What You Need to Know to Lead Others
What You Need to Know to Lead Others
Welcome again to 3-2-1 Take Action, where we share 3 thoughts on leadership, 2 tips and 1 action point to help you take your leadership to the next level!
nBefore we get into the 3 thoughts for today with you, it’s important to mention that for leadership to be effective, you need what is called a leadership base. A leadership base is what gives you a basis for influencing other people effectively.
Do you know your leadership base(s)? While there are many leadership bases out there, we’ll be looking at 3 here, each of them starting with the letter ‘C’ to help you remember.
“People will not go along with you unless they first of all get along” n
So here are the 3 thoughts for today:
- Leadership base 1: Competence
- Leadership base 2: Character
- Leadership base 3: Connection
Competence
This simply means what you can do. For you to be an effective leader, you need to be able to demonstrate your competence in the sphere or field you desire to influence others.
This does not mean you need to know how to do everything yourself. But you should be able to do enough to command the authority and respect from your team so that you can easily and effectively influence them.
Character
This refers to who you are. I love two quotes from John Maxwell: “People will not go along with you unless they first of all get along” and “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.
These emphasize the point that your character is a key component of your leadership base. This does not mean you must be likable to everybody, but it does mean you need to be aware of the character traits that everybody likes to see and wants to see in those who lead them.
Connection
This refers to your ability to build healthy and valuable relationships with people across your ecosystem. How effective is the connection between you and your team and your colleagues? When you build connection with other people that have influence, you create a stronger leadership base for you to influence others.
With more clarity on these 3 leadership bases, let’s now discuss two tips on how you can demonstrate them effectively. Again, the two tips each start with the letter ‘C’ to help you remember.
Tip 1: Communication
Every good leader learns how to communicate their competence, their character, and their connections in a way that is authentic and very effective.
Effective communication skills are a non negotiable necessity for any good leader. How well do you communicate who you are, what you can do and who you know? Do people just recognize you or do they know you? Be very intentional in communicating the essence of who you are, what you can do, and the connections that you have.
Tip 2: Consistency
While communication is important, it is not a ‘one and done’ activity. For communication to be effective, it needs to be consistently built upon by communicating in different ways.
You may have heard this phrase before “Say the same thing seven times in seven different ways”. The consistency with which you communicate your competence, character, connections, creates a strong base for leadership.
Action Step
This leads to the one action step for you to take your leadership forward. Identify how to enhance your leadership base in the area of competence, character or communication by applying the tips shared in this post.
Remember it’s the knowledge that you act upon that makes the difference so TAKE ACTION!
Share this post with someone you think it can help. Watch a related video on this to reinforce the things shared.