Becoming an Effective Team Leader

We'll answer :

what makes one effective as a leader?

how do I learn to be one?

What's the worst thing can happen when you have a leader that cannot lead? Fifty-eight percent of the companies cited significant talent gaps for critical leadership roles in a survey. Imagine if there is a leader who has a vision but doesn't give any clear direction for their members and doesn't know about whom they lead. This thing doesn't make the whole works effectively.

So, what makes one effective as a leader?

Have you ever wonder why some names like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Roosevelt is known as great leaders in history? One that they have in common; they fought for a cause. They have a clear vision. They become examples of determination and decisiveness in their pursuit of improving themselves, their group, and their country. Jobs said that you need a lot more than vision — you need a stubbornness, tenacity, belief, and patience to stay the course. They are proof that a clear vision will make a good focus on a team. By having it, means eliminating the unnecessaries and executing ideas into actions.

In leadership, there'll always be a crisis. Keeping your head calm when solving a problem will help you make the best decision. Like one mantra from Churchill that motivates Britisher in a hard time — "Keep Calm and Carry On"; an effective leader offers more than enthusiasm for their team. This way, you'll radiate a positive vibe and improve your team's morale to do the best even in a crisis. Not only that they can take care of situations, an effective one also can use available team resources to create maximum productivity.

By sticking to these points above, have you done it right? If not, how to be an effective one?

To become a good leader, the first thing you have to do is to set goals and priorities. Goals make you focus and stick on the track. While on the other side, setting out priorities means that you have to learn to sort out which one's important and urgent, important but not urgent, not important and not urgent and the last one is not important but urgent. Both things are needed in the timetable to ease you when making decisions.

Then learn to listen effectively and delegate wisely. It’s something we often miss. Research from the University of Missouri said that we spend 45 % of our communication time listening. So it has a major impact on building a relationship with others and on your job effectiveness. Listening makes you gain information, understand your surrounding and learn something. All of this information you get from listening help you manage your team effectively. You’ll know the weakness and strengths of your members and place them based on their capability. That way, you’ll work more efficiently. By listening and delegate wisely, not that only you'll develop a good performance from your team but also a good relationship with them.

And be proactive. Start to respond to any problem you find, rather than only to react. By doing it, you recognize your responsibility to make things happen. Focus on what's on your control, and you'll know what you have to do to change the situation.

As you become more proactive, you will make mistakes. Mistakes help you to improve and bring yourself a step ahead. Thus, admit them quickly and keep learning. In a recent Deloitte study, Global Human Capital Trends 2015, 85 % of the respondents cited learning as being either important or very important. Yet, according to the study, more companies than ever report they are unprepared to address this challenge. Yes, people need a leader who promotes learning and mastering things fast. And this one makes you more effective.

To lead is lifelong learning. It's your knowledge mastery that you cant master in one night. And by doing all of these habits, you'll determine your effectiveness as a leader. You'll grow better not only for yourself but together with your team.

Autobiography of Fikriyani Nur Rahman

This is an autobiography of my dearly young sister. I just...proud of her.

Okay,  let me be honest to you first miss, I am not good in writing. But the good news is, I can learn. So, in this miserable issue—that I cannot write as good as you expected— , I think I’ll do it in a diary-kind-of-writing. Cause I write diary a lot. Every night, since in elementary school. So, you kinda expect us to write about our self. And my second honesty to you is that, I cannot describe about myself too. Well, I’ll try on it cause you said we must improve things. I’ll try to improve my confidence in writing and describing about myself.

My name is Fikriyani Nur Rahman. But please, just call me Fiky. Fiky, with ‘F’ and without ‘C’. Cause people always think that it’s Vicky instead of Fiky. But I can handle that. I’m used to it. It began when I was in first grade of elementary when my name on absent list was Vikryani which was all wrong since that time people always think that it’s Vicky not Fiky. Actually, I cried because of that. My Mini-Me thought that it’s so unfair and so mean by writing someone’s name in a wrong way. By the way, why do I have to tell you that story? Okay,  next thing about my name is that I kind of annoyed if somebody called me Fikri. I just think that it’s a boy name and it’s so weird for a girl called by a boy’s name. And also, when I studied English at  LIA Depok, we had an English teacher for once and She called me Freakyani. And I was like, ‘Oh man! Not this time’. I know I’m weird sometimes. And I know It’s quiet obvious sometimes that I’m weird. Okay, forget it.

