Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Happy Monday morning to you. The new week, the new start. So today on the podcast, I want to take up a topic that I don’t think I talk about, at least in the last two months. And I did talk about this a long time ago, a while ago, on this podcast, I think that was last year. And then prior to that many times on the radio show, so this is on how you can become an effective leader. So if you are in a situation where you’re leading people, maybe at work, or maybe you have your own business, and people depend their careers depend on you. And your success, as somebody who’s delivering a project or who’s delivering an outcome, depends on their success, how can you lead them effectively, now effective leadership takes time. There is no shortcut to this. Regardless, that could be some science that you are a leader early on in your life. But then as you start maturing, as you start going through, working in different situations, different scenarios, you start to learn, and the talent that you have in you if you are a natural leader gets refined over a period of time. But there are some approaches. And let’s say that you are not a natural leader, let’s say you are put in a situation now to deal with people. What are the things that you need to focus on? What can you count on, there are three or four things specifically for things that will make you an effective leader, or approach leadership in an effective way, I think that’s the right way to say it.
The first and the foremost is your belief in the vision. And when you believe in the vision, that means now indirectly, you are instilling the same belief. So you’re telling the people who are working with you and for you, you’re indirectly asking them to believe in the vision. And in one of the earlier podcasts, I believe it was yesterday, I think, every day I record podcasts now that I completely forget. But that thing yesterday was talking about earning the trust of people around us. So a good vision, a strong vision, your conviction in the vision allows you to earn the trust of your team members. And there is no way to earn the trust of the team members than to show your conviction in the vision.
Now, conviction comes when you have a deep understanding of what’s happening. You have a determination to carry forward, whatever you’re thinking, and you as a leader in your thoughts, interactions, and everything in-between, you stand for that vision. So you and the outcome that you are seeking are together are synonymous, they, whatever you say, whatever you present, whatever you communicate, or whether you’re doing that, in a group set up, or on one setup, or maybe a casual setup with your team members, you are displaying the conviction that the belief you have in the vision starts from there.
And then obviously, when you have that kind of conviction in you, your next job, obviously is to have good team members, you got to build a good team. And a team that supports your vision, a team that understands what needs to be done. I see people making this mistake when then they start hiring people to support their vision, they end up hiring on emotions rather than hiring people on merit. And the merit is again, you define you come up with the criteria on what kind, you know, you establish the post position possibility for people who or whom you’re bringing in the skills, the talent, the experience, what they have done in the past, and how they could do what they have done already in a bigger and a mightier way for you in this setup.
Now, not only once you get people in getting people in is obviously the hardest part and once they’re in the message to them is that merit is rewarded. And every opportunity they get going forward in the setup is based on merit, then comes as a leader, you also need to become a good negotiator. You’re negotiating not only with the team members but then higher-ups.
You’re also negotiating with your peers who are probably dealing with similar situations across the organizations. So negotiation becomes a challenge. And then, obviously, negotiation could be the only thing that separates you from success. could have the best time you could have the best deliverables in place, it could be working towards the outcomes. But then just because you could not negotiate one or two variables, then now you could be putting everybody at risk. External negotiations are very difficult to master. And that’s one of the things that makes you a good leader, an effective leader. The key is this, when you negotiate, make sure that after the negotiation, and during the negotiation, you are not compromising the trust of other people. So you got to negotiate fairly. And as you are negotiating fairly got to also negotiate smartly, so that you are withholding the well-being of your unit.
Now once that is done, the last thing is you also need to become a good delegator. This is a challenge, I see a wherever I consult, I consult with corporations here in Silicon Valley. And I see this problem where somebody got promoted because they’re really good at what they’re doing. But then once they got to that next level, whatever they were good at, is not necessary at that point in time. At that point in time, they have to replace themselves, and they somehow miserably fail in replacing themselves. And they hold on to that position also, in addition to what they are being expected to do in this new position. So how do you assign effectively? How do you understand what your focus area should be now that you have a bigger role to play? So excelling? In the assignment of tasks? I’m not talking about tasks at the project management level, like the line item level, I’m talking about overall at the highest level, how do you become effective in assigning tasks? Tasks could be big projects in your case? How can you become good at that? For you to become good at that, you got to understand and study and build a deep understanding of the strengths of each of your team players and match the tasks to their strengths. constantly analyzing the success capabilities of each of the team members, and then making wise choices when assigning responsibilities. It takes time. But then when you start applying yourself as a leader from this frame, become a good delegator. Become a good negotiator, become a good team builder. And believing in your vision. If you just use these four variables in your frame, you have a mental frame, you’ll sharpen your skills, obviously, your leadership skills. But then you also send a message that you are the most capable person to be in that leadership position or beyond.
Hopefully, today’s podcast episode is helpful. If it isn’t, do me a favor, drop me a comment here, write me a review, rate the podcast, share it with any of your friends and family who you think will benefit from this. And if you have a question for me, the number directly into this podcast is 888-818-0404. Call in leave me a message with your question in your own voice. I’m going to use it as a voice drop and record an upcoming episode, attributing it to you if you want it to be that way. If not, you can text me asked me a question and I’m going to read the question and I’m going to answer I’ll do my best to answer your question. And that way we all grow. That’s all for now. You take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Bye now.