What a leader is not

True leadership is one that draws from the strengths of others. It is about awakening what is half asleep inside people. This requires that we inspire people to discover their innate abilities. In a corporate setting, such leadership is crucial to business success. The ability to unleash people’s potential, to energise them to use their talent and to work towards a common goal is the master skill of a true leader. However, there are many myths about leadership that need to be dispelled. Here are the 10 most prevalent among them.

Leaders should encourage competition amongst their team members

Some leaders make people compete so they perform better by trying to outdo their teammates. This makes as much sense as telling the defender in a football team to compete with the striker rather than to work together to score goals.

Although competition is seen to influence people to go the extra mile and perform better, encouraging collaboration and using peoples’ collective strengths is a more productive approach. When people are inspired to make the team bigger than themselves, it leads to better teamwork and results.

Leaders should have full control and command over their followers

By having complete control over the team and issuing commands, some leaders get the sense that they have a better grip on the situation and can do things ‘their way’. In truth—and extensive research supports this—dictatorial leadership stifles innovation and people actually perform better when they are trusted to perform well.

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