"Leadership is the energetic process of getting other people fully and willingly committed to a new course of action, to meet commonly agreed objectives whilst having commonly held values".
Introduction
Leaders are always there to make things happen, to look for specific things having a unique vision, making strategic choices, finding the right right tool and people to do the job. Leadership is understanding people, and especially about the process of getting people pointing and acting in the same direction. . It is about listening, and making a real "connect" with your potential followers.. The unique role of a leader is then to provide the energy and commitment to see this job through, and ensuring execution of the plan. Leadership is not just about style, or charisma, or forcefulness, although those things can help. It is a process. We call this process the 4E’s of Envision, Enable, Empower, Energize and Execute. But before examining the 4 E’s in detail, there is a set of fundamental truths about all leaders to review.
Ø Leaders always create [and need] change
Ø Leaders always create [and need] followers
Ø Leaders have a rock-solid value system, which is congruent with their followers.
Leaders and change
Without a need for change, the concept of leadership is meaningless. Leadership is not an abstract, platonic concept-it is a practical activity, with a specific goal in mind. Many times we see persons with strong leadership ability and great potential that can bring positive changes to the society, but they are overlooked because the current perception of what leadership criteria should include needs serious readjustment. Competitive spaces undergo change, new technologies emerge, and customers change. However, companies sometimes fail to change and make the most of new opportunities. Instead, they choose the more convenient and less risky option of trying to get the best out of the old opportunities. Well-led organizations do not wait for leaders to emerge on their own, but actively seek out people with leadership potential and groom them into leaders, while exposing them deliberately to varied work experiences. The leadership process can be institutionalized with careful selection, nurturing, and encouragement.
Leaders and Followers
Without followers, there are no leaders. Leaders are quintessential change agents, but they can’t do it alone─ they still need the help of others to get things going. They find ways to create groups of followers, so they can together change things going. We are not talking of manipulation or of mischief when we write “Leaders create followers”. We mean that the job of a leader is to encourage people to get things done. There is symmetry and symbiosis between leaders and followers. Both need each other.
Leaders and Value system
Leaders know what they value. They also recognize the importance of ethical behavior. The best leaders exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Your leadership ethics and values should be visible because these reflect in their actions every single day. The leadership job starts with a through understanding of the follower’s needs, aspirations and concerns which needs excellent listening and facilitation skills. Most importantly, it starts with a thorough understanding of the value system of all constituents. The leader’s value system must be congruent with that of the follower if the relationship is to prosper. Leaders must first understand and then communicate their own value systems if they are to be trusted and followed. Leadership comes from within us. It is always the leader’s personal value system that sustains them in their quest.
4 E’s Process
Step 1: Envision- Leadership starts with having a vision, then developing a plan to achieve it. It is based on both data assessment and intuition, hope and fear .It is noble challenge. A vision of the future is the key to getting started as a leader. Envision starts with having a clear view of the external world. It derives the formation of the mission of the enterprise, and builds clear, mutual goals. In day-to-day work, it is helpful to distinguish between verbal objectives [the mission], and numerical objectives [the goals].
Step 2: Enable- Leadership means creating enabling mechanisms to encourage the right kind of action. This entails deciding the right methods or tools, choosing the right people to enable the objectives, and rewarding the followers for achieving it. It may mean defining a new organization structure or it could be the deliberate elimination of some structure - but there is always a structure in place to get the job done. So the set of enabling mechanism includes.
· Tools & Technologies
· Right people with right Skills
· Processes and Structure
Step 3: Empower- Leadership means empowering people to achieve the vision. The Leader sets out a contract with his or her followers. The followers have a contract with their Leader, for success and failure, reward and sanction. Both are given mutual freedom, yet held mutually accountable. Both are thus empowered. Given a clear vision, strategy and enabling tool kit, the third step of leadership process is empowering people to achieve the goals.
Again there are two sides to empowerment. On the “Organizational” axis the team needs to be given the training to get the job done. This is self-evident. The empowerment must also bring rewards to all parties and sanctions or challenges for improvement. On the “Operational” axis both leaders and followers need to be able to measure progress against the goals in a transparent way which also encourages dialog and continuous improvement.
Step 4: Energize- Leadership means energizing people to act. It usually involves expressing the vision in a "story", which builds understanding and the desire for action in the followers. A great example of a "story" is John Kennedy’s "put a man on the moon and return him home safely by the end of the decade". This energized an entire nation, its military and its industries. He stuck to the script, and even after his death, the mission was accomplished. The Leader’s "story" takes careful note of the audience's perceptions, so he or she will be an excellent listener and judge of others. The story is expressed simply but powerfully, and it is repeated often. The leader energizes the vision, the enablers, and the empowerment.
Conclusion
In the 4E’s model, however we believe that emotional intelligence fits inside the energizing role of a leader, rather than that of a separate focus. Successful leaders have had a varied and challenging career. This puts them through their “Leadership trading paces” at each stage to become a world class leader. Challenges associated with such a career not only serve to broaden the leader’s skill base but also help his or her emotional development.