What makes an effective leader?
What makes an effective leader? This question was my main focus throughout my trip to the UAE. It’s funny how such a simple question continues to vex some of the best thinkers in business. Some say great leaders are born, not made. While looking to answer this question through my interactions with some of the region’s greatest business leaders, I realized that some of these leaders have honed their leadership skills through extensive practice. This article will show you how some of the most respected business thinkers of our region “The Middle East” define leadership.
An effective leader is a person with passion- there’s this saying “passion can’t be taught, either you have it or it’s caught.” Passionate leaders spread passion to others through their dedication, experiences, risk taking and reinvention of oneself. I realized that almost all of the leaders we met, are driven forward from the energy produced by their passion. This theme happened to be very inspiring to me, because it composed all the leaders’ self-awareness puzzles. Because of passion,they developed the dedication to focus on what resonated with who they are and managed to succeed at what they do.
Passion drives vision and leaders have visions- I realized that passion and vision are inseparable. If a person doesn’t care about a specific topic or matter, he or she won’t spend the time trying to find how it could be different. Having a dream and a sense of direction helps the person thrive to achieve success. Hard work is inevitable when it comes to achieving one’s vision. Figuring out your weak spots and finding ways to master them is an essential part of developing your vision as a leader. The vision of a successful leader permeates the workplace and manifests in the actions, values, beliefs and objectives of one’s organization. As one of the CEO’s said, “ A person should set crazy goals for his/herself and work hard to achieve them.”
A leader’s vision creates structure within the business- Having a clear vision plays an important role in any leader’s successful strategy. Sharing this vision with employees creates unity within the organization and encourages people to work towards the same goal.
By working closely with others, as an employee, you begin to inspire loyalty and trust with those around you.
You can’t be a great leader without trust- Trust was the most common theme discussed by the leaders I met in the UAE. For sure, all the qualities mentioned previously are great qualities for a leader to have. But trust I realized that trust was the most important of them all, and I’ll tell you why… The question “can I trust you?” is always on our minds when we interact with people even though we might not be aware of its influence. So when a team trusts you as a leader, the level of commitment to the vision directly increases. In order for leaders to achieve their goals, a level of trust must be build between them and their employees. But what is trust?
According to my interactions, I came to realize that trust is a feeling of security that people have, based on the belief that someone, the business leader in our case is knowledgeable, reliable, honest and effective. And building trust doesn’t happen overnight, leaders tend to put a lot of effort in building this kind of relationship with the people surrounding them. Some of the important aspects of achieving this kind of relationship are: getting people involved in decision making, transparency/honesty in one’s actions, and maintaining one’s relationships with others.
Keep your name clean and don’t make compromises- Reputation just like all other themes mentioned takes time to develop. When a person has a positive reputation, people start to respect him/her even when they don’t know who the person is. Gaining people’s respect is essential for leaders, because it determines whether people will want to work for and with you. One of the most memorable things mentioned by a leader in a meeting during the trip was, “ One of the things I regret not doing was caring about my reputation when I first started my business.” In addition to that, one of the most important pieces of advice given to me by a CEO was “ Always keep your name and reputation clean and thrive to make a difference in this world.”
Successful leaders are givers- Giving is part of one’s success. This aspect doesn’t come in one way or a form. Whether it’s charity, voluntary teaching skills to others or sponsoring an event for some cause, the participation in such acts has huge benefits for all parties involved.
