Leadership by Leaders II
Thoughts from present leaders that future leaders need to hear
Last month (when it was still possible to attend face-to-face events) I went to Leadership Academy, an event about leadership organized by BET at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics. All that introduction to say that it had a panel discussion that caught my attention and from where I get very interesting thoughts about leadership that I want to share with you.
Before starting just want to give a quick picture of the 4 professionals that wherein that panel, just because I will quote them and explore some of their thoughts in the next paragraphs. Here I go: Paula Policarpo works in social area in two companies (one of his own), Francisco Fonseca worked in big corporations but now is running his own startup, Vasco Uva is a former rugby player and CFO of the company where he works right now and Vitor led military teams and know is running his own startup.
Long story short, the 3 most important thoughts I get from this panel were: the practice makes the leader, real leaders lead by example and that you can and should lead with empathy. Next, I will explore every point, one by one, I hope that if you keep reading, that I can share some kind of value with it. Let’s get the ball rolling.
1. Practice makes the leader
“Common sense is not leadership”, Vitor
You don’t get good at leading others from day to night and you aren’t a good leader just because you think you are one. Leadership is a skill that you learn by doing. Yes, you can read about it on a book or hear about it in a panel (like me), but if you don’t apply what you learned, if you don’t give it a try in the real-life you will never know what works and what don’t.
A leader has to decide which approach to apply to which situations, sometimes he has to trust in their own gut feelings, others he has to listen to others opinions. Even if you have the best intentions, there is no instruction manual to take the right decision at the right moment. Everything change and even in the same situation the best approach now may not be the best approach tomorrow.
The truth is nobody knows what is doing, but everyone tries to give his best, but like everything in life the more you practice the better you get. In leadership, nothing works theoretically everything has to be tested in practice and you will fail many times, but this is how you learn and the sooner you start the better.
2. Lead by example
“The attitude of a team reflects the attitude of his captain”, Vasco
A leader is no more that person that tells his employees what to do and they follow it without saying a word. A leader now is the one that embodies the values of his company in all his actions. He is the one that wants it more, that remembers the common purpose when it’s forgotten and is the glow that unit all others when it’s needed.
Now, the leader gets weaker when he doesn’t show that can help when it’s needed. Now, the leader gets weaker when he uses his power to make his team follow him, instead of they want to follow him because they believe in the same thing that he believes.
All that his earned by showing your team that they can trust you, show your team that you are capable to help them and to lead them to achieve a common purpose. In the long run, your team don’t follow you because you have power, but because you inspire them and they see in you someone that can guide them to where they want to go all together.
3. Lead with empathy
“The biggest challenge to lead people is their feelings”, Paula
Nowadays a good leader doesn’t need to hide his own feelings or be someone that he isn’t. There is a wrong idea, in my opinion, that leaders only can lead if they are like rocks and don’t show any feelings, but I think that honesty and show his own vulnerabilities are key points to a leader.
You have to care about your people. Personal life can’t influence professional life they say. Bullshit. It can and it will, so you have to do everything that is in your power to make this balance the easiest for your employers. You have to have compassion when they are going through tough times. You have to be there for them.
Now a leader isn’t a person that knows very well how to do deal with people to manipulate them or influence them to do what he wants. He knows very well how to deal with people to help them, to build deeper relations and to be honest in good and bad times. You may not see results right now but in the long run, you and your team get stronger and your business, too.
Final Thoughts
To finish I just like to say to you that my first thought was that practice makes the leader but I never had a real big practice leadership experience in my short career, so neither I ever had the chance, yet, to execute the other two thoughts about lead by example and empathy. However, all that I share with you came from persons that them yes had experience and if you get something from this text that you think interesting and can work in your case, nothing could make me happier.
But on the other hand, I think all those leadership skills are workable in the small actions we have in our everyday lives, in our jobs or even at home. Every day you have the chance to work your empathy with others, every day in your jobs, projects, whatever it is you have the change to show the example, to work with your teammates in the way you liked they worked with you. Every day you can practice leadership in the small decisions, in the small actions you do and you can learn from them.
So final thought, for me, leadership is about to try and learn. Try your own leadership style and learn from the results you get what feels right and what doesn’t. Like everything in live leadership is an endless cycle of learning and executing, is an endless game, do you want to play it?
This text is the second of a short series of texts I’m making about leadership, if you like it and would like to read more, click here to see the first one.
