From my very particular point of view, a leader should be able to influence, but beyond to achieve common goals, to achieve a transformation in the actions of the people that will be what allows them to achieve those goals. Hence, I think that for this to be possible, it is necessary for the leader to transform first.
When speaking of Leadership, some names of characters who have been considered leaders throughout history come to mind; however Bridges says that:… "leadership beliefs reflect the more general values and concerns of their time" So, beyond talking about leaders or their characteristics, I would like to think of leadership as a skill that is gradually transforming over time.
If we were to start from the previous concept, it seems to me that for a skill to be transformed, we would have to think that whoever was transformed was the person who exercises it.
Traditionally leadership has been defined as the ability to influence others to achieve common goals, but if we talk about a transformation in the conception of leadership, then, this definition would lead us to a traditional conception and in a world of change, given what discussed in previous paragraphs, leadership would have to include this change.
From my very particular point of view, a leader should be able to influence, but beyond to achieve common goals, to achieve a transformation in the actions of the people that will be what allows them to achieve those goals. Hence, I think that for this to be possible, it is necessary for the leader to transform first.
From my point of view, a leader manages to make an impact on himself and on people, based on the consistency and trust that derives from it. It is important to note that although I agree with some authors who mention that for there to be leadership, there must be followers; I disagree on the concept of "followers", I would expand it to "others" and include oneself. I believe that it is from others that the leader must be able to transmit this trust and from my perspective be a provider; a provider of resources and means for people to achieve what they have to do.
I would define coherence as acting according to the beliefs and attitudes that each person has in life and that refers me to the concept of leadership in oneself and that the leader must “self-model” the behaviors that he wants to develop in people; It seems to me that living them and being an example of them is the fastest form of influence that can exist.
Another aspect that I think is important to highlight at this point in self-modeling is the fact that the leader “self-manages” before trying to manage others. By this I mean that if a "leader" is not capable of transforming himself and becoming a person who constantly learns, he will hardly allow error and it seems to me that this is one of the most important elements of learning and that the lack of permission to make mistakes, it is a major mistake.
It seems to me that the self-awareness that a leader may have must be the result of an important work of self-knowledge and that transmit this from the humility of recognizing that he is a person who does not know everything, that he is not the one who is going to lead and that he can be wrong, is from where the power arises to build a new way of working, a vision that allows to put ambition into practice, not seen as something negative but as an ambition to be, of achievement of action put into practice that allows people to collaborates with this leader to have confidence in his decisions, in his actions and to learn from mistakes, and this seems to me to be the greatest contribution and influence that a leader can have.
Perhaps the above is the reason why when speaking of leadership not only famous people in history come to mind, but also human beings whom I was fortunate to have as bosses and from whom I have learned to put these beliefs into practice; and to those from here, I send my deepest gratitude for having allowed me to learn from them the impact that such a boss can have on the people in their charge.
