What Is Business Leadership?
Corporate leadership is a social cycle that drives a person inside a workgroup to have the option to impact the contemplations, perspectives, and ways of behaving of others without applying “power” devices and elements. A leader guides his group, motivating and empowering each component and creating cohesion within the team toward a common goal.
What Business Leadership Is NOT
To try to define better a complex concept such as that of corporate leadership, it may be useful to try to understand what does not fall within its definition :
It’s Not Seniority
A leader is someone other than someone who has been with the company the longest. Leadership can be acquired with experience, but it is not obvious that those with more seniority are leaders and those with less are not.
It’s Not A Title
Business leadership can certainly be improved, but it’s not a quality that comes with a college degree. The aptitude for leadership is an innate thing one can eventually work to enhance efficiency.
It’s Not Management
Management and leadership are certainly related, but they are different. The manager supervises the team’s results through the data and administers the resources mainly economically. On the other hand, the leader focuses on people: he looks for a way to guide his group toward an optimal synergy to achieve a common goal.
The Top 8 Characteristics Of A Business Leader
A good leader should possess 8 fundamental characteristics:
communication
Communication skills are undoubtedly the first priority: a good leader must be able to communicate clearly and transparently with his collaborators, effectively explaining the objectives and organizational needs of the company. A leader should also be proficient in all forms of communication (individual or group conversations, by phone, email, or other means).
Competence
To win corporate leadership, it is necessary to know the sector of activity very well, have adequate skills, and constantly update oneself.
Charisma
The leader must inspire the team, solicit his colleagues’ unexpressed talents, think outside the box, and find original solutions in apparently very critical situations.
Reliability/Trust
Being reliable is very important to act as a motivator, above all, to become a point of reference, gaining the trust and honesty of collaborators. The leader will therefore have to demonstrate integrity and coherence and always field his own openness towards others.
Empathy/Listening
Openness means demonstrating understanding and listening to ensure everyone feels at ease and is an integral part of the company organization. A leader manages to identify with team members, interacting empathetically to motivate them best and allow them to express themselves and offer a quality professional performance. A good leader must also look for a few moments of sharing and comparison to encourage relationships and ensure a flow of communication that can promote business processes.
Positivity
A positive attitude always makes a difference. Always seeing things optimistically helps create a comfortable and healthy work climate, even during intense stress and work. The leader also has the responsibility always to keep the morale of colleagues high, being able to give words of encouragement even in the most difficult moments.
Humility
To err is human. It also applies to leaders. Corporate leadership also means recognizing one’s limits and mistakes (this aspect will help to be appreciated by others, reducing professional “distances”).
Decision-Making And Delegation Skills
The leader must be able to make decisions and assume the responsibilities that follow. He must be able to give directives and bring the resources he works with to a good level of awareness and participation. The ability to delegate is also very important for a good leader: it is essential to know how to assign everyone the right tasks based on their reference skills and distribute activities to create synergy and achieve goals more effectively.
Types Of Business Leadership
Wanting to categorize how a leader leads his group, there are 3 types of corporate leadership:
Assertive/Authoritarian Leadership
An authoritarian leader generally imposes an idea and demands that the group respect it. This type of leadership is the most ineffective, as the behavior of the assertive leader almost always negatively affects collaborators and often turns out to be counterproductive, generating discontent and competitiveness rather than well-being and cohesion.
Democratic/Participatory Leadership
The democratic leader makes his collaborators participate in corporate decisions, encouraging sharing and collaboration to achieve a common goal. Generally, a participatory leader shares the corporate values to be pursued with the team and makes colleagues responsible for achieving quality.
Autonomous Leadership
The autonomous leader takes care of assigning tasks and objectives to the individual members of the group and then leaves them full autonomy to achieve them. This method of corporate leadership is very useful for generating creativity and soliciting the intrinsic skills of each collaborator.
Importance Of Leadership In The Company
Ultimately, if used well, corporate leadership is an excellent resource for maintaining a high quality of work and increasing results. A leader helps keep productivity high and identifies solutions to problems related to group collaboration dynamics or other obstacles.
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