Process Essay: How To Be An Effective Leader

Whilst we are still trying to find an answer to the question of whether leaders are born or made, one thing is for sure, you must prepare yourself for a leadership role. You must prepare to lead and be led whether it’s within the home or work place or business environment. But how can you prepare yourself to lead?
There a few steps that you can consider as you prepare more effectively to lead.
Be a leader not a manager. What’s the difference? Leaders inspire, motivate those working ‘under’ them or with them while managers mostly administer. A leader will innovate or set new targets/goals/objectives and even challenge the status quo, while a manager maintains the status quo, specializes on conforming to the already set standard while directing the team to achieve various tasks. You know you are a leader when you have followers; A manager just has people working for or under them.
An effective leader doesn’t have all the answers but manages to make good decisions most of the time based on input from others. Listening to the team, understanding their thought processes and taking time to explore possibilities is important. Show your team that you are open to their ideas, empower them to take lead roles and ownership of projects, let them understand that it’s ok to make a mistake and help them learn from it. It’s the only way you will be able to move together as a team and be efficient. Listen , learn, understand.
There are many factors to consider when taking up a leadership position and I may not cover all or most of them. Mine is to get you to think and want to be a great leader and not just a manager. You must know the balance. As a leader, drive to create value; drive to serve people; drive to understand and learn; drive to mentor, empower and create followers; drive to use your imagination and be innovative; drive to be unique and independent; drive to be fair and respect all; and finally drive to lead by