The cornerstone of leadership is context. The context determines how the leader maneuvers the situation by asking the right questions: who, what, when, and where. These contexts can be broken down into the acronym S-Self Context O—One-to-One Context, T—Team Context, O—Organizational Context, and A— Alliance Context. A manager can build a foundation by recognizing each one, but to achieve leadership genius, he must adapt each practice depending on the context through a daily leadership routine.
Managers have to imbibe the habits of a great leader which will help sustain and improve the organization at an individual level and make the team more productive. Research proves that mirror neurons of the brain imitate the surrounding, and if the surrounding is committed to excellence, it is bound to translate into results.
O—One-to-One Context: The manager should consider the emphasis on a leadership mindset and ensure that efforts and actions are aligned towards teaching and supporting the employee. He needs to master skills like initiating effective goals, delivering effective feedback, listening to people, facilitating problem-solving, and optimizing motivation. By doing so, the manager will nurture and develop the employee into a lifelong learning machine.
They have to work with a team with a team mindset. The manager needs to imbibe and drill the team with the goals they have to achieve so that they are all aligned to the same objective. He has to focus on building a high performing team by using the DISC behavioral analysis tool— Dominant: completes tasks, may overstep authority, and like challenges; Influencing: strong connection, motivational, and people-oriented; Steady: solid, unit player, classical approach, slower paced, and cautious; Compliant: data-oriented, detail-oriented, conventional approach, and more passive. The manager can easily maneuver by following the DISC method.
For the managers in the organizational context, their primary goal is shaping the environment for the employees. At this level of leadership, managers have to have the mindset of fostering organization economic health and promoting happiness among the employees. They have to be the merchant of wow and genius, who help make the processes efficient and need to have the perspective and mindset to analyze the business cycle. Furthermore, managers have to keep a tab on the employee metrics, which reflects the right path to great organizational leadership.
Forging alliances to run the organization smoothly should on the manager’s todo. Both leading an alliance and owning the leadership in an agreement can make all the difference. Managers have to stay alert and review the alliance framework on these parameters. The strategic purpose is to ensure compatibility.
Managers who lead in all the contexts of the leadership will create wonders for the organization.
