Become A Great Leader: 8 Goals

Any given person can demonstrate leadership qualities, and we should all work to develop them.

Leadership isn’t about winning a popularity contest. Real leaders don’t have to be universally liked to be respected. Leadership is about serving, empowering, and influencing others regardless of their job title in the community effort to achieve mutual goal. More than anything else, leadership focuses on creating harmony, creating an environment where people work together easily. This community building is especially important in today’s flexible workplace. Good leadership improves lives in many different environments – in-person, hybrid and virtual.

So, want to discover how to improve leadership?

Leadership development presents a struggle to many.  It depends on intrinsic qualities, most of which are difficult to cultivate

However, if you’re willing to face the challenge, that’s the first step to becoming the leader your business needs to succeed. Follow these guidelines and you’ll possess the skills to step up whether your employees are in office, completely online or somewhere in between.

1. Build trust

When it comes to leading a team, your team must know you’ve got their backs. Exhibiting a genuine ongoing interest in your team’s wellbeing demonstrates you care and are willing to protect them when necessary. When you devote time to building trust, it demonstrates that your own interests and actions won’t supersede the goals of the organization or the needs of your employees.

How can you build trust?

• Participate in day-to-day activities. Regularly make yourself available for questions. This “being present” is especially important for a remote workplace, where it’s not as easy to walk down the hall to ask something.
• Make a continuous effort to learn about each of your employees.
• Be fair and consistent. Employees should be able to anticipate rewards or consequences based on your past actions and on their inputs.
• Involve your team members in important decisions to show you value their input.
• Recognize an employee’s contribution to your superiors rather than taking credit for results.

2. Create an open environment for two-way feedback

An environment where taking risks and that allows you and your employees to comfortably exchange candid, honest and direct feedback without the fear of being punished is vital to the trust of the team and health of the organization.

You, as the leader, must provide ample channels for two-way communication between employees and managers. Also solicit and reward your teammates for their ideas and contributions. Doing so facilitates progress toward reaching organizational goals.

Open the communication channels by:

• Encouraging employees to ask questions, discuss concerns or suggest ways to solve problems. Allow them to express opinions on company decisions or policies. Don’t jump in to explain how they should feel, learn to listen.
• Highlighting examples of people on an ongoing basis who have achieved significant progress toward the company’s goals or performed in a way that supports those goals.
• Never talking over or outright dismissing an employee’s viewpoint. All employees, including management and senior leaders, should respect their colleagues’ opinions and give space to express those opinions.

Knowledge is power. Ensure that every employee is provided up-to-date information about the organization’s goals, performance successes and failures to empower them.

Use all the company communication channels, such as email, company messaging apps, and so on to help spread the word. And, whenever there’s a change – good, bad or ugly – update your employees and tell them why it’s happening. Expect the same from the people directly above you.

The strategies above apply to remote teams as well. Creating an open environment when everyone is behind screens isn’t much different in terms of strategy, but doing so may require a little more intentional work on your behalf to ensure employees feel connected without extra roadblocks.

The longer you or another employee withholds key information, the more it hurts your organization. Withholding prevents you from building trust and an open environment that will develop your team. You’ll earn credibility when you are open to feedback and work toward making changes to fix issues as they arise.

3. Be a coach

One of the main hallmarks of a leader is coaching your employees.

As a leader, strive to foster trust and cooperation. Leaders paint a vision of the future that inspires the team to do whatever it takes to get there.

As a coach, inspire action that will help execute whatever goal is before you. Reinforce an honest and candid environment without taking feedback personally. As the Golden Rule says treat everyone like you would want to be treated.

Always give credit where credit is due. Say “thank you,” be encouraging, and try to put yourself in your employees’ shoes to better understand their everyday challenges.

Find ways to energize, motivate and show confidence in your team. They need to know they can do anything they set their minds to. Take advantage of performance reviews for encouragement. Use the results of those reviews to provide opportunities for employees to grow and develop specific traits or skills.

Provide coaching and mentoring to build confidence and competence – work is not a one size fits all approach.

Reinforce positive behavior when employees are accomplishing their goals and objectives. Doing so could be recognition in front of peers and other rewards that don’t cost money, but are meaningful to the employee.

4. Be Confident In Your Decisions

Whenever you undertake the responsibility of leadership, you must be comfortable making big decisions and seeing them through.

You can’t be afraid to be decisive, making tough calls when circumstances require it. It’s critical you understand the many facets of an issue and obtain as much information as possible to make an informed decision within a reasonable time frame

Ensure your choices are not just beneficial to you but also to your team, but with the organization’s goal in mind. Once a decision has been made, you must be confident in sharing that information. One of the best strategies is to always communicate the “why” behind the decision to the people affected.

5. Take Responsibility. Be Transparent

We’re all human. Mistakes will happen. But it’s not always easy to own up to mistakes and be receptive to feedback and change. We get defensive.

Business growth, and in fact business in general, involves taking risks that don’t always pan out. Be willing to stand up for your employees and their decisions whenever expectations aren’t met. Doing so will motivate your employees to feel they can accomplish what’s needed to achieve the organization’s goals.

You must support and assist your team. Give them the confidence to take risks and speak up without being punished. When the mistake is yours, own it. Never try to blame someone else, the situation or a circumstance.

Be credible – people want to follow an honest leader. Be candid about why things didn’t work out, learn from the mistake and move on. People will trust someone who actively displays honesty, we’re all searching for it.

6. Have a mentor

No matter who you are, having someone to look up to who is experienced with strong leadership capabilities makes learning quicker. It makes it a lot easier to see someone perform in action than trying to live by words on paper.

Rarely will someone offer to be your mentor – you’ll likely have to do the courting most of the time. It may be someone in your business area, but a great mentor relationship doesn’t have to in your same industry.

Identify potential mentors who have similar values, then schedule casual meetings with them to find the one with whom you have good rapport. Be prepared to explain what you hope to learn from them, why you value their insight and expertise, and what you bring to the relationship.

When faced with an obstacle, imagine how your mentor would handle it. Consider what they’ve done to overcome similar situations. Doing so can help point you in the right direction when you find yourself being challenged.

7. Leverage your team

As your business goals grow, you come to realize that you can’t be around for every decision, and you aren’t the strongest in every position.

That’s why it’s necessary to leverage the strengths of your team. After all, what would you need a team for if you could do it all yourself? Leveraging your team means finding each employee’s strengths, trusting their expertise and making the most of their abilities. Search out what they’re passionate about and help them lead a related project or a discrete piece of one. Empower them to succeed with meaningful work that clearly supports the company’s goals and objectives.

Clear any organizational roadblocks for your team that limit creativity and innovation. Ask about and provide them with what they need to be successful and achieve their goals. Stay out of their way if they’re meeting or exceeding expectations. This style of communication is especially important for remote teams. Check in regularly to make sure your remote workers have the resources (equipment, software, support) needed to be innovative in a remote environment.

8. Be Flexible

Workplace flexibility is a given of organizations today, but to make it live it must also be practiced by leaders. Flexibility doesn’t just cover not driving into the office, it covers when, where, and how your employees work – and how you respond. Here’s some tips:

• Understand and explain high-level policy changes that promote more workplace flexibility like:
  • Hybrid work
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Access to technology
• Check in regularly with employees to assess individual needs (like stepping out for an hour to pick up a child), and work to accommodate those needs in a reasonable way.
• Ask employees for input on better ways to get work done that makes life easier for them
• When you can’t be flexible, again, share the “why,” and address the business needs at hand.

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