influence. Parental influence over our lives is critical in positive and negative ways. Expectations of parents of their sons or daughters, will influence the direction of their childrens lives, in some instances, long after the parent(s) have passed away.

There remains a residual drive to meet the expectations of father or mother or both. If those expectations were positive, encouraging, supportive and realistic, the chances are that the child will go a long way towards realizing them and being confident in their own inner-selves of their capacity to succeed.

If, on the other hand, and it is by no means uncommon, that the expectations are negative, unsupportive, failure-orientated, expressed in terms of being critical of effort and outcome, suggestive of failure, "No point, you will never get that," "You will always be in trouble", "Johnny is an average student", then those expectations will be reflective of outcome. Child will not have a store of inbuilt positive attitudes in relation to it own potential and will, on average, be average at best.

Other key infuencers are those we admire and respect and again, the social environment can be a determinant of outcome. If one lives in a socially deprived area, in regular and perhaps constant contact and communication with, for example, criminal minds, there is sufficient evidence to support the suggestion that they will be influenced their behaviour by the actiions of such people, unless it is counter-influenced by stronger values imbued by parents or others, such as teacher, sports coach,. etc.,

Belief in one's self and in one's capacity to succeed in critical to success. Nurturing that self-belief and taking actions that will re-enforce it, such as reading, attending work-shops and seminars, studying the lives and actions of accomplished leaders and individuals who have been singularly successful, assist in building understanding and supporting self-confidence.

"Knowledge is Power" is an old expression, but its' value is in appreciating that the more accomplished, expert individuals are in mastering their role, their work, their sport, the more they can influence others and the more others will be prepared to be influenced by the and follow their direction.

Understanding the innate motivating factors empowers the individual and is a key to influencing in the role of positive and effective leadership. Understanding what drives, inspires and motivates the leader enables the leader but also facilitates the identification of what are the motivators for those one wishes to lead.

Best Inspirational & Motivational Leadership Quotes

For awakening the Inner Leadership we need the right training and right motivation. I believe leadership Quality is in each of us but some of us bring it more into use then others.

Ponder what it takes to be a true leader with these practical quotes that will lead you to a more precise understanding of the secrets to successful leadership...

"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent."--Anonymous

"No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him."--W. H.

Auden

"Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning."--Warren Bennis

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it."-- Andrew Carnegie

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be."--Rosalynn Carter

"Perhaps the most central characteristic of authentic leadership is the relinquishing of the impulse to dominate others."--David Cooper

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality."-- Max DePree

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."--Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group."--Russell H. Ewing

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. "-- Harold Geneen

"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."--Arnold Glasow

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. "-- John Kenneth Galbraith

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet."--Theodore Hesburgh

"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on... The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully."--Walter Lippmann

"Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve."--Tom Landry

"Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them."--John Maxwell
"The real leader has no need to lead-- he is content to point the way."-- Henry Miller

"The leader must know, most know that he knows, and must be able to make it abundantly clear to those about him that he knows."--Clarence B. Randall

"The person who know "how" will always have job. The person who knows "why" will always be his boss."--Diane Ravitch

"A true leader is hated by most, and respected by all. A follower is liked by all, and respected by none."--Scott Smigler

"Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word."--Brian Tracey
"You know what makes leadership? It is the ability to get men to do what they don't want to do and like it."--Harry S. Truman

"Leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It is a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others."--Unknown

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself."--Thomas J. Watson

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."--Sam Walton

Leadership Style: Which style is the most effective

From Mahatma Gandhi to Jack Welch and Martin Luther King to Rudolph Giuliani, there are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Fortunately, business people and psychologists have developed useful, shorthand ways of describing the main leadership styles that can help aspiring leaders to understand and adapt their own styles and leadership impact.

Whether you are managing a team at work, captaining your sports team or leading a major corporation, you leadership style is crucial to your success. Consciously, or subconsciously, you will no doubt use some of the leadership styles featured, at least some of the time.

Understanding these leadership styles and their impact can help you develop and adapt your own leadership style and so help you become a more effective leader.This article helps you understand 10 of the most frequently talked-about leadership styles, some good, some bad.

