Effective leadership is central to any business’ success.
Without someone to drive progress, productivity can falter. Consider how you
run your company each day and the overall impact you make.
Management guru Peter F. Drucker once said, “Management is
doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Following these 10
simple tips can help you to boost your leadership ability and drive your
business to greater heights.
1. Demonstrate Clear Goals & Vision
Creating a successful business is usually a result of
clear goals and oftentimes, leaders who achieve such goals have an outstanding
vision of new ideas, technologies, and industry specifics. A visionary leader
can recognize new, emerging technologies and find ways to apply them in certain
areas at early stages of development. This can give a competitive edge to such
businesses and may inspire employees to easier gain trust in such leaders and
excel in what they do.
2. Communicate the "Why" Behind your Idea.
Regardless of the brilliancy of your vision, your team
needs to feel part of it and not that they're merely being told to do
something. If you're giving them the opportunity to really understand why the
process is happening, you're also hopefully giving them the tools to be able to
innovate on that process and drive even more value back to your organization.
3. Become a Better Listener.
Many people don’t know how to truly listen. The good news?
Following the lessons we learned in grade school—pay attention, don’t
interrupt, don’t be distracted—is all that we need to do to become better
listeners.
Of course, listening doesn’t just mean paying attention to
the words that your team members are saying. It means understanding the
emotions behind those words, as well as the nonverbal cues, including body
language, tone of voice, and mannerisms, that speak to your team members’ state
of mind. If communication is 80 percent nonverbal, as is popularly claimed,
then focusing only on the words being spoken means you’re only getting 20
percent of the message.
4. Lead by Action and Example
An effective leader never orders anyone to do anything he
wouldn’t be willing to do himself. If you’re going to expect certain things of
your followers, then it’s imperative that you lead by action and example. You
don’t actually have to do everything on your own, but if you occasionally reach
down and contribute to mundane tasks and entry-level work, you’ll gain the
respect of your employees and possibly even learn a thing or two in the
process.
5. Instill Confidence Among Employees
A great leader can easily instill confidence among the
staff. In order to maintain the positive work atmosphere which inspires
creative thinking and new ideas, staff members have to feel confident about
their work. A leader that simply nitpicks about everything and demonstrates
extremely negative reactions for every mistake made will eventually ruin the
positive energy in the work environment and ruin the self-confidence of the
majority of staff members. A great and effective leader can inspire staff
members to improve their performance and productivity by actively working on
their confidence improvements. Publicly acknowledging those who perform well in
certain areas can significantly contribute to this cause.
6. Cultivate a Culture of Innovation.
Great business leaders drive their teams to step out of
the confines of routine and achieve the extraordinary. Building teamwork and
rewarding collaboration are key to achieving your goals.
Cultivating a culture that values innovation is one of the
most difficult responsibilities a business leader has. Here's how the best
nurture innovation in their companies:
•
Proactively introduce mechanisms that
naturally boost creative and innovative thinking.
•
Make incremental improvements in the
workplace to facilitate out-of-the-box thinking.
•
Use tools to measure how employees
spend their time.
•
Encourage practical shuffling of
duties and departments to help employees gain a wider perspective of the
organization's work.
•
Show employees how they can use
time-tested methods of creative idea generation (brainstorming, mind mapping,
story boarding, etc.) by organizing and participating in sessions.
7. Reward Successes and Learn From Failures.
Too many leaders don't stop to reward success or recognize
employees' outstanding work but are quick to point out what people do wrong.
While it's good management to learn from what went right or wrong on a project,
it's also important to celebrate achievements.
No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. The important
thing is to learn from them. Be willing to accept the blame and move on. Use
your errors to make adjustments to the way things are done so that the same
mistake does not happen again. Constantly be looking for ways to grow and
improve.
8. Encourage Employee Contributions.
Some of the best ideas can come from employees. They
interact with clients and customers every day and have an intimate knowledge of
how well practices and procedures are working. Hear them out about ways to make
improvements. Make changes that will improve their ability to do their job.
9. Be Passionate and Open Minded
If you don’t believe in your company, neither will your
employees. Start each day with a positive attitude and show enthusiasm for
projects and initiatives. Take pride in the services or products you provide.
Be willing to look at things from a new perspective.
Encourage feedback from employees and customers and hear what they have to say.
This could ultimately lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
10. Commit to Being Better
Leadership isn’t something that can thrive independent of
effort. If you want to become a strong leader and maximize the talents and
abilities of your followers, then you have to make a concerted effort to mold
yourself into the person you want to be. Keep these tips in mind as you grow.
It may take some time and plenty of patience, but you’ll eventually see the
results of your hard work.
By making a conscious effort to improve yourself and your
leadership abilities, you can make a positive impact on your company. Not only
can it increase productivity and efficiency, it can lead to greater employee
satisfaction. Start making changes today for a better tomorrow.
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