How To Become An Effective Leader, In Eighteen Weeks

What a day!

I wanted to record this just to highlight some of the things that I learned from todays experience and my experience in learning what it takes to be a great leader. My experience so far has been a curious journey. I have been curious about the requirements of a good leader, of a great leader. I have been curious and inquiring about the skills needed in order to be an effective leader. I came across John C. Maxwell’s book

and also my experience through the Global Management course that I have taken with Ryerson University, has exposed me to more options to help me assess what makes an effective leader, a great leader. I must say, when you start to recognize and see the theory come to life through practice it ‘s such a rewarding feeling, because you know the journey isn’t over yet. I realize that it’s simply the beginning. When I can compare the relationships to the past experiences and recognize the improvement it is such a rewarding feeling to see the  people that you have had challenges with start to open up to you and you open up and you become vulnerable to them as well and just makes everything that you are learning that much more enjoyable.

So what have I learned in the past eighteen weeks? The past eighteen weeks when I decided to delve into the theory of management and what makes an effective leader and effective leadership. I have learned that leadership is not a destination that you arrive at. It is an ongoing  learning process and it’s an on going development and there is not one formula that works for all situations. I have learned that in order to be an effective leader you need to put in the effort to get to know the people that you  are going to be leading. Even if you are not going to be leading them directly it is always important; it is a vital part in being effective whether you are in a leadership position or even as a friend. Getting to know people helps when it comes to  empathizing, and building rapport. This might seem very simple, very basic and that everybody should know these fundamentals. However, I think with all the noise and chaos that happens with everyday life, we lose sight of that. I thing we have lost sight of that as a society. I think we are doing our best to get back to the simplicities of common courtesy and the ability to truly listen, and empathize, and love, essentially that is the one word that sums it all up. I have also learned that you can do everything possibly right when it comes to leadership, everything you might deem as right, everything that seems right to you. However, you have to be quick to change if the environment requires you to do so. You have to be able to make decisions quickly, you have to be analytical, you have to be critical. Essentially, the truth of it is is that to be an effective leader, to impact others  you need to be willing to make the change within yourself  you need to be willing to accept that not all of the answers are right in front of you, however, you need to be willing to work with others and work with yourself and find the room to improve, recognize the failures, but don’t dwell on them. 

Let’s conclude this. Am I a good leader? The feedback that I have received has been positive. However, let me say that If I dwell on the positive feedback for too long I may get complacent and miss out on opportunity to improve in areas that I haven’t recognized or hasn’t been recognized by others. For the moment I will celebrate the positive feedback, but going forwards I know based on what I have learned, no matter the scenario, there is always room for improvement.