My current organisation enrolled me into this great program called "Emerging Leadership Program". It talks about and nurtures you with values, pragmatic approaches and what it takes to become an effective and inspirational leaders for tomorrow. Fortunate to be part of it.
Just started this couple of weeks back and as an assignment, we were told to write our thoughts on "What kind of LEADER I want to be?"
Well, yeah, I know - boss vs. leader talks and posts etc. etc. we all have generally come across, so won't go into those well-known and cliche points again over here. However, just for the completeness, my thoughts resonates with this.
And I bet you'll find many more such thoughts, articles etc. Personally, I always like to keep things simple and start from basics approach. I don't have anything noticeably different to add here in terms of required qualities.
For me, its important that a leader put these great words or distinctions referred above in practice, in day-to-day life and not just "talk" about it. Integrity is of prime importance for a leader and I loved the quote I read somewhere "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody's watching".
If you go there and say "I lead this team" or "I am leading this effort" etc. I think that's where you kind of fail as a leader. It gives a subtle sense (at-least to me), that you consider yourself as "in-charge" and assumes a bit of a higher rank than others. Make no mistake, you have to take responsibilities for failure and success, but considering that as a part of the team. Organisations often needs a single point of contact, communications becomes easy that way. If you happen to be that, it doesn't make you a leader. You are just a face of your entire team who others can connect to.
Lead by example and be humble about it - that's very important. That should come naturally to you if you are a true leader. You don't have to think or do anything special about it. You do and show it first in action and then expect the same thing from others.
Coming back to the question - I would conclude it in my own simplest way possible I could think of - "Where you can ask my teammates anytime for an honest feedback about me and I would know in my heart, each one would absolutely don't hesitate to say - I look up to him".
Yep, that sums it up !
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