Leadership is about behavior and responsibility, not about a position or how you are better than others. A leader is someone who can influence, motivate, and facilitate others to achieve common goals. A leader is the role model who others will follow. Anyone can be a leader whether at work, home, an organization, church, schools, or anywhere. When you are in a circle of friends and they often follow your suggestions, you are actually already the informal leader of your friends.

Whether you are already a leader or aspiring to be a leader, showing good leadership skills and leadership qualities will make others support you. Support is a necessity when you want to achieve your goals. People follow you because they trust and respect you. You won’t get good results by forcing others to do what you want; that is not leadership, but tyranny.

There are many theories and books about leadership. It is one of the main subjects in Business schools. Although you will benefit from more extensive training, everyone can be a good leader, even without a degree. Here are several ways to become a good leader:

A good leader has to be a visionary. They should know where the team is going, what to achieve, and how to accomplish it. Most successful leaders, such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi were true visionaries who inspired their people to achieve better future. Find the vision of your life and apply them to your team.

Answer these questions: Where do you lead your team? What do you want to achieve with your team? How will you achieve it? Can you see the future for yourself and your team? How is this goal in line with your personal beliefs? If you cannot answer these questions, take some time to think them through, either with meditation or personal journey.

Sometimes the company beliefs and vision are incompatible with yours. Never compromise your beliefs and visions. It is dishonest to yourself and to others, and you will regret it in the future.

Leader cannot work alone without help from their team members. Good leaders communicate with their staffs to understand what their needs and build a solid team. Good leaders are also good teachers. They help training and coaching their team members to develop their skills. Communicate with your team members. Ask them about their needs, assess their level of competence. Help them to do their job better.

To be a good communicator you must be open, warm, and empathetic, so your team members feel safe to talk to you honestly. You can gain feedback, ideas, and suggestions from your team members to improve yourself and the team. Do not be defensive when receiving criticism. Not all criticism is valid, but rejecting it outright will obstruct your own self development as you are unable to correct your faults and improve yourself.

When communicating, focus on your team members instead of yourself. Put yourself in their place. It does not mean you are a pushover, merely setting aside your pride and needs to their needs in order to get the job done. A new concept of leadership by Ken Blanchard is that the main purpose of a leader is to serve the people they lead. A good leader creates environment where their team members feel safe and motivated to achieve common goals.

If you cannot manage yourself, how can you expect to manage other people? How often we see someone who is “do as I say, not what I do”? A leader is a role model, one whose behavior will be followed by their followers whether they intend to or not. If you like to arrive late, are lazy at work, and throw temper tantrums, don’t be surprised to see the rest of your team slack off work and do worse.

Managing yourself also means managing your emotion. First you must recognize your own weakness and strength. Be in touch with yourself and recognize your emotion before it blows up. Then learn how to handle the emotion constructively. Develop your Emotional Quotient by reading and attending workshop about Emotional and Social Intelligence.

Good leaders are creative. They constantly analyze current data to seek new ways to achieve their goals and opportunities to develop themselves and their team.

Spend your time to browse around for data and news relevant to your goals. Buy books and read. Browse the internet. Learn how to be an effective leader. Go to training and seminars. Create new things. Give your staffs some freedom to be creative. Brainstorm with your team.

In situational leadership, to be able to lead effectively, you must adapt your leadership styles to suit the situation and the needs of your staff members. There are four styles of leadership styles, each suitable for certain kinds of situation.

The first style is a Directing style where the communication largely goes one way with the team members acts as the followers. This style is best suited when your team members have low competence and low commitment and therefore need constant supervision.

The second style is Coaching. It is suitable when your team members gain more competence, though their commitment is still low. You now seek some ideas and suggestions from them. Communication begins to go two-way, but you still remain firmly in control and make all the decision.

When the staff begins to show high competence in their job, but you are still uncertain of their level of commitments, the suitable leadership style is Supporting. You facilitate the decision making process, but your team members will have large control over the daily decision making.

Finally, all you need to do is delegate because the staff already has high competence and has been shown to have high commitment to the goals. The staff is able to handle the tasks by themselves, make their own decisions, even deciding if and when you should be involved in the decision making process.

Evaluating the situations and adapting proper leadership styles is a skill all effective leaders must have. Faulty assessment to the situation can lead to ineffective leadership styles.

A good leader is trusted and respected by their team members. Without integrity and credibility, your leadership will crumble. You might still be in formal position of leadership, but without trust and support from your team members, you only have empty title. On the contrary, you might not be a leader in formal sense, but when people recognize your integrity, they will respect and follow you.