Leadership Skills Part 2

In continuation to Leadership Skills Part 1, following are next 5 laws from 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

6. The Law of Solid Ground

• When a leader’s character is strong, people trust the leader. People trust in leader’s ability to release his/her potential.
• How do leaders earn respect? By making sound decisions, admitting their mistakes, and putting what’s best for their followers and organization before their personal agenda.
• If you are trying to create a positive change in an organization, it is necessary to get the buy-in of all other leaders before implementing the change. The greatest test of respect comes when a leader creates major positive change in an organization. In order to make a change, it is good to gather other leaders, cast vision for them, answer questions, and guide them through the issues. Give time to exert that influence to next level of leaders in organization. Finally when timing is right, give plenty of reassurance and execute the change.

7. The Law of Respect

• People don’t follow others by accident. People who are an 8 in leadership don’t look for a 6 to follow – they naturally follow a 9 or 10. The less skilled follow the more skilled and gifted.
• Occasionally, a strong leader may choose to follow someone weaker than himself. But when that happens, it’s for a reason. For example, the stronger leader my do it out of respect for the person’s office or past accomplishments. Or he may be following the chain of command. In general though, followers are attracted to people who are better leaders than themselves.

8. The Law of Intuition

• Leadership intuition is the ability of a leader to read what’s going on. Leaders are readers.
• Leaders Are Readers of their situation, resources, people and trends. Leaders discern where the organization is headed. Often, they sense it first and find data later to explain it. Their intuition tells them that something is happening and conditions are changing. Leaders must always be a few steps ahead of their people, or they’re not really leading.

9. The Law of Magnetism

• In most situations, you draw people who possess the same qualities that you do. Who you are is who you attract. Rarely have I seen positive and negative people attracted to one another (unlike magnetic poles). People who view life as a series of opportunities and exciting challenges don’t want to hear others talk about how bad things are all the time.
• If you think the people you attract could be better, then it’s time for you to improve yourself. May be it is time to make some better friends and improve your circle.
• If you are a 7 on a leadership scale, you are more likely to draw 5s and 6s to you rather than 2s and 3s. The leader you attract will be similar in style and ability as you are.

10. The Law of Connection

• There’s an old saying – “To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart”. That’s the nature of the Law of Connection. Always touch a person’s heart before you ask for a hand.
• How do you connect with people?
  1. Connect with Yourself: If you don’t believe in who you are and where you want to lead, work on that before doing anything else.
  2. Communicate with Openness and Sincerity and Know Your Audience: Learning people’s names, finding out their history, or asking about their dreams. When you communicate to an audience, you learn about the organization and its goals. You want to speak about what it cares about. Try to be attuned to a person’s culture, background, education, and so on. Adapt to others; don’t expect others to adapt to you. Effective speakers and leaders speak language their audience wants to hear.
  3. Live Your Message: Practice what you preach. That’s were credibility comes from.
  4. Give Them Hope: When you give people hope, you give them a future.
• Successful leaders who obey the Law of Connection are always initiator. They take the first step with others and then make the effort to continue building relationships. It’s not always easy, but it’s important for the success of the organization. A leader has to do so, no matter how many obstacles there might be.
• You connect with others when you learn their names, make yourself available to them, tell them how much you appreciate them, find out what they are doing, and, most importantly, listen to them.

I will be continuing Leadership series in my coming posts, so stay tuned. Do not forget to add your valuable inputs and experience to help others in comment section below.