10 Elements of Leadership

The best leader is the one, who can make his followers honest, enthusiastic, proactive and productive. Here are 10 Leadership mantras. They are for middle and lower management, while top executives and CEOs can draw benefit up to some extent using these theories. Top management needs a different orientation and more holistic approach.

1. Vision: A leader without vision can never be a leader, it is like cry in the wilderness. People like to follow people, who can give them hope and show them path. People like to follow things which can make their life better in future. Followers tend to show enthusiasm, if they feel they are part of some mission.
   
2. Make people proactive: It is my personal experience that at least 90% workforce is not proactive. A leader should try to foster a culture of proactiveness in organization. It reduces wastage inside system, makes decision making fast. It also promotes a culture of innovation. Leadership should be careful about extremes as it can make system chaotic.
   
3. Talk to people: You got to talk to people if you want to engage them. Sometime there is very small grudge which is making a person unproductive. Two way open communication is the key to engage workforce.
   
4. Making people accountable: There is no king in history who has won the war alone himself. One has to make people accountable for their work. When a person a accountable for a certain function of work, he tends to be more focused and result oriented. Leaders should focus on making people accountable, productivity will take care of itself.
   
5. Do not micro manage: The thumb rule of management, do not micro manage. People like to have their share of freedom in their territory. Micro management makes people think like, they are slaves. Let the people have their sense of freedom. It also hampers creativity.
   
6. Give people credit: Everyone like to be praised for their deeds. A pat on the back is a great confidence and self worth booster. If someone has done a good job, it is worth acknowledging it, if this acknowledgment is public then it even better. No body would like his hard work going in vain.
   
7. Knowledge Management: If your organization is in service, proper knowledge management becomes key to success. Knowledge management is a subject all together, but it revolves around principles like knowledge sharing/capturing/creation culture, preventing reinvention of wheel, better connectivity etc.
   
8. Foster cohesion in team members: Let us start with the quote "No empire was ever conquered until it was broken inside". Teams perform well when there is team sprite among members and they work in cohesion. Each member has to be equally respected.
   
9. Trust your people: It may sound like a paradox in today's no body trusts no body environment. I am sure if leaders trusts follower then it will give birth do a different confidence and enthusiasm. No body likes a boss who is always suspicious, if the person in context is honest then suspicion may break his self integrity.
   
10. Think win win: Thinking win-win is a very old saying. Action of the human is driven by incentives, if a person finds something for himself in the given deal he will follow you.
    

These are just guidelines, real time industry environment is very different. The leader in context has to choose right style of leadership and tact in the given situation.

It is very easy to lead people when your intent and purpose is right and honest. If you have love and affinity for your followers, cosmic forces will help you. One more thing leadership is just an element of management, only good leadership can not help you become successful as manager. Other factors life networking, business development, process optimization are equally important.