We typically associate leadership with the ability to have followers rather than with the positions assigned by any hierarchy. But the value of leadership is more consistent if we link it to the ability to realize a vision or transform a reality.

Nelson Mandela was already a leader before reaching the pinnacle of South African politics, but what solidified his leadership was his career path. To lead is to serve, not to be served. That’s why leaders who leave a lasting mark are people with an enormous capacity for service.

Understanding service from a leadership perspective means taking responsibility for contributing a vision to a company, project, or institution and for creating a cultural framework that enables progress toward that vision.  This framework is conveyed by the leader through their own example.

Consistent leaders are not just good storytellers; they are doers—people who make things happen and who set the example of how things should be done.  Communication is always important for a leader, but consistent communication stems from coherence between what is said and what is done.

Consistent leaders cultivate authentic paths.  Leaders are team players. They know that great goals aren’t achieved alone.  Leading is about bringing out the best in each person on a team and filling their lives with meaning.

A leader has a much more difficult task than simply motivating (it’s good that people come already motivated);  their most important task is not to demotivate.  A leader is the one who protects organizations from the arrogance that success can bring and is the first to seek lessons in the failures that every action entails.

Leadership is about creating environments of trust, where new things can be tried, where exploration and innovation take place. Leadership is about delegation.  Without delegation, a leader may contribute, but their true role is to amplify.

A leader can delegate almost everything, except the risk involved in innovation and the values ​​that embody the soul of organizations.  We need humble leaders, but with great ambition for their projects.

This combination of ambition and profound humility is key. Genuine humility; if it’s feigned, it’s pure mediocrity.  We need business, social, and political leaders who know how to combine ambition for projects, authenticity in their actions, and personal humility . Consistent leaders have doubts.

Leaders who don’t hesitate are not trustworthy. And in politics, even less so. My specialty isn’t politics, it’s business, but it seems very clear to me that many of the traits of contemporary leadership are common to very different organizations and situations.

In politics, factors like authenticity are even more important.  We demand extra honesty from politicians. I don’t know if it’s right, but we demand it. It’s the way we think of them, as a mirror, that makes us better.

Perhaps it’s utopian, but good leaders are people who, even in politics, know how to bring out the best in society . Yes, it’s true, I’m thinking of a leader as imperfect as Churchill.

Xavier Marcet

Source:  La Vanguardia