Dr. Clarice Fluitt, author of Developing Your Limitless Potential: Reach, Seize, and Conquer says, “The best way to become a truly effective leader is to take to heart the following leadership principles so that you can know more, be more, do more, rise higher, dig deeper, look farther, and live in the place of limitless potential.” Leaders are everywhere; in the family unit, the workplace, the grocery store, and the back yard. Forming effective relationships and leading effectively is critical for a good productive life and career.
Here are some of the challenges that must be faced if you want to become a highly effective leader in business.
1. Immaturity: Maturity is not measured by age or experience; it is measured by behaviors and can show up in a variety of ways, including the fear that others are gunning for their job, micromanaging employees, pouting and only half-heartedly implementing strategies that weren’t suggested by them.
Remedy: The immature leader needs to stop and take stock. Pay attention and become aware of others responses. Read books, watch Ted Talks on leadership, and ask trusted others for feedback and help.
2. Need to be needed: We all want to be liked, but that desire can cause inexperienced leaders to make popular decisions rather than the right decisions. Leadership cannot be a popularity contest.
Remedy: Leaders need to be respected, credible, and good role models. Tough decisions need to be made and leaders have to stand on their own two feet without everyone on the team liking their decisions.
3. Boundaries: Boundaries are tricky. Some leaders don’t always realize that their unhappiness or unproductivity might be caused by the lack of boundaries. It’s much easier to blame someone else for our distractions, resentments or messes; but, in truth, we’re responsible for our own decisions.
Remedy: Boundaries are the lines between those things that we are responsible for and those things we cannot be responsible for. Leaders have people working for them and, ultimately, the leader is responsible for seeing that the work gets done; but, it’s the employee’s responsibility to actually do the work.
4. The Blame Game: Research shows that people who blame others for their mistakes lose status, learn less, and perform worse relative to those who own up to their mistakes. Organizations with a culture of blame also have serious disadvantages when it comes to creativity, innovation, and productive risk-taking.
Remedy: Everyone makes mistakes. Leaders have to admit them, correct them, and move on keeping in mind that they are modeling for others how to handle mistakes.
5. Entitlement: Entitlement is an inflated sense of self that leads to unrealistic expectations and chronic disappointment.
Remedy: Develop feelings of gratitude, appreciation, and optimism for what you do have, and delay gratification for what is to come. No one gets exactly what they want when they want it.
You get in life what you are, so it’s important to work on leadership challenges that will create positive qualities within. That, cultivated in an atmosphere of intentionality, will bring success.
About Dr. Clarice Fluitt
Dr. Clarice Fluitt in an international speaker and author who has shared the stage with the world’s most influential leaders.