Being an ordinary follower and having worked across the industry in divergent functions, I had the opportunity to patiently observe the management style of professionals adapting to every leadership theory formulated so far.
However, one unique trait that I noticed in all of them, is far from being a common factor in all those widely accepted and acknowledged style of leadership: Total commitment to team members without sacrificing the same for the organization.
Hence, I think, there is an unexplored facet of leadership style which produces the best results in terms of efficiently running an organization, and I would like to call it Committed Leadership.
A committed leader is he, who is committed not only to maintaining the top and bottom line of the organization but also the career of his team members.
For him, it's not just the growth of the organization that matters but also the growth of the people who are working with him, and his success lies in integrating both in such a way that creates an environment of self-motivated employees, walking an extra mile to deliver the best, which is much beyond their normal capacity.
I have seen it happening and number of times, but the one that I noticed very closely is an amazing example of how the leader and his followers integrate themselves into a single dedicated entity for delivering the best that they perhaps can't achieve individually.
The leader I'm talking about, is now an entrepreneur worth a few billion dollar.
A fairy tale of rise that he experienced is actually the outcome of a unique leadership style that he put into practice, developing a huge base of lifelong followers who would extract their best, on their own, to make it happen for the team.
Such was the dedication level of his team members that when the organization he was heading decided to close down its Indian operation, his team members, instead of worrying about an impending unemployment, was more concerned about loosing the opportunity to work with him.
I witnessed this amazing development from close, since I was hired as a outplacement consultant during the closure with the responsibility of counseling his team members out of an immediate frustration of losing a good job.
However, to my utter surprise, none of them seemed to be worried about losing their job but more about losing the opportunity of being his team member. They cried, not for losing the job but for losing him, and I remained glued to seat not knowing how to console them because I had never faced a similar situation.
Well, it's a different story that this CEO eventually became a billion dollar entrepreneur, but what he did then was not at all irreverent to his leadership style: Within a few years, he picked up most of his old team members absorbing them in his new ventures.
This success story clearly indicates that it's nothing but leaders' complete dedication to the betterment of their team members in terms of creating a mutually beneficial work-place environment, is what inspires the followers to reciprocate equally with complete dedication to their job, producing the best results for the organization in the long term.
And this style of functioning, in my opinion, should be called Committed Leadership Style.
Update: 05.03.2011
The interpretation of commitment, along with 'courage' and 'conversation,' in terms of defining an effective management practice is different than the way I am looking at it.
Leaders, to be highly effective, should be committed to self, for honoring the commitments that they continuously keep making to their team members and to the stake-holders of the organization they are working for.
When they walk the commitment, they create a team of highly motivated followers and win the trust of board members, essential for bringing into existence a future for which they have been hired.
However, one unique trait that I noticed in all of them, is far from being a common factor in all those widely accepted and acknowledged style of leadership: Total commitment to team members without sacrificing the same for the organization.
Hence, I think, there is an unexplored facet of leadership style which produces the best results in terms of efficiently running an organization, and I would like to call it Committed Leadership.
A committed leader is he, who is committed not only to maintaining the top and bottom line of the organization but also the career of his team members.
For him, it's not just the growth of the organization that matters but also the growth of the people who are working with him, and his success lies in integrating both in such a way that creates an environment of self-motivated employees, walking an extra mile to deliver the best, which is much beyond their normal capacity.
I have seen it happening and number of times, but the one that I noticed very closely is an amazing example of how the leader and his followers integrate themselves into a single dedicated entity for delivering the best that they perhaps can't achieve individually.
The leader I'm talking about, is now an entrepreneur worth a few billion dollar.
A fairy tale of rise that he experienced is actually the outcome of a unique leadership style that he put into practice, developing a huge base of lifelong followers who would extract their best, on their own, to make it happen for the team.
Such was the dedication level of his team members that when the organization he was heading decided to close down its Indian operation, his team members, instead of worrying about an impending unemployment, was more concerned about loosing the opportunity to work with him.
I witnessed this amazing development from close, since I was hired as a outplacement consultant during the closure with the responsibility of counseling his team members out of an immediate frustration of losing a good job.
However, to my utter surprise, none of them seemed to be worried about losing their job but more about losing the opportunity of being his team member. They cried, not for losing the job but for losing him, and I remained glued to seat not knowing how to console them because I had never faced a similar situation.
Well, it's a different story that this CEO eventually became a billion dollar entrepreneur, but what he did then was not at all irreverent to his leadership style: Within a few years, he picked up most of his old team members absorbing them in his new ventures.
This success story clearly indicates that it's nothing but leaders' complete dedication to the betterment of their team members in terms of creating a mutually beneficial work-place environment, is what inspires the followers to reciprocate equally with complete dedication to their job, producing the best results for the organization in the long term.
And this style of functioning, in my opinion, should be called Committed Leadership Style.
Update: 05.03.2011
The interpretation of commitment, along with 'courage' and 'conversation,' in terms of defining an effective management practice is different than the way I am looking at it.
Leaders, to be highly effective, should be committed to self, for honoring the commitments that they continuously keep making to their team members and to the stake-holders of the organization they are working for.
When they walk the commitment, they create a team of highly motivated followers and win the trust of board members, essential for bringing into existence a future for which they have been hired.
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