The more people grow, the more they need to focus on their presence in the environment. What becomes crucial is the perception we build in others for our behavior and the impression we create toward our personality. The new leaders need to invest in so many different areas to keep themselves on the wave of success. There are many things in the environment that we can only look at but can’t change. And still, there are several things that every person, neither leader nor not, can work on to ensure that they are seen as a better version of themselves by others around them. And there is no magic formula to becoming a leader or changing behavior toward yourself and the level of acceptance and support from others. There is only hard work that has to be finished so that the person can grow as a personality and professional. So here I am offering you a shortlist of five things to look at if you want to develop yourself as a person and professional. These five things were identified by a short survey I have conducted with colleagues from 4 different countries, all organizational and cultural psychologists. The list below shows the five most essential things to look for from a list of thirty-two possible. The group of people participating in the research was only 3211 people, who were selected carefully to represent different groups of the society and the professional communities within those four countries. In the list of people there are CEOs, CFOs, People managers, employees from administrative departments, salespeople, and IT people. All of them were chosen to diversify the understanding and build a more comprehensive understanding of the five most essential elements that can help ordinary people become leaders and leaders become more visible and accepted. Here they are:
HOW WE COMMUNICATE
The message we send to anyone around us is crucial for how we are perceived. The more we communicate, the more complicated the situation around us becomes. To be seen as trustworthy, the person or the leader should focus on creating a communication style that can be accepted by the people around. Most supported leaders sound clear, can be easily understood while communicating, and look confident in the topic they talk about. Open and honest communication is a prerequisite for building sustainable support and trust. And the higher the level of faith, the more robust the support and the involvement are. There is no winning or losing model for how we build our communication style. The more flexible and closer to the communication style’s environment, the better result it creates in every situation.
ATTITUDE AND SELF-CONTROL
Many years ago, Daniel Goleman named different types of intelligence – emotional intelligence. Simply put, the emotional intelligence level of every person is measured by how they react to different situations and the impact their behavior creates. The fundamental elements for building trust and becoming more visible are hidden in managing our behavior and attitudes toward different situations. People are emotional beings, and leaders are not an exception to that statement. Our emotions and how we control and show them in various cases define the level of success we can achieve as people and leaders. The better the feelings and attitudes are influenced, the more influential the communication becomes, and the better results people can deliver.
RELATIONSHIP TO PEOPLE
Connected leadership has been a hot topic for more than a decade now. The management paradigms that were set to explain that there must be a distance between the people in the team and those who manage it have turned back. Today the topic is more about how people connect. The stronger the connections are, the higher the positive results are. This correlation between elements is backed up by basic blocks like how we communicate, manage emotions, and show others that we are just like them. Today’s most substantial proof that people see people is the level of vulnerability we offer to others. Demonstrating vulnerability is not seen as a weakness and must not be seen as weakness but is more like a warming element for building a relationship based on emotions and togetherness. And the warmer the relationship is, the more successful the relationship and results are.
APPEARANCE TO PEOPLE
No matter what a person does, it is more important than everything else how this thing is looking into the eyes of others. Behavioral psychology has found that appearance is the key to winning or losing people long ago. Body language is only a part of what leaders have to observe if they want to beat others. There are so many other things in life that matter. People search for understanding, closeness, a warm and welcoming attitude, and many others. The way the leader builds its outlook in the environment can support or delay/withdraw results. People want to see people against them. The distance between the relationship and the hierarchy is no more actual. The more informal and open a leader is, the more accepted they appear.
PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
Some expectations come from the past and, unfortunately, are still actual. This perception is that “The leader knows it all.” No matter its wrong perception, the comfort of knowing that you have someone who knows more than you and above and can help you in every situation is more than acceptable for employees. However, living with that obstacle in their professional environment, leaders have the tuff task “of learning it all.” And here is where many leaders fail. They see professional competence as learning everything, getting into any detail, and answering any question as an expert.
Why is this wrong? – you will ask. The knowledge is growing exponentially so fast that even the experts in a particular area or segment cannot learn it all. But having professional competence is not knowing all. It is more like knowing the big picture and the main concepts and paradigms and learning how to involve the knowledge from the experts around you to achieve results. That is the skill that, if understood correctly, can build the leader’s image as a professionally competent person who can be trusted to help others give their best and achieve remarkable results.
IN CONCLUSION:
The leadership role is complex and often misunderstood. While many people believe that having a trustful leader means having someone around you with more expertise in their field, the leader’s job is to build trust and acceptance by using a complex structure of knowledge, knowledge, and behavior to help them make an acceptable image that a wide range of followers can trust. Understanding that specific can help the leader grow and re-position themselves as accepted partner and energy booster for outstanding results.
The Human place 