“New bold leaders are objective, and subjectively balanced. Strength is in the mind and not in the arms.”
The corporate world, in particular, is taking a new form where leaders continue to show the way. Leaders lead and teams follow, as always hinted. The workplace is witnessing times where hard work is not really paying anymore.
Yet, employees who dance around and do others in, get the mentions. Sad. 21st century has thrown the challenge for the emergence of new bold leaders. A new bold leader won’t reward employees for doing nothing. New bold leaders are objective and subjectively balanced. They reward employees when they exceed expectations. They don’t reward employees when they meet expectations.
New bold leaders reward just as they sanction to ensure that the equation would not be left imbalanced. New bold leaders reward and sanction employees to ensure that followers do not fall below expectations. They take decisions and stand by them. As a matter of fact, a new bold leader must hold on to some principles that would guide employee rewards, recognition, elevation and promotion as well as administering punishment.
Although rewards and other recognitions and promotions are fused into work structures such that employees are promoted periodically for example, after performance management reviews (PMRs) in most institutions, the new bolder leader wouldn’t have to wait for the end of PMRs to reward employees if they deserve admirations and commendations.
The new bold leader wouldn’t sit to be overwhelmed with challenges. They confront issues to curb the ‘spread effect’. Just as in authentic leadership theory, the new bold leader lives the values and also live by the dictum ‘to thine own self be true’. Every trait, behaviour, skill and even style is crucial for leader effectiveness and team success. The new bold leader knows this.
The new bold leader focuses on the prize and keeps the team stronger and closer to prepare them for dream assignments. As a leader, be not afraid to implement tough decisions that would benefit first, the institutions they lead and second, generations yet to come. New bold leaders are tactful in managing emotions and they keep an open mind to issues. They enjoy feedback and they don’t hold on to positions.
This is because they know that leadership is not about positions. Maxwell (2005), Ahenkorah (2018) and Hughes et al (2015) do not stop hammering that leadership is a process. New bold leaders don’t live in positions. They leave positions to live in influence. New bold leaders learn, discover, groom, manage and stand up as martyrs ready to create successors for generational performance. New bold leaders incite team passion to build follower confidence.
To keep the levers moving up and down there is always the need to whip up team enthusiasm to achieve team results. !e new bold leader does this. !ere is always the need to link every team activity to the team’s bottom-line. !e new bold leader would look into measuring everything.
This is because the NBL is self-aware, self-regulated and well alert to deal with situations in the VUCA world. Strength is in the mind and not in the arms. New bold leaders know this. George (2010) asserts and I concur that leader authenticity is most crucial than the style, sometimes. To a would-be new bold leader, I can only ask you to STAND when the norm is to sit. It’s not defiance. It’s a new order. The norm is failing institutions.
