Integrity, Innovation and Influence: the three pillars supporting great leadership
If one wishes to move ahead in life, it is absolutely essential to introspect into your life and reflect on where you are and where you’re headed. Whether leading yourself toward a higher path, leading a family, community, congregation, or an entire organization, it is imperative to examine the effectiveness of your leadership. Lets explore the key leadership factors that bring totality to the concept:
Inspire with Integrity
Are you enthused with a larger than life vision or goal that serves the larger good and inspires others, or is your focus limited only to your immediate needs? Are you aware of the benevolent purpose you have to serve? True leaders subordinate their ego to their spirit or conscience by placing the needs of others before their own. They establish a cause or purpose that is more profound than them selves. This gives a leader the moral authority to lead others. Do your actions reflect your vision, beliefs and values? Do you honor your word? Answers to these questions will pave the way for delivering a more effective and meaningful leadership.
Initiative and Innovation
As you decipher your pivotal purpose and fundamental genius, the step that will follow would be to execute your vision and key priorities. Is your focus mainly on doing the right things and on what is important? Or are you spending too much time on executing activities that qualify to be urgent, but not important? Leadership is about taking initiative and getting things done. Always ask yourself; ‘Am I waiting for things to happen and for others to initiate, or will I rise to the occasion, take the initiative and make things happen on my own’? As a leader, are you striving continually towards innovation as part of your pursuit of excellence, or are you complacent with your mediocrity and with the current status quo? Are you using your innovative problem-solving skills and imagination to become a change-agent by playing with new ideas, solutions and technology? A true leader by heart will opt for all these techniques that would ultimately drive you towards excellence.
Impactful Influence
It is one of the most essential tasks for a true leader to be a people’s person. He / she must have the skill to reach out to people and connect with them at a personal level. A leader is better accepted by subordinates when he / she is also a friend and easily accessible. Are you making the effort to know people in your circle of influence and taking the time to discover their fears, desires, challenges and goals? Are you serving people and touching their lives? A genuine leader’s journey is about doing what they love doing in service of others. Finally, your influence acts as a yardstick to measure your character that comes with time and experience. Is your influence positively full of impact? Are people seeking you out for your leadership and guidance? If so, kudos to you as you are on the right leadership path. We are in many ways the sum total reflection of the people in our circle of influence. If you are not satisfied with the quality of people in your circle of influence its time to work on yourself.
Always keep in mind that if you are leading an organization, a team or even a family, their progress or decline will all be incumbent upon your leadership. Your leadership will reflect on all those you lead and will automatically bring out your strengths and weaknesses. NOW is the time to introspect and scour out all the aspects that are holding you back from becoming the leader that you have always looked up to.