Leadership Responsibility – Everything you need to know

In this blog, we are going to explain everything about leadership responsibility.

The word responsibility suggests The state of being accountable for something. And quite unsurprisingly, a leader is responsible for and everything in the organisation he/she leads.

A leader does not have the liberty to say that they were unaware of the happenings. And that’s what makes the job of a leader so dangerous or so exciting. Whichever way you would like to see it.

Let’s dive deep into the article, and before this article ends, I assure you that you will have a basic idea of what is expected of you in a new leadership role.

WHAT’S IN IT

Qualities in Leaders

When it comes to activities, there are many things that a leader may have to perform based on the nature, movement and goal of an organisation.

But one thing that is common in any organisation’s leadership role is that the leader is accountable for anything good and evil in the organisation.

And instead of being afraid of this fact, take this as an opportunity that you have the privilege of taking the organization and the people associated with the organization in a direction where it can yield maximum results.

To do this, it is essential to develop certain traits that come in very handy in a  leadership role.

Communication Skills

It is a crucial skill of any leader. A leader constantly has to communicate with people. Be it his/her team members or supervisors. It is essential to communicate clearly with your team to bring everyone on the same page towards the same goal. Thus a leader must have the necessary communication skills.

Confident

Have you ever been in a situation where one person gave a brilliant solution but communicated it in a little unsure manner? And on the other hand, another person gave a so-so answer but shared it confidently, and most people present there thought that the second person was correct.

That is how important confidence is. You should have complete faith and trust in the ideas you present, the decisions you take, and, more importantly, the team members. This way, your team will believe in your vision and walk on the path with you.

Organization skill

It is an essential skill to have if you are working with multiple team members. Also, It helps in keeping things sorted and makes management less time-consuming. It also helps in easily tracking some loopholes in the process, if any.

But has been seen very often that too much organisation kills the excitement and joy of doing something. It makes the process dull and boring. Thus it is essential to keep things balanced.

Delegation and empowerment

As the team grows, it will be nearly impossible to do everything on your own or even be an active part of everything in the organisation. Thus, it is essential to delegate tasks to other capable team members and focus on your organisation’s most critical aspects where your interference is of utmost importance.

Trust the team members for what they can do, give them any kind of resource they need, and let them do the task. Micromanaging is not a good idea, and neither is it practical in a big organisation.

Believing in team members and assigning them important tasks helps develop a trustworthy relationship. This way, you can create many leaders under you who are intelligent and capable and have great trust in you.

Integrity and honesty

This is one of the utmost vital qualities of a leader; his/her integrity should be unquestionable in any situation. Building trust takes a long, long time but breaking it is elementary.

Just one lie to your team members, and when people find out the truth, they will never believe you again after that. That fragile trust is. So never break it. Always be honest with your team members about everything that you do.

Taking responsibility

Responsibility in a page

By now, we know how important it is for a leader to take responsibility for everything happening in the organization. But how can a newly appointed leader effectively do that? Let’s explore this question in this part of the blog.

Understand Organisation mission

Every organisation has a specific goal for itself, and accordingly, they have a mission statement. It is crucial for everyone in the organisation to be well versed with it. It is not just with the words but with the natural feeling behind those words, and only then can they work in the same direction.

And as a leader, your job is to go a step further and examine if the mission statement is still valid. Do the organisational goals need any tweaks? And if the plans or the mission statements need changes according to you.

Discuss them with the other experienced people in the company and conclude changing the goal or mission statement if needed.

Figure Out the main stakeholders

Understand who are the key people for your organisation. Whom does the organisation serve? Who has some real power over the organisation, who controls the resources required in the organisation?

Also, find out what drives each of them. It may be as simple as respect; for somebody else, it may be their profit, which differs. And it will be great if you can figure out these key points beforehand.

Also, have good communication with these people. Try to befriend them or bring them to a point where they can talk openly to you. And speak to them about the organisation.

What do they like or dislike about the organisation? What changes do they want to see? These conversations will give a better view of what you are going to deal with.

Understand Organization structure and culture

This is a task where you need to give a substantial amount of time. You should go through your entire organization: every part, every team of it. Find out the different systems and processes used in the organization.

See how effective those systems are, and if needed, don’t shy away from tweaking them. This is very important for the long term efficiency of your organisation.

The culture of your organization is another very important aspect that most people don’t give importance to. It is essentially essential to consciously shape the cultures to align with the organization’s goal. Thus if you feel that the culture is going the wrong way, it’s time to change!

Be Accessible

One of the major issues that organisations face is that people who work at the ground level, who experience the actual day to day problems in the organisation, don’t or can’t report it to the leaders, who have the power to fix it.

This may lead to significant issues in the organisation. And the reason behind this may be that probably the leaders are not accessible to them, or maybe they are not sure if it’s safe to speak about a problem to a leader.

But as you are a new leader, there is no already set image of yours in their mind. So as much as possible, go among the people of your organisation. Talk to them. Mix with them. Have lunch with them. Show them that you are one among them and no alien.

These simple actions will change the way they approach you, and the chances of them reporting to you directly any issues in the organisation is much higher.

The constant work

After executing the above points and fixing the needed parts, it is most likely that new challenges will keep arriving with time. Still, if you constantly stay alert and keep looking for new problems, before the situation turns into something big, you will be able to deal with it swiftly.

Thus it is necessary to make time in your daily or weekly schedule for problem scanning.

Try to make a balance between micromanaging things in your organisation and leaving everything on someone else. At least you should be well informed about everything happening in the organisation.

Also, don’t keep your daily schedule so tight that if you are needed in some part of the organisation on certain days, you can not be present there.

Conclusion

Finally, I would like to say that there is no single right way of doing things, but with some presence of mind and smartness (which you have if someone appointed you at the leadership role), most items can be well tackled. This is a leadership responsibility.

And even if at some point something unexpected breaks, do not stay with it for too long. Learn from it and move on. It is a long journey full of learning, and you are just starting. Start it with joy and not worry and try to keep the joyfulness up and spread it in the organization.

Also, you can read our blog on Corporate Social Responsibility-The Most Effective Strategy

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