Being a leader isn't about bossing your employees around. As a leader you're responsible for: motivation, development, adding value and much more. But to be able to do all these things as a leader, you need to be someone that your employees want to follow. Here are 7 ways you can become a just that type of leader.
1. Being Passionate and Keeping a Positive Attitude
Energy and passion are extremely contagious and often serve as the best motivators; if you're passionate about your business, what it does is create a stress-free environment where your employees thrive. It's very difficult to not be excited when your boss is speaking to you passionately and with excitement. This builds momentum and makes every goal seem reachable for your team. Being passionate will unify your team, increasing team cohesion and productivity.
In a similar way, being positive goes a long way. Obstacles will arise; it's up to you to keep your team inspired, motivated and ready to take on these challenges. To do this, you need to be positive and believe in your and your team's ability; this will keep an optimistic attitude and make problems seem easier to solve. Getting angry and throwing blame will only create a hostile environment that kills team spirt, creativity and motivation.
2. Don't be afraid to try new things
Don't fear failure and make sure you create that same feeling for your team. Encourage your employees to come up with ideas and to take risks. Don't look at failure as a bad thing but rather a learning experience. Doing this you will see that productivity, creativity, commitment, problem-solving and loyalty will all improve in your business. One of my motto’s is “there is no such thing as failure, it’s just a learning experience”
3. Open Communication
As a leader, it is critical that you are approachable. If all you do is give orders whilst not listening to your employees, you will not have open communication with them. Allow your employees to feel as if they can give honest feedback and not fear your reaction. Communication is key for teamwork, especially through problems.
4. Delegation is essential
Every person has their strengths and weaknesses; knowing what all employee’s strengths are is a huge part of delegation and trust. You should know your employees well enough to be able to give each task to the person/people best suited for it. This also empowers your employees and gets them to buy into you and your business as they feel understood and an integral part. Equally it is important to know your employees’ weaknesses so that you do not give them tasks that set them up for failure. This would be destructive to the morale of both the employee and the culture of your organisation.
5. Set Clear employee goals and expectations
Make sure to set goals and expectations clearly to your employees. Be sure to explain the importance and magnitude of projects, as well as its potential impact on the organization. This openness with your employees makes them feel important and gives them excitement and motivation due to being included in something that will make a difference.
6. Encourage Personal and Professional Growth
Part of being an effective leader is investing in the growth and success of your employees. This could be funding further education, such as short courses, or simply giving them opportunities and tasks that encourage them to grow. When you truly believe in your employees and express this with actions and not just words, employees feel motivated and inspired as well as more commitment.
7. Give Praise and Recognition
Everyone wants to feel appreciated for their hard work and dedication. By giving recognition and praise to individual contributions and achievements by individual employees or whole teams you will notice better performances from all of your employees.
There’s often a perception that people are either born leaders or not. But that’s just not the case; anyone can be a great leader, it’s all about working on and developing your leadership qualities. You can do this through personal experiences, listening to mentors or industry leaders, business coaching or even reading book after book on leadership. There’s not only one path to becoming a great leader. In the process to become a great leader, you will make mistakes and that’s perfectly fine, every great leader makes mistakes. Just always be honest with yourself and ask your team for feedback without responding negatively or critically.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." John Quincy Adams
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