Taking Turns at the Front: A Better Way to Lead

Leaders empower others to accomplish the common purpose

What is your primary responsibility as a leader? Yes, you need to live the vision, create a healthy culture, and meet KPIs. Still, though, you can only accomplish so much on your own. A leader’s primary task is to build the team. How do you do this? You share a high degree of mutual ownership and freedom to elicit greater participation among the whole. Wise leaders build a leadership structure that that includes these necessary elements.

Researchers Kouzes and Posner studied 500 cases across diverse work environments. A one-word test for differentiating between leaders and managers came through loud and clear – the use of “we” instead of “I.” Leaders spoke and acted as a collective, ascribing responsibility for the success of the team among them all. More than that, they did not encounter a single example of extraordinary achievement that was accomplished without the active effort of many contributors.

Would you agree that to get extraordinary things done in your organization, everyone is important, not just the leader? What would your team say about this?

Wise leaders accept their incompleteness. This is not a problem but an opportunity to extract greater contribution from the team. In a way, building teams can be likened to geese flying in V-formation. The lead goose, taking the brunt of the wind-pressure, regularly shifts places with the other geese flying with him to conserve his energy. Similarly, team leaders invite others to take the lead, sharing responsibility, which strengthens engagement, investment, and productivity.

Chua Wee Hian, in The Making of a Leader, writes about the importance of working within the leadership team to collectively set direction within an organization. The camaraderie you have among your leaders naturally flows into the organization and community. You as the leader empower others through your intentional acts to share leadership.

Leaders demonstrate competency and knowledge

Skillful leaders “know their stuff.” Kouzes and Posner uncovered that employees view competency as the second most valuable trait that team members seek from their leaders, right behind integrity. People want leaders who know and understand their territory – their product, business, market, what the public wants, and how their organization can best meet those needs.

Astute leaders need to know their own unique strengths and weaknesses. They then build on their natural abilities, seeking to develop additional skills through the challenges they face. Growing leaders maintain a learning posture throughout life. Their comprehensive self-knowledge empowers them to choose specific people with complementary skills to better complete the team.

A leader with effective leadership skills must exercise wisdom, being skillful and knowledgeable as a leader and as a person. If you find yourself lacking wisdom, I personally have found it strengthening to ask God for it, and He will give it abundantly. One of the striking characteristics seen in effective leaders is their desire to learn from all kinds of sources—successes and failures in oneself and in others, mentors, careful observation, personal study, holy scripture, and beyond. Rise to be that kind of leader!

· Who on your team is ready to take on more leadership, and how are you creating space for that to happen?

· What are your current sources of growth as a leader (mentors, books, experiences, reflection)?