Simulators and initiators
It is believed, and psychological research confirms that the vast majority of people (95%) are imitators or slaves and only about 5% are initiators leading. If we remember that there are a lot of us, but the boss is the one - such a ratio will not raise doubts. The distribution of roles for leading and slave - it's not bad or good, but only two types of thinking and behavior, due to the presence in humans of the main features and qualities of the leader. Propensity to the first or second type is laid down from childhood. To be leading means to be active, a leader. The essence of the lead implies a low degree of conservatism, greater risk aversion, faster adaptation, and a high level of responsibility. To be a slave means to occupy a passive position, to trust and agree, to give the right of decisions or choices to another. Led people are less adaptive and less independent than leading ones, more dependent on close people or superiors.
Why do most people prefer to imitate, imitate, follow someone? Most of us consider our behavior correct if we see other people behaving in a similar way. We automatically assume that if many people do the same, then they must know something that we do not. In a sense, this behavior is associated with the instinct of self-preservation. By the way, our propensity to imitate is manifested even at the physiological and emotional levels. Remember how contagious is the sight of a yawning or laughing person. And how hard it is to resist not to yawn or laugh after him.
"Infection" is so strong that it sometimes leads to monstrous consequences. For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, young ladies wandered one after another in a French boarding house. And they took scores with life, for some reason, exclusively on a hook in the bathroom. The suicide epidemic continued until someone guessed to take the tempting hook out of the wall: for some reason other ways of dying the girls seemed less attractive, and it is to be hoped that they lived to a very old age.
The propensity of man to imitation is used by psychological speculators of different levels. So, the professional beggars "salt" their caps and palms with several coins, supposedly already thrown by other people, urging us to follow their example. Often, these techniques are used in advertising, calling for the purchase of a fashionable product or one that has already been approved by other buyers. In television shows, they record offscreen laughter, "suggesting" where we need to laugh. Politicians for the same reason, despite the age of new technologies, still prefer rallies: the crowd is easier to instill any ideas than to an individual.
Rotate 180 degrees
But do we need to change? In the end, not everyone can be leaders? We will have to change. Modern life poses new challenges for people, urging them to feel and act differently. First, the world follows the path of democracy, the development of man as a person. The second reason is the scientific and technological revolution, and in the age of rapidly changing information one must be able to navigate, think independently. And the third is the market situation. Today, the market for goods and services is oversaturated. As a result, only those that are different, exclusive or, as economists say, have added value, are competitive. Only creative people are able to create this added value - they are not imitators, but initiators, who by their psychology are leading, not led. No wonder now in Western Europe and America there was a lot of literature, training programs, work is being done to increase the number of enterprising people.
To increase the number of initiative, self-thinking people is an urgent economic necessity. But is it real? Perhaps the ability to "shake" or "have the right" in us is inherent in nature? One should not think that initiative, leadership are exclusively innate qualities. In fact, with the "proactivity gene" all people are born. In the end, every sperm in order to fertilize an egg should have outstripped thousands of its "fellow competitors." Then begins a psychological attack on the proactivity inherent in us by nature. What is proactivity? This is a synonym for independence, activity and responsibility. A proactive person seeks to become a subject, not an object of action. His behavior is conditioned by his own decisions, not by circumstances.
The first psychological attack occurs in the kindergarten where we are averaged, forced to eat on schedule, sit down on the pot at the same time with the whole group, etc. "The famous Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, one of the founders of genetic psychology, argued that in the first five years, people get 80% of life programs, which then affect his fate. And it is at this age, that is, in the kindergarten, that our proactivity is strangled. Started the school is over. Often parents also pour oil on the fire, comparing their children in "educational purposes": "Why do all children have children, and you have such a thing? "When women ask what to do in order not to repeat the mistakes of their parents in the upbringing of children, I advise you to never say" How could you! It is better to formulate your claims to the child as follows: "This should not happen with such an intelligent boy like you!"
