From WeAreTheCity’s Future Leader’s Blog
By Mandy Flint and Elisabet Vinberg Hearn
You.
Yes, you.
You are a leader.
Whether you have a leadership role or maybe aspire to have one, you influence people every day and as such you are a leader. Some of the most effective leaders in this world are informal leaders. Those that others listen to – and feel heard by.
You can’t really learn leadership in the classroom. You can of course learn principles, acquire tools and models that can help you practice leadership, but real leadership development happens when you start to apply what you know in your day to day job. It’s how you act and behave that builds your leadership.
Because leadership is to influence. To influence is to have an impact. And impact happens through your behaviours.
So what impact are you having? Or what impact could you have?
Working as leaders ourselves and having worked with hundreds of leaders around the world, here are some of our observations about the behaviours of the best leaders we’ve seen:
- Takes an interest in and cares about other people
- Sees the uniqueness in each person and how they can contribute to the team and the organisation
- Listens to others
- Stays 100% present in the moment
- Involves others and invites them to contribute
- Recognises when people do a good job
- Holds themselves and others accountable
- Practices what they preach
- Conveys a clear purpose and vision for the team
It’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s an indication of how the mechanism of influence works.
We’d love to hear from you. What are your best experiences you’ve had with leaders around you? How did they behave and how did it impact you? Please share below. Thanks.