The leadership business is thriving. Everyone, it seems, wants to know the secret formula for successful leadership. And it appears that there is no shortage of experts ready to dole out their own secret recipe, for a price, of course. Just look at the hundreds of books, pamphlets, DVDs, seminars and workshops on leadership. It’s a bewildering smorgasboard of information. But strip away the wrapping paper and noise, and you will find that most leadership models and formulas come down to several common and fundamental principles.One of them is the principle of respect. You are not a leader when no one is willing to follow you. And why would they follow, when they have no respect for you?
Earning the respect of your team members/staff is the starting point for much of what we want to achieve as leaders. Without respect, forget about building trust, forget about expecting loyalty and ownership, forget about staff engagement and motivation. Research in organizational psychology have identified, among others, several key features that help a leader earn the trust of his or her team members. In this article, I will focus on three:
Competence
Do you know what you’re doing? Do you know what you’re talking about? Do your team perceive you as someone who is competent in your work?
Staff are quick to size up and form impressions of their leaders. Some leaders are perceived to be incompetent, sub par, below average or ill equipped to handle the work because they lack technical competencies. This is especially the case when heads or managers are rotated into a department where there have no expertise.When Mr. Wong, a senior manager who was trained in finance, was put in charge of the operations department in his company, the staff at first were wary because of his lack of expertise in that area. “At the start, I was lost and had very little idea about this industry.” Shares Mr. Wong,” but within two to three months, I made it a point to learn and become an expert in this area. I talked to industry experts, I spent hours watching the different stages of the operation, I read up pages of the various standard operating procedures and systems, I read up on best practices in the industry, I talked to all the staff.”
In an age where leaders are expected to be versatile and mobile, Mr. Wong reminds us that nothing can replace hard work, discipline and enterprise. When we show the ability to master the essential skills and knowledge, we put ourselves in a position where we can lead with legitimate authority. Staff don’t expect their leaders to know everything, and they certainly don’t appreciate their leaders pretending to know everything. But they do expect their leaders to have a certain level of expertise and knowledge. Would you be willing to travel on a plane when you have doubts about the pilot’s ability to handle the aircraft? Would you dare to go into battle under a commanding officer who can’t read maps properly, or who can’t fire a gun properly?
No one wants to be on a losing team. That’s why staff will be willing to follow you if you have demonstrated the ability to get things done, to meet performance targets, to lead the team to victory. Teams will not respect a leader, let alone trust them, unless they are perceived to be competent.
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