Wednesday 1 December 2010
A day doesn’t go by in the world of a martial arts master of a professional martial arts academy when the topic of leadership comes to the surface in a conversation. In fact, in my experience it’s probably at the core of 50% or more of conversations with people.
So what is leadership, why and how do people become the great leaders of the world, and are they born into these positions, bringing with them loads of luck and good fortune? Well, the first step in understanding the answers to these questions, we must know what, by definition, a leader really is.
Simply put, a leader is somebody others want to follow. Although we know there is a lot to being a great leader, it is very difficult for most people to say exactly what it is that makes a person a good leader. Of course universities have done many studies on what makes successful leaders and what are the leadership qualities that good leaders have.
The theory is very simple, though, and can be summarised in the following:
1.Good leaders have a vision they share with others about where they are going and how they are going to get there.
2.Good leaders actually do something about their vision by making it become a reality.
3. Good leaders have an intangible way about them, an energy that sets them apart from from those who are not good leaders.
But before we go into looking at these 3 qualities that good leaders have, it is very important to understand that a leadership role, and in particular the role of the highest level leader in a martial arts academy or branch of a martial arts academy, involves operating at a level that is quite different from other people in the organisation.
It is possible to quickly identify a good leader by, amongst other things, the fact that they don’t do everything in their organisation. They have a sense of trust to enable others get on with their job. They empower others to work “in” the martial arts centre, while they work “on” the martial arts centre. Sure, leaders like master instructor and a branch instructor need to teach and be part of the organisation as this is a basic tenet of being a black belt martial artist, but the leadership role is quite different in terms of the type of things a leader does.
The key difference here is that, although everyone in a martial arts centre has a key role to play in the development of the martial arts academy, the leader of the organisation has the overall responsibility for this function. Sure, they may develop and mentor others into leadership positions within the organisation, but they carry the main torch, they are the guiding star when it comes to leadership in the martial arts academy or club.
As stated clearly at the outset of this discussion on leadership, “a leader is somebody others want to follow”, one of the key words here is “want”. It’s because of the vision, the actions and the spirit of the leader that motivates or drives people to want to follow.
In a future blog I’d like to give you some wonderful insights into the vision, actions and spirit of the martial arts leader. Stay tuned!
Mr O
