Leadership

Leadership is in all of us, all of the time. We are all leaders.

At Taqaddam, we believe that leadership is not just for politicians, CEOs and sports heroes.

We believe that if you want to be an effective leader, you need to be connected to your values and principles and the things that you’re passionate about.

*If you haven’t done the values and purpose missions from the My Life section then it would be good to do those before you start this mission.

Step 1: Think of a leader that you admire or want to be more like

Step 2: Write as many positive things about them as you can, using these questions:

– Who they are? Are they inspirational, motivated, confident etc…

– What do they have? Money, followers, etc…

– What do they do? Public speaking, influence, sing etc…

Step 3: Now label each thing you have written with a letter:
H: for what they Have
A: for who they Are
D: for what they Do

Go for it. And don’t scroll further until you’re done.

Step 4: What do you notice? How many Hs, As and Ds are there?

Usually when we do this activity we find that people are mostly admired for who they ARE, not what they Have or what they Do. So it is likely that you probably have a page of mostly As. Meaning that what you admire and like about the leader is who they are – as a person. Their qualities, values and character.

It is widely recognised that the best leaders are the ones who are admired because of who they are.

And this is true for you too.

What does leadership look like?

Along the Taqaddam journey, we have been encouraging you to build your noticing skills.

Watch this short clip and see how many acts of leadership you can spot.

The Tree

Leadership comes in many forms

You will have seen people who:

Take initiative – These people are leaders because they see something that needs to be done and they take responsibility, even with the odds against them.

Join in – You can’t lead from the front all the time. You need to take action in support of others. This includes the ‘first follower’, who shows leadership by having the courage to be the first person to join in.

Show support – who give motivation to those taking positive action and encourage others to get involved.

Types and styles of leadership

When it comes to working together and getting things done, there are a number of different types of leadership. These include:

Commanding – Telling people what to do
Visionary – Inspiring people with a vision
Team focused – Building good relationships and environments
Democratic – Encouraging participation and shared decision-making
Performance focused – Setting high standards
Coaching – Supporting people to develop, learn and grow

Of course most leadership is a blend of styles. And different situations call for different approaches, for example, with a new project it might be more important to be team focused, but in an emergency, a commanding approach might be more effective.