Leadership: A Balancing Act Between Chaos and Cohesion

Leadership: it's not a walk in the park, especially when deadlines loom like hungry lions and your team teeters on the brink of chaos. If you're a leader, this article is a treasure trove of insights culled from my personal experiences and learnings – and I'm just a baby in the game, so bear with me!

I was always a curious kid growing up. Breaking down stuff and rebuilding them up was one of my favorite activity. But what i loved more was to teach others about how to did it. Sharing the knowledge felt great.

I was the House Captain & Debate Team Lead in my school and Team captain (Online Sports) & Incubation Lab Co-Leader in my college. All these positions were very important in my life growing up as they taught me skills like team management, listening skills, empathy, negotiations and Decisiveness.  

I remember when I was first promoted to a leadership position. I was excited, but I was also terrified. I had no idea how I was going to manage a team of people, especially when I felt like I was still learning the ropes myself. But I quickly realized that leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about being able to listen, learn, and adapt. It's about being able to inspire and motivate your team, even when things are tough.

Here are some of the learnings I've gathered around leadership through my personal experience

• Empathy:  It's an often ignored and a highly underrated quality of leadership. Empathy cements up the foundation of your team's functionality and effectiveness. It fuels innovation, engagement, transparency, retention & results. How so? Well, look at this chart below:

Over the past decade, stress among youth has been increasing due to the rise of social media, unemployment, competitiveness in the market and more. Money is becoming harder to come by, lifestyle fantasies on social media is breaking youth's reality. So how do you handle and lead a group of people who are stressed out same as you? By being an empathetic leader. 

You can't brute force cohesiveness in a team. Having empathy let's you see more, connect better and have more information to come up with the right way to push a group of people to work together. They should be able to trust you. One should talk to their team members proactively about their goals, work and life and then improvise accordingly.

Ability to listen:  Recent research suggests, 34% of employees worldwide thinks their leaders don't listen to their ideas. Another suggests, 82% of employees have suggestions for how their firm may develop in the modern environment, where workers spend more time looking for fresh ways to advance it. However, many respondents also believe that their employers are not listening to them. Imagine the number of ideas generated everyday and waiting to be heard. As a leader, you should be one of the listening nodes in your department's structure to contribute to the free flow of ideas, build an enthusiastic and energetic team. 

• Perseverance: In the realm of corporate leadership and management, the challenges are endless. It's not just about the accolades, the paychecks, or the fancy titles. My father always tells me that true leaders are those who persevere through the tough times, the gritty work, and the obstacles that come their way. They navigate obstacles and barriers. They come up with solutions to issues. Even when things don't always go as planned, they motivate their team to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
  

• Decisiveness: What happens to your team when there is a lot of confusion and no clear direction? Well, it starts to look a chaos. In a world of ambiguity and uncertainty, leaders are the beacons of clarity. They don't hesitate to make decisions, even when the information is incomplete. They understand that inaction can be just as damaging as making the wrong choice. Their decisions may not always be perfect, but they are timely and informed. They provide a sense of direction and purpose to their teams, helping them navigate the ever-changing landscape of business.
  

• Integrity: Leaders who say one thing and do another quickly lose the respect and trust of their followers. Integrity is the cornerstone of effective leadership. It's about being honest, ethical, and consistent in words and actions. It's about making decisions that align with the values of the organization and the well-being of its people. Leaders with integrity inspire confidence and loyalty, creating a solid foundation for a thriving team.While perseverance, decisiveness, and integrity are essential traits of effective leadership, they are not the only ones. Great leaders possess a myriad of other skills, including patience, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and the ability to inspire others. They are the ones who can rally their teams around a shared vision, overcome challenges, and achieve extraordinary results. 
  

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way & shows the way" - John Maxwell