Organizations value people who exhibit what is called as ‘everyday leadership’. People Managers are eminently suited to demonstrate this while this does not preclude even those individual contributors. There is increasing recognition that leadership is all about action and accountability and not just position and power. If this is understood right, then there is a leadership responsibility and accountability for everyone. Everyday leadership is the nuts and bolts of organizational effectiveness. Delivering value to customers is all about execution and not charismatic charm. The different dimensions of personal leadership or everyday leadership include being a Thought leader, Execution leader, Change leader, Coach leader, Customer Champ leader or Process Excellence Leader. The choice is yours as to which domain you would like to make a difference.

Domains of Everyday Leadership:

Thought Leader: You are a thought-leader when you articulate your thoughts clearly in terms of the value they create. It is all about thinking out-of-the-box and converting the ideas into pragmatic action possibilities. It is rarely the ivory-tower ideation process that people find it difficult to grasp and do anything about. Questioning the status-quo, being unorthodox and demonstrating a non-linear thinking besides providing cutting-edge ideas on how pressing issues peculiar to an organization can be handled with quantum efficiency will come under my definition of thought-leadership. It is more pragmatic than preaching, more radical than run-of-the-mill, more authentic than artistic, and more effective than efficient. Businesses everywhere provide possibilities for such a thought leadership. Significant progress in organizations if any at has all happened because some people took the role of thought leaders and had the courage to challenge the rest of the organization with fierce passion and often with an ability to translate such ideas into possibilities. One of the young HR managers from a leading textile /garments corporation perceived general lack of trust between colleagues in her organization and had some radical thoughts on how the situation can be improved. She was validating her thoughts using me as a sounding board. She was even willing to try this out in her own department since charity begins from home! All that she would need to do is to press on against disappointments or nay-sayers and some support from her functional head – the Head of HR.

Execution Leader: You are an execution leader when action is your forte and you choose to act and move under uncertainty rather than being frozen. The problem with most organizations is not lack of ideas, thoughts, and suggestions but the will to execute. Organizations can execute better only when individuals demonstrate and exercise their bias for action. Success often has less to do with conceiving mega projects, but more to do with meticulous execution of daily decisions. Meetings are a common affair in most organizations. While meetings provide a great ‘social operating mechanism’ for validating challenges and determining action points, the experience for many of us is that “what comes out of these meetings is people!” Managers who demonstrate the ability to make and keep commitments become a significant asset to their organizations. Execution calls for missionary zeal and military discipline, period. As is often said, “Obstacles are things you see when you take your eyes off the goals.” Yet another characteristic of execution-orientation is that you are not constrained by the mounting demands or pressing constraints. You often take recourse to unexplored possibilities and proceed to negotiate demands and trade off constraints. This comes with practice, patience and perseverance. There is no more rocket science in it than these 3 Ps! Knowing oneself and others one works with, insisting on realism, expanding the capabilities of our team members, setting clear goals and follow through to completion are leadership behaviors that support execution-orientation. I have known several managers across levels that enjoy a reputation that if they say they will do, they will do it without any follow-ups and reminders. You could build such a reputation for execution and become an asset for the organization.

Change Leader: You are a change leader if you lead change programs that promise a more positive future landscape for the organization. All change programs are not necessarily top down or center outward. A lot of them require leadership commitment at several organizational levels continuously. Simple examples would include decisions around making meetings effective, responding to each other in time, being accountable for actions and the like. Change leaders mobilize people, pump energy into them and set goals for implementation. They will be the role model for changes in their small circles of influence and become examples of best practice. Change leaders create ripples without ripping the routine out of disproportionate dissonance. Change, of course, causes disturbance, but by mobilizing people and ensuring safeguards, these leaders make an impact and set examples for others to emulate.