Five Popular Myths About Leadership
Are you working in an organization where leaders display well-developed emotional intelligence and socially intelligence skills? Do the leaders in your organization inspire others to be their best?
One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Do I profoundly care about helping our business grow and helping every employee achieve their full potential?” Inspiring leaders infuse followers with energy and passion.
Are you a leader who has an inspiring leadership style? Are you able to create a high performance workplace by creating a workplace climate where employees are fully engaged and leaders are developed at all levels?
Executives often profoundly misunderstand what makes an inspirational leader. Here are five common myths:
1. Everyone can be a leader. Not true. Self-knowledge and authenticity are necessary for leadership, and not everyone has them (or strives to develop them). Individuals must also want to be leaders, and many talented employees have no desire to shoulder the responsibility. Some may profess interest, but they’re primarily focused on the benefits versus costs to them. Others prefer to devote more time to their families and private lives.
2. Leaders deliver business results. Not always. If results were always a matter of good leadership, picking leaders would be easy. In every case, the best strategy would be to go after people in companies with the best results. Things are not that simple.
Businesses in quasi-monopolistic industries can often do very well with competent management rather than great leadership. Equally, some well-led businesses do not necessarily produce results, particularly in the short term.
3. People who get to the top are leaders. Not necessarily. One of the most persistent misperceptions is that people in executive positions are leaders. But people who make it to the top may have done so because of political acumen, not necessarily because of true leadership quality. What’s more, real leaders are found all over the organization, from the executive suite to the shop floor.
By definition, leaders are simply people who have followers, and rank doesn’t have much to do with this. Effective military organizations like the U.S. Navy have long realized the importance of developing leaders throughout the organization.
4. Leaders are great coaches. Rarely. A whole cottage industry has blossomed around the belief that good leaders ought to be good coaches. But this thinking assumes a single person can both inspire the troops and impart technical skills.
Of course, it’s possible for great leaders to also be great coaches, but we see this only occasionally. More typical are leaders like Steve Jobs, whose distinctive strengths lie in the ability to excite others through vision, rather than coaching talents.
5. Women make better leaders than men. It depends. One popular myth asserts women are relationship-oriented and nurturing, so they make more natural leaders. But are the women competitive enough to make it to the top typical of this stereotype, or are they exceptional people regardless of gender? Are we capable of sorting out our own stereotypical biases?
Can we judge leaders on their actual qualities, abilities and results? Are our perceptions colored by our preconceived biases about appearance, education and class? If we acknowledge these assumptions and beliefs, we may be better equipped to choose those who will lead us.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become an and inspiring leader who displays the qualities authentic leadership. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.
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