The will, motivation, commitment, persistence and want to become a great leader is necessary for one to begin the development and journey towards becoming one.  Rank, age, and experience is not sufficient for one to become a great leader, because a person can have a high rank, be above 50 years old, and have 20 years of experience in their field but still be a lousy leader.  Nobody was born a great leader.

Your will, motivation, commitment, persistence and want needs to be nourished, encouraged, and reinforced.  You need great leaders to help mentor and guide you in your development or journey towards becoming a great leader.  If none are present, at least find individuals who hold traits and characteristics of a great leader so to learn from them.  Also, understanding and accepting that you might never really reach to become a great leader in your eyes is necessary.  Instead, you might become somebody who will consistently try to be one; this in itself is a characteristic of a great leader and for some you might already be a great leader in their eyes.

Characteristics.  A great leader has patience, knows how to listen, is welcoming, gives feedback and is not afraid to speak when witnessing an injustice.  A great leader has empathy, and cares for his or her team members – always placing the team first.  A great leader understands that in order for a unit, company, organization or command to be successful all parts must function together cohesively towards achieving the mission at hand (Dervitsiotis, 2005).  A great leader understand that a successful organization is not successful because of the work of one person alone, but instead because of the work of all its parts–the team.  Everybody in the team does their part and do it well; a great leader knows how to lead a team towards making this a reality.  A great leader understands and welcomes supervision, because he or she knows that everybody makes mistakes and that oversight is needed in order to achieve the mission.

Complications & Contradictions.  Through out history we hear about many heroes who have done great things and we think that a great leader is somebody who can do it all.  We sometimes think that a great leader never needs help and that a great leader is able to find all solutions without any support.  This type of mentality is wrong and a set up for failure.  A great leader understands that everybody will need help at one point or another, because we are humans after all and are made of skin and bones.  If you look at all the heroes in human history you will see that they at some point in their lives received some sort of help.  There is nothing wrong with requesting and receiving help.  On the contrary, receiving and asking for help shows that you have the courage to speak up for your team and that you are working towards what is best for them.

Overwhelming yourself in order to show others that you are a great leader, will only hurt you and your team.  Why?  Because you will burn out and end up sick or in the hospital, your team will then suffer because your team will end up without you–the crucial piece of the organization will be gone.  This occurs to many helping professionals, they have the best intention to help as many patients as possible but end up hurting themselves and their patients (Crenshaw, Erikson, Fruzzetti, Iverson, Katrichak, Kemmelmeier, MacLane, Miller, Oser, Pistorello, Pruitt, & Watkins, 2011).  Don’t hurt your team by doing this.

A great leader knows when to say no and when to delegate a task to its subordinates equally.  Many times, I have seen leaders refuse to delegate tasks or give many tasks to 1 or two people in their organization leading that “star” member to be burned out.  The problem with this behavior is that you will take away your team’s empowerment and create helplessness in your team members; they will feel that they are unable or not smart/good enough to complete tasks that other teams are able to complete.  A feeling of unfairness and injustice will also be felt among other motivated team members who would like to share the load, and moral will decrease.  Allow the entire team to share the glory, don’t just give it to one or two members.

The problem with a leader who constantly says yes to everything, including taking on many additional tasks, is that the entire team ends up getting burned out with feelings of being unheard.  A great leader consults with his or her organization, its leaders, and/or team members and asks how they feel about a potential task.  If the task is inevitable, because it must be taken due to military operational needs, and the team is not motivated to complete it, a great leader listens and explains why it’s important.  A great leader reminds the team about the mission, and works on inspiring plus motivating them forward.  It is crucial for mission success that you keep an eye on your team’s or organization moral.

Development.  Time, patience and experience helps the development towards becoming a great leader.  At one point in your development you might encounter resistance, push back, and members complaining about you.  If you want to grow take this as an opportunity to grow and learn.  Ask yourself, “Do I want to continue growing, or do I feel fine where I am?”.  If you tell yourself that you reached your goal of becoming a great leader, question this feeling, ask yourself if your members are happy with your leadership, are you accomplishing the mission? Or are you becoming complacent?

History, and your team members will be the ones who will judge if you are a great leader for them.  Be careful and avoid complacency.  A great leader is humble to recognize that he or she is not perfect, and humble enough to admit the need for constant learning.  Nobody ever stops learning because change is inevitable.

For example, we get old and our physiology changes daily whether we like it or not.  We must accept this, and also accept that people don’t accept drastic changes quickly.  Be patient and slowly make changes.  If your goal is to transition your team into a totally different style of leadership, keep in mind that a smooth transition is more effective than a radical transition.  As a leader you must be flexible and help plus support your team towards educating them how to be flexible if they are not.

The Three Legs of the Stool.  A great leader understands or works towards understanding the three legs of a stool that supports organizations.  These are decision-making responsibility, reward, and evaluation (Brickley, Smith, & Zimmerman, 2016).  The leg of decision-making may fall under one leader (you) or under several leaders (when delegating).  The reward can be given by all the leaders in your organization or team.  The evaluation is done constantly by your leaders informally and formally.  In addition, it is important and necessary to welcome audits, checks of processes, systems and procedures (Maniam & Peters, 2016).  This helps towards improving the team overall; including its process, its systems, and procedures (Ekmekci, 2012).  A great leader should not be afraid to hear discrepancies or mistakes done by you or your team.  A great leader doesn’t avoid this, instead he or she confronts it in an effective and productive manner.

How many times have members received a task without a description or guide of what is expected of them? I have seen this occur many times.  A great leader informs his or her team about what is expected of them, what their duties are, including how and where they should be.  You want to make sure your team knows their Chain of Command, and the point of contact for support services such as for traveling, training, and when seeking mental health services.

Remember that self-awareness is important.  One must be self-aware enough to recognize and accept if a mistake was done, then have the courage to apologize, and have the courage to correct it, including verbalizing if you are feeling overwhelmed.  We all communicate in different ways, and so we must understand the different types of communication we use and used by our team members (Argenti, 2013).  For example, some people communicate through feelings while others communicate through stating first what they think.

We must work on consistently motivating ourselves.  Find what motivates you, find your passion and lead there.  Finding your passion in itself is another journey you must take, as the saying goes, one must know how to follow first before becoming a leader.  If you try to lead something that your heart is not into, is very hard to become a great leader in that.  Your heart must be in it, your mind, your behaviors, and your spirit must be in it in order for you to thrive and be great.

By: Marilyn Lazaro, 4/30/2019

References

Argenti, P. A. (2013).  Corporate Communication.  New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Brickley, J., Smith, C., & Zimmerman, J. (2016).  Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture.  New York:  McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Crenshaw, K. Y., Erikson, K. M., Fruzzetti, A. E., Iverson, K. M., Katrichak, B. M.,

Kemmelmeier, M., MacLane, C., Miller, G. D., Oser, M., Pistorello, J., Pruitt, L. D., & Watkins, M. M.  (2011).  A Preliminary Examination of Burnout Among Counselor Trainees Treating Clients With Recent Suicidal Ideation and Borderline Traits.  Counselor Education & Supervision, 50.

Dervitsiotis, K.N. (2005).  Creating Conditions to Nourish Sustainable Organizational

Excellence.  Total Quality Management, 16 (8-9), 925-943.

Ekmekci, O.  (2012).  Reconfigured to be the Best:  Leading Organizations to Excellence

Through Quality Improvement.  SAM Advanced Management Journal.

Maniam, B., & Peters, S. (2016).  Corporate Fraud and Employee Theft Impacts and

Costs on Business.  Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 28(2), 104-117.