2 Essentials of Leadership
2 Essentials of Leadership by Arthur Cooper (c) Copyright 2006
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There are many human qualities that make a leader. Leadership is
an amalgam of skills and attributes of all sorts, some more
tangible than others.
There are, however, two essentials that every leader must
possess, without exception. These are Vision and Communication
Skills.
All leaders must have a vision of what they want to achieve and
what they want to do. No one can hope to lead others if they
don't themselves know what they are going. It is the essential
first element. It is what sets the tone. It is what fires up the
necessary drive and desire. The vision of the end result is what
keeps the leader driving on towards his goal throughout
difficulties and setbacks. A leader, then, must be a visionary.
But to be a visionary is not enough. A visionary can see the
future as it could be. He can see the result vividly in his
mind's eye. He can point the way to others. He can even set off
on his own to go there himself. But none of that makes him a
leader. A leader takes others with him.
The have been plenty of visionaries in history who have
predicted and foreseen advances to science and technology. There
have been visionaries who have imagined better societies. In
business there have been visionaries in the form of inventors of
new and better ways of doing or making things. Many of these had
wonderful visions of what could be achieved. They were brilliant
people, but were they leaders? Did they persuade others to
follow in their dreams? Did they have the power to communicate
their vision to others?
Some certainly did and were the leaders of their time. Others
did not. Their vision was never achieved in their lifetime, or
indeed ever, despite the fact that the vision was sound and the
goal achievable. They failed because they failed to convince
others of the rightness of their cause. They failed to turn
their vision into reality because they could not convince others
to share it. They lacked the communication skills to convince
others.
In business this is seen as the man or woman with a host of
ideas of how to do things better, or cheaper, or with a vision
of where the company should be going, but to whom no one
listens. His ideas may be brilliant and his vision may be
wonderful, but he cannot convince others that he is right. To be
a leader you must persuade with argument and logic, certainly,
but you must do more if you want to bring you ideas to fruition.
You must fire people up. You must enthuse them and excite them
if you want to lead them forwards.
Leadership is about communicating your vision to others to the
point where they too want to see it fulfilled. They too want to
go where you want to go. They see you as a visionary and want to
follow you as their leader. You lead and they follow, but they
have already been convinced and won over to your cause. They too
share the enthusiasm to overcome obstacles and difficulties.
They too have the will to keep on when times get hard. They keep
pressing on because they want to and not just because you tell
them to.
If you can use you communication skills to transmit your vision,
then you job as leader becomes infinitely easier. You no longer
have to drag people along with you. You just have to point the
way.