Publications

Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė / photo by R. Verseckaitė

15min.lt

In these times of change, which some intellectuals describe as a permanent crisis, we need leaders more than ever to propose new ways of acting. However, we often confuse the terms, equating leaders with leaders and entrepreneurs, and it is therefore important to distinguish between them.

- A leader is a person who is always ahead of the game and does not use mass trends and stereotypes. It is natural to want to follow him. The essential role of a leader is to see and feel what is new and to create the conditions for it.

- A leader acts when he or she has clarity: he or she can effectively bring together all the existing tools for a common purpose, to bring people together so that the idea can scale, grow and develop.

- An entrepreneur is able to combine supply and demand and has a sense of how he or she will make money and where the money is flowing.

Very often in society, good managers or entrepreneurs are called leaders. Of course, one person may have all three qualities, but one is dominant. Let us talk about the psychology of leaders.

Innate leadership qualities

Leaders act in specific ways that, from the outside looking in, may appear to others to be very courageous people. However, they don't usually call themselves courageous - true leaders simply don't know how to live their lives other than by taking on new ideas and seeing them come to fruition, with results. They also don't need validation or external comparison - they are not afraid to stand alone with their ideas.

Once a larger scale opportunity or a new trend has emerged, it's time for the entrepreneur to act, and once the entrepreneur has formed a new operating model, he or she passes it on to the CEO. Below I list the qualities that are indicative of innate leadership: 

Natural potential and more mental energy to create change. A leader suffers if his potential is untapped. If you have this inner feeling yourself, you are capable of more. If not, it is great where you are.

A passion for learning and knowledge. A leader is usually very curious and is constantly learning what enhances their potential and integrates it into their activities. He or she acts from a sense of feeling and is able to discover and realise his or her vocation. It should be borne in mind that it is impossible to see new possibilities and ultimately to grow as a person if we cling to our self-image. In this case, we activate the brain's automatic mode network and are not conscious.

Love of what you do. A leader must have an interest and passion for his or her activities, only then will he or she be able to generate new ideas and timeless results. If a leader is not interested, he may subconsciously destroy his activity, project, etc., just to get out of it. It is important that the leader learns to delegate in time what he is not interested in himself.

Has higher ambitions than the environment. A leader strives to create something interesting, new, special. He does not conform to the environment or try to conform to societal norms. High ambition does not mean that a leader is afraid of pauses - he or she understands that being able to pause is a strength. Sometimes it is enough to go away and be alone for a day, without the influence of other people, to regain clarity.

The highest level of professionalism in his field. A leader knows a great deal and depth about his or her field. And, through his amateurish interest in other fields, he is able to find ideas for his own field of activity.

Four essential freedoms. The first is biological, physiological freedom. If you are tired, distracted, or even more so, overworked, you will not create or do anything new. It is important for a leader to feel energised. The second is economic freedom. If you have several sources of income that allow you to take a year off work, for example, you also have more opportunities to make your ideas happen. The third is freedom from the emotional ties that limit your decisions with people in your immediate environment. In other words, emotional codependency. In this case, at least some of the decisions are compromises that do not exploit your full potential and strength. The fourth freedom is from various stereotypes and ideas about oneself and others. The key here is to realise that there is no right or wrong - it all depends on the context.

The ability to integrate rationality and intuition, to perceive with both reason and feeling. A leader is able to make decisions that work, but do not necessarily produce immediate results. Often people feel the tension that their decisions must necessarily lead to the tangible result they expect. But sometimes it is important to take a step just to make new connections, new contexts, new experiences. Sometimes the best outcome is a new understanding.

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