Leadership Decoded

Leadership is the ability to influence a group of people into moving towards a common objective in a coherent and cohesive manner

Two important words here.. coherent and cohesive... 

Coherent is connected with clarity.. in the mind of the leader, in the communication that the leader does with the team and in the minds of each team member..

Cohesion is ensuring that similar components of the whole, stay together.. So from a team relevance, it is keeping the team together to move towards a common team goal..

If you go back to school physics, cohesion and adhesion differ slightly.. cohesion is similar components, adhesion is dissimilar components..

Moving on to the second part of the definition of Leadership..

The second part is the enabler... which allows the leader to be able to influence.. The leader influences by using various attributes within him/ her..

Attributes such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge & skills... So strength in all 6 is a requisite..

Belief is something you believe or accept irrespective of whether it is true or false. Beliefs are something that you accept without asking for proof.. like Belief in God, for example..

Principles are universal whereas Values belong to an individual... that which is of worth and importance to every individual is his/her value.

Values are like the regulator of a Fan... They can be moved from a scale of 1 to 5 depending on how much importance you place on a certain thing in your life.. And you behave or act accordingly..

And that's why you can work on and improve your personal value system based on your beliefs and ethics if you find that your regulator has been at a low level in certain situations in your life..

You can consciously work and improve your value system to get them as close to principles as possible..

Ethics is one's own understanding of right or wrong, legally, socially & morally. Though it is not only about the morality of particular courses of action, but it's also about the goodness of individuals and what it means to live a good life.

Character is who you truly are. It is made up of various components. It is a combination of our Values & Value systems, Beliefs, Ethics, Culture, Traditions of the community & society, our upbringing and our set of skills & knowledge.

Knowledge & Skills?

To put it simply... Knowledge is the "What" of a particular topic or subject and Skill is the "How" of it..

One of the biggest sources of knowledge is the environment we live in and the experiences that we have had in our lives from the day we were born... through awareness and understanding..

Skill is simply knowing how to do something..

To be continued...

*Situational Leadership is not just important from the point of view of existing and future leaders, but also for professionals at all levels as it helps you plan and organize your careers and growth based on the development level that you are at and the resources and opportunities you will get in the future!