All people have the ability to develop and enhance their skills. On the one hand there are technical skills or hard skills and on the other hand personal, adaptive or misnamed soft skills or soft skills.
For many years they have focused on technical skills and not so much on soft skills, when really the difference as an enabler and leader is the soft skills to develop or enhance.
Unfortunately leadership has been misunderstood for a long time, it has been believed that to be a leader you have to be a boss. The word leader required followers to be a leader, when really a leader is one who has the ability to influence or serve people to help unlock their potential.
There is no consensus regarding the guiding principles of leadership, according to the authors consider 7,8, 11 principles, what is more widespread is that to be a more human leader, a series of qualities must be cultivated:
- Courage: With a proactive attitude and promoting action on reaction. With courage, determination and passion to undertake actions, especially when a danger or difficulty is tackled.
- Humility: Show confidence, closeness, sharing credibility and helping others to grow from the knowledge of our own limitations. Be accessible and allow other people to contribute and experiment by developing their skills.
- Responsibility: Decisions, behaviors and consequences must be assumed even when they are not expected.
- Communication: Promote communication skills, so that there is a better understanding. In this way, trust is generated, objectives and actions are aligned to achieve the goals.
- Honesty: Congruence between words and actions aligned with thoughts. For this, trust is necessary and develops with active listening, sensitivity and empowerment through recognition.
- Conviction: You have to believe in what you do with passion and determination, in this way the way of transmitting, focus and persistence allows you to get closer to goals.
- Collaboration: Allow others to share their responsibility, knowledge, creativity and experience to create solutions with synergies and establish relationships where all parties win.
- Alignment: You have to look beyond your own agenda, aligning the needs, objectives and responsibilities of others, looking for common motivations to obtain a clear joint vision.
These principles should serve as a guide for self-growth and extend beyond ourselves, daily practicing the habit to internalize:
- Practice guardianship of these guiding principles of leadership, through dedication, conversation and personal development.
- Define the area of safety and well-being with my actions, words and deeds.
- Reflect to help teams achieve ethical results that have a common purpose.
- Convey passion, optimism and resolution.
- Improve personal communication to promote full relationships.
- Promote a working community in which we are all committed to each other and where a common goal is pursued.
- Exercise with responsible freedom and empowerment at all levels in the team to develop human potential.
- Proactively get involved in people's personal growth.
- Promote meaningful group interactions.
- Establish, accompany and redefine the meaning of the concept of winning.
- Celebrate and recognize the excellence of others every day.
- Commit to continuous improvement every day.
