What Makes A Great Leader? Best Practices When Discovering Your Management Style- Lloyd Emerson Johnson
Leadership is a word surrounded by uncertainty, questions, and doubts because it can mean different things to everyone. What truly makes a good leader? What skills are needed to be a good leader? What is the best management style that is tailored for you? These are just some of the headlines that have been debated and questioned amongst many leaders.
The real question that everyone is wondering is: How do I succeed as a leader?
A simple internet search will bring up answers about leadership that can be found online in a plethora of articles and books. Most of the time if you search through the first page of results they seem to vary. For example, a headline may read, “ the three types of leaders,” “the 10 types of leaders,” and more. Some people may decide to follow what they read however, if no one can agree on simply how many leadership styles there are, then how do you truly know?
To be frankly honest, you are the only person that can define the type of leader you are. Everyone has different interpretations of what leadership looks like and only you can prepare your way towards success. However, one thing to remember is that there is no checklist of how to be a superior leader. You are the one that paves your definition of successful leadership. All of these titles only lead to confusing definitions and limit your boundaries of how far you will go.
First, Becoming a ‘good leader’ starts with how you treat your team.
The first step is to understand the basic idea of different leadership types for background research but in order to be a strong leader, it is smart to add it all together and become a fluid piece. Your team is really the one who determines if you are a “good leader” and this can fluctuate based on productivity levels, and level of morale, etc. The most important thing is to remember that they are not robots who are programmed to act a certain way, a team is composed of all individual people with different personalities who want to collaborate and drive the team towards a specific goal.
The best way to reach all of your team is to approach and recognize them as individuals who have different styles of learning and taking directions. Pointing out and identifying these simple things can help individuals on your team in assisting them and asking questions and how to also prioritize their needs. This in turn will help each individual to help them excel at their task and in reaching the common goal of the whole team. It is truly important to have a balance between control and leadership. In the end you are the manager and you are there to help guide them, and not to take complete control. If you are too strict you are perhaps missing out on the unrealized talent and perspectives that could create new potential.
And second, an open mind and a willingness to learn are also staples of strong leadership.
The one staple that will help you is: an open mind. In order to have an effective and well working team, you need to be willing to listen and learn from them, just as they are from you. Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses and this is your time to capitalize on them and to complement one another. Building a team around collaboration and cohesiveness is more important than perfection. Once you begin to grow and develop you may realize that you lean towards a certain leadership style over others.
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