Honest Advice on Leadership by Sandeep Kumar Yelakanti

Story: Sandeep Kumar Yelakanti

Well, there is no perfect definition of a leader nor there exists a perfect leader, yet all we can do is to be better every day. Leadership is more about a good spirit in the team rather than achieving goals, rest will automatically follow. Honestly, in my 12 years of experience, I have only been able to try to learn and improve myself in whatever I have had to do.

My honest advice on leadership includes three aspects that I have inculcated in my career and tried to pass on.

1. Emotional Intelligence

The hype is not momentary; emotional intelligence has really seen changes in productivity and crisis management. While companies are becoming global, employees have to deal with members from various cultures. They need to understand the sentiments of the company and their colleagues and respond to the situations quickly. While all these take time, companies, colleagues, and clients may not give time to adapt to the changing situations. So, the first honest advice would be to work on ourselves by understanding the use of emotional intelligence in our work life, especially as managers or leaders at any level. Companies are moving towards employing candidates by testing their EQs during recruitment. And that is definitely a great help.

2. Checking up your Biasness Levels

We are, but humans. Hence, it is natural to have favorites or favorable that is we are unconsciously biased. To a certain extent, in case of a crisis, a favorable decision could workout, but eliminating a favorite from the same would make you a better leader. Unconsciously, we often forget to add that objectivity, because we have experienced good past results from a particular method, a particular employee, and team. In fact, we also forget to take the risks we should, which might have given some others the much-needed opportunity and may have added to the fairness in our decisions.

3. Balancing your feedback

We, as corporate employees, need to give equal importance to both positive and negative aspects and convey to the other party with equal intent. This behavior helps us build confidence in others' talent, and help others understand the improvement areas. Overall, constructive feedback covering all aspects conveys your message very well and builds a good team spirit.

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