What Is Leadership?

Leadership; its responsibility for managing the environment that benefits its environment, makes radical changes in the ongoing tradition; It is called the ability to carry with decisions and practices based on intuition, intelligence and knowledge. Leader; He is a person who influences his environment, depending on his capacity to use the power in his hand. He knows how to stand behind the difficult decisions he takes and the results when necessary.

Leaders have a structure that influences and drags the individuals around them with their power of rhetoric, knowledge and vision. He listens to people and makes a special effort to understand them. It provides environments for positive change and continuous learning that will allow everyone around them to develop the best of themselves. Thanks to the strong social values he has, the “charisma” he creates around him, his exemplary personality and consistent behaviors lead him to be an active role model for other people.
While defining leadership, there is no mention of any physical limits or office conditions. In other words, it is not the position that makes a person a leader, but his skills. A person must acquire leadership and leadership-related qualifications in order to have the capacity to lead his own life like a leader. In this way, he knows how to act, what decision he can make, and succeeds in every place and condition from business life to family life.

Why Is Leadership An Important Skill?

Effective leadership is essential to a functioning society. On a smaller scale, the facts apply to organizations and businesses. Without effective leadership, it is basically impossible for a company to continue to evolve and grow over time. Especially at a time when digital technology is changing every aspect of how things are done and how customers interact with brands, a brand without effective leaders will be like a ship without a captain guiding its direction.
Leadership shines not only when things go well, but also when things get tough. They are respected by the people around them, and they are motivated to work harder and make more significant contributions to the betterment of the organization. Leadership is not about working towards a goal alone. In fact, leadership is about encouraging and motivating people to work together towards a goal.
A manager without leadership qualities can plan the work that needs to be done in line with the goals of the institution, direct the personnel at the lower level about the planned work, and reward his subordinates fairly when the goals are achieved; Since the manager does not attach importance to interpersonal relations, he cannot create a positive working environment that will enable employees to work in harmony with each other, and cannot increase the motivation and performance of employees. Personal conflicts and communication problems occur within the team and things get worse and worse. Managers should improve themselves in communication, participatory management and conflict management in order to motivate employees and create a fair working environment. For this reason, having leadership ability is very considerable, especially for a manager.

What Are The Qualities Of A Leader?

Leadership requires some essential qualities, these can be listed as follows:
● Communication: Strong communication ability is one of the leadership qualities that many people value most. The main task of a manager is to organize the relationships and strategies between internal and external resources. Good managers listen to their employees’ concerns and suggestions. Therefore, it is an important detail that communication is not one-sided. Leaders often need to use their diplomacy skills to be successful in communication.
● Being a Role Model: Leaders are also a role model since they are often observed by other employees. Superiors can easily lose credibility when they ask their employees for something they can easily do.
● Responsibility: Someone needs to make the decisions and take responsibility, and that person is usually the top echelon of the team. But leadership also includes delegating tasks to delegate responsibility. Managers who delegate responsibilities to their employees also motivate them to take more responsibility and create corporate loyalty.
● Motivation: Motivation of employees, encouraging them and being a source of inspiration for them are the basic requirements of leadership; because only highly motivated employees are good employees.
● Unlocking the Potential: Managers with leadership qualities often have the ability to anticipate who has what talent and how they can use it to the benefit of their business. Instead of fearing competition, they help talented and motivated employees become the new leaders of the company.
● Tolerance: Mistakes happen in every workplace and this is an unavoidable reality. However, lessons must be learned from mistakes. Managers need to be fault-tolerant to a certain extent. Instead of getting angry or criticizing, analyze your mistakes together with your employees and agree on what needs to be done so that the same mistake does not happen again. Employees who are afraid of making mistakes or being superior cannot work efficiently and freely.
● Flexibility: Managers need to develop leadership skills to adapt to different situations. This requires flexibility and foresight capabilities.
● Self-Awareness: Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Being aware of your own strengths and shortcomings and having the courage to be open about them will make you a more successful leader.

How To Become A Good Leader?

In order to be a good leader, first of all, it is necessary to have the above competencies. If you do not have these, you can improve yourself in these areas. In addition, in order to be a good leader, it is necessary to first care about what other people think and not be selfish as a good leader should have the habit of listening.
In addition, to be a good leader, one should not be afraid of failure. Everyone has faults and mistakes. The important thing is to be able to continue in a motivated way after making these mistakes and encountering failure. Since this is not a competency that everyone has, those who can ignore their mistakes and move on are often among the leaders of the community.
Besides, even if you are going to become a professional in one field, always maintain your hunger for learning in different fields. This approach enables you to think multi-dimensionally, turns crises into opportunities and enables you to make quick decisions even in case of negative situations, and improves your foresight.
Being a respectful person also matters of being a good leader since respect is not a stance that can be earned. Earning respect is earned entirely through human relations, regardless of how knowledgeable and experienced you are. Improve your empathy and communication skills, increase your self-confidence. If there is a behavior that you expect from the person in front of you, exhibit that behavior first.

How Is Leadership Being Evolved?

Leadership as mentioned; varies according to purpose, environment and followers. On the other hand, the basic competencies that a leader should possess are valid for every leadership type. While development according to leadership type can be achieved by gaining experience, it is possible to develop basic competencies by receiving training from a qualified institution. Of course, the basis of the work lies in wanting to improve and working hard to realize this desire.
The training received for the development of leadership competencies is internalized by a successful leader. The same applies to advice received from consultants. In other words, every knowledge acquired on the path of development should be absorbed by the leader and used in a way that reflects the personality of the leader. The last stop of the inner journey is to be a giver. In the path of being a successful leader, people should stand on the side of the giver, not the taker. That is, to contribute to the success of the followers in order to be successful.

How Can Leaders Empower Employees?

Leaders; especially thanks to their strong communication skills and ability to be a good listener, they undertake practices such as strong communication between employees, realizing and revealing the hidden potential of employees, and a solution-oriented approach by listening carefully and devotedly to some problems of employees. At the same time, providing the necessary incentives to the employees also provides a great motivation for the employees. For this reason, leaders use such practices to increase the motivation of employees.