Feature insight - leadership
The secret to leadership success
Julie Lock, innovation director for Mitrefinch Ltd, contends that nowadays successful leadership is essential for organisations to flourish
B eing a leader is not about a fancy a job title, a status within an organisation nor about how many people you manage. In fact, being a leader is not about you at all. Most people want to work for great leaders and a great leader can be as powerful as a great brand when attracting, developing and retaining top talent; people are tending to move to organisations to work for specific leaders. Great leaders recognise that their job title or their status does not mean that people will automatically follow them nor respect them. They understand that being a leader is not about them, it’s all about the people and that the most accurate way for a leader to measure their own success is by measuring that of their team. Great leaders focus on several aspects to succeed, starting with developing people and supporting them to succeed, assisting them to become the very best version of themselves. They do this by creating a safe space to work, to learn, to innovate, to try then fail, to try again and succeed. A leader’s greatest asset is a happy, confident, brave and committed team. Appreciation is key to leadership success. Everyone needs to feel valued and be appreciated for their contributions. For great leaders, giving people credit for a job well-done and recognising great achievements comes naturally to them and they want to make people feel great.
Great leaders do not want their employees to follow them – they want their employees to also be leaders. The leader–leader approach empowers everyone in the organisation to own their responsibilities, make decisions, qualify their intentions to their supervisor, manager or director and to be accountable for the results. ...empowers everyone in the
need more from work than a pay packet. People need to feel a sense of purpose, that they are making a difference; they need to be empowered to become the very best version of themselves. People will no longer leave their identity at the door when they arrive at work, they need to be themselves and be accepted for who they are. They need opportunity, development and recognition. For those organisations that choose not to embrace the needs of people they will struggle to survive. People will not work for organisations that do not cater for their emotional and developmental needs – they will simply go and work for the competition. leader–leader environment will not find it difficult to recruit the very top talent. They will enable people to reach their potential, be creative, feel fulfilled and be totally invested. These organisations will outperform their competitors. For people who believe the seniority of their job title or the number of employees they manage is the measure of their power and success, they will not survive in leader–leader organisations, and those organisations who insist on leader–follower models will find it extremely difficult to innovate, diversify and compete. They will struggle to attract and retain talent when their competitors are offering a far more rewarding culture of leader–leader. n Organisations that embrace the potential of every person, create a
organisation to own their
responsibilities, make decisions,
qualify their intentions...
When the leader–leader approach is embedded into an organisation every single employee must fully understand the mission and goals of the organisation and how they directly contribute to it. Employees are empowered to use their skills to the maximum, to become creative; they are encouraged to continuously seek out improvements and operational efficiencies, and to work across the organisation with freedom to move, collaborate and never be siloed. This is the future of work. The human experience revolution has changed the human race. People
43
Issue 45 | November 2018
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker