Leadership is about going somewhere, it is about taking people to a new destination. so the first thing you have to do when you are a leader is to ask yourself what is my vision? What are we trying to achieve; what are we trying to accomplish; where am I taking the organization to; what is it that I am asking from my team. The vision is not a strategy nor a goal, these are tools to accomplish your vision. Vision is about a dream that you want to take everyone to.
All great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world whether it is Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers, they seems to all think, act and communicate the same way, and it is the complete opposite to everyone else(Ted, 2014). According to Ted’s golden circle, every single person or organization knows what they do, some knows how they do it, but very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. That is also the way ordinary people think and communicate is from the outside in and it is obvious we go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. However the inspired leaders or organizations regardless of their industry all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
Take the example of Apple.The way Apple communicates with people is from inside out of this gold circle, firstly, Apple said “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently.(Why) The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.(How) We just happen to make great computers.(What)”(Ted, 2014) All Apple did was reverse the order of the information, this proves to us that people do not buy what you do they buy why you do it and it explains why every one is comfortable buying a computer from Apple as well as a MP3 player or a phone from Apple whilst all their competitors are equally qualified to make all these products. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have, it is to do business with people who believe what you believe (Ted, 2014).They have different visions at different times. At the beginning Steve Jobs was very focused in fighting the empire with Vivo of Microsoft. However at some point he said we need to end up this era where we see everything as a competition between Apple and Microsoft and try to focus in the customer experience. He tried to answer questions like what extraordinary benefits can I give to the customers and transformed the cell phone industry off to the smart phone era (Johnson, 2011).
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that everyone has his need. As executives, to motivate their subordinates you must understand what their needs are, so regardless of the approach to the team members, the bottom line is that the needs of your subordinates has been satisfied (Cherry, 2010).
Some leaders say that vision is about to define the ideas, to communicate them and to make sure everyone understand them (Eduardo P. Braun, 2013). I agree, but I also think that to that vision, you need to put emotions in that vision for yourself and for your team. The emotions for learning, growing and really making a change around you, because that emotion is what makes you and your team jump out of the bed every morning.
Another example is Richard Branson’s vision with virgin. He wanted to create a worldwide brand which was well respected and that people could say once virgin went into a particular industry this industry will never be the same. You do not have to be the boss to establish your vision, you can just be a team member and try to take your team goal as a challenge and make competitions to have fun in the process. So wherever you are in the process whether you are an employee or the top boss its key that you establish your visions and put emotions in them.
As per my colleagues’ feedback through this term’s engagement in the M005 Leadership module. My team members think that I give great ideas during our group meetings while brain storming for our presentations. They also think that I made the presentations easier for the rest of the teams by motivating every one during the introduction of the presentations. My thought of the reason I can have that effect is that I try to make a eased mood for everyone by being humorous. Like I said in the beginning to put a cheerful emotion into my team members, once they feel relaxed they will enjoy the process of the presentation. One of the skills that I need to improve myself on is time management. As a good leader I have to first make sure that I am on time for everything, it will influence the rest of the team that if they are always late for presentation materials or team meetings, they will feel uncomfortable and sorry for the leader and the rest of the team.
As a prospective manager in the oil and gas sector, it is my aspiration to lead organizations in an ethical manner, to communicate with all my team members effectively, finally make sure every member of my team gives all their strengths to achieve our common goal. Besides, I think in order to be a good leader I need to inspire others by my own actions, I need to identify each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and respect and utilize the diversity of my team in an innovative way.
References:
Cherry, K. (2010) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: What Motivates Behavior?. Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
Churchill, W. (no date) Leadership Characteristics. Available at: http://leadership.uoregon.edu/resources/exercises_tips/skills/leadership_characteristics (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
Eduardo P. Braun (2013) Leadership – Vision with Passion. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ZO0JEHISQ (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
Johnson, J. (2011) 5 Industries That Steve Jobs Helped Change Forever « Mac.AppStorm. Available at: http://mac.appstorm.net/general/appstorm-news/5-industries-that-steve-jobs-helped-change-forever/ (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
Maude, B. (1978) Leadership in management. London: Random House Business Books
Millins, L. J. (2013) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Tenth edn. UK: Pearson Education Limited
Organizational Leadership (2003) Developing Effective Engineering Leadership, pp. 45–68.
Ryan, J. (2009) The Three Fundamentals Of Effective Leadership. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/29/vision-communication-judgment-leadership-managing-ccl.html (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
Yan, A. (2012) ‘How To Improve Your Leadership Skills’, in Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/12/leadership-skils.asp (Accessed: 20 June 2015)
abconvo (2011) Vision of Leadership. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_XRjhOqvQ (Accessed: 20 June 2015)