How to Become a Good Leader. Part 1. What kind of soldier wants to be a general
The saying "A bad soldier who does not want to be a general" is just about them. They strive for career growth, social and material success and naturally find themselves in a situation where they occupy leadership positions, because this is their strongest desire. It is not enough to have the right properties to manage. It is important that these properties are developed and properly implemented …
Part 1. What kind of soldier wants to be a general
“A soldier who does not dream of becoming a general is bad” is a well-known phrase, which, however, does not always reflect reality. Not everyone strives to become leaders, to move up the career ladder. Many are quite satisfied with the subordinate position and the ability to solve narrow professional tasks. There is a category of people in whom leadership qualities are present, if I may say so, from the cradle. And there are those who, growing out of the framework of their profession, think about how to be able to solve larger-scale tasks, manage people and the production process.
This article is, rather, for the latter - those who want to change their status, but for some reason hesitates, doubts their abilities, wants to learn about the pitfalls of being a leader. Such a person is concerned with the question "How to become a good leader?" … An exhaustive answer to this question is helped by Yuri Burlan's training "System-Vector Psychology".
Myth # 1: Leaders are not born - they are made
“I am a programmer - a good professional with a lot of experience. I like my job. But lately I have been constantly observing the situation, how bad management in an organization ruins even the best undertakings. I would like to intervene and say: "What are you doing?" I would like to take over the organization of the process, because I know it well from the inside. But I'm not sure if I can do it. I doubt my abilities, that I will pull such a responsibility. Can I be a good leader?"
In System-Vector Psychology, an idea of vectors is given, which helps to understand your properties and capabilities, including determining whether you have the ability to lead, manage, organize. Potentially, not all people have this ability. That is why the assertion so often proclaimed at success trainings that leaders are not born, but become, is nothing more than a myth. Leaders are born and with the correct development of the properties set by nature - they become.
Only five percent of the world's population are potential leaders. These are the owners of the urethral vector. They are naturally given energy, which is enough for four, charisma, the ability to gather people around them and lead them. They are the core to which people naturally gravitate. With the proper development of properties in childhood, they become heads of state and leaders of large corporations.
A larger group - 24 percent of humanity representatives - are potential middle managers, owners of the skin vector, among whose desires is the desire to manage, organize, control, limit, set a shape for any process, make it as effective as possible.
The saying "A bad soldier who does not want to be a general" is just about them. They strive for career growth, social and material success and naturally find themselves in a situation where they occupy leadership positions, because this is their strongest desire.
I want to, and inject
A person who doubts whether he will be able to work as a leader can either be the owner of the anal vector, or at the same time two vectors - skin and anal.
A person with an anal vector in a developed state is a good specialist, knows his job well, is a real expert in it, because his natural properties help him in this: patience, scrupulousness, attentiveness to details, the desire to do everything efficiently and bring any business to the end …
In the desire to do everything perfectly, he may run into shortcomings in the organization of the general process. Naturally, he wants to correct the situation, so he begins to think about taking the leadership into his own hands and fixing everything himself, achieving the perfect result.
However, without a skin vector, he does not have the properties necessary for this, he has no desire to lead other people, limit them (after all, he himself cannot limit himself), set a time frame (after all, he himself does not feel time). It is clear that with only the anal vector, he will not be able to become a good leader.
It happens that good professionals with an anal vector become heads of small departments, but they can become successful in this business only if there is a superior leader next to them with a skin vector who will guide them. They can't do it on their own. Problems can arise such as delaying deadlines in an effort to do everything perfectly, inability to delegate responsibilities to subordinates due to the desire to do everything on their own (others will not succeed so well), stress from the need to constantly adapt to changing conditions. Therefore, a good leader with an anal vector is almost unrealistic, even with a lot of experience and high professional achievements.
You can have a beneficial effect on the overall process by simply doing your job well, as well as acting as an expert, an advisor in professional matters for leadership. Then the satisfaction will be from the fact that you have invested in improvement, and the material reward is no worse than that of the bosses.
In today's complex world, more and more leaders have a skin-anal or anal-skin-muscle combination of vectors. Yuri Burlan at the training System Vector Psychology calls such leaders “maneuverable tanks”. They are strong business executives, successful businessmen. The presence of different properties helps them to be both excellent professionals in their field and brilliant managers. This is the case when the properties of both vectors are well developed.
If this is not so, then such a person, on the one hand, will want to "try to lead", and on the other hand, he will doubt his ability to take responsibility for other people, as well as as a result of work. The anal vector will set self-doubt. We will say more about this when we talk about the pitfalls of a manager's work.
Good and bad leaders - what's the difference?
It is not enough to have the right properties to manage. It is important that these properties are developed and properly implemented. If the leader's skin vector is in poor condition, its presence will not help him organize the business correctly. Therefore, a very important, even key point is the state of the leader.
“I had the opportunity to compare the work of the two teams. In the neighboring office, the head was famous for the introduction of many prohibitive rules and fines. For the first delay, a person was punished with a severe warning, for the second he paid a fine, for the third he was fired. The whole team was constantly under stress. And yet everyone was constantly late and quit. Our boss said: “I don't care how you organize the process, the main thing is that the result is excellent. For a good result - an award, for a mess and negligence - dismissal. " We were given the freedom to show a creative attitude to work, our own responsibility for work, so we tried. We always came before work to prepare everything. We discussed and made decisions ourselves on many issues. We had the best stores. And the awards were regular."
There is a different state of the skin vector. In the first case, inadequate prohibitions: concentration on control, and not on the result, show us that the leader's skin vector is underdeveloped or the person is under stress. In the second case, we feel a rational, balanced attitude to the matter, delegation of responsibilities and the correct construction of the system of punishments and rewards. And the mechanism of the firm works like a clock.
Subordinates always react to the state of the leader's skin vector. For example, among skin people there are those who always come on time and those who are regularly three hours late because they did not develop the inherent punctuality in childhood. This means that such a person will not be able to organize himself, therefore, people will not obey him. Lack of self-discipline translates into lack of team discipline. A fidgeting and fussy boss will not be taken seriously by subordinates, especially if they are organized and balanced.
If the leader is in fears, anxiety, characteristic of the owner of the visual vector is not in the best condition, then the subordinates will feel the same anxiety. They will not always be aware of what is happening, but they will feel latently stressed at the thought of work.
The leader is the person who gives the team a sense of security and safety. This does not mean that he directly protects his subordinates from dissatisfied clients or regulatory authorities. This means that when he himself is in a good, balanced state of his psyche, he is able to effectively organize the process, and people feel comfortable. They want to go to work and work. He is like the backbone of a team, the quality of which determines either the discipline of his team, or laxity.
The degree of team involvement depends on the leader. If the leader is burning with the task, then he finds ways to ignite the team. If you managed to involve an employee in work, he works with pleasure. It is very inspiring for people to have a unifying idea. Everyone wants to invest in something meaningful.
For all this to work out, everyone needs to find their own approach, to give the right motivation. For this, the leader absolutely needs to understand the peculiarities of the psychology of different people.
To be continued…
