Becoming an Effective Leader

Do you dream of becoming that effective leader? Are you contemplating on how to drive your team to achieve all the task that you have planned for? After my article on the Concept of leadership, I became more convinced to help my reader know how to be the effective leader in any circumstances they find themselves. As Jon C. Maxwell puts it “ A leader is great not because of his or her power but because of his or her ability to empower others “ . In this article we would be learning three principles you can use to become an effective leader as written by David Schwartz in his book,”The magic of thinking big”

As I said in my earlier article on What is Leadership, I said leadership is not position but influence ,and we would be sharing three principles on how to influence people you lead or would love to lead.
Are you ready, let’s get down to serious work.

Three leadership Principles that works.

1. Trade minds with people you want to influence: To become an effective leader you need to see things through the eyes of the person you want to influence, borrow the eyes of the person you would want him or her to do what you want, and see through his or her eyes; if you would do what you are asking of him or her, if you were in his or her shoes.It is easy to get others to do what you want them to do if you will see things through their eyes.Think of it as exchanging your mind with the people and see if you would naturally do what you are asking them.Ask your self these questions before you act :”What would I think of this,if I exchanged places with the other person. “Would I do what I am telling him to do , if I was in his position?”, “Would I like to carry out the orders if they were given to me the way I give them to others?”. To become an effective leader and to get others to do what you want you must see through their eyes.

2. Use the “BE HUMAN” rule: Another effective principle in leadership is to think “What is the human way to handle this”. People use different approaches in leadership situation, some would like to assume the position of a dictator, dictators make all decisions without consulting others , he would refuse to hear the subordinates side of the story because he is afraid the subordinates may be right and this would cause the leader to lose face. To be an effective leader, you must be able to treat people as human beings and not like machines, you cannot lead people you do not love , hence you must show appreciations to your followers for good work done and help in any way to solve some of the minor personal problems your subordinates may face. I was reading John C.Maxwell’s book on Leadership when he made a statement that changed my life , he said, “People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” When a subordinates cannot meet a deadline because of ill health , take time to visit or call the person, this shows how much you value the person and it would help you become effective in leading people. Remember, leadership is people management and it begins in the heart not in the head.

3. Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress: The last rule I would love to share with you is thinking progress in all you do, do not be the kind of leader that would not challenge the status quo, think of way to do things different and better than you meet them, push for improvement in all you do, it had been my observation that over a period of time subordinates tend to become carbon copies of their leader. If you are the kind of leader that thinks about improvement in your work situations and that of your followers, in your absence your followers begin to catch the same mantle and they become effective even in your absence.Remember, the main job of the leader is thinking and you need to think progress if you want to be effective.

What Next?

Thank you for investing time to read this article as it has already being said, Everything rises and falls on leadership, develop the leader within and you are free to share this article with millions of people, you want to influence. If you are challenge,leave me a comment ,I would be glad to know how much impart this has made.