Becoming An Effective Leader: Why You Need Personal Leadership Goals

When in a place of leadership, personal growth and setting goals are important. It sets a tone of initiative and model of development for those you are leading. Cultivating a healthy culture and expectation for progress, not perfection, are essential for any team to be able to function out of a place of wellbeing.

Whether in a church, at work, in school, or in any other team setting, the development of a culture of empowerment will be a significant factor in the success, sustainability, and impact of the team and is established by the leadership. Having set goals for improvement and personal growth yourself is essential to being able to model them to any team.

A number of key factors for leadership to contribute to a healthy culture that are listed by Stephen Blandino in an article about defining a healthy culture, as well by as James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, are as follows: vision, values, aligned behaviors, humility, and established community. All of these elements are specific things that a leader can be intentional in demonstrating to cultivate a healthy team culture. Allow me to elaborate on each one further:

Vision

The vision of a team “is a future-oriented picture of what your organization sees or what it wants to be.” It is crucial for a team to have a clear vision presented by leadership because if there is not a clear vision of where the organization is going, then it will not take much to divert the journey.

Values

An unfortunate result of this is to end up in a place unexpectedly or with a culture that is unhealthy all because there was no well-defined and decided focal point to move toward. This is not to say that there will not be points of pivot or stumbles on the way toward the vision, but the dream should inform what is happening in order to get closer to the expressed vision.

Values are fundamental because it informs everything else and is the “why we do the things that we do.” If a team is not clear and rooted in what they believe and hold firm as values, then it will show up as turmoil and unhealthy dynamics within the group as well as show itself in the work they produce. Having established and strong values will absolutely shape and influence the culture of a team or organization; they are the motivators to people’s behaviors.

Aligned Behaviors

Another characteristic that is crucial for a leader to model within their team is for their behaviors to align with the professed vision and values of the organization/team. Value and vision are important but fall short when the culture of the team is not actively walking them out. What is exemplified by leadership will then be manifested in the culture of the group.

Having aligning behaviors is powerful. And when they are present with clear, healthy vision and values there will be a clear and healthy impact to follow. When people are able to observe that a leader is facilitating a culture that is congruent with what they profess in their words and their actions, they are motivated and drawn to working toward the vision.

Humility

Leadership that is humble and empowering is monumental. Leading with humility as well as enabling others to walk in their own capabilities has been shown by research to be incredibly effective and impactful.

I cannot stress this point enough, because what a leadership team believes and models for a team, the culture will follow and either remain stagnant or grow. Leaders that empower others to walk in and develop their abilities will empower a culture of leaders.

Established Community

And last, but most certainly not the least of these is cultivating an accessible and welcoming community. So many people in this world are looking for authentic and welcoming community. An effective leader helps to facilitate open communication and community within and outside of the team in order to be collaborative and warm to all parties.

When a team can provide an opportunity for people to connect and be known and appreciated for whatever they are bringing to the table, then a culture of vulnerability and belonging are created.

This is powerful and being coupled with vision, value, behaviors, and humble leadership can bring about a team culture that impacts the work that will transpire.

Five Practices of an Exemplary Leader

According to Kouzes and Posner, there are five practices that may be used and developed in order to become an exemplary leader. The five practices are: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart.

These practices emphasize the importance of relationships and credibility through alignment of what you say and what you do when in a position of leadership, no matter your title or position.

Modeling the Way

Modeling the way entails being clear about what your values represent and being sure that your actions and voice genuinely align. This is the first step toward being an effective leader and it requires one to look inward.

You have to know what your personal values and beliefs are to have them guide your voice, decision, and behaviors. Having your own voice and principles that are rooted in your own beliefs will help you then give voice to the team and create a dialogue with others.

Once you know your own beliefs and values, you can reach out and discover other people’s beliefs and find common ground and shared values. Understanding and being able to appreciate where others are coming from is pivotal if you are going to lead them.

Practicing what you preach allows others to see your character as your professed values align with lived out actions and behaviors. Consistency can be a building block for credibility and is something that people want to put their trust in.

Inspiring a Shared Vision

To inspire a shared vision requires a leader to create an opportunity to bring others alongside them to support ideas and possibilities for the future of the team. This vision should be one of value that brings other’s aspirations and capacities into account. The future can be uncertain and cause anxiety for people. Having a dream and vision of something to buy into and work toward can be inspiring and bolstering to people.

