Transformative leaders make people feel empowered. They empower others to have a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the success of their group. Credible leaders know that when employees feel strong, capable, and effective, it is possible to expect important achievements.
Employees who feel weak, incompetent, and insignificant perform poorly, want to leave the organization (or remain reluctant), and are prone to disenchantment, and even opposition.
Leadership is a collection of practices and behaviors and not just a hierarchical position. That is why it was defined as the art of mobilizing others to wish to fight for common aspirations. Which is closely linked to the process of innovation, incorporation of new ideas, methods and solutions.
Honesty and respect are fundamental values of the new business culture. But… too often executives do not do what they say, they proclaim speeches in one direction and act in another, demonstrating the existence of deep contradictions between thinking, feeling, saying and doing, within the organization. These leaders do not take into account that the collaborators only trust them when their words coincide with their actions. Is that the collaborators:
• They need to see that their leader is capable and effective, that their competence goes beyond their technological capacity.
• They need to see and believe that their leader is able to confidently express an attractive image of the future.
• They need to see, believe and trust that it has the capacity to lead them to the goal.
The most effective leadership situations are those where each team member is confident and committed to everyone's success.
Trust is a vital requirement of leadership
Trust does not solve problems on its own, trust provides help. Helps reduce interference, helps empower communications by lowering barriers to transmission, and achieving full understanding of the message, helps decrease differences of opinion, helps empower better decision-making. It helps to form oiled and harmonious work groups, it helps to achieve results.
These questions were asked in a research on credibility and leadership. How do you know if someone is credible? How would you define credibility in terms of conduct? How do you recognize credible leaders?
Some responses obtained were: "They practice what they preach." "Get down to business." "His actions are consistent with his words." "They do what they say they will do."
Consequently the conclusion would be HLQDQH: Do what you say you will do. However this may be insufficient. Leadership involves representing groups of people who have not always coincident needs, interests, values and visions. Therefore, to lead by example, it is necessary to act on a collective set of objectives and aspirations.
The new conclusion then will be HLQNDQH: Do what we say we will do. Which imposes on the leader:
• Clarify the personal values and beliefs of team members, • Unify collaborators around shared values, • Pay constant attention to how everyone defends their values, and
• Pay attention to how he himself defends his values.
Unfortunately, it is common to see certain leaders competing with their collaborators. This behavior disturbs communications and alters relationships: the insecure boss does not allow anyone to express his opinion or ignore the opinions of those who have less hierarchy, he is autocratic with his employees and submissive with his superiors.
Because employees pay more attention to what executives do than what they say, this inconsistency leads to the failure of many change initiatives, both personally and organizationally. It is that the organization does not act, the people who work in the organization are those who act based on the different types of messages they receive.
Trust is a prerequisite in communication
We listen to those we trust and accept their influence. The biggest problem with lack of trust is that people stop communicating. If communication slows down, various negative consequences can ensue such as confusion, tension, reduced productivity, resentment, frustration, and the inability of employees to do the job.
We continually interact with people with whom we must communicate successfully and sometimes we cannot. Possibly this state of affairs would change if it were possible to establish more harmonious relationships, for which it is necessary to have two qualities:
• Empathy. Which is the ability to put yourself in the other person's situation, trying to understand their points of view and feelings.
• Assertiveness. Which is the power to say what you feel or think without hurting the other person.
It is known that frank and sincere communication occurs when senders and receivers give each other trust. Despite which the results of several studies on organizational capacity and attitude of employees define deficiencies in sharing information. By accepting that communication is a two-way street, it is possible to understand that providing information and seeking an exchange of ideas and opinions is a necessary resource for understanding objectives and achieving results.
In other words: if you want success, communication is never low.
When empathy and assertiveness are not present in the relationship and there are other drawbacks that make communication difficult, it is when you affirm that you are dealing with "difficult people", referring both to bosses, colleagues and employees. These difficult people can be framed as follows:
• The dictators. They try to intimidate and control, they do not admit criticism, they are rigid and given to pass sentence and they tend to get angry easily (sometimes unexpectedly). The way to control them is by not taking their outbursts personally or arguing. It is a good idea to wait for your outburst of fury to end before you get your attention. Being fundamental not to yield, not to humiliate oneself or to be vulnerable. Having the certainty that they are not harder than the interlocutor… although they try to demonstrate it with their attitude.
