Treat others the way you want to be treated. Show compassion, empathy, understanding and support. Now, this doesn’t mean be a softy all the time and let others take advantage of your kindness, but it means don’t go out of your way to make lives of others miserable and unnecessarily difficult. As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is …
Leaders ask questions
As you get an opportunity to meet with people who are tasking you and your team with a project or an operational or strategic need please remember to ask relevant, clarifying questions. Clarify all that isn’t clear and ask questions as soon as you have an opportunity. Don’t make assumptions that someone else sitting around that table will ask the …
Support your team unequivocally
In order to be successful if is imperative to be customer focused, yet employee aware at the same time. However, at times, these two important groups may come at odds which is when you as a leader need to act. Ideally, you would have been involved all along to avoid any negative escalation of issues, challenges or problems, but that …
Charisma is not leadership
People often confuse charisma for leadership and consider it one and the same. While charisma is a component embraced by many successful leaders, it is not what makes one a leader and as such it should be considered as one of their attributes, not an entire representation of that individual. Leaders put others ahead of themselves; they act with benefits …
Build diverse teams
Build teams that are as diverse as possible. Hiring carbon copies of yourself is counterproductive and provides no value to you, the team or the organization as a whole. You want and need people of different races, ethnicity, education, experiences…as you never know where that next great idea may come from. You want originality and uniqueness to be embodied in …
Leaders speak last
You are a part of a brainstorming session or a project update meeting and folks are sharing their ideas, suggestions and plans. Last one to speak is the leader of that team. Well, last one to speak SHOULD be the leader of that team. The reason for this tactical decision lies in the desire to empower others to contribute and …
Engage, listen, learn then lead
Embrace the ideas of others, invite and enable all to share their opinions, ideas and suggestions as only then you will begin to align and improve. Additionally, if your ideas get challenged (in a professional and respectful manner) publicly, appreciate and respect people’s ideas and suggestions and take them under advisement. Finally, don’t be vindictive towards those who respectfully present …
Include people and lead together
One can never be too informed. Get as much valuable and relevant information as you can so that you can act on that information, make decisions and lead people. The best way to do this is to actually include people and ask for their input, their ideas and suggestions. Include people and lead together.
How to be a great leader
To be a great leader you must make your intentions, actions and decisions about others, not yourself. You also need to provide needed resources and create a safe and relaxed environment. Additionally, you also need management skills to build on as all members of your team must be aware of the policies, rules, guidelines and responsibilities. Finally, share responsibility, empower …
Lack of leadership? Fill the void
If you happened to be on a team or in an organization where leadership is lacking to provide what’s necessary for staff to be successful not everything is lost. While your options are somewhat “limited” you can do some of the following: you can accept your faith complain, which won’t do you any good leave (always an option) or do …