Leading Others

A leader is only as strong as his/her team members. As a leader, you have to be able to help the team grow and mature. There are a lot of different books that talk about the key steps to use when leading others. From the book, The Leadership Challenge, the authors came up with five simple practices to use to achieve exemplary leadership. They are: 1) Challenge the Process, 2) Inspire a Shared Vision, 3) Enable Others to Act, 4) Model the Way, and 5) Encourage the Heart. The two practices that I believe are the most important are to inspire a shared vision and to encourage the heart. Members of a group want a leader that shows that he/she cares about the individual members of the team, not just the outcome of their hard work. If a team member feels cared about then they will go above and beyond the call of duty to get the best possible outcome for their leader. The second one that I feel is very important is to inspire a shared vision. How can a group know what they are working towards unless the leader has told them what the vision is for the team. If everyone is on the same page then it is much easier to get the task done on time and to the best of the groups ability. Feinberg also came up with his own five secrets to leadership that I found to be very profound. They are: 1) Tell Them what you expect, 2) Make it Doable, 3) Reward them, 4) Give them feedback, 5) When they are done, reward them again. I believe the most important one here is to reward them. If you give your group an incentive to get something done they are more likely to do it. Now that I have been given two different five secret summaries of great leadership, it will definitely help me when I become a leader.