Leadership

There is plenty written about what is leadership and who is a leader. We are not going to go there and reinvent the wheel. Have you ever sat and wondered what does it take to identify a leader? What are the qualities on needs in order to be able to identify a leader?

Take the example of a typical work-place, irrespective of the size of the organization, with a manager and a few teamleads and of course a lot more employees. How does one go about identifying a team-leader - is it just by virtue of the time spent in an organization? Or, is it just by virtue of qualifications / trainings an employee has? Or is it by the respect an individual earns from others?

A logical answer is - the respect an individual earns from others. A realistic answer in almost every organization is typically based on the time spent in an organization or experience..

So how do you go about identifying a leader? What do you look for? Every employee is out to prove his / her worth so they are all performing to their 100% effort. They are all trying to overcome challenges in their respective work areas. They are all delivering on-time, on-budget and in-scope. So what is the differentiator between an employee and a potential leader?

The key differentiator is Proactive Ownership.

A leader always has a keen sense to see the end-to-end picture, foresee problems and takes ownership of issues as they arise. Once they take ownership of issues, which are many times outside their expertise domain, deliver resolution to the satisfaction of the stakeholders. Over a period of time, these individuals are transformed from being a deliverable oriented to initiative oriented, in a way, become the go-to person for all issues. This is what we need to search for when we look for a potential team lead. This is the REAL leader.

There is an unsaid rule - a leader spots a leader. If you spot a great leader a number of times, go with your gut-feeling. You know your traits. I am sure, your traits would equate to something like what I have written above, search for them. You will find that the potential leader matches the way you work and deliver.

So, the next time around, you are looking for a team lead, are you go to butt-heads with HR in appointing a team leader based on the number of years in the company or you will appoint a real team-leader - think about it?