Understanding Leadership Styles

The leadership styles we look at here are:

1. Autocratic leadership
2. Bureaucratic leadership
3. Charismatic leadership
4. Democratic leadership or Participative leadership
5. Laissez-faire leadership People-oriented leadership or Relations-Oriented leadership
6. Servant leadership Task-oriented leadership
7. Transactional leadership Transformational leadership

Autocratic LeadershipAutocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership, where leader has absolute power over his or her employees or team. Employees and team members have little opportunity for making suggestions, even if these would be in the team or organization’s interest.Most people tend to resent being treated like this. Because of this, autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. For some routine and unskilled jobs, the style can remain effective where the advantages of control outweigh the disadvantages.

Bureaucratic Leadership: Bureaucratic leaders work “by the book”, ensuring that their staff follow procedures exactly. This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances or at heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such as cash-handling).

Charismatic Leadership: A charismatic leadership style can appear similar to a transformational leadership style, in that the leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into his or her team, and is very energetic in driving others forward. However, a charismatic leader tends to believe more in him- or herself than in their team. This can create a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader were to leave: In the eyes of their followers, success is tied up with the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment from the leader.

Democratic Leadership or Participative Leadership: Although a democratic leader will make the final decision, he or she invites other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process. This not only increases job satisfaction by involving employees or team members in what’s going on, but it also helps to develop people’s skills. Employees and team members feel in control of their own destiny, such as the promotion they desire, and so are motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward.As participation takes time, this approach can lead to things happening more slowly, but often the end result is better. The approach can be most suitable where team working is essential, and quality is more important than speed to market or productivity

Laissez-faire Leadership: This French phrase means “leave it be” and is used to describe a leader who leaves his or her colleagues to get on with their work. It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this back to his or her team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership works for teams in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters. Unfortunately, it can also refer to situations where managers are not exerting sufficient control.

People-Oriented Leadership or Relations-Oriented Leadership: The style of leadership is the opposite of task-oriented leadership: the leader is totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in the leader’s team. A participative style, it tends to lead to good teamwork and creative collaboration.In practice, most leaders use both task-oriented and people-oriented styles of leadership. Servant LeadershipThis term, coined by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s, describes a leader who is often not formally recognized as such.

When someone, at any level within an organization, leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of his or her team, he or she is described as a “servant leader”.In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic leadership, as the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making.Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest it is an important way ahead in a world where values are increasingly important, in which servant leaders achieve power on the basis of their values and ideals. Others believe that in competitive leadership situations, people practicing servant leadership will often find themselves left behind by leaders using other leadership styles.

Task-Oriented Leadership: A highly task-oriented leader focuses only on getting the job done, and can be quite autocratic. He or she will actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in place, plan, organise and monitor. However, as task-oriented leaders spare little thought for the well-being of their teams, this approach can suffer many of the flaws of autocratic leadership, with difficulties in motivating and retaining staff. Task-oriented leaders can use the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid to help them identify specific areas for development that will help them involve people more.Transactional LeadershipThis style of leadership starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader totally when they take on a job: the “transaction” is (usually) that the organization pays the team members in return for their effort and compliance.

You have a right to “punish” the team members if their work doesn’t meet the pre-determined standard.Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership. The leader could give team members some control of their income/reward by using incentives that encourage even higher standards or greater productivity. Alternatively a transactional leader could practice “management by exception”, whereby, rather than rewarding better work, he or she would take corrective action if the required standards were not met.Transactional leadership is really just a way of managing rather a true leadership style as the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, but remains a common style in many organizations.Transformational LeadershipA person with this leadership style is a true leader who inspires his or her team constantly with a shared vision of the future. Transformational leaders are highly visible, and spend a lot of time communicating. They don’t necessarily lead from the front, as they tend to delegate responsibility amongst their team. While their enthusiasm is often infectious, they generally need to be supported by “details people”.In many organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership are needed.

The transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while the transformational leaders look after initiatives that add value.The transformational leadership style is the dominant leadership style taught in the "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You" leadership program, although we do recommend that other styles are brought as the situation demands:Using the Right Style – Situational LeadershipWhile the Transformation Leadership approach is often highly effective, there is no one “right” way to lead or manage that suits all situations. To choose the most effective approach for you, you must consider:The skill levels and experience of your teamThe work involved (routine or new and creative)The organisational environment (stable or radically changing, conservative or adventurous)You own preferred or natural style. A good leader will find him- or herself switching instinctively between styles according to the people and work they are dealing with.

This is often referred to as “situational leadership”. For example, the manager of a small factory trains new machine operatives using a bureaucratic style to ensure operatives know the procedures that achieve the right standards of product quality and workplace safety. The same manager may adopt a more participative style of leadership when working on production line improvement with his or her team of supervisors