Question

Why is it important for a successful leader to lead up? What skills are needed to lead up?

Answer 1

Leadership is nothing but the skills and ability of individual and organization to influence, lead and guide others to meet the common goal. Leadership skills are very important in an organization for successful completion of task, problem solving ability and handling the team effectively.

It is important for a successful leader to lead up because: -

• it make the employees to gain trust and work effectively for the leader.
• it helps in exercising control over the employees.
• They can handle complex situations effectively.
• They can deal with changes appropriately.
• They can provide training to enhance their skills and also focus on their career development.
• It helps in providding guidance to the employees.
• It will help in creating a positive work environment as team members will perform as per the leader's expectation.
• It helps in guiding the behavior of employees because a role model can influence them effectively.
• it will help in creating a high performance team.
• it will help people to work collaboratively as people will look forward to work with a role model.
• it will help in making the employees work as per organizational value.
• A role model lead by example thus create positive impression in employees mind.
• A role model resolve the conflict situations effectively and focus more on building team cohesiveness.

The skills that are needed to lead up include: -

• Integrity - This quality make them ethical and to be honest and open to different ideas and culture. They treat people fairly and lead by example by showing correct behavior and attitude.
• Empathy - A leader should build rapport with the employees and get connected with them in a way that the employees can share their concern and work with the leader effectively.
• Consistency - A leader should be consistent in the way they think, act and behave which help them to gain respect and credibility.
• Direction - A leader should be directive in his or her approach and should have the vision to achieve great things and should focus on achieving the goals.
• Communication - a leader should implement effective communication that can help the team to do things correctly to meet the goal. A leader should communicate effectively with the team about expectations, issues, targets, etc. then the team will participate more actively in meeting the goal.
• Flexibility - A leader should be flexible and work effectively in challenging situations. They should be open to change and should adapt to the changing situations in order to help the organization to meet the goal.
• Dominance and assertiveness - this component make the leader ambitious and competitive and they work hard to meet their goals and objectives.