Becoming An Objective Leader

To be a good leader, you must be a good follower. That’s one of my favorite sayings. When put into situations where I’m not in the lead position, I always strive to make the leader’s job easy by doing my part and more. In situations where I’m asked to lead a group of people, my objective is to have a good understanding of the goal. Once I have a clear picture of the goal, I make sure everyone on the team is onboard with that goal. This may require some convincing of the rest of the team, but utilizing deliberations and discussions, I’d attempt to persuade any team members who are not all-in on the plan. Depending on whether my team is made up of like-minded individuals, would determine my approach. I’m in leadership positions in my professional, …show more content…
For example, in my professional setting, I manage 5½ opinionated and experienced engineers. When we work on large accounts, I typically pick a team of about 2 or 3 of the engineers to work on it. I lay out the plan of attack and let them decide amongst themselves who will do what parts. Another example relates to my recreational life, I’m the captain of our rec league tennis team. I approach this group much differently than my professional group. This group has to be lead with a little more of an “iron fist” approach. Because so many of the guys in this group have leadership responsibilities within their own professions, they tend to slack off when it comes time to take care of the business of our tennis team. For this team, we have to assess a fee in order to take care of the team liabilities (i.e. coaching fees, court fees, balls, etc). Explicit instructions are provided to them regarding amounts, and especially due dates, to make sure that we have everything handled appropriately. I can’t allow them to chime in on when assessments are due and …show more content…
I was promoted to the position and was told it was because I did a great job in the previous role. I was also told that upper management believed that I possessed the skill set and work ethic to be successful in the position. So I naturally wanted to be the pacesetter when I first got the role. When new tasks are presented to my team I always try to set the example by which all of the other guys should judge themselves. The Authoritative style almost goes hand-in-hand with the Democratic style. Again, all of my current subordinates have more years of experience, so once I set the goals for the team I feel comfortable letting them come up with their own way of reaching