The world’s most successful leaders – how do they do it?

Leaders and leadership; what are the success factors for successfully leading a group, a business or oneself?

Leadership is defined as: “the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.” Many of us experience this as a rather simplified explanatory model compared to the complexity of leadership in reality. So how to go about it?

There is an endless amount of leadership theories to delve into that are based on how to lead: e.g. through behavior, power, situation or personality type. But there are also shortcuts to a successful way of leading and that is by studying the behavior of those who achieved actual effect and success in their leadership. We will help you with that by summarizing in a few short points in this article.

The 3 roles of leadership

The role of the leader is actually 3 roles; as a manager, as a leader and as a coach. As good leaders, we need to master all parts depending on what the situation requires. Unfortunately, the roles are a little trickier in Swedish than in English. In English we therefore speak of leader, manager and coach and then the roles also become clearer. The leader is the one who inspires and creates direction, the manager is the one who makes sure that the resources to reach the set goal are available (manage) and the coach makes sure to coach his organization to their own actions so that the individuals find their own solutions and lead the organization towards the set goals. A simple way to manage one’s own leadership is to think about, in different situations, “What role am I in now, as a leader, manager (boss) or coach”

Emotion and logic

Most organizations are controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, where logic, science, focus on detail and structure are decisive in how to develop your business. It is not so strange because we are trained to think like that. All public school systems in the world started around the turn of the last century at the time of industrialization, where process and logic were predominant. We were thus taught that logic should be our guiding principle in how we manage an organization. But it is not logic, money, business or structures that create commitment in staff and customers, it is the right feeling. We can call it motivation, commitment, culture, will or desire, but it is the feeling that guides our behavior. Therefore, as leaders, we must also make sure to control the feeling and then weave in the logic so that it becomes clear. It’s easy to see in a football match. It’s not the logic of a round thing rolling forward towards a net that makes us scream, it’s the feeling that our team reached a goal together and we feel involved that gives the cheers and the hugs.

Leadership & communication

Communication is the leader’s tool in the role of leader, manager and coach. The first and most important task is to clearly define a goal that engages. People want to be led and have a clear goal. Without a goal, we become disillusioned and cannot make a plan (strategy) for how to get to the goal. The effect of this is inefficiency and stress. The clearer and simpler a goal is communicated, the easier it is to create commitment and desire to achieve it. As communicators, our role is then to create clear associations, the desire to reach the goal and the reluctance to not reach it.

How do the best

If we look at some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and companies, we find special behavioral patterns. We have, among other things, studied Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs and Ingvar Kamprad and these manage to combine the logical and the structural by encouraging imagination, intuition, daring to be irregular and see the big picture. This means that they create a feeling and participation that makes them and the organization around them more creative and solution-oriented. They simply manage to make the left (logic) and right (emotion) hemispheres of the brain work together through their behavior, which gives effect and uniqueness.

A successful leadership based on a number of common denominators from the world’s best leaders.

• They have integrity
  • stands up for his cause and does not turn his coat to the wind
• They set clear goals
  • Leads with conviction with a healthy dose of humility. They also have the ability to look objectively at their goals. Being strictly goal oriented and always having the desired end result in the back of your mind is a very important leadership trait.
  • Does not present complex plans and thick presentations but rather gives you an infectious, inspiring message you can relate to.
• They communicate ONE vision – CLEARLY
  • They are verbal and clear visionaries. They simply have exceptional communication skills – without this there is just a lot of lifeless information on paper.
  • The clarity also includes that they communicate, communicate, communicate.
• They lead by example
• They expects the best from his TEAM
• They encourage
• They support
• They recognize a job well done and good people.
• They have a genuine interest in individuals, see, confirm and use the right competencies
• They provide stimulating tasks
• They help individuals to look beyond self-interest and focus more on the TEAM
• They inspire. They are inspiring as people and manage to be contagious and get the group on board.

The recipe for success is thus found in those who comfortably move between the areas and in the borderland of business, behavior and communication. We will be happy to show you how you can work with each point in the lineup to have an impact and exchange on your leadership in your organization.