The attitude is the important thing: You have the most cohesive, enthusiastic and motivated team of the company. What is the secret? How can we extend it to the rest of the organization? ”
When my leader pronounced these words a few years ago, I knew that I had been right
Well, today I want to give you my point of view of what are the 3 basic keys of leadership.
Leadership Key # 1: Integrity
On some occasions I have read the definition of integrity as “the value we attribute ourselves.” This is where we have to start.
It is essential to have very clear our personal values, deep. These principles, well identified, will serve as the north when making our own decisions: it is self-awareness, the result of the process of self-knowledge
That will allow you to have a clear picture of what you want, to get up each morning with that goal in mind, and to act consistently based on your own independent will.
Circumstances, models, systems, requirements, conditions … may change, but awareness of our principles and objectives must be continually present. Thus, daily actions, but also the great decisions, are ordered around these values.
Personal integrity builds trust, which forms the basis of healthy human relationships. Lack of integrity often undermines any other effort to build trust.
Integrity means being able to:
Keep promises, and
Meet expectations, both of oneself and others.
This requires that character integrated with oneself in terms of values, objectives and actions.
One of the most important ways of revealing integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. That way we build the trust of those who are. When one defends those who are absent he retains the confidence of those who are present.
At the end…
Integrity means treating everyone by following the same principles of loyalty.
Integrity, trust, loyalty: three great values at the very foundation of leadership.
Leadership Key # 2: Maturity
When we are kids the world revolves around us. One of the most significant objective characteristics of a child is egocentrism.
So it happens to us that when we reach adolescence and begin to leave the world, we feel excluded and misunderstood: we begin to take the reins of our relations with others, and we are increasingly aware that we have to take into account the others.
Along these lines, there is a magnificent definition of maturity expressed by Harvard Business School professor Hrand Saxenian: “The ability to express one’s own feelings and convictions, combined with respect for others’ thoughts and feelings.”
We are talking, then, of the balance between the value one has of himself, and the consideration and respect for others.
Be aware of your own strength … and kind to others.
Being able to balance self-confidence … with empathy toward other people.
I have capacity, resources and power … that I put them on the same level as the qualities, needs and points of view that I have in front of me.
Put ourselves in the quadrant of maximum value on ourselves, and the maximum consideration for others.
If I am high in consideration and low in personal assessment, I will take into account the other’s considerations and desires that I will lack the courage to express and position my own: affinity leadership
Something much more habitual in the organizational charts: being very high in personal assessment and low in consideration of the others. I will be aggressive, egocentric, without regard for the convictions of others. And to compensate for my lack of internal maturity and emotional intelligence, I can extract the necessary strength from my position and my power, or from my titles, or from my age: the purest style of coercing leadership
The balance between my personal valuation and consideration of others is the sign of real maturity. If I have it, I can listen and understand empathically, but also face things from my own safety.
Maturity means being able to reconcile self-confidence with empathy toward other people.
Leadership Key # 3: There for Everyone
Many people see life as if there were few things, just a cake. And if someone gets a big piece, necessarily another will be left with less.
It is a zero-sum paradigm that, honestly, I think does not have to be in the company.
People with this mentality feel bad if they have to share recognition and merit, power or benefits, even if it is with those who help the company grow and be something important.
But it is that they also feel bad about the successes of other people, even, and especially, when it comes to members of own family, close friends, associates or colleagues. When someone receives special recognition, an unexpected gain, has remarkable success or achieves an important goal, they almost seem to have been taken from them. Although they seem happy for the success of others, inside envy corrodes them. His sense of self-worth comes from comparisons, and the success of another in some measure means his own failure. They often harbor the hope that others will suffer some kind of unfortunate misfortune that puts them in their place. It is a very frequent situation in companies: acting on the defensive, with distrust. Always comparing, always competing. They dedicate their energies to gain possession (of things, of power, of results, of money … or of people) to increase their sense of worth. For them it is difficult to be part of a team with complementary members (a real wealth, I assure you!): They consider the differences as a sign of insubordination and disloyalty. In front of them, people with mentality “there is plenty for everyone” have A deep inner sense of personal worth and security.
They think that in the world (and in the company) there is enough so that no one is left without theirs. The result is that they share the prestige, the recognition, the means, the decision making, the successes, the difficulties, the profitability. It generates possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity. The recognition of the unlimited possibilities of growth and development of positive interaction. I speak of joint work, of joint communication, of achieving together that happen impossible things to obtain through independent and isolated efforts. The company with its challenges, problems, objectives and projects. Employees with their energy, their aspirations, their goals, their desire for development and progress. And the combination of both, which we call commitment, based on authentic teamwork through the driving force of leadership. In the project that is the company there is plenty for everyone!
This is the true spirit WIN-WIN! And WIN-AND-WIN !, WIN-AND-WIN !, WIN-AND-WIN !, as our great Luis Aragones said The consequencesConfidence of the other based on personal integrity and loyalty. Maturity as a balance between security In self and empathy with others.Multiplication of results based on teamwork with a “win-win” mentality, centered on the conviction that I win when the other wins.
That is the secret. As an entrepreneur you have all the Faculties, possibilities and the ability to create in your company a culture based on these principles. A unique opportunity to generate leadership that allows you to establish relationships of the highest quality and achieve agreements and systems of internal organization that multiply your results … and the Of your employees. A leadership, your own leadership, that makes your organization a unique and unified culture.