Leadershipisn’t about managing a team or getting a high-rank title. Sure you get the authority to tell people what to do, but if you are not good at it, you will never be able to motivate people. This is exactly why people struggle with the question, how to become a better leader?
Every leader wants to succeed in his current position but it is not possible unless you have the skills that are important for success. Read further to find out about those skills:
They inspire and motivate
A leader manages to flawlessly create a vision of the future and motivate its employees to achieve it. A leader can inspire his workers to go an extra mile for its organization. You need to find out the right motivators that work best to encourage the productivity of your team.
Integrity and honest
You are not a great leader unless you are not transparent and honest. As a leader, your job is not to make people happy, but provide answers even if they are going to hurt. Employees need to feel comfortable to come to a leader with their questions and concerns.
Communicate prolifically
A leader has to communicate with its people in different ways. Whether you are having a one-on-one conversation or through email, phone or Skype, you have to deliver the message clearly.You also need to be direct in communication. Otherwise, your team will just flounder in making decisions. Sharing constructive feedback is also a part of good communication. However, you have to find the balance between positive and negative feedback.
Build relationships
Business can only be built on the foundation of trust and relationship. You can’t have a successful business without the two. Leaders always take their time from each day to build relationships with not just customers, clients and vendors but also with the team members and other subordinates in the community.
Encourage innovation
To encourage your team to do their best, as a leader you must give them freedom to explore. That also means you should be open to the ideas and suggestions of your team. You need to keep on providing your team with challenges to keep them from getting bored.
Show don’t tell
Instead of telling them what to do, show them what’s required. If you simply try to control things your employees do, you are not going to get a good level of engagement. A better approach is to coach them to recognize the choices they have.
Ask for honest feedback
It’s not just your employees who can get benefit from feedback. If you haven’t thought about self-assessment yet, it is time you do. It is difficult to do it on your own so talk to friends and peers to bring perspective on your leadership style and approach. There are definitely areas where any leader could need improvement. An honest feedback can help you reflect on yourself.
Commitment
A leader should always follow with that he has agreed to do. If you spend extra hours to complete an assignment, your employees will follow your lead. You cannot expect them to stay committed to their job if you can’t do the same.
Flexibility
If a leader is flexible, so is its team. If you can’taccept change, then your employees won’t be flexible to change either.
Sincere enthusiasm
You cannot fake enthusiasm for the mission of your business. It is easy for employees to recognize a cheerleader who is insincere. For a leader, it is important to havea sincere passion. Consider the example of Elon Musk. Someone who worked with him said the true driver behind the success of SpaceX project was the enthusiasm of Musk for space travel.Withenthusiasm, a leader can also clearly see the problems within his industry. Innovation starts when a leader breaksthe norms and solve these key issues.
Decisiveness
Just because you are a leader, it does not mean you are empowered to make decisions now. A good leader isalways willing to take risks on making decisions. He knows that if things somehow don’t work out, he will have to beaccountable for it first and then his team. The leaders who are not decisive are mostly ineffective. If you spend too much time building consensus, it can have a negativeeffect on performance.
Managerial competence
Many organizations end up creating leadersfrom people who are good attheir work. The reason why such people are able to perform well is because they have a good understanding of the product and services of their company. They may also have agood understanding of the goals and procedure of the company and yes all of this is important but not important enough to make them a leader. Beinggood at your job does not prove that you haveallthe competencies needed to become a good leader. Can you also motivate, inspire and mentor people? Consider the exampleof the coachesof major league baseball. All of them were major league players but the truth is, winning players are not necessarily the most successful coaches.
Charisma
To be precise,peopleprefer followingthe lead of those who they like. Great leaders are always approachable, well-spoken and friendly. In fact, they have a charisma of their own. They are the people who show sincere care for others. Most of all, people at all levelsof the organization find it easy to relate to them. Without charisma, you cannot be a great leader.
Empowerment
Goof leadersalways have faith in theirabilitiesof raising and developing his employees. They have the ability toempowerthe people they are managing and let them act autonomously. Thisis only possible if you trustthat your team members can facechallengesahead of them.Once your employeesare empowered, they can makedecisions that are in the bestinterest of your customers and company. It works even if the employees have to be off the script a little bit.
Time Management
It is the foremost quality of a successful leader. You need to schedule the work in a way that keeps your team happy while getting a better work output. For that, rota software like Deputy is the best fit, and you must try a time clock app like this one to lead the team effortlessly.
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