the art of leading

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Wanting to be a leader is a very significant step in your personal development. But if wanting is all that you do, then you’ll stay there and there will be no actual leadership to talk about. You may have a grand life-altering vision of the future, but if others don’t see it too, then that vision will never come true. So the logical action step to take after having formulated that goal would be to COMMUNICATE YOUR VISION. Only then will you be able to start shaping it into reality. Arnold Shwarzenneger, in his book The Education of a Bodybuilder, told the story of how, as a teenager, he visualized himself in front of a great audience after winning the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition. He imagined himself as a movie star. Now, you may not agree with his politics, or you may not like his movies, but he took action. He won the Mr. Universe, he won the Mr. Olympia, he became a movie star, and he became Governor of California. How did he do this? Well, he definitely hit the gym religiously and took steps to meet people in Hollywood. But he is also known as a great communicator. He took care of expressing his goals and of making the world know what he was up to. Arnold built a true cult-like following, especially in the bodybuilding arena, that helped him to make his vision a reality. How can you duplicate those results in your own scope of influence will be the topic of the remainder of this article.

Communicate through listening

The most overlooked, but perhaps the most important, method of communication is listening. The other three are reading, writing, and talking. But those three are more than polished throughout life. That is precisely why listening skills are so important. By being a good listener you’ll be able to find many ideas to implement your action plan, that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself. You’ll be ahead of your ‘competition’, since most people don’t listen. That’s the purpose of team-building, though that would take a whole other article to expand upon. Listening is also a central part of gaining followers. Everyone likes being listened to. When you show interest in what the other person expresses, that person will be much more open to the idea of listening in turn to what you have to say. That skill sets you apart from most other people whom are simply cut off simply because they talk too much and don’t listen.

Communicate through your own actions

You can talk all you want and try to communicate solely through that method. In fact, appropriate speaking skills are very helpful to leaders who desire to communicate their visions. But if you turn around and do the opposite of what you preach, your message will be lost. “Do as I say not as I do” will not work. It’s easier for people to imitate physical actions than it is for people to go through a thought process in order to determine the ‘correctness’ of what they hear. It follows one of the most essential theories in nature: “the path of least resistance”. Don’t get me wrong, that thought process is essential in order to become a discerning human being. But it’s tough! For that reason, the most efficient way to communicate your vision is through your own actions. Become an embodiment of that vision, and soon others will copy that behavior. Don’t get too caught up in trying to be the most eloquent speaker in the world, although that certainly would be nice. When speaking, try to stir people into action, and show people how it is done instead of merely telling them.

Communicate through your own attitudes

This element of communication is somewhat tied to the previous one. Nevertheless, it is of supreme importance that you always carry a positive attitude. Again, attitudes are contagious. Haven’t you ever been very happy only to encounter a negative person and have that person ruin your day? You should develop the ability to avoid that, but it’s not easy. In the other hand, if you always carry yourself in a positive light, people are more open to imitating your actions. When they see you are convinced that your vision is worth striving for, they’ll start believing in it too, or at least be more susceptible.

Let others reach their own conclusions

Proper communication will lead people to reach conclusions. Your role as a leader is to provide all the resources that are necessary for others to make a decision for themselves. You can’t force anyone to accept your message. You may be able to make someone do something for you if you use threats, but that will only be temporary. As Dale Carnegie stated in his classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People if your communication strategy is appropriate, people will want to follow you. That is what is known as persuasion and it’s what leadership is all about. By persuading, you influence. And that is every leader’s objective.

Categories : Communication //