No matter the individual or the reason at hand, all effective leadership styles have one thing in common- they all contain the “Four C’s”- Character, Communication skills, Consistency, and the Creativity needed for successful problem solving. Of course, within each of these four traits, variances of extreme proportions are noted by those most inclined to utilize them.

For example, President Harry Truman was quoted as saying, “A leader is a person who has the ability to get others to do what they don’t want to do and like it.” This type of leadership style, or “Team Leader”, is one in which the leader rallies those following behind in a positive manner and therefore yielding positive results. Such a leader is considered to be “High Task and High Relationship”, making sure that all workers/followers are focused, aiming together toward one common goal, and working just as hard (if not harder) as the others in the team.

On the flip side, Napoleon and other “great” leaders of history were not concerned that their people liked what they were doing. In fact, these types of leaders had absolutely no concern for their recruits/followers, as they were considered to be “High Task/Low Relationship”, or have adopted an “Authoritarian Leadership” style. Although effective, it’s highly unlikely that Napoleon’s troops were thrilled with their experiences.

Within the differing leadership styles (both effective and not), one must be familiar with the negative attributes which can easily effect the performance and outcome of the task at hand. For instance, a “Country Club Leader” is one that is “Low Task and High Relationship”, thus using reward power as the driving force to reach the preset goals. Such actions are commonly the result of fear of losing or damaging the relationships of their team, therefore not using the powers that are required by a leader and replacing them with money and/or gifts.

The ability to get onto the correct path for creating your own effective leadership style stems from within the individual, for realizing that it is the followers who recognize if a leader is successful is the first step. Share the glory with your team, but keep the pains to yourself. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, for a boss tells others what to do while a leader shows them what can be done. Share your vision with your team in words that can be understood by all. And while you’re at it, share your knowledge of the Four C’s, as well as the tricks needed to accomplish, for a leader is only as successful as the team that carries them.

Aging is a process that we must all navigate through in life. Even though its the only challenge that we must all face – it often feels like a terribly personal one, and is often a challenge that we face alone. As we grow older, our leadership skills change, but do they improve or worsen?

How getting older reduces our leadership skills.

Firstly I shall look at the side of the debate that puts forward the notion that as we grow older, our ability to lead others actually deteriorates. I investigate possible reasons below.

1. Our control over children deteriorates as we are seen as out-of-touch

2. Our authority in public becomes questioned for the first time, as issues of our cognitive ability and other physical consequences start to affect the perceived quality of our judgement.

3. As memory starts to slowly deteriorate, we become less on the ball and may fall behind in fast moving areas of life, resulting in us not being seen as a leader.

How aging increases our leadership skills.

1. Our age makes us automatically seem experienced and wise in the workplace. We have a better understanding of what can go wrong, and how plans can fall apart – so our guidance is appreciated by those who are attempting a project for the first time.

2. Our appearance causes others to take us seriously. While youthful individuals may have all the energy in the world, they struggle getting places because people simply don’t have the faith in them. Older people receive respect that reduces this risk.

3. Long-standing relationships with others mean that we have far more influence over these people than young strangers could ever have, (when taking love out of the equation anyway!).

4. Knowing thoroughly how the world works, and having experience in so many parts of life means that we become more confident as we age, and in many cases become tougher as a result of life’s toils. It’s a statistical fact that older people are more likely to fight back against muggers than young people are. I think this demonstrates more clearly than anything else – that older people have a great spirit that potential ‘followers’ see in them too.

5. As life starts to slow down, we are able to see the big picture of life. For teenagers, life all too often is simply about getting through school as fast as possible and drinking as much as they can. It’s fast paced and many individuals lose sight of what matters in life. With this perspective in mind, older people have a greater ability of appealing to the good side of people, and often take the time to do nice things that wins colleagues and subordinate’s respect.

I hope these thoughts help you make your own mind up about whether Leadership is something that comes naturally with age or not, and whether older people actually have an advantage over younger individuals when it comes to having leadership potential. In my opinion, it does. And this gives me just another reason to smile on my birthday. Add your thoughts below by leaving a comment!

