Remarkable Leadership Is About Learning and Discovering. Here’s Why and How.
Being known as a leader is one of the most desired achievements; you are known for successfully attaining something you’ve struggled for and you become a person respected and acknowledged for your abilities to guide a team.
Of course, to be a successful leader, we need remarkable leadership skills. But, what exactly is leadership?
“Leadership is a never-ending process of learning and discovering… It is never about ‘I’m ready’ or ‘I made it.’”
That’s exactly what Ritchie Goenawan, Ruangguru’s Vice President of Business and Operations, said. Ritchie shared that he came to such a conclusion from his own experiences over years of leading and being led.
Grasping the significance of remarkable leadership
His realization of the importance of remarkable leadership began during his first job. Back then, he was required to rotate across teams and experienced various types of leadership.
One day, Ritchie’s team did a “major screw up” during a project that cost the business a lot of money. He assumed the worst from his leader, which at that time was the typical: bosses pointing fingers to hold others accountable. To Ritchie’s pleasant surprise, everything went the opposite. His leader at the time was determined to put effort and shoulder the blame, even for mistakes that weren’t directly attributed to him.
“He spoke to everyone involved in that mistake, including myself, and really calmly told us to focus on the learnings and that we all still have a long life of career ahead of this,” Ritchie said. “We shouldn’t be too down about this.”
Ritchie was really impressed that his leader encouraged the team to identify learning points instead of mulling over the fault. His leader even found a way to make the team feel more comfortable and less guilty by organizing “chill hang out sessions.”
Ritchie said that was a “breakthrough moment,” when he realized that different kinds of leadership bring out different behaviors and mentality from the people being led.
“There is a proper behavior change that we can make as leaders. So at that moment, that’s my first realization on how important it is to have remarkable leadership,” Ritchie said.
The Key to Leading Well Is That There is No Key At All. Just Keep Learning.
Ritchie summed up that there is no perfect formula for becoming a remarkable leader. Now, after years of leading and being led, Ritchie is sharing certain fundamentals.
Leading = managing + …
Some people assume that leading and managing are opposite terms. According to Ritchie, you can achieve remarkable leadership if you add the principles of management with indicators that ask you to look at things from a wider yet deeper perspective.
For example, if you are leading a team to achieve certain targets, you should not only be focused on the results. You should also communicate with your team the vision, purpose, and underlying values that make your targets crucial. That way, your team members will have a deeper sense of understanding and belonging towards the target.
The Four Basics of Leadership
Though there is no one right way for remarkable leadership, Ritchie said he believes that there are four fundamentals.
1. Be Proactive
There are three things that come with being proactive: 1) over communicate; 2) anticipate problems; 3) over prepare (optional).
A good leader is one who takes one step ahead in looking into the future, and he or she will initiate conversations to anticipate risks and find solutions.
2. Be an energy ZAPPER, Not SAPPER
“You need to zap, not sap the team.”
What Ritchie means is that as an energy zapper, you infuse positivity into your team. This is a critical point when you lead a team.
If you bring negativity into the team, like your personal problems, you become an energy sapper. This is an example of bad leadership because you have the potential of bringing the team’s spirit down.
You can zap energy by doing many things you believe infuse positivity in your team mates. For Ritchie, it’s telling comeback stories and achievements.
3. Be Humble & Walk the Talk, Explicitly
Remarkable leadership also consists of maintaining humility and staying humble. Remarkable leaders are also action-oriented people. We do what we can do, as best as we can, without making empty promises.
Being humble and action-oriented will lead people to appreciate, respect, and put their trusts on you as a leader.
4. Acknowledge and Reward Behavior Privately and Publicly to Reinforce Behavior
There will be a time when your team members do something excellently, and a great leader should acknowledge the good work in private and in public. That way your team members will feel noticed.
That sense of acknowledgment will eventually pump up your team members’ spirit, allowing them to do well, and they will be noticed by you as the leader, and so on: it produces a multiplier effect. This will affect you positively too.
“Whenever I do leadership, the day-to-day matters more and I need to do it explicitly and then the learning just stuck with me,” Ritchie said.
Yes, there’s a lot to unpack. Ultimately, however, leadership is about learning in every step we take. For deeper insights and exploration about leadership, check out Ritchie’s online course about remarkable leadership only at Skill Academy. There, you can learn the A-Z of leading teams successfully.
If you are ready to grow your leadership skills and learn more from great mentors like Ritchie, Ruangguru is exactly the place you are looking for. Click here for opportunities to join Team Ruangguru!
