Leadership is about relationships. Leadership quality comes from the quality of our relations. Because of his archetype or personality, the leader attracts particular people. Great leaders know the people they should learn from. Great leaders have a good quality of people in their inner circle. People are at the centre of a leader’s success.
SUCCESS LIFE: JONAH NYONI
Gilbert W. Fairholm in his book Leadership and the Culture of Trust wrote:
“In reality, leadership is an expression of collective, community action. Leadership is something that happens as a result of leader and stakeholder collaborative action.
Leadership is not a starring role. True leadership describes unified action of leaders and followers (stakeholders) working together to jointly achieve mutual goals. It is collaborative”
There are people you need to be an effective leader. For the purposes of this article, I focused on seven people that every leader needs to become great.
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Modeller
Great leaders learn from other leaders. One great way of learning leadership is to see leadership being exemplified. Every leader must have a role model that they tap from.
Motivator
Every leader needs encouragement. Today’s leader has to grapple with ever-changing situations and emerging challenges. The leader needs another leader that will encourage them.
Mentor
A mentor brings experience and expertise into the life of a leader. When you are still young you need a mentor at all costs. A mentor will show you blind spots. They show you the secrets of how to win as a leader.
There are things that college won’t teach you, but the mentor plugs those gaps.
I have seen young talented and educated leaders fail.
Why? Because they thought they knew it all. If you have a great mentor, they teach you to evade the mistakes that they went through.
Monitor
A leader needs an accountability partner. These are people that will keep you accountable and constantly check your progress. This person keeps you committed to your goal.
Mediator
Conflict is part of a work environment. The leader has to identify a leader who helps them resolve conflict amicably. The mediator also helps the leaders even with personal issues.
Candour
A person of candour is good at balancing caring and challenging.
We all need these people who challenge us directly at the same time caring for us.
These are people who criticise us and help us see those things we would not have seen if we were surrounded by ‘yes men’.
Even in the boardroom these people never want to please anyone, but they bring honest communication for the benefit of the company.
Intuitive leader
Every leader needs this kind of a person. This is a person with intuition. C. JoyBell C once said, “Our bodies have five senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing. But not to be overlooked are the senses of our souls: intuition, peace, foresight, trust, empathy.
The differences between people lie in their use of these senses; most people don’t know anything about the inner senses while a few people rely on them just as they rely on their physical senses, and in fact probably even more.”
An intuitive leader sees more than what the eye can see. He feels more than what our physical feelings can feel. When change is coming, the intuitive leader picks it up before it happens.