Informal leadership, a necessity

Leadership is one of the principal functions of management that provides direction for a company. A leader influences, inspires, guides, leads and directs other members towards achieving the goal of an organization. He/She impacts employee motivation, their performance, quality of their decisions and is, unarguably one of the major factors that decides the eventual success of the organization.

      

A leader's role in an organization can be formally assigned by his or her position, like manager or project lead, and it can also be informally assumed by an employee who possesses certain qualities that makes others follow him/her. Informal leaders possess strong charisma, a positive attitude, motivates others and put in effort to attain organizational goals.

Important difference between formal and informal leader is that formal leader is officially required to manage his team and is responsible for results at the end. Informal leader do not have any such official responsibility towards attaining the goals of the enterprise and may not be accountable for the final results.

An organisation can benefit immensely by encouraging its employees to take up the role of an informal leader. Some of the perks are-    

                

·   Team members often address concerns and issues with informal leaders that are not shared with managers. They might be more comfortable with sharing their problems with a person who doesn’t have an official authority and will not affect their careers adversely.

·   Top leaders as well as formal authority figures have a number of issues that they need to focus on. A person with informal authority, however, is free to focus on smaller issues or a singular issue. It helps in giving a serious time focus on these issues and ease the work load of formal leaders.

·   Formal authority operates within hierarchy and protocols. Informal leadership doesn’t have such restrictions. They are not shackled by policies or protocols. This freedom can be advantageous to the organization in many aspects.

·   Informal leadership has the freedom to not always be politically correct or do the popular thing. They need not be figure heads or role models. They have the freedom to voice their views and what they deem right.

·   Informal leaders are important to any change initiative. They can influence the other members by making them more adaptable and accepting of the change.

·   They have a first hand knowledge of how policies and process influence employees. They can observe/interact with the employees and give valuable feedback to the management about what works and what does not.

Informal authority has its advantages, but also limits. Since an informal leader can be anyone in the team, the groups might tend to choose a leader based on superficial reasons. Informal leaders also cannot exercise any sort of authority in order to get tasks done, which can become frustrating for them. The informal style may also led to development of many power centres and can lead to confusion among employees. If they are not on the same page as the formal leadership, they may create a negative vibe that impedes progress and become a liability to the organization.

In any organization, it is vital you ensure that both the formal and informal roles are filled. You should make sure that there is free and candid communication flow between the two and that the differences between them do not affect the team adversely. It is, hence, prudent for those in the management to take an active role in assigning and taking care of the informal leaders in the organization. Some of the ways which you can aid and encourage informal leadership are-

·   Once the informal leaders are officially identified, you should ask them to take responsibility for an initiative. Your confidence in them would boost the results they achieve.

·   You should understand your informal leaders' strengths and weaknesses and allow them to define their own role.

·   Management should certainly reward informal leaders for their support. This could be financial incentives or public recognitions.

·   Give importance to their inputs and concerns, and make them a part of your strategy decisions. With them inside the decision loop, they will feel a sense of ownership and will be more willing to actively support your decisions.

·   You should have developmental assignments in your organization to push more people into taking up informal leadership roles.

·   You can conduct leadership development program for your informal leaders. Remember,  the informal leaders of today might be the formal leaders of your organization in the future. You can empower them with the knowledge which will expand their capabilities.

Successful organizations need both informal and formal leaders in order to keep power and authority balanced. It is an essential partnership. Understanding the distinction between formal and informal roles and taking them forward in tandem, will give you powerful tool to help your teams’ progress. When informal leaders are working towards achieving the goals with the same vision as the formal leaders, they can take a tremendous burden from the backs of managers and formal leaders. Informal leaders, if handled suitably and sensitively can turn out to be precious resources that are extremely advantageous for your organ

“I haven’t failed; I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work”

How do Entrepreneurs handle failures?

“I haven’t failed; I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work” – Edison

Failure is a scary word. Especially for an entrepreneur who has put his/her money, idea, energy, time and hope into a venture, a failure can be a terrifying scenario. Nobody hopes for a loss but if it comes, you have to be ready to face it, to confront it and to overcome it. That is what makes a successful entrepreneur. In fact, a look though the lives of accomplished entrepreneurs and leaders would show that it took multiple attempts for most of them to achieve the realms of success that they are in today.

Success in business, is not dependent on whether you make it to the top in the first attempt. It depends on whether you have the courage to get up from the fall, brush off the dust, learn from your mistake and make your failure a stepping stone to success. Behind every success story, there is at least one, and possibly many failures. Failure allows you to learn and grow. It helps you to move towards a successful future. How can you turn your failure into a life lesson? Here are a few key points how successful entrepreneurs have handled failure and converted their defeat to success:

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·  It is necessary to do your best to avoid any downfalls but you should also be mentally ready to accept any setback. If you are scared to fail, it will hold you back from taking the plunge. And most of the time, the biggest successes are possible only by taking the biggest risks. Be prepared to embrace failure.

·  Analyze what went wrong and where it went wrong that led to the failure of your business. You need to find out the causes of the failure and the steps that you might have taken to avoid the setback.  As you analyze, don’t forget to consider your assets too. Consider what worked for the business. Was it your employees, your leadership style, networking, client relations or your intellectual property?

·  Taking responsibility for your actions is an essential ingredient in handling business failure and turning it into a success. Do not try to pin the blame on someone else. If you were bad at certain aspects of management, admit it. If you took a bad decision that affected your venture adversely, admit it. Do not be embarrassed by your errors. Instead be proud of the things that you did right, the positive steps you took and the courage you displayed on starting the venture. Once you admit your mistakes, you will be open to learn from them.

·  One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself after a setback is ‘What have I learnt from the experience?’ Unless you are able to answer this question clearly and candidly, you cannot climb the rungs of success. Because it is the lesson you learn from the failures that will be the foundation on which you are going to build a next successful business. Analyze the lessons you have learnt before you go back to the drawing board to start over for the next steps.

·  What sets apart successful entrepreneurs from others is their positive mindset. They never, ever give up. If you have failed in your venture, you can either leave it, or, get up and start the next journey again. If you are taking the latter path, remember, you have the lesson you learned and the experience of a failure to guide you in your path forward.

Most importantly, if you need anything to get a business off the ground, it is perseverance. Don’t allow a failure to be the end of the story. Rise and work harder each time you fall. As the old adage goes “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a part of success”.

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