In order for a team to work well together, leadership must be transparent. Leaders need to keep the entire team on the same page; have them collaborate; back each other and move in unison towards mutually agreed-upon goals. Transparent leadership where vision, mission and decisions are clearly communicated and supported with valid facts and arguments is a must for all …
Leaders empower people, they don’t micromanage
Micromanagement demonstrates lack of trust in the abilities of your staff and that is never the right thing to do. Enable and empower people to make decisions, take actions and move forward without the need to constantly come to you for every single detail. Obviously, levels of empowerment and decision making abilities will vary based on experience and your familiarity …
Pay attention to expressions, mannerisms and body language
We all know that actions speak louder than words. Additionally, it is important not to underestimate the importance of our facial expressions, mannerisms and the overall body language. It is important to keep that in mind as you meet with your team, clients, boss, partners…as they are only aware of your feelings and thoughts on particular issues based on what …
Lead with your heart
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 …
Managing stress of your team
As a leader, your reaction to stress and challenges speaks volumes to others around you. Your team looks up to you for queues and guidance of how to handle and resolve stressful situations no matter what they may be. So keep that in mind next time your are dealing with a challenging project, process, partner, client or an under performing …
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 …
Elevate yourself above the crowd
You are not average, you are not mundane, and don’t belong right in the middle of the scale. So stop acting and performing that way and elevate yourself about the crowd, above the average. Being right in the middle is the worst place to be as you are not memorable, you don’t stand out, you don’t contribute at the highest …
Set clear expectations, you are not a puppet
As the (wo)man, the myth, the legend continues to grow and your capabilities, accomplishments and skills become known to a wider audience you will often begin receiving invitations to join projects and tasks outside your current core responsibilities. These are great opportunities to learn new things, meet new people and help others with what you know so please take advantage …
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 …