Leadership Session at Gap Miners

A leadership session for first time managers at Gap Miners.

We discussed what leadership was all about. The general idea was that it was about 'leading' the way to accomplish a given task. At the other extreme, I mentioned that leadership was about bringing out the best in the resources.

We discussed how leadership as an attitude helps in performing better.

We discussed how it was best to have the attitude of a leader because then the individual understands the concept of a team and the individual's role in the team better. If we all carried the attitude of a leader we'd be far more purposeful, responsible and result - oriented i.e. we'd perform better.

We discussed the qualities of an ideal leader. The team gave 27 attributes. We trimmed it to 6 qualities each - professional and personal attributes. then we ranked them in order of priority.

Professional attributes

1.Goal clarity (clarity of thought) - knowing what the task is and what to achieve 

2. Subject knowledge - knowing the tools/knowledge to achieve it best/most efficiently

3. Decision making - using quality information to make considered decisions that are consistently good

4. Delivery - delivering and exceeding targets on performances, improving work culture and office efficiencies by doing all the 'expected' tasks/jobs well, bringing in a growth oriented and performance oriented attitude in the team

5. Process orientation - knowing the process - job based, personnel based

6. Focus on goal - unwavering focus on goal and its achievement

Personal attributes

1.Honest, trustworthy - being open and consistent, fair and just, treating everyone the same

2.Genuine interest in team's growth - genuine interest in team's growth and in individual growth

3.Responsible - taking responsibility for all that happens in the team, performance, morale, inter personal relationships etc

4.Motivating, supporting, approachable - a product of being genuinely interested, of good man management

5.Hard working - being two steps ahead of the team i.e. need to do your work beforehand to lead the team

6. Objective - always remaining objective, get metrics in every way, devise ways to measure

Things to do

1) Rate yourself on each of the above on a  scale of 10. If you are scoring less than 8, you need to work on that.

Remember that you will be judged by your delivery. Apart from delivering on the job, you also have to keep in mind that delivery includes the quantity and quality of all your acts - timing, work ethic, presentation, organization, approach to people and their issues both within and outside the organization.

Please try to consciously improve on these counts. Make small but clear changes. it will make a huge difference to the team members and how they view work. You will also understand that leadership does involve being gentle and tough - like an older sibling or a parent even.