Leaders, know your cooking style

This post came out from My Paper (7 July 2015)
Title - Leaders, know your cooking style

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Leverage on your strengths
2. Have a recipe in mind
3. Know the ingredients
4. Know your kitchen

On Leverage on your strengths

• Regardless of what kind of leader you find yourself becoming, the most important thing is to ensure that you play to your strengths and never become too extreme.
• If you are unconventional, ensure that your risks are well thought out. If you happen to be methodical, make sure to allow for flexibility in your plan. If you like things simple, remember that sometimes a little bit of flair would not hurt.
• You should be ready to shrug off failure and keep trying.

On Have a recipe in mind

• A leader must have a plan, no matter how vague. A plan helps the leader to see what is needed. This, in turn, helps with the pacing of the project, and the management of the people. 
• In addition, a plan helps the leader prepare for what is ahead an see potential pitfalls. This helps the leader prepare for those pitfalls and improve communication between members.

On Know the ingredients

• A leader needs to know his ingredients - his people. A leader's job is to mix and match his people to bring out the best int hem. 
• To do that, a leader has to know who his people are, what inspires them, what their skill sets are, and what backgrounds they come from. The more you know about people, the easier it is to communicate with them. 
• A good leader knows his people and is able to communicate the final aims and objectives to them. His people would know that he cares about them and about bringing the best out of them, so that everyone gains in the end.

Know your kitchen

• A good leader is aware of his environment and how he can change it. This helps the team to be more productive, and efficient, without decreasing the team's passion. This includes having a meeting to realign the team towards their goals and objectives, while cheering them on in their current efforts. Or having little discussions with team members on how they can improve as a team. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big