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Get in shape for your leadership brand

By Akin Oparison
16 January 2018   |   6:25 am
Leadership is not a role or a position or a location in the hierarchy of an organisation. It is who we are and what we do as a result of what we know. ‘Leadershiping’ a coined word takes the idea of leadership away from being seen as a position but as something we do. It…

Leadership is not a role or a position or a location in the hierarchy of an organisation. It is who we are and what we do as a result of what we know. ‘Leadershiping’ a coined word takes the idea of leadership away from being seen as a position but as something we do. It is a consistent pattern of behaviour that is effective in a relationship where people have to achieve an outcome together.

To be effective in management, leadership competencies are required but leadership is not exclusive to people in management. Obviously, there are people in management positions who are deficient in leadership competencies and this will show in the dysfunctional outcomes within their circles of influence. For any relationship to be productive at any level and in all circumstances, leadership is required. The evidence of leadership is seen in what you cause other people to do. In organisations, it comes to play in how people affect the growth and development as well as the effectiveness of others over whom they have authority. Leadership is what causes people who work with you to get up every morning, excited to join you to achieve something that they perceive as meaningful and valuable.

‘Leadershiping’ is necessary for every person who wants to be effective in relationships. It is for anybody who wishes to influence rather than control.

Many leadership development programmes provide knowledge about the source of leadership vulnerabilities but fall short on helping to understand precisely how they can be addressed. While such programmes made you feel good about identifying the issues, they often leave a frustration due to the inability to immediately figure out how to apply the knowledge at work.

As a legacy builder one must be interested in getting to understand the expectations of others, learning about oneself from every situation and using such lessons to develop and strengthen character. It will also provide fresh perspectives for academics who wish to explore leadership as a set of learnable behaviours that drive effective individual and organisational performance.

These seven things that legacy builders do are covered as follows, how leaders can:

Transform themselves- Leadership muscles should be exercised for transformation into a person of influence, the very first step towards changing lane to make something happen focuses on how to become an athlete, athletes possess determination, discipline and commitment. They work extremely hard and smart to achieve their goals to succeed and break their own records. Only athletes stand a chance at excelling in a heptathlon. Leadership is multifaceted and has several demands, without transformation we stand no chance of applying the other six secrets required to build a legacy. You cannot influence or cause anyone to change until you can influence and transform yourself.

The learnable skills and behaviours, leadership muscle to develop which will transform leaders into people of influence include muscles that build: Intentionality, Resilience and Fidelity.

Studies show that when organisations successfully engage their customers and their employees, they experience dramatic positive performance related business outcome. The next three leadership muscles explain a bit more:
Create the future they are stepping into and they step out of a default future: Deliberately design and work towards the desired future

Read, map and respond to the minds/hearts of their customers/clients and they establish intimacy. Then they use the muscles they built in their transformation to serve others

Establish and strengthen their brand by ensuring alignment between this and their leadership brand by ensuring that their own behaviours and those of their people are fine-tuned to delivering the brand promise.

To release the full potential of people, to make things happen and to bring out the influential person in you, legacy builders should develop the following muscles:

Coach their people to enable them to become the best that they can be through the release of discretionary effort, without attempting to make them into clones of themselves.

Draw out the full potential of the inherent strength and power of the diversity of their teams by an uncommon focus on inclusiveness.

Overcome the urge for themselves as well as their people to relent and retire at the peak of success and become complacent. They re-fire themselves and others to conquer new mountains.

If one truly desires to become the leader you have read so much about and heard so much about in great leadership programmes, the good news is you already have it in you. You just have to develop a concrete plan on how to build the required muscles to enable you reach your desired goal.

In your quest for leadership excellence:
What leadership muscle/practice has worked for you?
What strategies/tactics are you currently imbibing or practicing?
Have you set SMART goals for leadership journey?
Are they yielding the desired result?
Share your thoughts on twitter @LBSInsights

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