Being a true leader involves a lot more than a fancy title and being the boss. Though managing staff will be a significant part of your role as a business owner, if you don’t possess the skills necessary to effectively guide them, accomplishing company goals and aiding your staff in reaching their fullest potential will be difficult. A leader is essentially supposed to help those around them evolve to be better. Whether you’re thinking of becoming a business owner or if you already are one, to get to and stay at the top, you must work hard at becoming an effective leader. Below are a few things you’ll need to master.
Connect With Your Staff for Better Communication
Working with others will be a necessary part of your role. In order to guide a group of diverse individuals, they must be able to trust and understand you. One of the first areas you need to work on, as a result, would be learning how to connect with others. A successful leader isn’t one who simply barks orders and expects results. They are human first and understand the importance of connecting with their staff on a more compassionate level.
By developing this sense of trust and connection with your teammates, it is then that you are able to find the best means of communicating your desires and goals of the company. Likewise, when employees feel that their leaders empathize, are compassionate, and show humility, they are more inclined to be effective listeners and work better towards the common goal.
Delegate Effectively to Reach Accomplishments
Once you’ve built a connection with your team, the art of communicating becomes much easier. The next step in being an effective leader is truly learning who your team is collectively and individually. Shailesh Dash, founder, and CEO of Al Masah Capital, recipient of the Best MENA Asset Manager Award in 2017, knows just how valuable the right people are to a company and he credits his team and their hard work for helping him to accomplish such a highly-regarded achievement.
When confident in the group of people you’ve hired, as a leader, it is your responsibility to get to know who they are, what their interests are, and what talents they possess.
It is only when you care about and take care of your staff that they are willing to put their best foot forward in helping the business reach new levels of success. When you’re aware of who they are as individuals and professionals, you are better equipped to delegate tasks according to their strengths and aid them in improving upon their weaknesses.
Empower and Encourage
An effective leader is confident in the team they’ve hired. They see no need to micromanage because they believe wholeheartedly in their team’s ability to get the job done accurately. To be a strong leader, you must be willing to empower and encourage your staff to showcase their individual strengths and creativity. Being open to ideas and suggestions encourages your team to go above and beyond to help develop your brand. It has been proven that when employees feel that their leaders trust them and encourage their creativity, that they are more inclined to make effective decisions for the good of the company and customers.
Be Accountable for the Good and the Bad
Trust is the foundation to any successful operation between a leader and their team. Part of building this trust, not only means showing them compassion and humility, but being able to admit that you’re human. Throughout your quest to become successful and build the company, there will be mistakes made and lessons to be learned. Your staff can trust and appreciate you more when you’re willing to admit when you were wrong. Being able to point this out to your staff allows them to see you’re only human and encourages them to keep following you, despite those mistakes.
Remain Engaged
There are leaders that delegate tasks and give directives and then disappear, and then there are successful leaders who remain engaged in reaching goals. Despite your many hats and responsibilities, you must make the time to participate in the process with your staff. Employees and clients/customers admire this and are more driven to follow and help your vision for the company.
By being hands-on and leading by example, not only do your staff and clients respect you more, but you get to put yourself in their shoes, which gives you a heightened understanding and appreciation for what your team does for you. Being engaged also allows you to realize obstacles, and come up with strategies to make things easier for all involved, which is more than can be said for a leader that spits out commands without having actual experience.
Be Approachable and Likable
Working within an organization where you can’t stand or relate to management can create an uncomfortable and hostile environment. Though it is imperative to remain professional and ethical as a leader, it is equally as important to be approachable and likable to your staff. Being uptight, demanding, or withdrawn sends a message of superiority in which your staff feels inferior. To cultivate a team environment, you must have personality.
Simple things like saying good morning to your team, having conversations about things unrelated to work, having an open door policy and really following through on that, can make a huge difference in the lines of communication and workplace morale. When your team feels they can approach you and more importantly, that you’re human and can relate, they are driven by this positivity and motivated to be productive to help you realize your dreams and goals.
As you can see from examples like Shailesh Dash, being a successful leader is more than just telling people what to do. It is more than just being in charge. The best leaders are those who have the confidence to connect, communicate, empower and encourage their staff in order to cultivate a more positive working environment. It is only then that you are able to take the company to new heights of success.
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