Leadership in the XXI Century

*Part 2 continued from our previous article. Modern leadership is based on the principles of self-leadership. A Leader knows where he is going, he has initiative, vision, passion, a project and a team. Pay attention to the ambitions of each of your team, developing them and training people through example and action, forming new leaders through empowerment, delegation, supervision, effective feedback, sharing praise and being resistant to stress, possessing the ability to to act in critical situations, without losing vitality and emotional stability.

Furthermore, in today’s competitive world, productivity means much more than physical production itself. It must be taken into account that the human being is much more precious than labor. Investing in human capital is the task of the new leader who wants to stay on top. One motivated human being produces far more than ten others who are being overwhelmed or coerced by fear. All these changes can take “decades to change at a mental level”, but it is considered inevitable as it is necessary to update what is necessary in the way of thinking of those who want to be the future leaders of companies”.

The Team

People are more important than structures, being the living force that gives movement to the production process and should be the main focus of leadership, making them part of a team, influencing each other and creating synergy. This synergy happens when two or more people produce more together than the sum of what they could produce separately, making the team’s productivity superior to the sum of the individual productivity. The more a team member feels integrated, the more the team contributes to their identity,

“Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes a team, a company, a society, and a civilization work“

People who are part of the organizational process need to be managed in such a way that the leader knows their full potential, expectations and skills so that when starting a project, they contribute more effectively, increasing their efficiency and productivity. It is up to the leader to consider each person as if they were unique, assigning them responsibilities for which the professional feels mature and able to lead. More than simply leading, leading is making a group of people work as a team and produce the desired results, developing the ideal conditions for proper functioning and guiding the team towards excellence, promoting their individual and professional growth. The importance of self-knowledge becomes evident when people relate to each other. But for this, investment in self-knowledge and interpersonal relationships is essential.

For effective leadership it is always necessary to have the answers to the old acronym WWWH (Who, What, Why and How).

“Managing a team well is knowing how to awaken in each person’s potential to be excellent”

Without leadership, the probability of mistakes increases exponentially and leaders are often able to create followers because they are able to convey confidence, certainty, action, strength, method, courage, optimism, and conviction. Leaders need self-confidence, passion for what they do and love for people, leading through questions rather than answers.

The role of communication

There is no such thing as leadership without communication. Knowing how to communicate is one of the main requirements for effective team effectiveness and creates positive results in an organization, meaning every team member has to organize their ideas and develop an effective message that inspires other team members to achieve even higher results.

Leadership, exercised through communication in a relational and motivational context, requires flexibility, the ability to listen and a vision of the future in environments where ethical values ​​predominate, which solidify the relationship between leaders and subordinates in the search for common goals. A leader must use his communicative leadership to promote team excellence in terms of results, aligning individual skills with the organization’s strategic objectives, establishing an open channel of communication between all hierarchical levels, because knowing how to lead is also , knowing how to communicate.

“Praise is given in public, the reprimands in private…”

Lead the Change

This new way of leading teams must embrace changes at work and not fight the inevitable, understanding emerging trends and resolving positively the essential challenges associated with the knowledge society. Autonomy and non-resistance to change are part of the characteristics of new managers, who are encouraged to make decisions, take responsibility and be able to self-evaluate. Possessing global skills is not enough, as it is necessary to understand how the company will be in the future and if we can show shareholders and employees how skills can be useful and, even, if we know how to keep teams calm and work without slippage in time and cost, we can perform our job correctly.However, this is not enough, as it is necessary to recognize that the organization’s priorities change in complex moments, causing team members to adapt to new ideas according to the situation in which they are living and working.

Shared Leadership and Conflict Management

A leader who wants the success of his organization must use shared leadership, mediated by dialogue. Have a critical sense, not despise the past, think about the present to project yourself into the future. Being creative, courageous, confident, optimistic, bold, knowing how to listen, thinking before acting and, above all, considering the whole, are fundamental principles of leadership. Never fear criticism or take a negative stance towards it, see it positively and constructively. The leader of the future must communicate with persuasion, behave with honor, respect others and know how to act, while generating confidence, certainty, optimism and conviction, in order to create a commitment and use passive strategies to alleviate any kind of conflicts.

Time management

The XXI century leader knows how to manage time and attitudes, since it is important to have time to dedicate to people, making it vital to progress in organizations to have an open mind, not being a narrow-minded part of this list. or being the technical type who does not depart from the pre-established path. Knowing how to manage time, stay focused on the problem and not get carried away by secondary issues leads to high productivity.Being a workaholic is no longer current, but one should adopt a more relaxed posture. It is believed that, in addition to professional aspects, interest in other areas, such as the arts or other hobbies, that enrich the human being will be valued, because with a stimulated mind, it is easier to analyze any subject, facing it as a whole. This time management makes it possible to balance both the career and the family, and when this binomial is achieved, we will be happier and present better results. This requires time for reflection.

Essential Skills

The Essential skills for the leaders of the future are: Initiative (ability to effectively influence the decision, be extremely motivated, the so-called self starter; have proactivity, initiative and, accept challenges, after carrying out the risk assessment, always look for new and better alternatives to perform the tasks, without losing the permanent orientation towards results), Intellectual capacity (arguing logically and being able to correlate complex factors and problems and functional competence), Mastery of the function, expansion of knowledge and recognition of opportunities (Who has this competence, maintains a permanent focus on updating;), Organizational competence (ability to observe, define, and adapt priorities, solve problems and implement solutions, and to have a constructive posture in relation to change, productivity and stability).

Emotional intelligence

There are four human needs: to love, live, feel and leave a legacy. For all of this, we also need Emotional Intelligence.

“the set of human capacities that allow us emotional self-knowledge, self-awareness, emotional control, the ability to generate feelings and self-motivation, as a way of having the will and desire to achieve” .

Being aware of your emotions, recognizing how they reflect, being able to articulate these feelings and express them in a socially appropriate way. I always try to be assertive in decision-making despite uncertainties, managing impulsive feelings and emotions, building trust in others focusing always reliability and authenticity.

We can channel collective emotions in a positive direction as it provides the ability to adapt, the so-called compatibility with others, establishing constructive and long lasting relationships. The pleasure of exercising a leadership role comes with praise, promotion, tribute, things that make us feel good about ourselves and our work. The leader praises, not flatters. I think these are attributions of a leader and for this it is essential that he understands the behavior of the members of our team, making it easier, in this way, the task of influencing them, objectifying the achievement of organizational goals.

In the Cloudoki Universe

In Cloudoki we have a team working environment discarding authoritarianism. All of us are continuosly learning how to deal with different scenarios, respect values,  differences and ethics, have initiative and orientation towards results, be motivated and motivating, have strong will, tenacity and perseverance, productive and inspired, inspiring, possessing good communication skills and active listening, be autonomous and prepared to lead the change, setting clear goals, optimistic, positive, active and up-to-date, assertive, have a vision global vision of the future and, above all, have a strong emotional intelligence, combining  talent with realizing the importance of a balance between career and family.

Bottomline, everyone is a leader and at Cloudoki, it is used the word We, instead of I… WE did it, WE managed it, WE solved it, instead of I did it, I managed it and I solved it, because everyone has a specific role that contributes to a higher purpose as “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.