Leaders face myriads of tough calls every day. Every person in a leadership role finds him or herself having to take decisions that rub others the wrong way when handling teams and clients.
There would be little room for tension and the attendant strain on working relationships if such unavoidable decisions were taken in a favourable, atmosphere.
We know that leaders by default "create” the atmosphere in their respective workplaces. The effective leader must be a strong judge while playing jury at the same time.
Contradictory as that may be, such a leader requires highly developed judgement to ensure that the rather slippery favourable atmosphere is maintained.
Such a leader must be a well-aligned individual with high-level self-awareness. Favouritism, nepotism, corruption and the absence of meritocracy, among the litany of unfair treatment that most corporate teams are subjected to, neither encourage the manifestation of an empowering work environment nor foster cohesiveness within teams. A true leader innately knows when to act as the judge and when to become the jury.
The effective leader will frequently work with opposing ideas and internalising each of them with his or her focus firmly on the organizational goals to churn out an acceptable conclusion for as many vested parties as possible. It is not uncommon for a leader to feel partisan in such instances where impartiality would be of particular benefit.
To most followers, leaders don’t seem to show any physical evidence of their decision-making processes. In fact, most think of the most flippant and even distasteful reasons as to why certain decisions are made – especially when those decisions are not in their favour.
This is because true leaders are led from within. They possess a powerful understanding of the unseen aspect of everyday working life.
Owing to the fact that most leaders do not necessarily show how and or why they reach certain decisions, followers can get extremely frustrated. Sometimes they are required to keep certain matters confidential or in their judgement, it would do more harm than good to bare everything to their followers. Annoying to their followers as this may be, true leaders remain calm knowing that they lead intelligently.
You see, effective leaders have consciously or unconsciously mastered the immutable laws by which our world operates. The law of transmutation decrees that energy or spirit moves in and out of physical form. Such leaders are aware that their thoughts are creative energy.
They are confident that the more focus they give to their leadership, the more they harness their creative power to move that energy towards desired results for the organisation’s benefit. Different situations either bring out our best or worst.
True leaders are aligned on a personal level. Their best shines out of any situation. This is because they are in total control of their creative power. As a result, whatever energy comes into their consciousness is immediately emotionalized in a positive way. They groom their emotions to harbour only best of feelings such that any idea they internalize is automatically processed under the enriching conditions of their sound internal principles.
Given that our emotions literally direct our actions, positively emotionalized energy can only yield positive actions. And with positive action there can be no other result than positive ones.
This is how true leaders consistently yield positive results. They know that it isn’t about the situations they face but rather how they face them and what they bring to the fore from those situations.
No matter what situation you find yourself in as a leader, know that the laws work with you and for you, all of the time. Take charge of your leadership and by making a moment to understand and apply them, create the legacy that only you can.
The writer is an expert on attitude and human potential.