by Robin Landry

Created on: July 10, 2008   Last Updated: April 25, 2011

Within the corporate world, people often associate "leadership" and "success" only with those individuals who occupy high-ranking, executive level positions. However, I believe that true leadership can and does exist at all levels of the organization and may often manifest itself in a variety of ways.

I think that the first key is in determining what effective leadership looks like. Unfortunately, during the course of a twenty year career with a major insurance carrier I have occasionally seen high ranking executives who seemed to believe that the goal of being a leader was simply to "boss people around." Relying mainly on positional power and intimidation these individuals seemed far more concerned with stroking their own egos than with achieving desired business results.

Truly effective leadership allows both the organization or team and the individual members to realize their goals with everyone's dignity remaining more or less intact. My personal definition of leadership is the ability to organize people in order to achieve a desired purpose. The effective leader must first understand and believe in the purpose and then encourage his or her followers to do the same, hopefully by understanding and believing in them as well. Here are a few of the types of "power" that I think are most effective in achieving these ends.

Power of Observation

Nothing is more disastrous to the success of a project, team, or organization than a leader with poor observational skills. Like the stereotypical husband on vacation who spends hours lost in traffic because he stubbornly refuses to ask for directions, leaders who lack understanding of a project or situation can have a severely negative impact on the outcomes of their team or organization.

The power of observation entails not only formal orientation to the goals of the project and the duties and skills required of the people involved but also the more subtle ability to "read between the lines" by noticing body language, tone of voice, and attitudes surrounding particular aspects of the work or the work environment.

A good leader is much like a good crime scene investigator. The "little things" do count and taking the time to conduct formal as well as informal research can go a long way in providing the leader with the knowledge needed in order to lead effectively.

Power of Humility

In order to reap the benefits from the knowledge gained through practicing good observational skills an effective leader needs to be humble

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