Written by Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
The job of executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs is to lead others effectively while empowering leadership and the accompanying culture that creates conditions for people around them to thrive and achieve their full potential.
Most of the time, executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs are the protagonists of their very personal movies.
But being in a position of leadership or authority means shifting that focus and beginning to see the people they're leading as the stars.
It's their job to help them shine!
Empowerment leadership
There's a popular misconception that leadership implies being the centre of attention and that executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs are automatically the ones with the ideas and the answers, and all eyes should be on them.
This misconception is, in fact, all wrong!
It's never solely about them!
Leadership isn't about stoking ego!
It's about empowering others!
This empowerment can be achieved by focusing on the following points.
Trust
Establishing trust between leadership and those they lead is like laying the unquestionable foundation of any team, company, organisation, or business.
This trust is not just a formality but a crucial element that ensures everyone feels secure and confident in their roles.
Building trust comes down to a few things!
It's what happens when executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs are authentic, show empathy, and demonstrate sound logic and judgment.
For instance, being authentic could mean admitting mistakes and showing vulnerability.
Showing empathy could involve actively listening to others' concerns.
Also, the demonstration of sound logic and judgment could be seen in the decisions made and how they are communicated.
If there's a trust issue, it usually means that they struggle with empathy, logic, or authenticity, and for many executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs, it's empathy!
This issue occurs whenever they talk to someone while staring at their phone or try to wrap up a meeting the moment they get the message without asking everyone else if they got it.
High standards, deep devotion
Once executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs have a foundation of trust, they can empower others through a combination of high standards and deep devotion, motivating people to achieve more and showing commitment to their development.
Deep devotion to leadership means a solid commitment to the growth and success of those they lead, often demonstrated through personal investment in their development and well-being.
When both – high standards and deep devotion – are in place, they motivate people to achieve more while also showing commitment to their development.
A key to this is consistently and honestly providing – positive and negative – feedback and reinforcement regardless!
Executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs can expand their impact from individuals to teams, companies, organisations, or businesses by cultivating a true feeling of belonging.
It's about ensuring that everyone feels safe contributing, has access to growth opportunities, and is transparent about what is required for advancement.
"Empowering those around you to be heard and valued makes the difference between a leader who simply instructs and one who inspires." – Adena T. Friedman
If a barrier or bias prevents anyone from thriving, removing it as quickly as possible is essential!
Executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs are responsible for attracting talent, helping them develop, promoting the most deserving, and retaining them by showing their appreciation daily.
Strategy and culture
Another thing that sets exemplary leadership apart is the importance of continuing to have an impact even when not present.
Two powerful tools that help executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs achieve this are strategy, which guides people's decisions and aligns resources, and culture, which powerfully shapes behaviour in their absence and conveys how things get done.
When implementing an effective strategy, they can guide people's decisions and align resources even when away.
Also, it's essential not to try to be all things to everyone!
For executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs, this can be achieved by not making strategic trade-offs, remembering that strategy is a way to embed their values into the fabric of their team, company, organisation, or business, and finding ways to communicate this strategy clearly and repeatedly.
To continuously maintain and continue a strategy, they can also make a point by hiring, promoting, and celebrating those who understand its implementation.
Culture, the second tool, powerfully shapes behaviour in the absence of executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs and conveys how things get done.
It's not just about the values executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs preach but the actions they reward and the behaviours they tolerate.
To achieve more collaboration, rewarding this behaviour is essential, as it is not just about talking about changing culture but also about changing underlying assumptions.
Dynamic business environments often struggle due to inadequate and even toxic cultures, and leadership at those companies has to question itself and realise that creating a healthy and thriving workplace starts from the top.
Executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs must question whether their leadership style and strategy fit the current culture.
Applied practically, it could mean that:
They may need to let some old habits go.
Then, model the culture they want to see.
But not waiting for the culture to shift magically.
Instead, exemplary leadership is about collecting brutal facts and data on mismatches, involving those concerned in finding solutions, testing changes, and, based on that, spreading what works.
Equipped with some needed persistence, executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs can unleash greatness in those they're tasked to lead through culture.
Therefore, strategy and culture are the legacy of their leadership!
Takeaway
Exemplary leadership of executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs begins by shifting the focus to empowering those around them.
This empowerment leadership happens by establishing trust and strengthening their bonds outwards from individual relationships to teams and then to companies, organisations, or businesses.
Following a clearly defined and openly displayed strategy is essential while establishing a culture that promotes differences and removes barriers that prevent people from growing and thriving.
When executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs establish empowering leadership, those they lead are encouraged to manage themselves instead of being directly supervised.
But even though this strategy supports independence, leadership still plays an active role!
Empowering others is at the heart of exemplary leadership, the kind of leadership that makes it more about others instead of all about them.
Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
With a career that has spanned from being a former Officer and Special Forces Operator to a COO in international and intercultural corporate business operations and development positions, and now as the founder of his boutique business, Lars has accumulated a wealth of practical leadership, resilience, discipline, motivation, endurance, commitment, persistence, and dedication.
