Learn to Improve Your Leadership Skills
Improving your leadership skills now will help you to be more successful in all areas of your personal and professional life. There are a number of different characteristics that make a person an effective leader.
Make sure to engage people as a leader. You must learn how to motivate, involve, and excite others. Inspire them to engage their passions, strengths, skills, and creativity in the tasks at hand. Do what you can to acknowledge and appreciate each person's contributions and efforts. You should make them all feel like they did something to move the project forward.
Watch out for project creep. This can happen when your project's scope isn't clearly defined. If you have control over the project, resist the temptation to add more project objectives as time goes on. If you are receiving external pressure to expand your project, resist it with all your might. Your subordinates will thank you.
Conducting yourself in an ethical manner is critical, regardless of whom you are dealing with. Ethics is a major part in any successful business. When your team knows you are to be trusted, they will do a better job for you. By having a code of ethics within your company, your business will be successful.
It’s the Manager: Moving from Boss to Coach
"NOT SURPRISINGLY, a Gallup World Poll found that the great global dream is to have a good job with mission, purpose, and at a living wage. But the vast majority—85%—hate their jobs.
If you couple that fact with George Gallup’s “single most profound, distinct and clarifying finding ever” that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager, then the issue becomes the manager.
That being the case, the single key to maximizing human potential and organizational growth is to improve the quality of the manager. The most important person in your organization to bring teams together and lead them to great decisions is the manager.
Jim Clifton and Jim Harter of Gallup explain how to build a strengths-based culture that attracts the best employees and maximizes their potential in It’s the Manager. They cover five major topic areas—Strategy, Culture, Employment Brand, Boss to Coach, and Future of Work—an offer 52 discoveries from Gallup’s largest study of the future of work. The most important sections for me are Employment Brand and Boss to Coach.
The practice of management has been stuck in time for more than 30 years, despite the world and workplace going through extraordinary historical change. “The problem is, while the science of management has advanced significantly in the past three decades, the practice of management hasn’t.”
In the new working environment, one of the biggest challenges is for managers to go from boss to coach.
The old boss-to-employee, command-and-control leadership environment has “worked” when it comes to building process-efficiency systems, engineering large buildings, and creating infrastructure. But the top-down leadership techniques of the past have not adapted to a workplace that now demands coaching and collaboration to thrive.
However, I would argue that top-down and coaching and collaboration are not necessarily mutually exclusive. That said, coaching requires three things: establish expectations, continually coach, and create accountability. Their research has found that “employees whose manager involved them in setting goals were nearly four times more likely to be engaged than other employees” and those who receive “daily feedback from their manager are three timed more likely to be engaged than those who receive feedback once a year or less.”
Gallup analytics finds that most current team leaders do not have the natural tendencies for managing people. We often promote people for the wrong reasons like success in a prior non-management role and tenure.
Organizations still think largely in terms of promoting up the corporate ladder when other options exist like changing teams, projects, or even managers.
Unfortunately, many organizations still offer only one way “up”: Become a manager, even if your strengths aren’t in management. Some people who aren’t really cut out to be managers may do an OK job, but they never feel quite right managing. And this affects their wellbeing—and the wellbeing of those they manage.
Gallup research fronds that great managers have these five traits: Motivation (inspiring teams to get exceptional work done), Workstyle (setting goals and arranging resources for the team to excel), Initiation (influencing others to act; pushing through adversity and resistance), Collaboration (building committed teams with deep roots), and Thought Process (taking an analytical approach to strategy and decision-making)."
https://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2019/08/its_the_manager_moving_from_bo.htmlhttp://www.leadershipnow.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=1/entry_id=1750
Converse with your employees in a way that makes them feel important. Everyone needs to be heard. It is always best to lead by example. Don't yell at your employees, embarrass them in front of their co-workers or belittle their ideas. Opportunities for improvement can come from anywhere so be open to suggestions.
In order to be an effective leader, you need to stay in touch with your emotions. Do not allow yourself to make any of your positive traits turn negative. For example, if you are normally a very confident leader, do not allow added pressure to turn you into someone that is overly arrogant.
