{"id":121,"date":"2017-01-10T02:09:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T02:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/?p=121"},"modified":"2022-02-19T08:34:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T08:34:53","slug":"lead-the-team-how-to-become-the-person-others-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Lead the Team: How to Become the Person Others Follow"},"content":{"rendered":"
Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Leader?<\/h5>\n

Article from thebalance.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Leaders are hard to find. They exhibit a unique blend of charisma, vision and character traits that attract people to follow them. They exhibit the other nine characteristics around which this article series was developed as well.<\/p>\n

Respected leaders know that they can’t just walk into a room and say, “Hey I’m the leader. Follow me.” If you’re the boss, you can get away with this attitude to a certain degree, but the followers you attract will be compulsory and not following you by choice.<\/p>\n

Leaders understand that to actually lead most effectively and successfully, they need to attract people who want to follow them.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Leaders Attract Followers<\/strong><\/span>
\nLeaders recognize this need to attract followers. Followership is key to understanding leadership. To follow, people must feel confidence in the direction in which the leader is headed. To have this level of confidence, the leader must have clearly communicated the overall direction, the key outcomes desired, and the principal strategies agreed upon to reach the outcomes.<\/p>\n

Then, employees are enabled and empowered to do their part in accomplishing the stated objectives. They have the framework that they need to guide their own actions. And, empowered employees do.<\/p>\n

Further, leaders people follow are accountable and trustworthy. If progress towards accomplishing the goals ceases, the leader takes responsibility to analyze the problem\u2014he doesn’t search for people to blame.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consequently, people can have confidence that their leader won\u2019t punish them for their efforts if they take reasonable and responsible risks that are well thought out and well-founded. They are accountable and responsible to deserve their leader’s confidence and trust.<\/p>\n

Followers need to believe that, at the end of the journey, their leader will recognize and reward them for their contribution.<\/p>\n

The leader must help followers answer the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me?” Successful leaders are honest about the potential risks inherent in the chosen path as well as the rewards.<\/p>\n

They communicate, not just the overall direction, but any information their followers need to successfully and skillfully carry out their responsibilities. They recognize that for their followers to perform most effectively they need to understand the big picture.<\/p>\n

They need to know why the organization is pursuing the current strategies. They need their leader for guidance and to help remove any barriers they may experience along the way. Mostly, they need the assurance that their leader has confidence in their ability to perform and produce the desired outcomes.<\/p>\n

If any of these factors are missing, leaders will have a tough time attracting followers. At the end of the day, it is the entwining of the relationship of the leader with the followers that makes their organization or portion of the organization succeed.<\/p>\n

When the Leader Is Also the Boss<\/span><\/strong>
\nOccasionally, the leader is the person who is in charge, the founder of the business, the CEO, the president or department head. Leadership qualities combined with positional power magnify the ability of an individual to attract and retain the all-important followers.<\/p>\n

In fact, business owners can count on a certain amount of respect and followership based on their ownership and title. Longevity, too, plays a role in attracting and retaining followers. People who have followed the leader for ten years will continue to follow unless they lose trust in the leader\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

But, never forget, no matter what your position in the organization, even if your current job is valued contributor, you can become a leader that other employees want to follow.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, in organizations, one of the reasons employees are promoted to positions such as team leader, supervisor, or department manager, is that they have demonstrated over time that people will follow them.<\/p>\n

Characteristics of a Successful Leadership Style<\/span><\/strong>
\nMuch is written about what makes successful leaders. This series will focus on the characteristics, traits and actions that many leaders believe are key.<\/p>\n

Choose to lead.
\nBe the person others choose to follow.
\nProvide vision for the future.
\nProvide inspiration.
\nMake other people feel important and appreciated.
\nLive your values. Behave ethically.
\nLeaders set the pace through your expectations and example.
\nEstablish an environment of continuous improvement.
\nProvide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally.
\nCare and act with compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Leader? Article from thebalance.com Leaders are hard to find. They exhibit a unique blend of charisma, vision and character traits that attract people to follow them. They exhibit the other nine characteristics around which this article series was developed as well. Respected leaders know that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kennyrajah.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Leader-In-Me-Book-Logo.jpg?fit=748%2C528&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p87Fhw-1X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyrajah.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}