5 Simple Tips to Becoming a Successful Leader

How to become a successful leader? If you’re a business manager, HR manager or a marketing manager, you need to have the good heart of management, which is a good leadership. Without leading, managing wouldn’t be successful. Management will be like a body without a heart when leadership is not present in any form of management. That is why if you want to become a successful manager, you’ve got to be a successful leader first. Whether you call yourself a manager or a leader, the following five simple tips will help you to becoming a leader of success.

 

1. Be a leader

The first step to become a successful leader is to become a real leader first. You should learn what true leadership means. Leadership doesn’t only mean you have a position or an authority, but it means you have the capability to influence and bring people to the accomplishment of a common goal. Leadership also happens within oneself. A person, to become a leader of himself, should have the power to influence himself and bring his whole (mind, heart, body and spirit) to success. A true leader is also a follower. Likewise, a follower can also be a leader. A great leader is a follower of things that are right. And to become a successful leader, one must also make his followers leaders of themselves.

 

2. Be humble

To succeed in leadership, you should become a great person. In becoming a great person, one should be sacrificial, and one of the best ways to learn this is to practice humility. It’s hard to be humble right? It’s difficult to forgive and get rid of our pride. Forgiving people and forgiving ourselves are very important feats leaders should always practice. This is also because forgiveness makes a leader calm, gentle, understanding and far away from anger and wrath. Leaders should maintain humility to possess those calmness and understanding, which they can use to effectively motivate and inspire people. But how can we really become humble? The answer is simple, yet difficult – be humble everyday like how you take a bath every day. And you’ve got to start or at least try your best to become humble today! Humility is one thing that needs a lot of practice and maintenance. Just like taking a bath every day, you’ve got to take away your pride and hatred every day.

 

3. Be powerful

Great kings have powerful swords that can conquer other lands and kingdoms. God has also a powerful sword, which is His Word that can conquer souls and spirits. A successful leader should possess powers in him. Of course, modern leaders today don’t need to have powerful swords like the ancient kings have. But we do need a sword like the Words of God or a wisdom which are filled with truth and principles that can influence anyone’s heart and mind. We need to have power and we need to multiply that power throughout our people. Success in leadership is not only seen on the leader, but it is manifested on the success of the whole army, team or organization. That is why, to ensure leadership success, we need not only gain power for ourselves, but also we must empower our people and give them their slice of power, authority, control and success.

 

4. Be faithful

When things get tougher and troubles come in, your followers should remain faithful to you as their leader. There are many problems that can strike an organization, such as economic crisis, stiff competition, and other natural and inevitable problems. But no matter what storm hits you and your people, you need to maintain their trust and confidence in you. Here, you need to apply the ethic of reciprocity, that is, “do things that you want them to do to you”. If you want them to remain faithful and loyal to you in times of troubles or prosperity, you’ve also got to remain faithful and loyal to them in times that they become weak or strong. We’ve got to understand that life can be hard and easy. Likewise, we also need to understand that people, no matter how smart and great they are, they still have weakness. Thus, as part of our faithfulness to them, we need to guide them to develop their skills and strengths, and help them overcome their weaknesses.

 

5. Be a savior

The final tip to becoming a successful leader is to become a savior to your followers or subordinates. People follow a leader because they are hoping that a leader will solve their problems, answer their questions, and eventually save their lives. Saving lives doesn’t only mean saving people from death, but it can also mean saving them from their day to day problems, whether they’re small or big problems. Here, a leader’s dedication and deep willingness to help his people is vital. A successful leader should become selfless, rather than selfish. He needs to get rid of greed and his personal interests. He even needs to stay happy and positive in the midst of misery and sufferings. You can save a person’s life; you can also save a person’s day. Even by just giving a sweet smile and a caring touch to the shoulder of your follower might already save his entire day. And if you truly love your people, you will not only be contented to saving their days, but will continuously do everything to save their lives and the life of your organization.

I hope the five simple tips above will help you become a successful leader. Yes they are simple, but simplicity doesn’t mean easiness. They are difficult and they aren’t ordinary. That is why to achieve success in leading people… you’ve got to be tough and extraordinary.