Leading Yourself

The starting point for all leadership is learning how to lead yourself. Self-Leadership is about leading yourself to personal excellence.  It is about influencing and coaching yourself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform and adopting a can-do attitude.

→ The Wheel of Personal Success

Lateral Leadership

How to get things done when you are not the boss and telling others what to do is ineffective? Lead laterally, invite colleagues to work with you to solve problems and achieve a common goal.

"Don't try to provide a solution to every problem. They key is to improve the process of working together. Start the habit of everyone working to improve collaborative methods. Solutions are not the answer. The answer is a better process for finding solutions," advises Roger Fisher, the author of Lateral Leadership.

Leading Up

Any person and any organization can benefit from upward leadership. Leading up is not the same as managing up, just as managing down differs from leading down.

→ Leadership vs. Management

"Leading up is the act of working with people above you – whether one boss, several bosses, a chief executive, a board of directors or even stockholders – to help them and you get a better job done," says Useem, the author of the book Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win.

Leading up may involve offering your superior a strategic insight or plan that could open up a new market for the company. Leading up may also require that you persuade and coach your boss to help him or her find more effective ways for inspiring or empowering employees.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, they will say:  we did it ourselves.

Leading Down

If you want your people to do great things, you must inspire, empower and energize them. You must create an inspiring vision, build a winning team and lead change.

→ Leadership-Management Synergy

You have to excite your team members and set stretch goals. People do what they have to do for a manager, they do their best for an inspirational leader.

If you want to grow as a leader, help your people grow and shine.

 

Leadership Attributes

Leadership attributes are the inner or personal qualities that constitute effective leadership. These attributes include a large array of characteristics such as values, character, motives, habits, traits, competencies, style, behaviors, and skills.