About me? Well, I don’t know. So rare people want to know about me. Thank you cause you want to know. I was born in Jakarta, November 1st 1995. And my mom was almost died because of giving birth to me. Really, It’s like a little secret that I’ve been keeping but I still feel such a guilty because of that. I always hate my birthday cause when it comes to me every year, there always bad things happen before or after the birthday. I’m not saying that I’m a bad luck girl. I don’t buy it anyway. But, I really fear it. Cause terrible things happen. Like at my 6th birthday, my dad carried a birthday present for me and he got accident on the way home. And also at my 7th birthday, my mom got robbed and she got hurt too. And the last was on my 17th birthday. Ah! I don’t believe in those things girls my age believe that 17th birthday is everything. My dad died right on 7 days before my birthday. I was so sad about that. I still. But I’m not anymore. Cause I’m doing things that can make me happy. Like, reading books—I’m a bookworm—, listen to the radio, listen to my cassettes—I collect cassettes so much, I can’t stop shop cassettes when I’m on the cassette shop—, post some pictures on my blog cause I’d love to remember all things that inspire me on my fancy activities,  scrapbook-ing and doodle-ing, etc. And to forget about my sadness of everything, my friends help me to do that. To be honest I don’t have so much friends that close to me. I used to be so hard on socialize especially on high school years and middle school years. So many bad things happen on those years. In the middle school, I kinda pretended to be somebody that I’m not—I wasn’t being myself and I regret it so much—cause I don’t want people to refuse me in their circle. I pretended in those full 3 years! And I also survived bullying. Seniors bullied me many times in long terms in each actions cause my older sister studied in the same school like me. I absorb the feels and didn’t tell anybody cause I thought, ‘Well,  who care! They don’t know me though. And my sister doesn’t even care about me. And she’s busy with her friends. What’s the big deal?’. I bottled myself up in this bullying issue. I through it all in my way. I did some fancy things like listen to some indie music from all over the world. I do research on the internet—There was a time when I spent my 5 hours of my day in the internet café just to do homework and do my things, believe it or not I learn algebra from the internet cause I’ve got so many times there—, I watched music demos on my space and youtube. I enjoyed it really. I’ve got friends from middle school but like I said not much. Cause people look me differently. They judge first, I don’t know they found me like I’m a freako. I wanted to be everybody’s friend but the problem is, Would they? At first it was about 10-20 friends but as the time goes by, they betrayed me, and they didn’t accept me the way I am anymore. And they left me cause they’ve got another business and I decide to do the same. I mean, I’m used to it anyway. I wanted to fix it but it always end up like they embarrassed me in front of so many people. So, my middle years end up in this situation when I got just 2 people as a friend. How shame L . That’s middle school story.
And high school, It wasn’t really different with my middle years. I’m an old-fashioned girl, did I say that already? Well, I listen to The Beatles a lot since I was a kid, I listen to old jazz music like Louise Armstrong, Dickie Valentine, Perry Como, Pat Boone, Jim Reeves, Connie Francis, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Sinatra, etc. I listen to folk music from old age too like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Nana Mouskouri, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. I listen to many more old songs like ABBA, Bee Gees, Celine Dion, Chrisye, Debbie Gibson But don’t get me wrong please. Even though I am an old-fashioned doesn’t mean I don’t do modern culture. I listen to modern songs too. Especially Indie music. I like Kings of Convenience,  Ingrid Michaelson, Teitur, Sondre Lerche, Lena Mayer Landrut, Kate Nash, Sara Bareilles, Florence + The Machines, Oren Lavie, Landon Pigg, Lucy Schwartz, Birdy, Bon Iver, Foster The People, Fun, etc. Well, Death Cab for Cutie, Feist, Imperial Mammoth, The Civil Wars, etc now I sound like teenage my age! Hahaha~ . I’ve told you that I’m a bookworm. I actually read any kinds of book. But, I love literature. Well, I’m not really good on English for that so I’d prefer to read the Indonesian version. But, I’m still learning and I expect that I can learn much from you so I can improve my English and be able to read some original versions of literature. I love Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, and I love A Little Princess by Frances Hudgson Burnett, I love The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C.S Lewis, etc.
I watch movies a lot! I watch any kind of genre. But mostly Adventures, Classical, Romantic (I like quirky kind of love story)movies. I love to watch Dirty Dancing, Grease, Across The Universe, The Help, My Girl, Edward Scissorhands, Jane Eyre, The Stoker, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, etc. Oh my god, I used to sing "You're The One That I Want" in alien language. Cause I was just a child and I wasn't sure about things I sing.  SO, It was quiet like "wkjjjwjlqoihduwyu" I don't know...

What else? Okay, I think I already told you about my hobbies. I don’t really into TVs programs but I’m really into movies and TV series. Like Sherlock BBC, Lie To Me, Charlie’s Angels, etc. I play guitar too, and I sing along to myself whenever I feel sad. I sometimes make a theme song for my situations. I know it’s silly. But, I can’t stop myself on doing that cause it’s so automatically out from my mouth. Oh god, you should know about how much awkward things I found in my daily activities. I feel so shy and sometimes embarrassed. And when I feel that way, It's like I’m eating a lemon. It feels so sour and like I don’t want to be exist. Aaaah~. So, let’s take a leap to the next level. I have a dream to be a fashion designer. I doodle a lot and almost all of them are fashion doodle. I read fashion magazines like GoGirl! as a reference. I learn how to draw woman clothes by looking at pictures and try to adopt the lines. I want to be a fashion designer because I feel that this is what I’m into no matter what. Actually, it began when I was a child that my mom bought or sometimes made me some clothes and mostly dresses for kids. She made them for me and they're so beautiful. It made me think that it's cool to make your own dresses and make them for others. And it continued when the first time I watch TV cable and there's Fashion TV. This thing just locked in my heart. I feel like, ‘Aaah! God, I want it so bad!’. And hopefully I wish I could be an International fashion designer. I want to make Indonesia to be proud of me. And also I want to break those international perception that said Indonesia is a poor country ,stupid,  miserable, and the place where you could get professionals with cheap salary. I want to learn much in this school cause I know this institution could be bigger than now. I believe that. So, that’s all about me. I’m sorry that this is The Worst About-Me Ever. But I tried so hard. But I promise you that I’ll try harder. And I’m so sorry that things I share to you in this essay are not very good ones. I hope you don’t mind about it. I hope you’re not fall asleep while reading this. Thank you very much.

Fikriyani Nur Rahman—Desain Mode 2013—13910011—Monday/Sept 2nd 2013 11:00PM