Leadership is the fuzziest word in the business world. If there is something we need in this world for a successful business is – true leaders. There is a never-ending race for being a leader. The ultimate purpose is to learn leadership skills, develop and flourish to set ourselves apart from the crowd.
What are leadership skills—is one of the most hotly discussed topics in an organization. What skills do you need to be an effective leader? The ability to lead effectively varies with different leaders and is learned by experience of leading a team. To make the future far better than the past, leaders have to take real steps to lead.
Here are some critical skills leaders must develop throughout their journey.
1. Listen to your front-line people
A leader should know how to connect with the people around. Most of the time, leaders spend all their time in listening to each other instead of listening to people who will tell them exactly what needs to be done. Leaders fail because of lack of interpersonal skills like listening. They fail to listen to front-line people who are the face of the company, they know what their customers want and what competitors are doing to take the business. So, give your front-line an active opportunity to move forward and stay in touch with them to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
2. Respect is the cornerstone
Great leaders have to be respected in order to be successful. A good leader usually earns respect and not just demands respect. It takes time to earn respect and harder to accomplish a shared goal in a team. Your team will respect you when you are consistent, punctual, responsive, forgive mistakes and show appreciation to the hard work and efforts of the team. Earn respect, embrace your position and you will be able to create a much more productive team.
3. Hold brainstorming session
Take some time out to discuss the problem areas with your team to let bring out the best ideas to make the company better. The role of a leader is to adopt wonderful creative thinking techniques like holding brainstorming sessions to increase the number of creative ideas and that inspires and motivates your team to be constantly thinking of new ideas. Encourage each person to speak up for anything valuable they have to contribute to the company.
4. Set clear expectations for your employees
Just as the saying goes, “fail to plan; plan to fail.” If a leader doesn’t set clear expectations for their employee, they won’t get the results they want. It also eliminates stress on both sides – the team and the manager. Tell your team what is expected of them, when they should check-in and how to accomplish the tasks.
5. Stop micromanaging
Some of the best leaders give their team members an opportunity to be the owner of the business and let things work as the team wants it to work. This is a leadership skill that is important for today’s working culture as it eliminates the need for manager/leader to poke the team again and again. Let your team do their job without standing over their shoulders. If you have hired them, you also need to trust them. Completely eliminate the need for micromanagement and do not take all the responsibility.
6. Be personable
Nobody wants to talk to a leader who is unapproachable. Being personable is a leadership strength as it brings more information and collaboration from the team to do their best work. There is no one who wants to work with a mean boss who is barely accessible. Be the one who is approachable, so anyone can come to you at any time and you can hear them out.
7. Own ownership of your role
A leader should have a clear difference between business ownership and business leadership. How you take the ownership of your work reflects positively on you as a professional. Be the leader in your business if you really want to make an impact on your industry. Show you ownership by recognizing the process of work management, creating value for your firm, running efficient meetings, ensuring clarity of your team’s objective and focusing on delivering remarkable experiences to your customers. Have the complete ownership of your role as a leader.
8. Encourage personal growth
Personal development is something that we do in our spare time that helps us grow professionally. Successful leaders can encourage personal growth by giving team members personal success lessons, develop a culture of working together, collaboration and encourage them to attend business networking events. Give them the opportunity to grow within the company and allow them to reflect on their lives as a whole.
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9. Do what you say
If you don’t plan on doing something, then don’t mention it. When you do what you say, you will earn the respect of your team. Do not mislead your employees with fake aspirations. Doing what you say will develop a reputation as a respected leader. Throughout the course of your leadership, being honest with your team and anyone else you communicate will give you a strong end of the deals you make. Stick with your commitments, be as transparent as possible and stay consistent in words, actions, and expectations to build effective leadership skills.
10. Push their limits
How do you get your team to work really hard? Well, you will certainly have to push them to their limits, else they will remain stagnant. They will do the same level of work without excitement and growth. A team leader has to motivate the team by encouraging them to get out of their comfort zone to achieve excellence at all levels.
11. Ability to persevere
Success in leadership comes from developing persistence and determination in the team. A really good leader will always count on the underlying causes of difficult to identify the solutions and methods to allow the team to persevere through the obstacle.
12. Reward your team for a job well done
It can be difficult to sustain a quality team. A leader will have to make time to praise employees for a job well done. When the project is finally complete, as a leader make sure you recognize the efforts of your team, celebrate the skills, and high energy your team. Your team will fight low morale when they feel rewarded and they will be motivated for the next challenge.
13. Beef up your communication skills
Successful leaders will be able to meaningfully communicate with each other and with others. If you are not a good communicator you will probably scandalize in some way or the other. Develop your leadership skills to a good level by communicating with everyone on your team, set up routine meetings with the team, and be direct, specific and clear.
14. Keep learning because you don’t know it all
“Don’t be a know-it-all; be a learn-it-all.” Always be greedy for learning. This is one of the least important leadership qualities that we all usually consider. But the truth is that no one knows it all. Great leaders are lifelong learners. Learn from your co-workers, from other leaders in your company and anyone you come across. and you can always learn from other leaders within your company. When you do not know something, be willing to grab the right knowledge, be open to your team’s suggestion and make it a good learning process. Read leadership articles and follow famous world leaders and gradually you will develop your own leadership style over time.
15. Just do it
The only way to really learn leadership is by doing it! Take charge in a proper way to handle your job, practice different ways of leading and follow the attributes of a good leader. Focus inward on your leadership skills, get involved in leading groups, find ways to empower your team and carefully observe what is working for you. Deliberately practicing your leadership qualities will surely make you a great leader.
So, what’s your daily leadership practice? Take the first logical step now.
If you work in these powerful leadership skills, it can help you get to the top your career. And, of course, it will inspire others around you to hone their skills too.
