Three Effective Functions of a True Leader

According to Parker Follet: "The power of integration is the power of leadership. The leader brings out the best in us, bringing together and concentrating what we only feel gropingly and shatteringly. He is a person who gives shape to every man's uncoarctate vitality. The person who has the greatest influence on me is not the one who performs great deeds, but the one who makes me believe that I can perform great deeds."

There are many sources such as podcasts and books available suggesting the effective characteristic of a great leader. However, leaders are made and not born. With proper mentoring and hands-on experience with an added daily dose of leadership knowledge, you can become an effective leader for any organization.

True leaders work side by side with the people they lead to get to know and care about the people they lead. Leaders may lift and encourage their teams by working alongside them. Teaching people involves people management. Team members follow a leader with his instructions and as a role model, and his management style should include the following:

ENGAGE PEOPLE

A true leader can bring people together. They do not want division. Thecommunicate and coach subordinates for optimum performance of a variety of tasks assigned. The mother of contemporary management, Mary Parker Follet, felt that management was the art of getting things done via people. A true leader should engage people in a team. These involve listening to employees' feedback, responding to show empathy, using positive communication between the group, and finding the right solution to a given problem with team effort. Managers and supervisors are leaders where the success of the business is in their hands.

Understand that people you lead want to be valued and challenged.

ENABLE PEOPLE

Companies should have leadership that will enable the full potential of others. Helping people to develop to their full potential is ideal for the success of a business. Leadership is about allowing others to reach their best potential; this is a crucial characteristic of a strong leader; they understand how to get the most out of others. Great leaders become one as great top leaders have mentored them.

ENERGIZE PEOPLE

People may get tired in the daily routine of their job. It is essential to tap on what inspires them, reward their achievement by appreciation, show respect, listen to them and lead by example. Make their daily work energizing. Help people leap from what is impossible to possible. As a leader, be enthusiastic and encouraging with your people. Before implementing some company plan or changes, let the people think out of the box. The people's suggestions and ideas can spark their flame of passion for work. People will get great enthusiasm with the compelling vision from an enthusiastic leader.

The Importance of Psychological Safety in Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

A diverse workplace is one in which all employees feel included and valued regardless of rank and status. Diversity in the workplace refers to people's differences in color, religion, gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation being recognized, respected, and valued. A diversified team can help the company to achieve more success in the business. To achieve this, the team must work in a welcoming setting that promotes psychological well-being.

A diverse workplace has advantages, but the task is not as simple as putting together a diverse group. To achieve a successful diverse workplace, people with various abilities and backgrounds must work well together. Psychological safety is a critical component of achieving it. It is a strategy for building diversity, inclusion, and belonging in an organization, whether private or public.

What is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, questions, worries, and mistakes. It is believed that no one will be punished or humiliated for speaking up with their ideas, questions, concerns, or errors; this is critical for maximizing the benefits of diversity because it can help make inclusion a reality.

In a nutshell, psychological safety is about allowing people to be honest with one another. Further, psychological safety refers to members of a group's shared view that the group is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Psychological safety is achieved in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust of the people.

How to Cultivate Psychological Safety?

There are ways to cultivate and foster psychological safety in the workplace. Psychological safety in the workplace is the shared belief that it's safe to take interpersonal risks as a group. As a leader, you can check if your employees feel psychologically safe. Input from people from various groups is used to measure diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

As a leader, you have to help people feel comfortable and build the shared belief that the team is safe for risk-taking. The first step is to demonstrate your commitment to your team. Make it clear to employees that you are paying attention when they speak. Let them know you've taken the time to listen, comprehend, and consider their viewpoint. Be open to feedback and, most importantly, show your team that you care about their personal and professional development by supporting them.

Psychological Safety Pays Off

Business organizations that promote psychological safety can reap benefits. Among these benefits are better employee engagement and well-being, greater team collaboration, lower employee turnover, more flexibility to change, high performance of employees, and a more substantial workplace. Further, employees will feel more secure, avoid work burnout, and be more engaged at work as a result. They will have a lower likelihood of quitting their employment. Talented people will want to work for outstanding companies with leaders who understand their employees and value diversity.

Another thing is that the greater the ambiguity and need for learning in a given set of tasks, the more psychological safety is required to complete those tasks successfully. This is where psychological safety comes into play in the workplace as a critical element in predicting team success in various domains involving cognitive, emotional, and complex tasks.

It pays off to invest in psychological safety in the workplace. Overall, an organization will benefit from happier, healthier, and more engaged workers by nurturing a positive work culture through promoting psychological safety.

The Changing Leader

The shifts in technology, migration, and globalization have resulted in a new kind of leader. Like the rest of the world, the average leader has become better informed, better connected, and empowered through digital and social channels. This change is accelerating globally, as power, information, and influence are democratized through technology. 

What is Leadership, then?

A simple question, and yet it remains to trouble famous consultants and laypeople alike. I've now written articles s on Leadership for employee engagement, and finally, it occurred to me that I never actually reflected on establishing Leadership.

Let's start with what Leadership is not…

Leadership has nothing to do with ranking or one's position in the hierarchy of a company. 

Too many talks about a company's Leadership, referring to the senior-most executives in the organization. They are merely that, senior executives. Leadership doesn't automatically follow when you reach a particular pay category. Hopefully, you discover it there, although there are no guarantees.

Leadership has naught to do with titles.

Comparable to the point above, just because you have a C-level title doesn't automatically make you a "leader." In all of my talks, I stress that you don't need a title to lead. You can lead in your workplace, your community, and your family, all without possessing a title.

Leadership has naught to do with individual characteristics.

Say the word "leader," and most people imagine an authoritative, charismatic take-charge individual. We often imagine icons from history like Donald Trump. But Leadership isn't an adjunct. We don't need extroverted charismatic traits to exercise Leadership. And those with charisma don't automatically lead.

Leadership isn't management. 

This is the big one. Leadership and management are not identical. Do you have 20 people in your downline and P&L accountability? Great for you; hopefully, you are a good manager. Good management is demanded. Managers need to coordinate, plan, measure, monitor, hire, fire, solve, and so many other things. Typically, managers grow the numbers, whereas, Leaders lead and help the people around them rise.

Each spring, I have a vision for my garden, and with loads of work, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes become a reality. But does that make me a leader? No, it makes me a horticulturist.

So what is Leadership?

DEFINITION: Leadership is a method of social impact, which maximizes others' efforts towards achieving a goal.

Notice critical components of this definition:

• Leadership originates from social influence, not power or authority

• Leadership requires others, and that suggests they don't need to be "direct reports."

• No specifying of personality traits, attributes, or even a title; there are various styles, various paths, to effective Leadership

• It incorporates a goal, not influence with no planned outcome

A lot of my work is in the area of employee engagement and leadership development. 

Technically, a leader could use social impact to organize others' efforts, but I think Leadership is about maximizing effort. It's not, "Hey everyone, let's line up and get to the top of that hill instantly."Yet instead, "Hey, see that hill? Let's see how we can get to the top together as a team.  

Do those key elements work for you?