However, one should not blame everything for our education system and parents, victims of Soviet upbringing. The ratio of 95% of the followers and 5% of the leading ones is preserved in many countries throughout the history of mankind. This "order" was necessary for the existence of a state, which, as is known, is a machine for oppression and suppression. The situation began to change only recently. It's another matter that the states of Europe went ahead of Ukraine on the way of democratization of society, education of the main qualities and qualities of a leader in a person. By the way, leadership should not be considered only in the context of management. This concept also includes the ability of a person to control his destiny. At the same time, he can be at any position. The cleaning lady, who works in the office and came to the conclusion that cleaning up an old rag in such a steep place is uncool, went to the store for a heaped mop and then brought to the director of the firm a check for payment - already a leader in her place.
Wake up, projectivity!
Having answered one classical question, "Who is to blame? ", It is necessary to answer the other -" what to do? ". To create an economically successful company, a leader must act in two ways. First, to develop leadership qualities in itself, and secondly, in its employees to revive the same "dormant" gene of proactivity. (By the way, Stephen Covey in the book "7 Skills of Highly Effective People" called the proactivity of one of the necessary traits of a successful person.). This is not such an unrealistic task: psychologists believe that if favorable conditions are created, then within 2 to 3 years, a person is able to change his values, and from the category of followers to the leading ones. I also always say in leadership trainings that the leader who invites decent people to work in his company is good, which in some ways may be even higher than him in terms of intelligence, professionalism, etc. And he gives people a green light, so that they can show these qualities in their place.
As far as this tactic is successful, you can demonstrate the example of two opposite approaches to management. So, the 39th US President Jimmy Carter worked for 15 - 16 hours, many questions did not trust his deputies, he tried to decide everything himself. 40th President - Ronald Reagan - acted exactly the opposite. He worked from 10 to 16 hours, solving only the most basic strategic problems, and everything else was entrusted to the team of highly professional state managers, who were very strictly asked during these six hours. It was the Reagan approach that allowed America to make a powerful economic leap forward.
But here there is one question: how to make sure that these initiative employees do not "sit up" the leader who himself, and gave them the green light? The leader, who was "sat down", is to blame. Hence, I did not see the ambitions of the employees and did not help them to implement them on time, did not create a favorable motivational climate. After all, most often we spoil relations with the initiators because of our own low emotional intelligence.
The term "emotional intelligence" in the mid-90s of the last century was introduced by the American Daniel Goleman. Emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to interpret their own emotions and emotions of others in order to use the information they have received to realize their own goals. Having studied about 500 companies in different countries for 15 years, he revealed that the mood of the leader, the formation of a positive microclimate in the team are directly related to the productivity of labor and the fact that the company employs creative smart people who can create the most added value, which was mentioned above.
Stepping to Leadership
How to develop leadership skills in yourself? To become an initiator, first you have to dig in your own soul. You need to find the cause of insecurity. The first step is to review the previous experience that led you to this state. This can be quite painful. The second step is to set a smart goal. (SMART is an abbreviation formed from capital letters of English words: specific, measurable, achievable, realistik, timed .This term denotes one of the ways of formulating immediate goals). You write down on paper what exactly you want to achieve and in what terms. As a result, you are, as it were, programming yourself to achieve this goal. And the third step is to go beyond the limits of your comfort zone. To do this, you need to tell yourself that you are ready for difficulties.
Surprisingly , programming yourself to achieve a goal works. It is only because the person begins to look for ways to implement it. And as a result, new opportunities appear. As they say, knock and you will be opened.
But with the upbringing of leadership, initiative qualities, you also need external support, a positive attitude of those around you. Man is a "middle arithmetic" of five of his closest people. So, look carefully who surrounds you. " By the way, for the same reason, it is advised to stay away from losers and whiners, otherwise they will have to be included in their "average arithmetic. However, changing your environment, picking up people who will support you and push you up, and not pull down, the task is not easy. After all, not only we choose, but also us. Therefore, in order to find the "right" people, it is necessary, at first, to change yourself.
And the last "brick" in building leadership qualities in oneself is to learn correctly, to combine your expectations with claims. Simply put, in order to achieve a great goal, you need less boasting, vanity, ponte. Otherwise, such leadership turns into destructive, and, eventually, begins to harm a person. It's not for nothing that they say that all really great people are simple. And if we adhere to all the recommendations, then each of us will be able to reach our heights.