Being An Effective Leader

By: Arzoo Zaheer

Date: Aug-31-08

What are some key characteristics of a leader?  Are people born to lead or is it possible to develop leadership skills later on in life?

After brainstorming, I came up with five key skills a true leader must possess:

1-Willingness to Listen to Bring Change for the Positive:

Listening to one’s colleagues and subordinates is a key skill. Many managers fall for that “I know it all” mentality. STOP! Listen to everyone. You might be surprised at how many good ideas an entry level, new subordinate might be able to provide you with.

2-Ability to Influence People:

People do not respond well to fear-mongering.  <Just imagine, a red cheeked, round eyed angry manager yelling at you!> Subordinates may respond for a while but in the long-term frictions are bound to develop.  If you really want to build healthy, long term work relationships with your colleagues, then be nice to them.

3-Know Your Subordinates so that You May Delegate Tasks to the Proper Person

A good manager knows which task which subordinate should work on. For instance, subordinate A possess exceptional communication skills and is great at follow up. Subordinate B excels in working with computers and softwares, esp. Access. In a huge project involving both tasks, a good manager will ask subordinate A to design all Access queries and manage all relevant data. Subordinate B will be asked to do follow up and customer services related tasks.

4-Be A Continuous Learner:

Do not fall for “I know it all” mentality. Everyone makes mistakes because everyone is human.  Keep learning.  Keep listening to your colleagues/subordinates.  And keep improving yourself.

5-Willingness to Forgive:

If a subordinate makes a mistake which does not impact the work processes tremendously, then do be forgiving towards him/her.  Talk to that person and tell them what they could have done differently. However, make sure the same mistake is not repeated again. I think willingness to forgive will vary based on different scenarios. And yes, there are times, when the only possibility left is to fire the subordinate. Sigh! too bad, but at least you tried to improve the situation and had his/her best interests in mind.