Develop Leadership Qualities to make you a Successful Manager - A true leader always promote Collective Innovation

People in managerial roles often struggle between being a good manager and a leader. In the initial stages of career as a manager, one may feel that being a good manager could not be a good leader. If a person tries to be a good manager and not a leader, success will be for a short period. If leadership qualities are exhibited then the success will be long standing. So managers should strike the right balance between managerial skills and leadership traits to pursue a successful career.

One of the most important traits that can make you a successful leader is trustworthiness. Trust is fundamental for leadership. Leadership necessitates influencing others to put them on the right track. But people are willing to be led only by the person whom they trust. So a leader should essentially exhibit all the aspects of trustworthiness to assume the responsibility of guiding others. For this he first needs to have a proper understanding of trust and dynamics. A leader should always promote collective efforts of the team, rather than concentrating individual innovations.

According to Charles M Green trust is composed of credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation. Credibility is how believable a leader is. Reliability is how dependable he is. Intimacy rates how safe people feel sharing information with the leader. Self-orientation is how much the leader focuses on himself compared to his focus on others.

At workplace employees evaluate your trust-worthiness by analyzing factors like their experiences with you, your record, competence and attitude and the organizational culture. So you must use your speech and actions to make the right impression on your employees.

Here are few guidelines to begin:
 Keep up your promises
 Do not put blame on others for your mistakes
 Contribute all you can do for the success of your team
 Keep developing your abilities
 Talk to your employees honestly and clearly
 Do what you believe is right though you have to pay price for it
 Be confident
 Listen to what others have to say and do it with empathy
 Trust your employees and their abilities
 Praise them for their success and share their success stories with others
 Accept people as what they are and respect them
 Place interest of your team members before yours
 A leader should always promote collective innovation.

To gain trust from others you must first trust them. Distrust is the biggest obstacle in the way to becoming trustworthy. But trusting others can sometimes land you into trouble, so you must promote a trust based work environment. The initial struggles you may face in this attempt are worth it as such an environment promotes good teamwork and success. A leader always motivates employees to come out with innovative ideas.

Once mutual trust based relationship is established between you and your employees, leading them becomes easy. The task of management is a cakewalk for a good leader. You can educate, counsel, inspire and motivate them. But you must also ensure that you do not through any actions that raise doubts about your trustworthiness.

Remember it takes years to build trust but it could be broken by a single action.