February 3, 2021

MONEY MOVESJA: HOW TO BE A GOOD LEADER

The Fundamentals of Effective Leadership
Janel Rodriguez

You own a business. That makes you, well… a boss right? But do you know the language of leadership? Dr. Canute Thompson, lecturer, author & co-founder of The Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative (CLRI) appeared on #MoneyMovesJa and told us how you can use your words, actions, and behaviors to lead effectively and create opportunities for your business.

“I think the most important thing is results,” Thompson stated. “Leadership which produces results is fulfilling to the purpose of which a leader is created.”

Leaders, by nature, are leading something. The key to that is leading people. Leaders should, therefore, produce results with people. How do they do that? Thompson shared three fundamentals of effective leadership.

Modeling

A leader should model the behavior you expect from those you lead.

“Demonstrate in your own conduct the standards you expect others to follow,” stated Thompson. In other words, you must lead by example. How? By your approach to your work, your self-discipline, your timeliness in producing deliverables, your attitude to others, and your use of the organization’s resources. As a result, when a person enters the organization, he or she can quickly see what is expected by observing how others behave.

Respect

“One of the most profound ways in which respect manifests itself is the leader’s willingness to listen to the other perspectives, to engage other ideas, and to place value on what others say,” said Thompson.

He urged people to think about how it would feel to work in an environment when their ideas are not listened to regardless of how great they are, and then compare it to when their work is being valued.

“Respect is reciprocal,” he added, stating that the leader who makes a lot of noise about the need to be respected should consider that he/she is failing to earn it.

Motivation

Thompson described motivation as enabling team members to get a better glimpse of the larger purpose.

“Not knowing what is happening in the organization can make team members feel demotivated,” he emphasized. Thompson compared working relationships to a romantic one, saying that if one partner moves ahead and does not share with the other his/her sense of direction or purpose, the other person begins to feel like he/she doesn’t have a place in the relationship. He said that for members of an organization to feel a part of it, they need to believe that they have motivations allowing them to help fulfill its purpose.

Publications

Thompson’s books on leadership include: