Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me.

Leadership is lonely. No matter how big your team, sometimes it’s just you–which means you sometimes need to look inside yourself for motivation and inspiration.

An article by the PraWINS Team……..

There are times in your professional environment when you need to support and fight for your team. As a leader, it’s your job to support your team members, so they can get their respect, protect their rights and get their job done at workplace. Today, I would like to speak about my Lead/Manager more than all he’s loving friend “Mayank Shah” who is so Inspiring and Motivating with his ideas, behavior, way he foresees the things, moves and Personality. His words brings the change in environment and inspires team. Mayank, is such a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. All the time he displays courage and goes to bat for the people by sending a message that Teams success and achievement is his priority. He wins both respect and loyalty of the team members. He believes in one thing “When the team succeeds, so do you.”

Here are few traits of Mayank that i would like to share. He’s a Good Person, Lead, Manager who’s respected by everyone in the team and organization.

Empowering. He Inspires, motivates and make the associates feel emboldened and powerful, not diminished and powerless.

Care. He doesn’t care about project alone, but about the people in it and the people impacted by it. He also makes it visible that, he care through his words and actions. Care shouldn’t be a four-letter word in our workplace today — and the best leaders know it.

Supportive. He foster a positive environment that allows team to flourish. He provides constructive feedback to make team energized and deliver better results. He’s so supportive professionally and personally.

Powerful. “Power isn’t control at all–power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”

Passion. Whatever it is, he’s so passionate for what he’s doing. He believes in “Live, breathe, eat and sleep your mission.”

Respect. Not playing favorites with people and treating all people — no matter what station in life, what class or what rank in the org chart — the same.

Collaborative. He have a nature to solicit input and feedback from those around him so that everyone feels part of the process.

Communicative. He’s very open to suggestions and ideas. He share the vision or strategy often with those around him.

Fearlessness. He’s not afraid to take risks or make mistakes.  He helps team to learn the mistakes and the outcomes.True leaders make mistakes born from risk.

Confidence. He’s so confident on the things which he know. He’s rock solid in thoughts and the way to implement them. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will.

Clarity. The only way you can get confidence is by becoming really, really clear about who you are and what is most important to you. New leaders fail when they try to become all things to all people, or try to do too much out of their area of excellence. Clarity helps you say “yes” to the right things — and “no” to others.

Yet interestingly, in my work environment, people who don’t own this mindset get promoted into leadership positions every day, and it’s quite possible that you’ve encountered or heard about such types in your career. These are those stereotypical sorts of leaders who care more about winning the political favor of their superiors than the respect of the people they’re assigned to lead. Self-serving and ego centric, these types of leaders quickly offend and fail to earn the trust of their people, making enemies rather than supporters of their teammates. There are many Leads/Managers, who could always throw team to the wolves. But there are a lot of managers out there who seem to think that’s the clever option, the right choice. What do you think? I’ve worked for and with some, and believe me they quickly lose staff.

Meanwhile, sometimes leaders don’t fight for their teams because they don’t like conflict or understand how critical the team support is to the company’s ultimate survival and success. Their leadership style may be immature, weak, naive, out-of-touch, disengaged — or any combination thereof. In such cases, there is always hope for growth and improvement, but revolutionary change is undoubtedly required. The problem here is that change of this magnitude can take a long time and in today’s world, few have the patience for that!

The very opposite of these two types of leaders are the disciplined, fearless and balanced ones — and you probably know some of these, too. They’re the ones who have built rock-solid trust with their direct reports and created loyalty and alignment within the culture. When times get tough, everyone knows these courageous, tenacious types have “got their backs.” Team members feel secure and safe.

These leaders, who aren’t afraid of outcomes are ready to fight for rights the team. They have talent, knows the value of team, understand the problems, have skill, grace and a lot of common sense. They know when and how to pick their battles. Instead of fighting each and every issue, they take a disciplined approach in standing up for what’s important and are more likely to win. They’re also calculated and balanced — these great leaders get the facts before they react to potential or current threats and are skilled in presenting their case in a clear, non-emotional and logical manner. They focus on the “Vital Few,” primarily defending whatever is aligned to those critical measures of a company’s goals and controls. Why? Because these types of leaders truly understand that without their team members’ respect and support, neither the team nor its leader can function, much less win.

Your team is what you are and who you are. Without your team and that can be one lone person or tens of people—you are nothing. Without your team you are an empty page waiting to be written or typed. You must support your team, praise it, fight for it, to the death if need be. The brilliant manager—we don’t need to say who that is by now, do we?—generates loyalty and respect by being the team cheerleader—that’s you, that is.

You have to make people on your team see that you are not only their mentor, leader, guardian, and protector but also their champion, their hero, their defender. If anyone tries to hamper the team or their spirit by criticizing them, you will rise to their defense. If anyone tries to take advantage of them, you will rush to protect them. If your team needs you, you should be there all-time. If your team has seen you defend them once, they will know they can trust you to have their best interests at heart. That if something unfair is being imposed on them, you will stand up for them. This also means that if you accept something, they are likely to accept it, too—which makes for a smoother life all around.

Tell us your experiences with leaders who have mettle in them.

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, you experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below.