The Leadership Challenge (تحدي القيادة)

Everybody is a leader playing this role either at home, business or community and you don’t need a title to be a leader. People are not born as leaders and there are skills that are being learned from the surrounding environment, experience and practice.

Lastmonth I attended a workshop on “The Leadership Challenge” and I had a chance few months ago to read through the book of the same title written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. It is one of the best books written on leadership and it was written based on data collected from surveys and studies being conducted since 1983 with the involvement of thousands of people.

Leadership is different from management. Management role is important; however, managers should get out of the routine boring work and act as leaders as well. For those who did not have the chance to read the book or attend the workshop, I will share some of the key points on the characteristics of an admired leader, the five leadership practices, and the ten commitments to apply the five practices. Each practice has two commitments and they are written in bold under each one.

Characteristics of an Admired Leader

Several books were published and every author cited different characteristics and qualities from his perspective but I will focus on the ones depicted in this book. From the surveys repeated for many years, the results were amazing to show a consistent trend in selecting the top four characteristics, namely: honesty, forward-looking, inspiring and competent.

The percentage of the top 20 characteristics have been rounded in the below table for 4 years and the actual figures can be referred to in the book.

1- Honest (>85%) (truthful, trustworthy, has integrity/character)	11- Cooperative (25%) (collaborative, team player, responsive)
2- Forward-looking(65% – 70%) (visionary, foresighted, sense of direction)	12- Courageous (25%) (bold, daring, fearless)
3- Inspiring(65% – 70%) (uplifting, energetic, cheerful, enthusiastic)	13- Determined (25%) (dedicated, persistent, purposeful)
4- Competent (65% – 70%) (capable, proficient, effective, professional)	14- Caring (22%) (appreciative, compassionate, loving)
5- Intelligent (<50%) (bright, thoughtful, logical)	15- Imaginative (15%-20%) (creative, innovative)
6- Fair-minded (40%) (just, objective, forgiving)	16- Mature(15%-20%) (Experience, wise, has depth)
7- Straightforward (33% – 36%) (direct, candid, forthright)	17- Ambitious(15%-20%) (aspiring, hard working, striving)
8- Broad-minded (33% – 36%) (open-minded, flexible, receptive, tolerant)	18- Loyal(15%-20%) (faithful, dutiful, devoted)
9- Supportive (33% – 36%) (helpful, offers assistance)	19- Self-controlled (10%) (restrained, self-disciplined)
10- Dependable (33% – 36%) (reliable, conscientious, responsible)	20- Independent (5%) (self-reliant, self-sufficient)

 The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

 These five practices are applied by most of the effective leaders to achieve extraordinary things, grow people and improve organizations:

1-Model the Way

2- Inspire a Shared Vision

3- Challenge the Process

4- Enable Others to Act

5- Encourage the Heart

1- Model the Way

Everybody behavesin making decisions and taking actions based on his values. As a leaders you have to clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared valueswith everyone.

It is not enough to write these values and post them with nice colors on walls and talk about them with other organizations but leaders have to set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

Dr. JiangwanMajeti said “Leading by example is more effective than leading by command”.For instance if you want your people to be punctual, honest, accountable, you have to behave accordingly yourself and be an example. The same thing applies if you are at home in front of your children. They will follow what you do more than what you say. Values must be respected by leaders otherwise this could impact their credibility, lose trust and respect from their constituents. Once a leader is not trusted and not respected by his followers, he is no longer a leader and his people will not opt to follow him willingly but they follow him because of the position. As it is said positions may give leaders authority but it is their behavior that earns them respect.

2- Inspire a Shared Vision

Managers focus on today but leaders focus on today and tomorrow. Leaders have a vision which projects a clear image of a possible prosperous future that pulls people forward. They must envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities that result in the development of constituents and organization.

An effective leader enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations. You cannot have your vision in isolation of your team. You have to show them that you understand their needs and interests and communicate your vision with them. When they believe in the vision, they will be more committed to align themselves with it and work towards it.

Vision is an “ideal and unique image of the future for the common good”. It is about a dream and making a difference in the future with best and distinctive results. Vision is described with powerful words to make them memorable and describe a dream to take place in the future considering all parties that could benefit from it.

3- Challenge the Process

Unlike managers who are doing daily routine work and resisting change, leaders are keen in making changes in the process. They always search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward forinnovative ways to improve. This can be achieved when they understand the current process by listening to all involved parties – team members, customers, stakeholders, vendors and others within and outside the organization. Leaders should also create the environment that fosters change and inspires all constituents to cultivate change by thinking outside the box rather than copying what is existing and waiting for ideas to strike their doors.“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”Henry Ford

Another way to challenge the process is to experiment and take risk. Fear of failure, fear of unknown and making mistakes is one of the reasons that makes people stay behind without improvement and development. Leaders benefit from failures and mistakes, and look at them as new experiments. They encourage small wins and build on them to achieve big wins. They have the courage to adventure, step out into the unknown and confidently take calculated risk otherwise they will stay where they are without being able to reach their vision.

4- Enable Others to Act

Leaders cannot succeed without the effort of their constituents. Success requires group collaboration and individual commitments. Leaders foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. They create the environment where everybody trusts each other and work as one integrated team with strong relationship looking for the common objectives. If the leader is credible, his team will also trust him and follow him willingly to achieve extraordinary goals. Effective leaders avoid repeating the words (I and my) and they focus on (we and our) to show that they are part of the team and all success is attributed to the team rather than to themselves.

Also leadersstrengthen others and make it possible for them to do good work by increasing confidence and developing skills and competence. To have empowered people, leaders have to effectively contribute in making them more confident by delegating assignments to all constituents. They should not undermine their capabilities and skills but trust them and have a fair distribution of the work rather than focusing on specific individuals or doing it themselves.Leaders have to empower their people and make them leaders who can make decisions. They have to accept mistakes and failures at the beginning as this will be a good opportunity for learning and development.

5- Encourage the Heart

Leaders recognize contributions and appreciate individual excellence. Also they celebrate values and victories through creating a spirit of community.

Recognition, appreciation and celebrating are effective acts to uplift the spirits of people and motivate them. Over the past years of experience I noticed that everybody, regardless of his age or position, becomes happy when he is recognized and appreciated by his leader. This doesn’t have to be necessarilyof a high cost or even a financial appreciation. Even the word “Thanks” whether it is verbal in a one-to-one meeting or in public, or written on a small note will have a substantial positive impact. As Kenneth H. Blanchard said in the one minute manager book, “Help people reach their full potential, catch them doing something right”. The intent and focus should not be on catching people doing something wrong and punishing them. For more influential results, it is prudent to make the appreciation timely rather than waiting till yearend and try to make it a surprise for everyone.

Another way of appreciation is during the yearend review of all achievements and contributions to the organization. This is a good period to genuinely appreciate constituents based on their actual performance without linking it to other factors. It is very crucial to maintain highly motivated people with high morale that will definitely create a high performing culture. Genuine recognition and appreciation will certainly motive people to love what they are doing, become more passionate, committed and accountable, excel and increase productivity and performance. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do” Steve Jobs.

The above five leadership practices and commitments are not limited to the business environmentbut they are applicable at home, and other communities wherever a leader and followers are available.

Abdullah A Hajji

February 16, 2016