Leadership

Remember the movie "300" when King Leonidas led 300 Spartans into battle against Persian Xerxes and his army of more than one million soldiers, in which was the first time I had the understanding of leadership. In its simplest terms, leadership is the process of influencing the behavior of others to achieve certain goals and activities. Throughout the two sessions of executive briefings, I have been blessed with the opportunity of being in the presence of region's leading senior leaders. From these experiences, I am ensured that, in order to be an effective leader, it is essential for a person to be able to communicate, forward-looking and learn.

Communication is everything and it can make or break the organization. Because of this, it is critical that leaders must clearly state the objectives and goals to their team. According to Ross Beaton from Bank of America and Michelle Weisenbach from US Bank, leaders in successful organizations establish its own team by getting the right kind of people with similar visions, work ethics and passion. Once you have established the team, it is important to trust each individual using his/her expertise to achieve the goals. Elieen Drake from PCC Structurals believes leader should understand the basic of each function and provide personal space for individuals in your team to perform. In my view, I completely understand there is no "I" in team and I believe that it is important that every team members should be in the same page. Effective leaders should know what to say to motivate their teammates and rely on teamwork to achieve of objectives. There is no doubt that leaders may face special challenges as they try to communicate and interact with the teams due to the leadership role. Team members may think they are required to listen to leaders, but it is up to leaders to establish beliefs that leaders value each individual and are guided by what is fair to all.

According to John McCalla from Warn Industries, the whole point of leadership is figuring out where to go from where you are now. It is significant that leaders must have a clear view of "big picture". Successful leaders should have a vision for the future instead of spending tons of time on today because it usually indicate that the failure of leaders in present as the organizations rely too much on the leaders for inputs at every stage. Therefore, I understand effective leaders should set aside some time for planning, strategizing and thinking about the future apart from daily operation of the organizations. Like I mentioned above, communication is a key to success, therefore leaders who have clear vision for the future and a strong plan for going forward should share their vision with their teams in order to ensure every teammate is in the same page.

Both Tom Cusick and Gerry from Columbia Sportswear and Nike stated that there are