Whether you have already entered a leadership role or are still waiting, you should be aware of and remind yourself about some hard truths concerning leadership. These "hard truths" were recently published on TLNT.com.
1. It is not simple
Leadership is very challenging and often exhausting. Each leader learns the feeling of loneliness. To avoid this, you must learn to focus on several things at once: strategy, processes, culture, and people. This gives you both a vision and a broader view of your work and requires self-awareness, exceptional communication skills and responsibility.
2. It is not management
Leadership requires a vision of the future and winning people over to make it happen. It combines ideas with what is important to employees and customers. It sets the direction, creates agreements, motivates and inspires. Management is focused on creating specific goals and plans, pooling resources and overcoming obstacles in implementing the vision and strategy set by leadership.
3. You cannot do it alone
Leaders delegate tasks and responsibilities to their subordinates. Many of them are great visionaries who may fail to implement their visions if they do not choose their co-workers properly. Let managers manage and professionals do their work. Be available, but do not feel the need to do everything yourself.
4. You must know how to communicate
The fact that someone is a leader does not mean that he can communicate in real life. However, to be successful, a leader must be an expert communicator. This involves not only conveying messages to others, but also the ability to accept their feedback.
5. You have to be authentic
A leader embodies the values that others take from him. He should expect to be a role model and behave exactly as he wants others to behave. This includes not only accessibility, transparency and fulfilling promises, but also the ability (already mentioned above) to accept feedback. Good leaders are not afraid of uncomfortable truths and they are willing to learn new and new things.
-kk-