ARE YOU A GOOD LEADER?

REALITY CHECK FOR LEADERSHIP

 

Become a good leader

Everyone can be a leader but not everyone can become a good leader. To be a good leader you must develop a winning mindset, be resilient to adversity and be willing to empower and inspire your team. You can develop a winning strategy but to deploy it effectively you must first define reality. Reality is the current status of things? Reality is the tone in the shop floor and corridors of management? Reality is the current perception of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders about you and your organization.

 

Reality check is critical before you make your next big move. Yu don’t want to use a hammer to fix an ant neither do you use a car to pull a train. Assessing the situation first and accepting what you see is 50% of the job. Only 50% more is left. The challenge is that most people want to prescribe medicine without appropriate diagnosis. As a result they are ineffective or use too much force to the destruction of people and institutions.

 

Deploy appropriate strategies

Some of the reasons people fail to check on reality is that they are too keen to deliver results. Unfortunately a good house is never built on bad foundation. Take time to assess and then deploy appropriate strategies. A builder who avoids special foundation only has himself to blame when the building cracks and is condemned. He should not rush laying bricks but accept that the soil is bad so he needs more time for testing and making special foundation. Sometimes there may be need to abandon a bad site because the cost of building is prohibitive. This should be the modus operandi of a leader. How bad is the situation? Can it be rectified? How much time and resources do I need? The first reaction should not be diving to resolving the issue, but assessment , planning and then crafting appropriate intervention.

 

Therefore good leaders accept reality, good or bad. They don’t just wish or budget for good situations. Good leaders sometimes have to accept that the organization has fallen to the basement, it’s not the ground. The situation is worse than what I envisaged. It is going to take longer than we planned. By accepting reality a leader galvanizes trust and credibility. He /she gains the right to lead and be followed.

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"