Remember that you are not someone who is perfect. Even as a leader, you still have things that you can learn, and you don't singlehandedly own all the intelligence in your company or organization. Stay humble enough to realize that you are still going to need help every now and then, and the people you lead will think highly of you.
Listening to your team is one of the more important skills to have as a leader. In many cases, your workers will have great additions or changes to an idea that you may have. Once you have communicated your message, listen for feedback to expand your success in new directions.
Always remember that there is an inverse relationship between what's on your mind and your personal productivity right now. If something is on your mind, write it down. If you need to, work on it now. If it can wait or can't be helped right this minute, set the paper to the side and get to work on something you can do right now.
Who is the Best Boss You Ever Had? What Makes a Great Boss?
"Ask yourself, who is the best boss I ever worked for? If you were asked why they were the best, you would probably say things like: “She was so positive.” “He made me feel appreciated.” “She took the time to know me and coach me.” “He listened carefully.” “I felt like she would do anything […]
The post Who is the Best Boss You Ever Had? What Makes a Great Boss? appeared first on Teamwork and Leadership Bloggings with Mike Rogers."
https://www.teamworkandleadership.com/2019/07/who-is-the-best-boss-you-ever-had-what-makes-a-leader.html
You should never procrastinate if you want to be seen as a great leader. When people think of having a boss, they imagine someone that is in charge and knows how to get down to business. Putting off projects and not following through is not the best way to present yourself to people.
Caring for others is the heart of great leadership. A leader should never look down on others or view followers as a tool to be used to get results. A true leader never has to bully others to get results. Genuine concern about the welfare of others leads to trust, the foundation of loyalty.
Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish with your business in the short term and the long term. You and your employees will be better able to stay on course when everyone understands your vision so make sure they understand it. Make small changes when necessary but always stay focused on your vision.
You should always show confidence and sincerity toward your clients or your colleagues. However, you don't want to be arrogant. No one likes an arrogant person. You must realize it takes true sincerity in order to gain the trust of the people you work with. Insincerity is obvious, so practice speaking and acting with total honesty and sincerity when you interact.
Vulnerability and leadership
"One only has to look at the current thinking and work around vulnerability and leadership to appreciate the impact that being vulnerable has in becoming a more authentic, compassionate and effective leader. A strong contributor to this field is researcher and author Brene Brown. In her book Dare to Lead she says, ‘vulnerability is the [...]
The post Vulnerability and leadership appeared first on Global Leadership Foundation."
https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/vulnerability-leadership/
Every good leader should be an expert at delegation. Some leaders make the mistake of thinking they have to do everything important themselves. However, if someone else can handle a task in an efficient manner, delegate it to them. Just be clear about expectations, timelines and understanding of the task.
Recognizing those that work for you is an important part of being a good leader. There are some people who enjoy praise just as much as their salary. If someone in your organization does something exemplary, take the time to recognize their effort. It doesn't need to be anything more than a simple "good job"!
Two qualities that employees should be able to expect from their leaders are trust, and confidentiality. A good leader will make it clear that any employee can confide in him, and not risk information being shared with others. It is unacceptable for anyone in a leadership role to break the confidence of anyone.
If you are interested in being considered for a leadership role, you must act like a leader. Think about what you appreciate in a leader and emulate those traits. Dress correctly, speak without profanity and show trust and respect to your own current leaders. Always put your best foot forward. These traits demonstrate that you are ready for leadership.
Never get defensive when receiving feedback, even if it seems negative. Create an environment where your employees feel free to offer both positive and negative feedback. You can't solve a problem if you are unwilling to hear about it. Listen respectfully and know that solutions to problems can come from anyone within your organization.
Becoming an effective leader helps you to take charge of your life, at work and at home. Many experts before you have mastered the art of leadership, and you can learn from their tips and techniques. Applying the information you have learned here can help you to develop into an admired leader.
Comments
Post a Comment