Empowering Teams: Fostering Creativity, Diversity, and Participation
Effective Leaders Have Knowledge and Competency Concerning Their Roles, and They Continue to Learn
Numerous surveys over the past few decades have placed competency as the second most valuable trait in their leaders. People want leaders who know and understand their territory, whether a business, product, nonprofit, or large organization. To keep their organization competitive, leaders help generate intellectual capital and must know the information themselves.
To lead with competency and knowledge, leaders must first know their own strengths and weaknesses. This self-knowledge equips leaders to choose specific people with complementary skills to complete their leadership teams. They also recognize their preferred leadership style and integrate other styles based on the project and other team members involved. Second, leaders must know their product and business, as well as their market—what the public wants and needs and how their organizations can best meet those needs.
Robert Rosen, in his book, Leading People, summarizes eight essential principles of leadership by condensing them into one word: wisdom. Wisdom is a pursuit, found in the application of knowledge and insights gathered through experience. It comes with years of trials and successes, and is accessible to all!
Similarly, wise leaders realize they need to keep learning, a learning posture they maintain throughout life. They demonstrate an insatiable hunger to grow and know, a willingness to ask questions and be taught, and a willingness to follow those who know more about an issue than they do. Effective leaders learn from various types of sources, seeking new evidence and insights from people, their own faith, and situations. A wise leader possesses a growth mentality, infused with humility. Does this describe you?
Effective Leaders Create a Climate of Participation, Creativity, Diversity and Energy, Unleashing People for Meaningful Involvement
Effective leadership is not a matter of controlling and directing others; it is a matter of empowering people to take responsibility for their part in the success of the organization. When power is given away, it expands and increases. Interestingly, strengthening others enhances the leader’s degree of influence with team members.
Visionary leaders create a sense of ownership. They communicate to people within the enterprise that this is their work, their opportunity, and that they are critical to the success of the whole organization. Leaders realize that all their power is in their people. Rosen explains, “Vision provides the direction of the organization; trust creates the safe foundation; participation is the fuel for action that drives the organization forward.” The leader is thus a catalyst for others’ creativity and energy rather than a controller who requires compliance. Read that again.
An atmosphere of freedom and participation reaches its height as all leaders and all “subordinates” within the organization possess an every-member mentality—where every team member takes responsibility to contribute to the life and health of the whole. This is team-mindedness! Therefore, the distribution of ownership and full participation by members are not management techniques, but a fulfilling reality. The ethos of leadership is service and empowerment, not control!