Leading from Within: Unlocking the Power of Self-Leadership in the 21st Century Organization

CHAPTER 1

LEADERSHIP

Every team, every organization and every company need leadership. With leadership, building structures and meeting commitments to customers or partners is easier.

The leadership culture is also crucial for the success or failure of individual teams or the entire company. It influences individual teams' motivation, willingness to work, and mood. However, for many people, leadership is still a very abstract concept.

What is the leadership definition?

The term leadership is more challenging to define than one might initially think. According to the business dictionary, leadership means the orientation of the actions of individuals and groups towards the realization of predetermined goals, mediated through interaction – a very abstract and not very concrete definition. Nevertheless, it offers a good starting point for determining good leadership. If we look at this definition, one might think that leadership is only designed to achieve company or sales goals. We should all be aware that this idea has been outdated for years.

There are numerous other points that good leadership should influence. Of course, the overarching goal of leadership – as the business dictionary definition correctly says – is to increase entrepreneurial success. At the same time, however, there are numerous smaller goals that leadership should achieve on the way to greater entrepreneurial success. This includes, for example, employee satisfaction, motivation and the development of structures that can lead to entrepreneurial success.

WHY IS LEADERSHIP SO IMPORTANT IN AN ORGANIZATION

There are two big and important reasons why leadership is such an important factor in every organization and company: the employer's attractiveness and the employees' motivation. You've probably heard the statement, Employees don't leave the company; they leave leaders. This statement is one of the most important findings of our time. After all, it is not the company that influences employees daily and gives them tasks and structures, but rather the immediate leader. The leader is responsible for how well work processes work in the team, how the individual members interact, and whether they all pursue the same goals and pull together. Of course, some factors also depend on the team members, their motivation and attitude - but it is still the leader's responsibility to create a team that pursues common goals.

The better leadership works in a team or company, the happier and more motivated the teams are. This motivation ensures, on the one hand, that the employer's attractiveness to future applicants can be increased and, on the other hand, that better work results are achieved. A direct relationship has been proven between motivation and productivity or success of individual employees and entire teams: the more motivated the employee, the better the work results. In addition, motivated employees remain loyal to their employer in the long term.

The five most important tasks of leaders

At first glance, functional or indirect leadership sounds like an abstract definition of employee leadership. Now, you will discover what specific tasks lie behind today's leadership.

Communicate goals and visions:

As we already mentioned in our definition of people management, teams need goals and visions to work together. It is up to leaders to develop these goals with employees and continually work towards them.

Promote and maintain motivation:

The more motivated each individual team member is, the more successfully they work and lead the team to greater success. In order to promote this motivation, communication, feedback, and a good dose of people's knowledge are necessary. Every employee is motivated by individual factors - these need to be discovered and addressed specifically. These can be, for example, financial incentives, compensatory time, subsidies for retirement provision or further training measures.

Provide support and structure:

Today's working world quickly seems unstructured for many people. The numerous technical developments and abstract tasks mean that there needs to be more structure in some areas. Leaders should ensure that these structures are created and function. Every team member should know what they are responsible for, what responsibilities there are and what topics can also be passed on to colleagues. Those who know their place in the team and are happy with it work more motivated.

Be an authentic role model:

This leadership task is the most difficult for most leaders. Employee management is not just about creating goals and structures for employees but also about adhering to the defined values. This includes making decisions in the interests of the team and modelling the way of working and communication that the team should also use. Ultimately, the leader is also seen as a role model.

Promote communication:

Communication in teams is a particularly important factor for the success of their collaboration. This not only includes regular feedback rounds with the entire team and each individual employee but also mediation in the event of conflicts. These cannot be avoided in any team. However, it is up to the leader