Leadership Essentials

From a certain point of view, leadership can be seen as any other human activity, and as such it has some essentials. You probably can not talk about leadership if you don’t see them in the activity/relationship/process you’re watching. These are the essentials I can identify for Leadership.

VISION
The vision is your destination, your ultimate goal, is the glue that bonds leaders and followers together. Without a vision, no leadership is needed. Just like that. Is there’s no vision, no leadership is required. Don’t fool yourself thinking that because there’s no written statement there’s no vision, most of the time, that vision is transmitted orally or even in our actions. That might be Ok, but probably is not the best way to do it.

FOLLOWERS
A Leader without followers, what’s that? You can lead yourself, that’s true, but then you’re the follower. So you always have a command and someone who follows that command, order, or initiave. So you might as well be the leader and the follower. Of course the followers are the ones who will make the vision come true with the leader.

LEADER
A leader is someone who recognizes a need, who has an idea, who ignites the spark of the movement that should be followed to reach the vision. But, the most important thing is that the leader follows through, it is there all the way in the process, side-by-side with the followers, it might be on the backstage sometimes but he/she is there to support, and maintain the course towards the vision.
To be a leader, you don’t need a certain position, you need attitude.

COMMUNICATION
The glue that keeps the vision on the follower’s and leader’s minds and keeps the bond among them. Good communication is a must for great leadership. Communication is the tool the leader and follower use to correct the course in a constant fashion. Just like the pilots do while in flight. Good communication skills are a must, no matter your role in the leader-follower relationship.

I think these essentials might seem obvious, and probably that’s why it’s so important to state them, the more evident they are, the less we take care of them. We tend to take for granted what seems to be obvious, and many times, is not really available when things get tough.

What do you think?
Is this enough to define/watch leadership?
With these essentials, how do you think you can get more from your leadership ?
In what areas should you improve?

As always, Be Alert, Be A Leader