As a teenager, I KNOW how hard it is to feel like you ‘fit in’ during high school, college or university. That’s why I’ve prepared this brief list of tips on how to lead as a young person. Most of the time, teenagers like myself just want to ‘fit in’ and go unnoticed. This is has become typical because of the old Chinese proverb ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered’. To be different is to be a target in many high schools.

What I love about teenager hood is that in our later years, we get to throw away this way of looking at life, and truly step out and live our lives the way we want to. There is however a solution for those still at high school however – to become a team leader, not a target. Read on to find out how.

1. Have a think about how you live your day to day life. What things do you hate doing, but end up doing anyway? Do you hate going to a certain person’s house, but simply have to because everyone else is going? Do you smoke but slightly regret starting? For me, it was hanging out with a certain ‘popular’ individual who did nothing but insult everyone in their company. This really annoyed me, but noone else seemed to mind. They were probably just better at hiding it than me.

2. Show assertiveness. You don’t have to be a very confident person to show assertiveness. Confidence is a characteristic, being assertive is simply a technique you can learn. Rephrase soft and weak phrases to strong sounding ones. “Could you just pass me my pen?” is only asking someone to taunt back “No” just to annoy or upset you. Instead, try “[Name], pass me that pen” in whatever tone comes naturally. By not even phrasing it as a question, the other person will be less likely to challenge you. To reiterate, this isn’t about confidence, it’s simply behaviour that you have the power to modify.

3. Don’t be different for the sake of it. Individuality is a brilliant thing, but don’t walk against trends simply ‘because’. Many so-called ‘non-conformists’ are actually part of a very clear, very obvious group of ‘non-conformists’, and simply conform to their views instead. They’re as much of a follower as everyone else, they simply follow the complete opposite to everyone else. So my point is this. Don’t follow every trend because you have to, and on the flipside, don’t hate every trend just because it’s a fad. Do what *you* want, ignore trends completely. If you want to improve your leadership as a teen, you have to walk to the beat of your own drum.

4. Don’t think ‘What if it went wrong?’, think ‘What if it went RIGHT’

5. Don’t back down. Make clear decisions to do what you want to do. Don’t let comment or opinions from others make you re-think and possibly back down. As SOON as they see that you’ve given up, or changed your habit to ‘fit in’, they know they can manipulate you in the future.

6. Try and roughly write down compliments you have received as a result of being a team leader. Whether someone thanked you for helping them get out of a situation they really didn’t want to be in, or someone admiring your ‘different’ clothes, try and write it down in a tiny book. This book can be thought of as a personal ego-booster, and you can read it when you’re feeling down, or need the courage to step up and stand out of the crowd and employ leadership.

7. My final tip may sound obscure. It’s ‘DO IT’. By this, I am begging you to actually consider using the techniques above properly. It’s all too easy to skim over an article such as this and make a half hearted attempt at applying it in practice, only to see it fail. What I want you to do, is get out a pen and paper or open a Word Document, and write down numbers 1-6. For each number, I’d like you to write how you’re actually going to use this advice in real life.

Think about:

Which situations had you wished you had applied this tip?

Do you anticipate that opportunity will come round again in the near future?

How are you going to deal with the situation differently this time?

It will empower you and excite you as your action plan takes form. Finally you are actually going to do something about feeling like a sheep or a follower, and will finally be able to manage to bump yourself up a notch on the social hierarchy.

Leadership Management is what I call the activity of having a look at yourself once you feel that you’ve put these plans into action and have started making a difference. Boost your leadership and continually strive to improve your influence by reading articles on a leadership blog, such as mine below.

And finally, you’ll notice that none of these leadership tips involve following a certain fashion, mixing with a certain type of people, or liking a certain type of music. This is because these really aren’t necessary. You don’t lead by being identical to everyone else. For every area; fashion, music, looks, intelligence; I know somebody who is extremely different, *but still popular*. It is these people who I have learnt from. These individuals show that being different AND popular is the greatest place you can be, and they have far more fun than everyone else.

Have fun being a leader, and hopefully soon you’ll be doing leadership management yourself!