Fernando Sanchez-Arias was elected JCI President at the 58th JCI World Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark, last November. A Venezuelan citizen, he is an honors graduate in business administration with a major in organization and methods. He specializes in psychology and education applied to business. A learning facilitator, executive coach and speaker, he runs his own international consulting, training, and coaching firm. He is the head designer of JCI LEAD, the official JCI Leadership Competences Seminar.

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Can someone be a manager and a leader at the same time? What is the difference between a leader and a manager? Can an executive, a scientist, a sportswoman, a political leader, a homemaker, or a professor play different roles in the exercise of leadership? Let's examine Five Key Leadership Roles, a subject vital for success.

You as a Leader

As a leader you must interact with your people everyday to inspire them to convert their vision into action and into reality.

That reality depends on the versatility you demonstrate as a leader through the different roles you must play as a homemaker and family leader, as the owner of a mechanics shop, as the president of a large multinational company, as the leader of a political party, as the dean of a university, as the head of a Scout troop, as the leader of a neighborhood association, or as a JCI chapter president.

As a leader you perform functions that require knowledge, attitudes, and skills that range from fundraising to forming alliances to creating a vision, developing your people, and effectively transmitting information.

The Leader’s Hand

The JCI LEAD™ Program for Development of Leadership Abilities presents The Leader’s Hand™, which helps explain the five roles every leader must master to be truly effective:

1. MANAGER: As a manager, you seek out and manage the necessary resources; coordinate actions; generate results; measure and control; report; and ensure quality of processes, goods and services.

2. VISIONARY: As a visionary, you create and co-create the vision of your enterprise; find the means to effectively communicate it; emotionally and rationally inspire your team members; and act as an agent of change.

3. COACH: As a coach, you act as an athletic scout, seeking talent internally and externally, developing successors, expanding potential through coaching-style interactions.

4. EDUCATOR: As an educator, you transfer information, knowledge and experience through formal educational opportunities — conferences, talks, workshops or instructive conversations — to develop team competencies and the intellectual capital of the organization as a whole.

5. AMBASSADOR: As an ambassador, you form strategic alliances for mutual support; plan effective strategies to develop media and inter-institutional relations; and promote the philosophy, history and services of your organization.

The myth that a manager cannot be a leader appears to be gradually fading as the roles of successful leaders are being assumed by individuals who may be highly skilled only in one of the five roles, but gain proficiency in the rest and achieve the balance needed to achieve the critical objectives of the business or organization.

The Leader’s Hand, on which the thumb represents the manager, the index finger the visionary, the middle finger the coach, the ring finger the educator, and the little finger the ambassador, allows you to observe and analyze your performance and results in each role.

The "Hidden Role"

However, it is not enough to master these five roles. There is another role called the "hidden role." It is represented by the wrist, which gives flexibility and mobility to the hand and its fingers (representing roles). This sixth role, like a sixth sense, is the role of LEARNER. As a learner, you proactively seek to improve yourself, not only through information, but also through attitudes and abilities to become more capable, more able to compete, and better at directing yourself and others.

Aspiring to take our people to the summit, you must learn to master these six roles to achieve positive results in terms of quality, effectiveness, productivity, profitability, and enjoyment in all your activities.

Being a Manager, Visionary, Coach, Educator and Ambassador at different times and in different situations makes you an excellent executive, businessperson, community leader, scholar, scientist or athlete. You have the opportunity to ask yourself: How good am I at each of these roles? What do I have to learn or change to be better in each role?

A Passion for Action

During this year, we will learn from people who are successful in different areas and model their achievements. We’ll examine Leadership, Motivation, Learning, Creativity, Coaching and Change. These are themes of our times, themes of people with a Passion for Action.

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In 2004, JCI LEAD Seminars will be conducted as follows:

-- January 09 and 10, for Local Presidents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
-- January 30–February 01, for Area C National Presidents in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
-- In February, for Area B National Presidents in Dhaka, Bangladesh
-- In February, for Area A National Presidents in Cameroon

Additionally, JCI LEAD Seminars will be offered at all JCI Area Conferences.

Tratto da: www.jci.cc