Stop, take a look around, is anyone following you? According to New York Times Best seller John Maxwell, if you hold the position of a leader and no one is following you, then you are not leading, just merely taking a stroll.

Leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this effectively. Leadership is a very important role all organizations.

One of the most basic leadership roles comes in the form of the frontline supervisor. Becoming a supervisor can be very exciting. You are given the responsibility of leading and directing others. Achieving your goals is no longer dependent on your actions alone. You must work through others to get the job done. You cannot rate your own performance as being excellent if you are not able to honestly rate the performance of your direct reports as excellent.

People are one of the most important resources a company has. If the people do not perform at their best then the company will not perform at its maximum capacity. Therefore finding the right person to lead your team is as important as the actual product or service you are providing to your clients.

Leaders must be able to influence and inspire their team in order to get them to perform at their best even when no one is looking. If each member of the team is getting what they need then it’s likely they will perform to expectations or above.

Characteristics of a Good Leader

Empathy: Creating and maintaining a genuine relationship with your staff reduces the chances for personal matters and resentment take root and disrupt the group. When your team knows that you are genuinely empathetic to their diverse concerns, they will be more likely to work rather than hold negative feelings.

Consistency: Respect and credibility can be gained by being a consistent leader. This is essential to getting buy-in from the group. When you set an example of fairness and credibility, the team will want to behave in the same way.

Honesty: Honesty also gives credibility. Being honest about your concerns make it more likely that challenges will be addressed rather than avoided. This in turn leads to better assessment and growth of the team.

Visionary: Having the vision to step out of the norm and aim for greater things coupled with the ability to set the goals necessary to get there and the determination to act daily. These are necessary steps to create needed change.

Communication: Effective communication helps keep the team working together with the right attitude. If you communicate effectively about expectations, issues and advice, your team will be more likely to respond and meet your goals.

Flexibility: One size fits all approach cannot be used with problem solving. Being flexible and open minded enough to consider new ideas will increase the likelihood of finding the best possible answer. You will therefore set a good example for your team and good ideas will be rewarded.

Conviction: A strong vision with the willingness to see it through is a very important leadership characteristic. The leader who believes in the mission and works toward it will be an inspiration and a resource to their followers.

Transitioning to your Leadership Role

In order to be successful as a new leader or leading a new group, there are some critical actions that must be taken at the beginning of your assignment.

• Meet with your leader. Discuss and learn what your leader expects of you and also indicate and discuss what you expect from your leader.
• Take an inventory of the resources available to you such as people, manuals and employee files etc.
• Meet with your team individually and as a group. Discuss what they expect of you and  what you expect of them.
• Give clear directions ensuring they are not mistaken as requests.
• Deal with any ignored directives immediately.
• Be objective, fair and focused.
• Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated

Remember, becoming a leader takes more than your technical expertise as you must deal with a range issues when managing people. Your viewpoint must change to match the team and not just you, and you also need new broader perspective.

Overall you must possess a good mix of technical, human and conceptual skills although human skills are most important for all levels of leadership.

About the author

Sherraine Gardner is a Consultant and owner of SABG Future Solutions. Sherraine has over 10 years of leadership experience. Her passion is helping people realize their full potential and perform at the highest level through building employee engagement resulting in excellent service delivery and operational efficiency. Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sabgfuturesolutions and read her blogs on www.sabgfuturesolutions.com