How do you ensure effective leadership by balancing the tension between achieving the goal and focussing on people’s needs?
I struggle with this question sometimes. I am sure I am not the only one. As a leader you have to achieve certain goals. There are certain change outcomes you have to manage and in between all of this you find the people you lead.
To ensure effective leadership on your behalf, I bet you struggle with the trade-off between the outcomes and the people?
Effective Leadership Makes No Trade Off but Shift Focus
The key lies in not making the trade-off. Effective leadership resolves the tension between achieving the goal and managing people’s needs by shifting your focus. By focussing your attention hundred percent on the people in the organization you will also achieve your goals effectively.
To ensure maximum engagement from the organization you have to focus on four specific development areas.
Effective Leadership Focus on Succession Planning
No leadership role is forever.
Succession planning is therefore a key responsibility of effective leadership. As a leader, identifying potential young leaders forms a crucial part of your leadership function. Effective leadership purposefully prepare people to function sustainably without you and make sure there is someone ready to fill your shoes when you leave.
Effective Leadership Focus on Develop Others
Interaction with the people in the organization with a focus on development is important for effective leadership. The personal development of the people you lead becomes part of your responsibility. Through structured conversation and coaching you have to prevent stagnation in the people you lead.
Effective Leadership Focus on Mentoring Others
Coaching people will help them develop and prevent stagnation. Mentoring on the other hand is the purposeful transfer of gained wisdom to someone else.
We all gather wisdom as we continue on our life journey. The amount of wisdom and knowledge you have acquired will depend on your age and the amount of time you spent in a leadership role. Mentoring shortens the amount of time needed to gain the same amount of wisdom by the mentee from the mentor. Effective leadership therefore focus on actively transferring what you know to someone else in need of the knowledge.
Effective Leadership Focus on Stretching Other
People like to feel comfortable. You have to challenge them to leave their comfort zone and go further than with what they are comfortable with. Effective leadership focusses on constantly stretching people to move out of their comfort zone. By stretching people you enable them to grow and to face new challenges with confidence.
What other focus areas did I miss?
Have you had the privilege of being led by someone who focussed on the people rather than the outcome?