Become a Better Leader

Learning how to be a good leader can greatly impact the success of your team, your organization and yourself. To be an effective leader, you must understand your own motivations, strengths and weaknesses. Great leaders connect with their team by facilitating open communication, encouraging employee growth and development, and giving and receiving feedback.

Anyone can sit in a corner office and delegate tasks, but there is more to effective leadership than that. Effective leaders have major impacts on not only the team members they manage, but also their company as a whole. Employees who work under great leaders tend to be happier, more productive and more connected to their organization – and this has a ripple effect that reaches your business’s bottom line.

If you look around and see that your team members have become disengaged or stagnant in their work, it may be time to reassess and reform your strategies. The following behaviors are the signs that you may have a poor leadership strategy:

• No one on your team has criticized one of your ideas in the past month.
• You spend more time planning your own career progression than that of your team members.
• You haven’t had at least three completely non-work-related conversations with a team member weekly.
• Different team members would provide different answers if asked your top three priorities for the year.
• Team members are afraid to fail.
  
  Big and successful leader says the following to have in you and your company:

1. Engage in honest, open communication.
   One of the most important elements of effective leadership is creating an open line of communication with your team members. Be straightforward to them while talking. They are the reflection of your company and are representing you somewhere, so have a honest and ethical behavior as your key value. This will make them follow your way and will create a smooth open and transparent environment.
2. Connect with your team members.
   Leading a team requires mutual sense of trust, cooperation and understanding among the team members. And a successful leader should know how to connect emotionally and professional to a team member. A leader requires positivist, purpose, empathy, compassion, humility and love. Building a real, personal connection with your teammates is vital to developing the shared trust necessary to build a strong culture of accountability and exceptional performance. To build a connection with each of your team members, focus on getting to know their personality, interests, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies and preferences. This can give you insight into their goals and motivations.
3. Encourage personal and professional growth.
   Empower your employees to take the time to learn and infuse that in the work they do. Encouraging them to learn skills and grow will make your connect more stronger and new learning will surely add some profit to your work. When solving a problem, encourage team members to provide their insights. When employees feel like they can openly bring new ideas to the table, true innovation, engagement and success can prevail.
4. Keep a positive attitude.
   Being a good leader; try to appreciate even a small work of your team. This will create motivation among them and will connect you more. This will also reduce the miscommunications and will stronger your leadership. Try to focusing on the good in any set of circumstances. “Look at three positive things about a problem before you identify what makes it dissatisfying. The more you look at the positives in a problem, the more positively people react with one another”. A positive environment is more likely to create a more engaged and productive workforce. By displaying enthusiasm and confidence, a good leader will see the impact that they can have in their working environment.
5. Teach employees instead of giving orders.
   Being an effective leader you should know how to show others what is required, rather than simply telling them to do. People wouldn’t grow if leaders never taught them anything. Leaders need to be teaching so they can grow new leaders to take their place.
6. Set clear employee goals and expectations.
   For a leader to motivate and inspire, they need to keep their team in the know about their vision. This helps employees understand the end result they’re working towards as a unit. When goals are clearly set, everyone can track progress and identify achievements in a tangible manner.
7. Give direct feedback about performance.
   A direct & honest feedback – even if it’s criticism – is the best way to guide your team in the right direction. If you’re not direct, people won’t know what you truly think about them and their work, and they will never be able to improve. A positive recognition always creates an environment of productivity in the company.
8. Ask for feedback on your leadership.
   A true self-assessment of your leadership can be difficult, so mentors, fellow professionals and even your own staff are invaluable in evaluating your effectiveness. Unless you go to integrate and process leadership skills, you won’t have sustainable change. You need to put time to reflect those changes in your attitude.
9. Be open to new ideas.
   A good leader should have the emotional intelligence to understand and accept that change is inevitable. Instead of trying to maintain a status quo just for the sake of consistency, embrace change and innovation. When you’re open to hearing the thoughts of the talent around you is when you truly embrace every possibility and potential. It may fails sometimes, try to figure out why and how you failed before scrapping it. And then you will have new resolutions with more confidence to go for a new change.
   
   So, be open to new ideas and alternative ways of thinking and try to apply them in your work process.
10. Understand your own motivation.
    To be a good leader you must take time. Although some individuals are naturally inclined to have good leadership skills, it is something anyone can learn and improve upon. With hard work, dedication and strategic planning, you can lead your team to success.
    
    If, in your heart, you feel leadership is your destiny and how you’ll make a difference in this world, then you are certainly starting from the right place.