A guide to the mindset of a leader

How can we measure success? One way is to look at your bank balance. Of course this is fine if all you care about is money but this is just one part of the jigsaw. Some of the richest people who have ever lived have been among the unhappiest.  Wealth without spiritual or personal fulfilment is a very shallow state of being. To be respected, to be looked up too, to give happiness to  others. In  short to  be a leader. 
One of the best  ways to measure  success is to  look at  ourselves through the eyes of others .   Some of us are leaders, others seem   happier following. The higher levels of success we spoke about above come from  becoming a  good leader. To get to the top we need the respect of others to perform our will. No one has ever reached the top solely by relying on themselves.   That is why we need to look carefully about the type  of relationship we decide to form with others .

Of course it would be naive to assume that the majority of leaders in the world of business are motivated by helping others. Yet the best companies to work for  have something in common with the best people to do business with; they both have an atmosphere of  mutual respect and decency and include sound and just morals among their most important guiding principles. Being a good leader requires hard work. But it will be worth it, because people will be far more likely to go the extra mile for you if they respect you and your principles.

It is important to recognise that this doesn’t mean you should be a pushover  for that is just another extreme. If you are seen as too soft then that will be taken as a sign of weakness.  Never should business be allowed to become too cosy.  A good leader is able to command respect with out being a tyrant or a push over. A good leader finds that people and opportunity attract themselves to him like metal fillings to a magnet. This is because the good leader has struck the right balance of being just and fair but firm and hard headed when necessary. In the same way that the first priority of any captain is to put the interests of the ship as a whole before anything else, so too does a successful businessman or manager  put the  interests  of their enterprise or project before anything else.

So what are the other secret ingredients of leadership. Among the most important is self belief. It should be pretty obvious that you are unlikely to get others to follow  you if you do not have confident in your own abilities. The display of confidence is crucial for several reasons. First of all, it gives a clear physical presence of leadership ;  a rallying point for others. Secondly, it inspires confidence in others knowing that  there is a strong hand on the tiller. No finer example of this can be found than  the tradition among 19th and 18th century captains  to remain a visible presence on the deck of a  ship right in the heat of battle. A tradition that cost the great  Lord Nelson his life but inspired  his men to victory and beyond.  Thirdly,  confidence creates an aura of invincibility in negotiations and other high pressure situations .  Keep your cool, and enjoy the benefits  that confident, clear decision making  will bring.

They say that the devil is in the detail and that is why as a leader you must become  a jack of all trades in every aspect of your profession or business . There must be not a single aspect of your organisation that you do  not know anything about.  You must be prepared to  ask questions, read and do research . Stay abreast of all the most topical issues. Make sure that there is no part of your role or organisation that you can not advise about or comment on. A wise man once said knowledge is power and it is true. With knowledge you gain leverage among others. The experts you liaise with will respect you for the trouble  you have taken in getting to know things you are not expected to understand. The more strings you add to your bow – the more confident you will become in all of your daily activities.  This also sets an example to everyone else you are connected with. It should inspire others   to confound expectation and become greater.