A leader has a passionate vision of how the team can work together, using one another’s strengths to contribute to making a positive difference. Sharing this vision is key to inspiring people to work toward accomplishing the common goal. Getting others excited about the shared goal helps people to see the possibilities of what can be accomplished with teamwork.

Communicating clearly what they envision and relating it to the aspirations of team members can be life-giving. Painting a picture of how the goal will benefit and serve individual’s values and wellbeing can assist in attaining people taking ownership of the shared vision. When this happens, and enthusiasm spreads with encouragement from the leader, movement can begin toward the envisioned future.

Challenging the Process

In challenging the process, a leader can be intentional about not getting complacent but can instead look for opportunities to improve self and the current process. This can involve stepping out and taking risks that allow for learning and growth for the process. In general, people are able to do their best when there is an opportunity to positively change the way things are, often times presented in the form of challenges.

Leadership should not be content with the status quo but instead should seek out challenges for growth and assessment of aptitudes as well as processes that they are functioning in.

Leaders motivate themselves and others to push past what they perceive as limits for self-improvement and are able to take initiative to make meaningful things happen for the team and their selves.

Facilitating good communication within and outside of the team is fundamental to healthy functioning and promotion of good ideas. A leader will listen well, be open to advice and feedback, as well as learn and grow from the collaboration and input from valued sources.

Acknowledging that progress is made incrementally and celebrating the small victories along the way is a healthy characteristic of effective leaders who are moving forward toward bigger goals. A sense of perseverance and appreciation of the struggles and successes are beneficial to the culture of a team led by such an exemplary leader.

Part of this will happen by stepping out and taking risks. Although taking risks involves the possibility of failure or mess-ups, leaders accept the inevitable mistakes that accompany the journey of learning and growth.

Enabling Others to Act

Enabling others to act in line with the published vision demands that a leader create a safe, trusting, and collaborative environment for people to develop and grow. This requires humility and for a leader to realize that they cannot do everything on their own. It takes a team effort to make great things happen in a team.

In order to facilitate effective cooperation between team members, the role of a leader is to create trustworthy relationships with those you are leading, as well as investing in developing a cohesive and determined team. This includes being conscious and considerate of team members’ needs and understanding that the relationships and atmosphere of the group influences the quality of the work, the impact a team has, and its overall experience.\

Having a supportive, encouraging, and stimulating atmosphere in which people treat one another well is a team with good leadership and that make meaningful things happen. Cultivating mutual respect as a leader encourages a sustainable effort of the team.

A leader that can build others up and make them feel valued, capable, and confident in their abilities will create a climate of initiative and responsibility. This fosters individuals who have self-confidence in what they are contributing, are passionate about the vision and appreciate the impact that the team can provide.

Encouraging the Heart

And finally, encouraging the heart, simply put, involves encouraging, speaking life into, and appreciating those one is working with. Being able to celebrate and mourn and encourage together is powerful. A leader recognizing that doing great things as a team requires hard work is effective when they can encourage and motivate the team to push on through the difficulties and setbacks.

They do this by providing authentic encouragement to individuals as well as being in the trenches, putting in the work right alongside the team to inspire and model hope.

Visibly and consistently recognizing individual’s contribution to the team’s shared vision is a means by which a leader can show the heart and appreciation for those they are leading.

Recognition can be done through public acknowledgment, praise, notes of encouragement and thanks, as well as a simple smile that show others their value to the common effort. Showing a sense of pride in what your team accomplishes is a huge motivator for people and demonstrates your investment and belief in the group.

Just as important as the grueling work put in, is the fun and light-hearted work that can go along with working toward a shared vision. Celebrating this in fun and creative ways is an important means of taking satisfaction progress made toward the overarching goal. And finally, an effective and exemplary leader does all out of love; love for the people they are leading, love for the work they do, love for the outcome and impact of the end goal.

All of these practices work well and interplay with one another. When applied by a leader, these practices can create an incredible atmosphere of growth and productivity for a community. It is empowering when leaders recognize the importance of relationships for growth of self and community.

Having trusting relations within a team, to be able to empower self-agency, and using one’s gifts is essential in a healthy culture for leadership. And all of this starts with you as a leader being intentional about your own personal growth, modeling the way toward wellness in both your personal and professional life.