The Responsibility of Leadership - By Guest Blogger - Amer Qureshi, UAE

Amer Qureshi is an Australian Chartered Accountant, Business Advisor and Author of several books on business and finance. We thank him for generously sharing his views on an important aspect of leadership.

If you are in a management or leadership role which involves leading, motivating and inspiring other people, then you are one of the privileged ones. The opportunity to lead others is one that is not given to too many people.

However, the leadership of others comes with a great deal of responsibility. As a leader, its no longer just about you.

What kind of a Leader are you? What kind of a leader would you like to be?

In my experience, the whole culture of the organization is established by the Leader. Like it or not, every staff member looks closely at how the Leadership team operates and then models that behavior. For the sake of the organization, you better hope that the behavior of the leadership team is worth replication. Too often the leadership team is not willing to take a good look in the mirror and analyse their own short comings, yet they are too quick to point out the faults to their team.

Think about your own approach to work, and see what example you are setting for others. The current generation of employees is not easily impressed by the “do as I say” approach. During the course of my work, I have had the opportunity of working with many CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Managers as their Advisor and Consultant. In our discussions I am often told about the staffing issues, the lack of responsibility amongst the staff, the lack of professionalism and ownership. Often when I get more involved with an Organisation, it becomes apparent that the staff are simply following the lead of the senior management team. The leaders are not setting the right example and nor are they providing the right leadership for the team.

In order to become an effective leader, its important to take a good look at your own self, identify your own weaknesses and to set the right example for your team.

Think about the following for a few minutes:

1 - Do you feel you demonstrate strong values, ethical standards and personal integrity?

2 - Do you possess empathy and self-awareness?

3 - Do you nurture positive internal and external relationships and professional networks?

4 - Do you empower people?Is teaching, coaching and mentoring people a high priority for you?

5 - Are you contributing to the development of a new generation of leaders in your organization?

6 - Do you treat mistakes made by your staff as coaching opportunities?

7 - Do you establish and support high quality work standards?

8 - Are you able to handle stressful situations at work and resolve conflicts between team members effectively?

9 - Do you have an entrepreneurial mind set?

10 - Do you look for creative solutions to solve difficult problems within the organization?

11 - Do you consider yourself to be customer focused?

12 - Do you deliver value to stakeholders?

Leadership of others is a privilege and one that should not be taken lightly, as you have the opportunity to add immense value to the professional lives of others. Long after these people have left you, they are likely to remember with great fondness all the good things that they were able to learn.