1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

· Lewin’s three basic leadership styles – authoritative, participative, and delegative
· Likert’s four leadership styles – exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative
· Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles – visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character. Steven Covey’s book entitled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

How come dictatorship works for Singapore but not in the United States of America? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Another case in point is in leading organizations. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you are reminded of these things, keep in mind that there are always ideas that we think we already know; concepts we take for granted, but are actually the most useful insights on leadership.

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Here comes another opportunity for you-a leadership development workshop! Of course you are that ecstatic again because this is another chance that will all the more give you additional insights on how to become a good and trustworthy leader. So there you go with high expectations and in turn, you find the entire duration of your stay in the workshop indeed fruitful. The facilitator, the organizers, the subjects tackled, and even the food-all of them are great. You even think the things went about perfectly! Now you are certain that you are equipped with the complete strokes which are needed in becoming the best leader possible of you.

So what happens after the leadership development workshop?

You are back to work and back with your team. The moment you awoke your plan of action is already complete. So here you are in the office while your subordinates give you tons of papers to sign, there are lots of emails that you need to answer and several phone calls to return. Stressful, isn’t it? This is understandable since you’ve been away for a while. The next moment, you find yourself already at home and guess what? You’ve forgotten all about your action plan for the day! Whew! But you’ve got no other choice but to have it rescheduled the next day.

What does the situation tell you?

Leadership development workshops are in fact designed for the benefit of the potential leaders. These events are training grounds for leaders. But as you see, the training is not an assurance that the person will learn. If the persona is unwilling then no learning will take place. Learning is a process. One may be very attentive and very willing to listen to the speakers in the leadership development trainings but when there is no plan of the execution of the actions, then, everything will be entirely useless. The process of learning ends up in the application of what one has learned.

Why are the leadership development labors failing?

Skills are inherent. Trainings are only guides. Leadership skills are not enhanced or enriched overnight. Things such as these are not baked in a drastic instant or in one shot. The leaders who attend leadership development programs are simply fed with the necessary insights on how they can better work out on their leadership skills. But if they do not employ application and practice, nothing will happen.

So do not simply attend these leadership development trainings and workshops if you will not concert your efforts for the practical application of what you’ve learned. If you are in the same situation, you better correct it now. Do not let your leadership development efforts fail in just a puff.

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