What I have learned about leadership?

Why you should read this?

Overview what is leadership

What I think is right but in fact, it’s wrong

Leadership

Leadership /ˈlēdərˌSHip/ - the action of leading a group of people or an organization.

When want to start learning Business management, I found that the most important lesson is Leadership. Then I think, ok, leadership might be the most important skill for Business management. However, what is leadership? I have worked in some leadership positions before and with that experience and some perspective on the internet. I was thought leadership is

I thought it was something like you are a really really great player. Someone can not do their job, you hand-in. Someone is sick, you take the responsibility,... You are ... a super colleague that can take all the job with an excellent positive spirit. And you are a kind leader, you never complain to others for their quality, their careless or else. You always wear a smiling face to others and said “No worries dude, let me take it 🙂”

Turn out it was wrong.

A leader means that you have a system, people, and vision to manage.

System: The engine that you put workforces into, then generates something meaningful - value

People: Core resources to put into the system

Vision: Everything changes, your system, and people need to adapt to it. And this is the lighthouse for you, the system, and your people.

By breaking into 3 parts for a leader, you’ll see that the hardest part is people, so that is why there is a bunch of photo out there comparing between a boss and a leader (in a friendly version for their lower level). And most of the reasons why someone decided to quit a company is because of their boss.

With a leadership position, you need to make sure everyone is working on their own to make the system work smoothly, and you have to accept that you’re not a super friendly leader. You can not do all the stuff that your college can’t, pretend to be nice with bad behaviors. The main thing is: You, somehow, make everything fit together and there are thousands of methods to do this. Maybe your set rules, influence, inspire, or fire them,...

Great power comes with great responsibility

A mindset I have learned about leadership is

Everything is Management's Fault

If the system is broken, that’s your failure. Why you don’t monitor it, maintain it? If someone in your team makes a wrong move, this is your fault. Why you don’t train him carefully beforehand, why not brief him in more detail, why not check the quality before the accident happens,...? There are thousands of reasons to point out that you are a leader and that is your fault. And there are thousands of thousand reasons to say that it is not your fault. But you’re a leader, it means you have changed to make everything right but you don’t.

Taking that mindset in mind, I think this is a really good starting point when you decide to work as a leader. You need to mindfulness of the system, you need to empathize with your people... to make sure everything is all good

It’s all about communicating

I found out that, working with people is the hardest part, and communicating is the only way you can work with people. Talking, chatting, email, delicate,... you sure need to communicate. With communication skills and know-how about Maslow, it solves the question: “How do I make someone do something? How to fit their motivation with the job?”

Summary

Leadership is hard, in fact, everything is. LOL. But if you can think about what is leader's job you will clearly know its challenge, its daily job. You don’t have to be a leader to start learning about leadership, I think it is suitable for everyone. If you are on the lowest level of a company (like me), you will know how to work with your leader, what are the main concern and then turn it into an outstanding employee!