Human Side of Leadership

Leadership

There are a number of human sides to leadership that are important. Traits like empathy, ability to motivate, listening skills, and relationship-building have all been identified as traits of effective leaders under a number of different leadership styles. Leaders are, after all, responsible for dealing with human beings. The better the leader is able to guide human resources, the more effective the leader will be. Motivation is critical, because leaders often need to build consensus and get buy-in throughout their teams for new initiatives. If leaders are unable to reach their teams, they will be ineffective in their roles.

I especially value motivation because it encapsulates so many other attributes of the human side of leadership. The first is respect. As a leader, you forge relationships with the different people you work with, but these relationships are largely built on professional respect, because there will be times when you need to make a tough decision and you need to do this with clarity. Respect and trust are two things that are actually difficult to win with most people. You need to listen to them, and understand their needs. You need to be able to express to them what you need from them, in a way that will appeal to their needs. None of this is particularly easy, especially when you need to do this over the long run. Some leaders whose human side is a bit weak can be effective in the short run, but ultimately burn through their credibility with the audience, with the result being that they are ineffective in the long run.

In addition, it is a challenge to maximize the output of all the different people within an organization. A skilled human leader needs to be able to recognize the potential within people, and find the right ways to unlock that potential. This is not going to be the same process with each person, and that is why the human dimension is so important. Leaders who are able to reach everyone in the organization and have them maximize their potential are the leaders I admire most, which is probably why this part of the human side of leadership appeals to me the most.

Organizations are ultimately just a collection of resources. Any leader can be effective in marshalling the non-human resources, because there is no variable of free will involved - your computer will always do what you ask it to do. This is not the case with human resources, yet these are the most powerful resources within any organization. The most successful leaders, therefore, are going to be the ones that can consistently, over time, get the most from their people. Tapping into motivation seems particularly challenging, despite all the motivational theories that exist. Each person is motivated differently and it can be the challenge for a leader to understand those differences and then find the right triggers to motivate people.