The past year has felt like an endless race full of uncertainties and it would seem likely that the current COVID-19 situation will cause volatility for some time to come. It is essential to know that most leaders are not spared from the feeling of helplessness fostered by this global crisis, leading to one question: What makes an effective leader during these trying times?
Although leaders are found and required in most societal aspects, we perceive leadership as not precisely established. For the most part, leadership is not settled or fixed. This implies that an individual is constantly growing and developing skills to become a true leader and support a specific organization. Therefore, the longer we lead in adversities, the more likely we can answer the question above.
There are many organizational perspectives about what constitutes effective leadership. These include theories and models that center on principles, preferences, and character, to name just a few. Given the situation right now, explaining issues that combine data and interpretation helps develop an ideal viewpoint on the characteristics of being a good leader.
Trait-based Leadership
Analyzing leadership as a systematic study necessitates approaches that can be applied to what nature of leadership a person holds. Certain people have developed the innate skills they’re born with. Trait leadership is one of the oldest types of study about effective leadership. This model focuses on the idea that great leaders have prevalent character traits. From an organizational development standpoint, trait-based leadership implies that if a person does not maintain the ‘right’ leadership qualities, he or she will not be able to lead productively.
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership is a model in which leadership matches different styles to different situations. This model encourages leaders to adapt to various changes in the workplace. For example, they coach a rank and file employee based on his competence and commitment levels that may vary across different challenges and performance areas. In addition, situational Leadership style encourages colleagues or subordinates to modify or adapt to the management style to suit its prerequisites. In the words of leadership theorist Ken Blanchard, “In the past, a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders can no longer lead solely based on positional power.”
Organizational Leadership
Successful leadership requires benefiting from strengths and managing around weaknesses. When it comes to the model of Organizational leadership, it is solely based on the function of the position and role responsibilities. The focus is on developing a team member’s skills to move up through the hierarchy. These leaders use their power to motivate people by understanding their culture and values and using their position to mark the dividing line between the organization’s bureaucracy.
Putting yourself under one model doesn’t ensure effective leadership. There may be multiple factors to consider before being deemed as an adequate lead. John Quelch, a Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard Business School and Dean of the University of Miami Herbert Business School, stated that leaders managing their organizations through crises show seven distinctive aptitudes calling them the Seven Cs.
These would enable leaders to face tough times like the COVID-19 situation pulling down businesses worldwide. With the Seven Cs, leaders could easily manage their team even in times of uncertainty. The global pandemic is one good example of how the Seven Cs principle can define what a true leader is.
Confidence
Confidence is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows. It separates mediocrity from greatness. Showing your team that you are confident means being competent in critical aspects of the organization. When leaders exhibit confidence, they are happy, motivated, open to risks, and willing to accept feedback. Generally, when a leader demonstrates confidence, it makes it easier to trust that leader, and people want to work with leaders they can rely on.
Calm
People from within the organization will easily judge how leaders handle challenging circumstances. For instance, even in the most stressful situations, a leader with a calm but assertive management disposition maintains a certain level of behavior. By retaining this skill, your subordinates can emulate how you handle things in a smooth yet productive manner.
Communication
Healthy professional relationships are grounded in good communication. Team members look up to leaders who can adequately convey their messages with confidence. When leaders speak with conviction, it inspires those around them. On the other side of the coin, when people are unsure, the message delivered becomes exceptionally clouded. Clear communication is the key in times of transition or crisis.
Collaboration
Collaborative leaders build communities where team members can unite with a common goal. Working collaboratively to achieve the organization’s vision makes it one of the most powerful skills a leader can possess. The responsibility of a leader is to create a collaborative culture in times of difficulties and assess the capabilities of their team members and give a role for everyone in which they feel they can contribute to overcoming the crisis.
Community
The function of community boils down to the collective effort of team members by ensuring the effectiveness of collaboration. Communities don’t just revolve around the workplace. There are college or university communities, religious groups, and other associations or societies an individual has. Leaders lead by example, not just within the organization but within the communities they belong to. As a leader, it is imperative to set a community-friendly standard and promote camaraderie among members. This would help sustain the eagerness of members to work together, especially in times like this.
Cash-flow
The most apparent investment of the seven Cs is Cash. In a crisis, everything needs to be examined to fulfill both short-term and long-term financial health. Everything else can be authorized in its entirety, but not cash flow because just one error can have a severe effect that might send everything tumbling down. Leaders play a crucial role in the process and whatever a leader does to protect the business’ finances will determine whether team members will be paid.
Compassion
The quality of having genuine intentions and real concern for others is compassion. An organization may rise to the occasion if they are fortunate to have a good team around them, especially in difficult times. Compassion is the complete opposite of indifference and revolves around the values of sympathy and empathy that are emotionally driven and balances all items on the list. Compassion is necessary, so modern leaders can navigate and lead their people and organization to sustainable progress and a hopeful future.
Every team member desires to identify with their company, especially if they are satisfied with their working environment. Omni Channel Solutions believes that combining these models enables the organization to adapt to the needs of different situations, employing a diverse set of leadership skills to achieve the company’s mission and vision. Join us and become part of our pool of leaders that inspire a collective identity within our team.
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