Perhaps one of the most fundamental duties of a leader at a professional business enterprise is to help their people feel purposeful, motivated, and energised so that they can bring their best selves to work. Even if one is fortunate enough to truly attain a meaningful position of leadership in an organisation but can't bring the best out of their colleagues, they would be deemed to be ineffective. Unfortunately, too many leaders lose focus on this aspect.

There are leaders who choose to lead by way of fear and intimidation. They can be found in almost all companies and they are the most toxic element. It is likely such people became leaders by constantly stepping on the shoulders of others and using various other "not so acceptable" methods.

Then there are those who may be the humble leaders. This type is rare but they are highly effective and beneficial to have in any enterprise.  Such leaders view their key role as serving the employees or colleagues as they seek to explore and grow together. They also provide real support and motivation to all those who are in their orbit.

Humble leaders have the courage, insight and humility to understand that they can benefit from the experiences and capabilities of others who have less power than them. They constantly search for unique contributions from the employees. They help create a culture of learning and an environment that motivates followers to become engaged and tap their potential.

This group of leaders should not be confused with low self-esteem or an attitude of submissiveness. Instead, this approach focuses on the notion that it is the duty of the leader to strengthen autonomy, ownership, and the responsibilities of the followers. The primary goal is to encourage employees to think for themselves and be bold enough to try out their own ideas without any fear.

The ideology here is not to tell employees how to do their jobs better but rather to ask them how the leader can help employees do their jobs better. This method is more powerful than the strict authoritarian approach. The logic behind this is the justified presumption that employees who are doing the work on a regular basis may often know better than the leaders on how to do a great job.

Hence, respecting and valuing their ideas and encouraging them to try new ways to improve work effectiveness and efficiencies allows employees to contribute more to the job. The role of the leader in this instance is to facilitate and make it easier for the employees to do their best. Micromanaging and constant monitoring is the last thing that should be done.

Often the best way for leaders to serve those who work for them and the organisation is to create a low-risk environment for employees where they are free to experiment and apply a trial-and-error approach whereby certain boundaries are allowed to be pushed. This is because if boundaries are never allowed to be challenged and expanded, the organisation would continue to remain in the status quo and eventually become outdated. Then, they will be overtaken by more enlightened organisations that chose to push boundaries and rise beyond the old and traditional ways of doing business.

A strong feeling of "none of us is as strong as all of us" will no doubt drive organisations towards sustainability in the future.

The author is an economic analyst