Two months ago, I started a series on Leadership, on which I intended to share my cogitations and experiences on the concept of Leadership especially from my viewpoint. I significantly highlighted the core of being a leader as action and not the position – that has not and would not change. Every leader is weighed on the actions he or she has taken. I also stressed on the need to define realities – that is, understanding the requirements of your position as a leader. The team also comes in to play. The question is, who do you lead? Of course there has to be a team to lead. The team to a leader is non-negotiable and is his major tool to achieving success. The likes of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg and Presidents of nations all over the world are all successful today because they have their team of advisers, workers, directors, managers, etc. Without a team there is actually no leadership.
In my last episode on Leadership, I wrote on the indispensability of relationships, sacrifice and the duo of vision and passion. As I always say, these thoughts of mine stem from the plethora of experience I have acquired – which I pinpoint things that I have learnt from the negatives and the positives. Leadership is a burden. And to take up the burden of leadership one must be head-on prepared for the challenges that tag along. Notwithstanding, it is equally a source of fulfillment – but that is only when one has turned the dreams and visions of leadership into realities.
On this final episode of my brief leadership learning series, I will talk on planning, obstacles and specialization.
Specialization – You and the Team
Specialization in a field of skill or career is more or less prerequisite for distinction. This can hardly be refuted. And for everyone on the team to bring in a tool to build the house, each must be specialized in one area of skill or the other. This draws me to an example – the case of building a house, where there is the mason; the plumber, the electrician, the carpenter, the welder, the tiler, the gardener, the interior designer, the painter and so many other fields unique and indispensable to the building of the house. They all play sui generis roles in the eventual come about of the mansion.
Circumspectly, I did not mention the architect – who to me here is like the leader. He designs the house and says this is what he wants it to be and look like at the end of the day. Now, the architect knows that a mason is required to lay the foundation and skillfully determine how deep it would be, and also to put each block side-by-side and above each other – but he is not a mason. He also knows that when the raw building stands tall and aloof to the heavens, there must be a roof to cover – the carpenter and roof maker is the one to be called for that – but the architect would not put up the roof nor furnish other wooden works to the house. Pipes, tiles and electrical fittings must be put in place also – but he is not a plumber, tiler or an electrician. The architect may even know one or two things about hitting the nail and how it must be placed, he may know a few things about digging and laying a building’s foundation, he may know where and how the pipes, tiles and electrical fittings of the house must be placed – but one thing is for sure, he cannot be the mason, electrician, tiler and plumber at the same time. But rather each of these roles are played distinctively by different dramatis personae in the ensemble of builders. The architect is not specialized in all of the roles – even though he may specialize in one or two – but he plays the important role of gathering these men and eventually seeing to the execution of his design. He is like the coach of a football team. This is likewise the role of every leader. He foresees and designs a plan which he executes with a team of specialized individuals who bring in a unique skill to the table to achieve the goals set – which the leader superintends.
Planning
In leadership, planning is not optional. Every successful project, job, assignment or task that is extant or existed started out on a plan. To execute any successful project as a leader it is imperative that planning out your strategies and developing a concomitant proposal cannot be ruled out. A plan is a guide, or set of intended actions which are mutually related and geared towards achieving a set goal. I can thus say that if one sets to achieve a goal, such as the training of a group of youths, one must make the necessary plans to accomplish this. For instance, one of the inevitable points one must take into consideration is the choice of a venue, others could include the target audience, the areas of training, a lesson plan and a variety of others.
In leadership, the leader pre-destines the fate of the team through his plan. Like I have once written; “We must, most of all, plan in mind with a focus of what we want. And as Seneca puts it – ‘our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is heading for, no wind is the right wind”. Planning itself must be strategic and purposeful.
Obstacles
Barriers would always rear their heads in every project or task we embark on. There is hardly a smooth sail of activities in the lifetime of any business or activity. This is a wont. In fact, it is fair to say that if obstacles do not arise in the course of one’s leadership, then leadership has not started yet. The good-news, however is, barriers do not kill, neither do they destroy – rather they strengthen a team when they are overcome accordingly. To surmount pressures, indecisiveness, lack of finances, risk taking, team coldness, loss of zeal, stunted results and other like challenges I will suggest three necessary ingredients a leader must eviscerate from:
Firstly, a leader must know that he is the decider of the fate of the team – the team rises and falls when he decides in a way that leads as such. He is the decision maker and when these deterrents arise he has a core duty to decide what happens. Importantly, he must make a decision – to do or not to do – whichever way that best suits the scenario at hand.
Secondly, it is easier to put in text what to do than to have it done; a leader must need COURAGE to take decisions – leathery ones – and also to act upon the decisions he has made.
A leader needs – in abundance of all – the wisdom to act, react and desist. For me, and perhaps millions of others, this is the underlying bear that produces results. Wisdom is the principal thing. In its simplest definition wisdom is the application of knowledge gained.
The truth is certain, that challenges are bound to come, obstacles are sure to persist – but the happy ending remains that these hurdles can be scaled over. And most importantly, they provide a platform for learning for the team.
These do not exhaust all that I have learnt and all that is in leadership. That is also to say that I am still learning – in truth, in leadership, learning never ends. But this is where I call it an end on the series. Of course, as I gain more proficiency, I will continue to share what I get the hang of.
I will end with this quote – interpret it to mean what you may –
“Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.” – Eric Hoffer.
Twitter: @johannesmathews
Email: johannes@lolmediaent.com
What do you think?