Know the way, Go the way, Show the Way (Part I)

When asked about what leadership means, people around us would give a variety of answers. Some of the responses would most certainly include power, influence, position, responsibility, inspiration and initiative based on the person’s experience at being a leader or experience with a leader. As no definition to date can do justice to the true essence of leadership, people are left wondering what true leadership really is. Is it power and influence? Is it the ability to inspire people? Is it the number of votes a candidate can garner in an election? Or is it how successfully a general can fight a war? In my opinion, the quote “a leader needs to know the way, go the way and show the way” is enough to cover most aspects of effective leadership.

A leader needs to know the way in order to effectively lead his team. A leader needs to have clear objectives and goals in his mind that he or she wishes to achieve. As Stephen R Covey states in his best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a leader needs to “begin with the end in mind”. After knowing what he or she wants to achieve, a leader needs to know how to achieve it as well. Without a clear path to achieve the end goal, a leader would not be able to effectively lead his or her team. The leader also needs to be able to foresee problems in order to chart a path that would either steer clear of the foreseen problems or have a solution ready when the problem inevitably arises.

More on going the way in the next post......

Written by: Hozefa