A good leadership style is often difficult to define as it is more qualitative than quantitative. Some say that a good leader gets the job done, while others argue that a good leader simply inspires and motivates his team. In other words, a good leader gets the work done by inspiring others and he does so, because not only does he know the best method of doing the job, but he helps the doer to look at the bigger canvas. He shows him the path of progress, of independence and the route to success. To put it simply a good leader knows how to get the best out of his team. He has a vision which he constantly shares with his people.
But how does a person get to develop leadership skills? Is it an innate quality or can a person be trained to develop such skills? The right way to approach such issues would be to understand a bit of history and scrutinize leadership styles and traits of people who have made a mark in this world. We have seen through the biographies of several world leaders that many of them were initially shy and reticent by nature but firm in their decisions and assertive in the implementation of such decisions. Each leader has his own way of leading people ultimately persuading them to think the way he does. Incidentally, leadership is not restricted to authority, designation or power of the chair. Leadership traits can be evident even in the smallest fry in the department – who is willing to take on responsibility, who is committed and who has tremendous tenacity to see a job through till its completion. Be that as it may, analyzing the traits and styles of many historical as well as contemporary leaders one can surmise that while some leadership qualities can be innate, these skills need to be honed and fine-tuned further. This does not exclude people who were born without any visible leadership skills. Even such people can be a leader provided he has a strong determination and develops himself through a continuous process of self analysis, training and personal experience.
How does our institute train people to become future leaders and build the most efficient team in an organisation? Our training module is based on certain intrinsic beliefs about leadership traits which we train people to learn and adopt. The keystone of modern leadership style involves building a strong team within the organization – where individual ambition is given an opportunity to dovetail with corporate mission and vision. Team building is an important job of a successful leader where each and every member shares the same magnificent vision which the leader has. A thorough knowledge of individual strengths and weaknesses is another important skill of a leader which we help to develop. The way we look at it is that when a leader knows the core competence of his team, he can use the potential of his workforce to the fullest. Motivational and inspirational qualities are important for the leader to inject his team with renewed enthusiasm even in the face of failures or obstacles.
Our leadership and team building training takes an integrated approach where importance is given to areas including: recruiting and retaining the right people in the organization; rewarding as well as retribution skills; job allocation and rotation skills; harnessing talent to move in the right direction which is in line with organizational goals; development of core competence in every individual working in his team. If leadership is all about how well he manages to delegate responsibilities, we believe that it also includes his skills to build his successor. The sooner he does this successfully, the quicker is his personal growth.
