In recent years, leadership has become an increasingly important quality when assessing an employee in job interviews. Thus, more and more people, including me, begin to wonder what leadership is and how to be a leader. Yesterday, I read an article How to Be a Leader which was written by Simon Teague, a renowned expert in leadership and management. Simon stated that in order to become a leader, one should first understand what makes a leader.
In the introductory part of the article, Simon cited the definition of leadership given by Dr Stephen Covey, a world renowned expert on personal development: communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. Simon believed that there is a formula for becoming such a leader, and then he listed five imperatives of leadership. Make time to train yourself in both the art and science of leadership, inspire trust, clarify purpose, align systems and unleash talent.Speaking of what leadership is, I hold that a great leader should be the person who can inspire others to believe what he believes. Here I would like to clarify my opinion with the example of Apple Company.
Many people wonder that, with the same access to the same talents, the same agencies, the same consultants and the same media, why Apple can achieve such great success year after year. The difference between Apple and other companies is the way Apple communicates their products. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might be like this. “We make great computers.They are beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.
Want to buy one? ” It sounds ordinary and uninspiring. However, this is just the way most of us communicate. Actually, Apple communicates like this”Everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.
We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? ” It seems to only reverse the sentence order, but the message consumers have received is totally different.The later one is much more excellent than the former one, because the later one have conveyed a kind of belief and made consumers believe why they do it. We may find that every one of us know what we do, some know how we do it, but very few know why we do what we do.
In contrast, for those great leaders, they know clearly in the very beginning why they do it, which means the purpose, the cause and the belief. Great leaders involve their people in the communication process to create the goals to be achieved.If people are involved in the process, they psychologically own it and leaders create a situation where people are on the same page about what is really important—mission, vision, values, and goals. Only such persons have the ability and the charm to make others share the same beliefs with them.
As for the five imperatives raised by the author, I cannot agree with him anymore. There are fundamental principles upon which we can develop leadership skills, but we need to know what they are and how to employ them to best effect.The world and the people are constantly changing, so it’s important to stay up to date with leadership innovation in order to adapt. Self-development is the key to learning how to be a leader and unlocking the potential within us.
This is the cornerstone to our future success. Mutual trust is the prerequisite of corporation. We build relationships of trust through both our character and competence and we also extend trust to others. We show others that we believe in their capacity to live up to certain expectations, to deliver on promises, and to achieve clarity on key goals.
We don’t inspire trust by micromanaging and second guessing every step people make. When we inspire trust and share a common purpose with aligned systems, we empower people. Their talent is unleashed so that their capacity, their intelligence, their creativity, and their resourcefulness are utilized. The world is vastly different today and ever-changing.
If we can develop leaders who can withstand and embrace the changing times by deeply rooting themselves in these principles of great leadership, then we can develop great people, great teams and great results.
