In fact, just because you are a leader does not mean you are in a management position and responsible for managing a group of employees. You may have the power to tell people what to do, but if you are an ineffective leader, you will not be able to guide and motivate your employees to achieve their goals.
“I believe a great leader is someone who has the ability to make the people around them better. There are many methods to assess leadership ability, but I choose to look at the employees around them. Will they grow and become better? Will they be motivated every day?” – shared Dana Brownlee, founder of Professionalism Matters.
According to Brownlee, if you possess the following characteristics, you might be a weak leader:
– No one in the group has commented on your ideas in the last month.
– You spend more time planning your career development than planning and managing your team.
– Each week you have up to 3 conversations with employees on non-work related topics.
– Different team members will provide different answers if asked what your top three priorities are this year.
– Team members are afraid of failure.
Business News Daily interviewed top CEOs, managers and leadership experts for advice on how to become a good leader. Here is their response:
Connect and communicate
Leading a group requires trust and mutual understanding between the group leader and its members. The first step to achieving this goal is for leaders to learn how to connect. Leadership consultant Terry “Starbucker” St Marie said a leader is called “human”: when he or she is actively positive, goal-oriented, empathetic, compassionate, humane and loving. These key features will help you connect your team members.
“Connecting with team members is truly essential to building trust and building a foundation of accountability and effective performance.” St. Marie also stated that: “With this culture, the team can succeed and become a cohesive team with a great team leader. »
Brownlee said, “I think the best leaders are those who communicate frequently and are very transparent (this is very rare). Good leaders also know how to adapt communication to each audience. This means they take the time to learn the appropriate method of communication for each audience. Each member (for example, whether people who prefer to communicate in writing by email, by telephone, or who prefer face-to-face meetings?) also have strong listening skills and are genuinely interested in the others.
Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO and founder of e-commerce solutions provider Ecwid, says that regardless of the form of communication, the most important thing is authenticity.
“There are many leadership styles and there is no right or wrong,” Fazlyev said. “But there are real ones and there are false ones. There are no false leaders.”
Understand your team
Once you master the art of communicating and connecting with your team members, you can truly understand them: who they are, what interests them, and what their talents are.
“It’s important to know your mission and vision, but it’s also important to understand your team,” says Joe Nolan, CEO of Motus Global, a company that provides bioanalytics for athletes with the same priority. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers and ultimately you will accomplish your mission. »
“A good leader knows their team better than anyone,” says Alexander Negrash, director of marketing at CloudBerry Lab, a cloud storage solutions company. They know how to exploit their strengths and weaknesses. »
Encourage creativity
“If you want your employees to do their best, you need to give them the freedom to think and explore,” says Negrash. Be open to ideas and suggestions from the team, willing to consider them and possibly develop them further.
“A good leader also provides the team with new challenges, avoiding boredom and complacency while demonstrating confidence in their potential,” Negrash said.
Focus on the positives
Leaders want group activities to always go “smoothly,” but sometimes they still need to work on solving problems. Whether it’s a small miscommunication or a major problem, the way a team leader handles a negative problem says a lot about them. Robert Mann, author of “The Measure of a Leader” (iUniverse, 2013) advises focusing on the positive aspects of any situation.
“Look at three positive elements of a problem before identifying the negative aspects,” says Mann. “When you look at the positive side of an issue, other people will also react more positively to each other.”
In his research, Mann found that once individuals emphasize what makes them happy about a problem, they no longer feel like the problem is so serious and can think clearly about how to solve it. This can also be applied when leaders need to improve their strategy. If you or your team members discover a problem, think back to experiences in which you effectively resolved this problem in the past.
Similarly, Peter Fuda, author of “Leadership Transformed” (New Harvest, 2013), argues that leaders can learn to focus on the positive by moving from being a “critic” to being a “cheerleader.”
“This strategy involves moving from focusing on the positives to the negatives,” Fuda said. “Understanding a problem and the problem that arises from it is an important step towards transforming it for the better. There is a mantra I share with every leader I meet: “Don’t let perfection get in the way!” »
Do more than talk
A great leader knows how to guide employees on how to do things, not just through words. Luke Iorio, president and CEO of the Coaching Institute (iPEC), said leaders should coach their team members toward a more engaged and collaborative work environment, without needing to woo them.
“If you control people to do certain things in a certain way, you’re not going to get the level of enthusiastic engagement that you want,” Iorio said. “Training means showing your employees the options available to them. They will be more proactive in projects.
Right
Taso Du Val, CEO and founder of freelance talent network Toptal, says direct, honest feedback – even if it’s criticism – is the best way to keep your team moving in the right direction. You also need to know exactly what direction your business is going in so you can give them the right advice.
“If you’re not honest, people won’t really know what you think of them and their work, and they’ll never improve,” says Du Val. “If you don’t know the exact direction your business is going, no matter how well you communicate with your employees and management team, they will struggle to make decisions and implement them. Once you Having clarified this information, deadlines, regular product plans, performance reviews, structures and processes can be easily implemented.
“Always share constructive feedback on everything related to the team and each member,” Negrash added. “Positive feedback is as important as negative feedback, and a good leader must seek balance.”
Request feedback
Your team members aren’t the only ones who benefit from honest feedback. A true self-assessment of your own leadership abilities may not be completely accurate, so take advantage of your advisors, experts and employees. Experts can show you areas for improvement and motivate you to develop a plan to become a better leader than books and seminars can.
“Coaching allows leaders to make connections and apply them in real-world settings,” Iorio said. “It takes time to integrate, process and reflect. And if you skip these steps, you won’t be able to grow sustainably.”
Fazlyev says, emphasizing that your team can give you important insights into what’s working, what’s not working, and the obstacles to success.
Understand your own motivations
If a leader views his or her position solely as a “job,” it will show on the outside. To be a good leader, you have to be motivated. You need to determine if you care about money or prestige? Or are you passionate about inspiring others? St. Marie advises leaders to really ask themselves why they want to be a leader.
“I view leadership as an honor and a career,” he told Business News Daily. “If in your heart you feel that leadership is your destiny and it is your way to change the world, this is your path.”
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