Nine I’s and Great Leadership

I was recently talking to a budding manager who was very enthusiastic about his work of managing people and leading an initiative. During our discussion, we touched upon some of the most important things that a leader or a manager does in a business environment.

This led to further thinking and following traits (amazingly all starting with “I”) emerged:

• Influence: Leadership is an influence game – influence through integral actions, superior knowledge base, ability to add value to others, deliver solutions, get things done and initiate thought-provoking conversations. Influence helps win confidence from team, peers and clients alike.
• Initiate: Great Managers and Leaders are great initiators. They see a gap/void as an opportunity to create something meaningful and long lasting. Leaders initiate great things.
• Inspire: Work is never easy and manager’s primary job is to inspire people when they need it the most. Inspiration works as a booster for people’s morale’. Leaders inspire through words, positive reinforcement and great actions.
• Inform: Leaders keep everyone informed. Informed team work better. Informed client reacts better. Informed peers co-operate better. Sharing information on projects, initiatives and business helps manage expectations at all levels.
• Involve: Leaders never work alone, but involve people in executing ideas. Involvement of people generates buy-in to innovative ideas. Leaders involve people/clients/peers for better outcomes. Leaders involve people in great conversations.
• Interconnect: Leaders integrate human efforts to achieve business goals/results. They interconnect people to create a human fabric within the team. They act as a catalyst to build great working relationship amongst people.
• Improve: Continual improvement in working patterns, attitudes, processes, culture and outcomes define great leadership. Leaders keep a close watch on how things are improving.
• Inspect: Leaders trust, but inspect. They validate direction from time to time to ensure that momentum is in the right direction.
• Innovate: Leaders innovate on purpose. They introduce fresh thinking, new ways of working and new initiatives that make a huge difference to the outcomes of teams and organizations. They break rules and overcome resistance to ensure that innovation is constant. (Thanks to my brother Dr. Setu Vora for suggesting this so-very-important trait of leaders.)

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!