Business mentor: Leaders serve their followers

Q: I've been to many seminars and read many books on management, but as a small business owner, leadership and leading a team seem to be quite different and perhaps more important. What does it take to be a good leader?

A: Lisa McInnes-Smith*, an expert on leadership and leading teams, answers:

Leadership is living a life worth following.

Many people consider that leadership is about power and control. I believe that leadership is about servanthood: being willing to serve the people you are trying to lead and influence.

Some of the world's great leaders I admire are Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and Florence Nightingale. Each lived out his or her convictions regardless of the sacrifice to themselves.

They were world-changers. They never set out to inspire millions of people, just simply to make a difference right where they were.

Understanding your motives and reasons to lead is of utmost importance. A little self-evaluation as to why you want to influence and lead people down a certain pathway is most valuable.

Take some time to answer the following questions:

* Why do you want to lead?

* Who do you want to influence today?

* What is your motive for leading?

It is important to consider whether you are a leader or not. I think a better perspective is, do other people consider you a leader and someone they would want to follow?

Leadership does not necessarily come out of position. You can be a manager in a place of great authority and not be a leader. In fact, there are many people in high places whom few want to follow.

It has to do with the way you live and work in front of your fellow man. Those within your circle of influence will decide if you are a leader or not.

As a professional conference speaker I have the chance to influence many people each week. Over the past few years, however, opportunities have arisen for me to lead through unexpected circumstances.

One thing that came my way was the idea to mentor young women. Being a mother of three children, a wife and a working woman, I felt a need to share my experience with younger women.

I put the idea to 12 women between the ages of 19 and 30 that we could meet monthly in my home.

Life was already busy, and I was unsure how I would find a free Saturday once a month. But the idea would not leave me alone, so I began.

Eight women accepted the challenge to meet monthly for a year.

Leaders encourage the power of synergy. They bring people together, believing that a group is much more effective than the sum of each individual.

Leaders also tap potential. They cultivate an environment that uncovers potential, stirring up gifts within others that might not be obvious or are lying dormant.

Leaders look for the good in others. They can draw it forth without feeling threatened.

Leaders should be creating other leaders, not just a band of followers to hang on to. Leaders should also become cheerleaders, willing to stand on the sidelines to watch their proteges run their own race.

Watching a leader you have nurtured do more than you have is one of the real joys of leadership.



* Lisa McInnes-Smith will run a series of day seminars entitled Leading Teams, put on by Executive Knowledge in Christchurch on Tuesday, October 15, in Auckland, on Wednesday, October 16, and in Wellington on Thursday, October 17.

* Send Mentor questions to: ellen_read@nzherald.co.nz. Answers will be provided by Business in the Community's Business Mentor Programme.

Executive Knowledge