Recommendations for New Leaders

Key takeaways:

• Leaders have to use personal and organizational assets to be successful.
• Leaders should make sure that they are adding value above and beyond what individuals could achieve without them.

One of the important things any new leader needs to understand is that leadership effectiveness is earned.

Simply being appointed to a leadership position does not bestow the abilities or conditions necessary to succeed. However, such designation does give a leader access to sets of assets that could be used to influence individuals and groups.

A leader’s credibility (e.g., brand) coming into the position, along with the ability to assess and provide for the needs of the team and its members, will determine whether leadership efforts will succeed.[1] How those personal assets are brought by the leader and those conveyed by the formal position in a hierarchy will determine whether or not effective leadership is possible.

In effect, it's helpful to think about two different issues: The first is whether a leader has the ability to understand and marshal the personal and organizational assets available in influencing others; these include knowledge, personality, perceived credibility and influence levers that come along with the position (e.g., the ability to reward, leverage communication systems, modify structure, etc.).[2]

Second, if a leader wants to be seen as an “effective leader,” it is critical to understand that the measure for this is usually one of demonstrating that the leader is allowing and supporting individuals and the team to achieve more than would have been thought possible without the leadership effort.

If that is not happening there is little value-added being provided by the leader, and that will be quickly recognized.[3]

[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1988.63.2.527

[2] https://www.tlnt.com/the-six-measures-of-a-great-leader/

[3] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272725