How do you make others feel?
We are just at the start of 2022, and already there’s been a big focus on leaders worldwide and the need for good leaders.
There has also been a considerable focus on the type of leadersmaking news now. And everywhere people are asking: Is your
leadership selfless, empathetic and sacrificial? Leaders who are
present and supportive are being praised. This resonated with a talk that Professor Jonathan Jansen recently gave where he
said that truly selfless and sacrificial leadership in a sense leaves a leader emotionally and spiritually ‘poorer’. These leaders give of
themselves to a great extent as they serve. And he stated that the sphere in which you have influence is an opportunity
to become a positive example of leadership. People are more inspired by that than you can ever imagine.
This month, we also focus on leadership and on page 62 you can read our special report and how the pandemic impacted leadership. The article empathises that true and efficacious leadership is much more than authority and recognition from the outside world. It’s about breaking down barriers and leading others through the uncertainty and changeability of the future.
It is also about helping others reach their full potential while guiding, motivating and inspiring the team to get where they need to be to achieve their goals. Therefore, a leader inspires others to act while simultaneously directing the way they act.
We also have an inspirational CA(SA) leader on our cover this month: Mariam Tayob Cassim believes in investing in the wellbeing of her employees. She says: ‘I recognised that as a leader you have to make your staff believe that they can achieve anything they set their mind to and motivate them to be the best version of themselves. Once employees believed and felt
appreciated and motivated, our company grew exponentially. This leadership skill comes from emotional intelligence, which we, as business owners, intensely studied and subtly implemented.
We hire a very specific personality to join our company, senior employees take the Gallup StrengthFinder assessment, and we then place them in posts that match their strengths. Then we found them to truly thrive.’
In these uncertain times, be an example of great and ethical leadership wherever you can and where you have influence –
magine the impact you will have and the lives you will change.
GERINDA ENGELBRECHT
Editor: Accountancy SA
