The 4-point leadership framework has been derived from a Blog Post in Harvard Business Review in 2001. This Blog Post has been written by people who were climbing Mount Everest a few years back. During this expedition, many people were successful but some of them have lost their life. In this blog post, these climbers have written about their expedition journey and the leadership during this journey. Whether you are an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, or wannapreneur, leadership is an important skill for you because, in a business, a group of people works towards meeting a goal under the guidance of a leader. **Learnings** # **#1 Why leadership is important?** Let us understand the importance of leadership using some examples. **For example:** #### **1. Mr. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India** During Corona Pandemic, Mr. Narendra Modi has shown a different type of leadership. He has made sure that the country does not go into depression. He has encouraged various actions during the Pandemic like beating the plates while standing in your balcony and showing your gratitude towards coronavirus warriors. This has spread awareness and positivity throughout the country during this Pandemic and make people a single community. This is one of the outcomes of leadership, i.e.: **An effective leadership is the one that makes all the people in a company work towards the single goal of the company instead of working on their individual goals.** #### **2. Mr. Entrepreneur** In Mr. Entrepreneur's company, his designation is of Chief Clarity Officer. He has hired such a leadership team who knows how to move ahead. Mr. Entrepreneur just provides clarity to his leadership team and the teamwork towards achieving the company goals. Mr. Entrepreneur gives so much clarity in his content and videos that you can easily take the required actions. So, a leader is the Chief Clarity Officer. # **#2 The 4-Point Leadership Framework** #### **1. Leaders should be led by the Groups’ Needs** Sometimes, the designation of a leader gets on their head and they start thinking that whatever they are saying or doing is correct. They think that the method or direction they suggesting is correct and the entire company should follow it. However, this is not right. **A good leader is the one who understands the needs of the group and takes action on it.** It doesn’t mean that you follow a democracy, i.e. you make all the members of the group the leaders. You are the only leader of the group. You need to take the consensus of the group and then take action based on the needs of the group. **For example:** - Climbing the Mount Everest is not easy. Many people have lost their life while climbing it. - You can climb the Mount Everest successfully only when every member of your group takes the pre-decided steps and follow the leader. - The leader of this group needs to take care of the needs of each member of the group. - If someone falls sick, leader needs to take care of him and decide whether he/she should continue the expedition or send back. - So, a leader needs to take all the members together and reach the Mount Everest to make their expedition successful. #### **2. Inaction can be sometimes difficult** - Nowadays, there is a trend that companies promote and reward people who take action aggressively. However, it is not necessary that these people are also effective leaders. - Top companies like Google, GE, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, etc. are successful today because of their leaders who have extensive experience of 20-40 years. - So, the leaders, who have a strong foundation and ability to build future strategies, are able to reduce the risk in business and the chances of their decisions going wrong are very less. - Such leaders create a perfect balance in inaction and action. So, you should promote such leaders who can make this balance. **For example:** While climbing the Mount Everest, if you think you can go ahead of your group and can alone climb the mountain [in 3 days](x-apple-data-detectors://3), then you will neither be able to reach the mountain nor be able to come back. The same thing may happen in your company. If someone joins your company and become a star performer soon, then it is not necessary that they are the most effective leaders. They might be good at execution or they might work hard initially and then get tired. You need a consistent performer for the position of a leader. #### **3. If your words don’t stick, you haven’t spoken** - Effective communication is the most important skill of a leader. - If you have spoken something and your team has ignored it, then you are not a real leader. You are a leader only by your title or designation in the company. - If people are not listening to you, then they will not take any action and the work will always remain in inaction. - So, as a leader, you should communicate very strongly. - If you are the owner of a business, you should make sure that once or twice in a week you should communicate with your complete leadership team. - Otherwise, a big communication gap will arise between you and your leadership team, and you no longer remain a leader. This is because you become a leader when people start following you. If people are not following you, then you are not a leader. - Thus, it is important to communicate, inspire, and motivate your team. - Your communication should be very clear so that people get inspired by you and want to work with you. - You can make people do action only through your words. This is the difference between a leader who is a leader only by his designation and nobody follows him and a leader who is followed by lots of people due to his deeds. #### **4. Leading upwards might seem wrong; when it is right** Sometimes, middle managers do not report challenges and loopholes either to save their job or they think that the issue is not very big. But it is very critical. >**Leadership is not a designation; it is a skill, attitude, and aptitude.** Whether you are at a junior position in hierarchy in your company, but you should go to the management or your manager if you find something that should be reported or to take correct decisions that will be beneficial for your company. You need to make the hierarchy of your company in a way that if a junior employee or a mid-management employee wants to keep an important thought, then he/she can communicate it to the top hierarchy. It is important to create this culture. This structure is called a hierarchy-less structure but a leadership-driven structure. You should also create such a culture in your company so that the communication flow in your company does not restrict because of hierarchy issues. **So, your company should be open but leadership-driven.** # **#3 Most Critical Competency of a Leader** The most critical competency for being a leader is ownership. Ownership means that the employee takes ownership of the complete project along with his/her own work. In case, there are some gaps or something is not working in the project, then the leader will fill the gaps by: - Helping his/her colleagues - Informing the senior management about the gap and the reason behind the gap and asking them to fill the gap so that the project can be completed seamlessly. # **#4 How to identify a leader during the hiring process?** While hiring a person at a leadership position, you should: - Take his/her skill test - Take his/her ownership test by giving him some critical situations. **For example:** - You can give him some critical situations to work in the first three months and check whether he/she is able to do end-to-end work or not. - If he/she has successfully completed the task, then you can hire him/her as a full-time employee. This is the perfect execution for hiring a leader. Companies do various mistakes while hiring a leader. They hire leaders at a higher cost and after a few months, they realise that the leader is not good for their company. Now, they think that if they hire a new leader, then it will involve more cost and time. To avoid such problems, you should check a leader on the 4-point leadership framework and the ownership competency of the leader discussed in this video. You should orient your HR department in a manner that they can judge the leaders at their end while hiring by giving them critical situations and check how they come out of them. If you are a mid-sized company and now, you are becoming a large company, i.e. you are moving from 100-200 employees to [500-1000](tel:500-1000) employees, then it is better that you choose leaders from your existing employees because: - They are with the company from a long while. - They have seen the company grow. - They know the culture of the company. - They have seen the good as well as the bad times of the company. It is better if you get leaders from your existing employees; otherwise, you can hire leaders externally as well. But your first focus should be hire and promote internal leaders.