“What makes a great leader?” This simple question can either cause you headaches or generate endless lists of answers.
For some, being a good leader is already hard enough but plenty are still striving to become not just good but great leaders. While a leader's actions may be scrutinised when things are going badly, I believe it is leadership qualities that shine the brightest through hardship, and these are the qualities that most employees look up to, respect and work very hard for. This is why it is important for every leader to work hard to achieve the qualities of great leadership.
If I were to ask many top executives what makes a great leader, the answers would probably include qualities such as clarity, decisiveness, courage or passion. Not many people would mention having an “outward mindset” but I suggest you give this particular trait a second look as it will permanently change your view of great leadership.
Certainly, as a leader, you have high expectations and you want to be a winner. Hence, you expect your team to be seen as the evidence of your success, and if it performs to your standards, you have made its members winners too.
Sometimes you come across a team that can achieve your standard but other times you may be disappointed to find a team that appears dissatisfied, lacking commitment and is underperforming even when you have already motivated and incentivised them. Consequently, you conclude that you must have a “lame” team.
Given this presumption, sometimes leaders overlook the fact that they might have contributed to a team’s lack of achievement as they never once asked the members how they could best work together. Some leaders never regard anyone else’s view or opinion except their own as important.
This is the result of self-deception. It is an astonishing realisation when we learn that we are seeing the world only from our point of view. Only when we start to express genuine curiosity about those around us as real people with views as valid as our own can we start to ask and then see how we are the problem.
Only then, together, can we start to see a solution that we could not have seen before, and only then can the leader truly operate from an outward mindset.
Let’s be reminded again that mindset is the key to one’s success, happiness, and even ability to perform at exceptional levels. It is how you look at yourself and the world around you. An inward mindset is one that is blind to others, what they need, and how to create collective results. We see others as objects whose primary value to us depends on the extent to which we think they can help us with our own goals and objectives.
On the other hand, with an outward mindset, we see others as people like ourselves, whose goals, objectives, needs and challenges matter to us. This is where effective collaboration towards common objectives and goals takes place. It will have a transformational effect on relationships while improving the abilities of teams, departments, and eventually whole organisations to work together productively.
Because leadership mindset sets the overall tone for organisational culture and performance, I’d say leaders can choose to apply an outward mindset to lead their people on the right track, becoming great leaders in the process.
Here are three simple, practical steps leaders can take to adopt and sustain an outward mindset way of working with their stakeholders: see the needs and objectives of others; adjust their work to make it more helpful to others; and measure and hold themselves accountable for the impact of their work on others.
When a leader operates with an outward mindset, he or she will become truly accountable for the objectives and results of the organisation as a whole. Such leaders will be able to eliminate possible conflicts and the blame culture, promote self-awareness and lead by example by becoming more effective in every situation, and eventually bring out the true potential in themselves and others. All of these are the qualities that people tend to look up to and follow through, and they unquestionably will make a good leader great.
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
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