what is leadership?

How do we define leadership? Is it:
1) the longest-serving worker in the company?
2) the one with the most contribution in the team?
3) someone who can motivate others and actually do his/ her work?
4) someone closes to the boss?

of course. number 4 tend to be hated. haha. but here's the deal; number 1 may be the obvious choice. most think this should be the case but we forgot something; managing a team of people does require more than a long track record. humans have feelings, emotions and that also mean issues. losing someone close or having a breakup does affect performance in the workplace. now, can someone with a long history with a company tackles this?

a leader embraces the title of being a manager with a huge responsibility. the balancing act between hitting the KPI or ensuring the highest productivity level and at the same time making sure the team still have motivation to carry out the job is not easy. i mean, it should be expected.

in most articles discussing what is desired in a workplace, being a team player is the top priority. now, this means managing several people at once to be working together towards common goal(s). as a clue, this requires a leader to be a people-person, visionary, encouraging teamwork and at the same time having to treat staff as professionals. it is becoming more difficult to draw a line between staying just as workers or becoming friends with people at work. so, there you go; handling the delicateness of managing people.

by motivating people, it's not just towards one goal as a manager must also need to encourage personal growth at the same time. now, how do we do this? it's not quite difficult actually. a manager must be ready to ask questions (and of course, at the same time, be prepared to listen to the answers). here is also where putting teams' need first must be done.

you see, being a manager is never easy. i mean, an efficient one. for as long as i have been working, i've never heard a manager actually saying ' please stop being demotivated.' (i just did btw) if we see anyone is demotivated, as a manager, it's our job to motivate them.

a good worker is not necessarily a good manager. but a good manager can produce good workers.