• The false ones. They are those who do not act from the front and make humiliating comments from behind, they are usually envious and when they attack they look for allies who share their opinion, while they hide pretending that they have done nothing wrong. In this regard, we keep in mind the way of acting of a leader who, when he was in a meeting, used to call colleagues and / or employees on the phone to make some consultation, exaggerating the gestural communication of disagreement (although he did not verbalize it) seeking the complicity of those who accompanied him. The way to control them is not to think they got away with it. Don't laugh at their outings, respond instantly and hear their protests of innocence. Of course: do not underestimate their power of destruction since they are bad enemies and in case they are your boss… start looking for another job.
• The reserved ones. Closed in themselves and usually silent, they do not express why they are silent, they respond with monosyllables and usually avoid commitments. To control them, it is convenient to ask open questions so that they cannot answer yes or no. It is convenient not to break the silence until they have no other way out than to define their posture. Don't criticize her silence, but don't apologize for forcing them to abandon you.
• The smarties. Endowed with an air of superiority they think of any subject as if they knew everything about everything and everyone. They find it difficult to admit different opinions and they tend to be very critical. Tip: don't try to beat them, you won't, given that they have an unrivaled arsenal of arguments. When you have discrepancies, ask and ask questions so that they themselves reach the conclusion you are looking for. If there is no other possibility than the opposition, do so with concrete and demonstrable arguments. Ah! And laugh as much as you can, humor reduces stress.
• The complacent undecided. Super friendly, insecure, slow to make decisions, they try not to adopt extreme positions. They generally need people to appreciate them. Help them decide, guiding them on priorities or in decision-making processes. Once this is taken, support them by reinforcing their position… and make sure they comply.
• The critics. They always find fault with everything around them, their tone is reproachful, they always express the guilt of others, but they do not provide solutions to solve the problems they complain about. Face them and disagree, give them little time. Acknowledge important points of criticism and ask for ideas and solutions. And if you can ignore them: they are not good companions to share a coffee.
• The negatives. They see the problems but not the solutions, they are pessimistic and they overwhelm turning the grains of sand into mountains. Listen to the drawbacks and problems they pose (sometimes they are good analysts) but don't believe that there is no solution.
Who does not identify people in their environment with some of these characteristics? Sincerely: Don't you sometimes act like one of them? All of these people have positive qualities that will need to be recognized and accepted.
Trust is a fundamental requirement in training
The demands for technological updates are increasing and the need to have motivated, trained and adequate human resources in their conformation to face difficult conjunctural situations, such as the current recessive stage. In this type of situation, the contribution of the Organization's Human Resources Department is important.
That is to say: its added value is to develop the intellectual capital of the organization transforming individual capacities into integral capacities. This forces the process of training and development of human resources in charge of providing effective responses aimed at satisfying cultural rites of quality and productivity, so as to fulfill the purpose of having the right people, in the right place, at the right time. adequate to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Which will require to inquire: What competences exist? What skills will be necessary? How to measure the achievement of new capabilities?
The disposition of the collaborators sometimes does not correspond to the capacities that they possess. Since in the plane of the facts the will and the capacity are two different things.
Reason why when establishing training programs requires defining:
• That it is impossible to train all people in all subjects.
• That the collaborator must adapt to the changes, bearing in mind that job stability may be linked to that adaptation.
• That not all training is the responsibility of the company: the employee is also responsible for its development.
Personal and professional relationships
Since personal quality is the basis of all other types of quality, it is essential that the members of the organization observe the need to:
• Keep promises.
• Not only putting the body, but also the soul, both at work and at home.
• Share successes and failures of the group to which you belong.
• Take the initiative, turning thoughts into action.
• Invest time in other people, listening carefully to what they say and collaborating in their training.
• Never say "it is not my responsibility", and
• Do the best you can in your current job…. or find another
