Being A Leader In Your Life

 

Are you a leader in your life? Do you motivate, inspire and educate those around you to become a better version of themselves? In reality, people are born with innate leadership qualities. However, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. Lifelong learning is essential in becoming a good leader; and you can design and hone your leadership abilities, knowledge, and skills by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Dr. Sundardas shares these things to you as you learn how to apply them to your own life.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

 

Being A Leader In Your Life

 

Much has been written about leadership, rules, pointers, styles and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history, but there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognize and realize in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of things you thought you knew about leadership. Leaders come in different flavors. There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are normally elected to positions or offices such as senators, congressmen, presidents of local clubs, prime ministers and so on. Informal leaders are those you look up to by virtue of your wisdom and experience, such as in the case of the elders of a tribe or our grandparents or by virtue of the expertise in contribution in a given few such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo Da Vinci in the field of arts.

Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles. Lewin’s three basic leadership styles: authoritative, participative and delegative. Blanchard’s four leadership styles: exploitative, authoritative, benevolent, consultative and participative. Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and commanding. Leadership is a process of becoming. All of a sudden people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities. Without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. Like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities.

Knowledge of leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights and thoughts furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Lifelong learning is important in becoming a good leader. For each day it brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills and attitudes to a test. Leadership starts with you. The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage course, action speaks louder than words. Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions, your interaction with your family, friends and coworkers.

Your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits, in turn, form a person’s character. Stephen Covey’s book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve elements of your personal leadership. Leadership is shared. Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from your responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team.

Trust is built upon actions and not merely upon words. Where mutual trust exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built. Leadership style depends on the situation. Think about the leadership style in Singapore compared to the United States. Apart from culture, belief, value systems and forms of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders apply a combination of leadership styles, depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death, thus a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions.

The case is different in times of peace and order. Different sectors in other branches of the government can’t freely interact and participate in governance. Another case in point is in leading organizations. When staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegation and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. If the staffs have low competence and no commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supportive and high directive behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you’re reminded of these things, keep in mind there are all these ideas that we think we already know. The concepts you take for granted, that are the most useful insights on leadership. Great leaders in society are often inspiring speakers. There is so much to know about conversation that anyone, even I could ever realize. You can go through watching talk shows, radio programs, clubs dedicated to public speaking and ordinary conversations. Certain rules still apply when it comes to interaction through words. I remember being fourteen and struggling with speech difficulties. I decided I was going to learn how to speak well in public. I was terrified at the thought, the shame and potential ridicule. I recall standing up at my first event at fourteen in class. Needless to say, I was just not very good. I was bad.

Repeated actions become habits. Habits, in turn, form a person's character. Click To Tweet

The most valuable lesson was although my legs were shaking below the table, my voice was absolutely steady. No one knew I was terrified. My classmates treated it like another class lesson. If I was doing a bad job, they were probably glad they did not have to stand up and speak. Anyway, there were eight of us, so it turned out to be no big deal. For me, it was the beginning. If anyone had told me that I would be doing podcasts many years later, I would have laughed at them and told them they had brain damage. Now I do presentations a couple of times a month and consultations every day in a variety of capacities, and it all started with that debate at fourteen. It may sound tedious, I know, but even though it’s your mouth that’s doing the work, your brain works twice as hard to churn out a lot of things.

What better way to start learning to be an effective communicator is to know the very person closest to you, yourself and what you know. Education is all about learning the basics, but to be an effective speaker is to practice what you’ve been learning. I’ve been speaking and presenting for many years. I’ve learned that we all have our limitations, but it doesn’t mean we can’t learn to keep up and share what we know. Listening is as important as asking questions. Sometimes listening to the sound of our own voice can teach us to be a little bit confident with ourselves and to say the things we believe in with conviction and humility. We all make mistakes and sometimes we tend to slur our words, stutter and probably mispronounce certain words, even though we know what it means, but rarely use it only to impress listeners. In a group, don’t be afraid to ask if you’re saying the right word properly. If you are unsure about it, make a joke out of it. I promise you’ll make everyone laugh and you can get away with it as well.

Eye contact. There’s a lot the same when it comes to directing your attention to your audience with an eye-catching gaze. It’s important that you keep your focus when talking to a large group in a meeting or a gathering, even though you may get distracted. Kidding around, a little bit of humor can do wonders to lift attention, mimicking a speech or avoiding boredom. You’ll get the attention of the majority of the crowd and you’ll feel that you’re just as approachable and as human to those who listen. Be like the rest of them. Interaction, it’s all about mingling with other people. You get a lot of ideas as well as knowing what people make them as they are. Me, myself and I, admit that there are times you think to yourself in the shower. I know I do.

Listening to the sound of your own voice while you practice a speech in front of a mirror can help correct the stress areas of your pitch and while you edit, you can spruce it up as well. I remember one of my most favorite ways of preparing for a speech when I was much younger was to read it in front of a mirror and watch how I looked. That was also partially because I couldn’t hear myself very clearly. If I could look at myself, I could say, “I’m getting it right or wrong.” With a smile, a smile says it all, much like eye contact. There’s no point in grimacing or frowning in a meeting or a gathering unless it’s a wake. You better express what you’re saying when you smile.

Your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions and your interactions with your family, friends, and coworkers. Click To Tweet

Role model. There must be at least one or two people in your life you have listened to when you’re at a public gathering or maybe at a church. Sure, they read their lines, but taking a mental note of how they emphasize what they say can help you once you take center stage. Preparation. Make the best out of preparation rather than just scribbling notes, often in a hurried panic. Some people like to write things down on index cards while others resort to being a little sillier as they look at the notes written on the palm of their hands. Be comfortable with what you know since you enjoy your work. Being a leader is also about being a great communicator.

One lucky reader who will post a review on iTunes will win a private, confidential consultation and coaching with me on discovering your soul’s purpose. I will lead you on a personal journey to discover your unique mind, body, psychosomatic map of your life. You will get a detailed report and a personal 45-minute consultation with me that is worth thousands. I’m going to help you design a life that works so you are able to say yes in the things that matter and eliminate everything else that slows you down. The clearer you can be about how to organize your daily life to support your bigger vision, the more you step into your true potential, stay on track and accomplish all that you want and deserve. Are you ready to make that happen? Feel free to reach out to me to ask your questions at AskDrSun.com. Your life is a gift, design it. Do what matters and join me as we get closer to designing the life of your dreams.

 

Important Links:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• iTunes – Your Life By Design podcast
• AskDrSun.com