We’ve all heard that being a manager does not necessarily mean that you are a leader. A true leader is a person who models behaviors that others are inspired to mirror and follow. This form of leadership is not easy to find. Some people are natural leaders, and others can be trained in leadership skills, but it’s still not common despite the emergence of studies on the importance of emotional intelligence and developments in training over the years.
If you’re in a position where you are managing a small or large team — directly or indirectly — and you want to advance in your career, it’s worthwhile to take time to figure out how to be a good leader. Here are some ways that you can do just that.
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Listen. The most important thing you can do to enhance your leadership aptitude is to stop talking and listen to your colleagues, both to peers and people who report to you. This means that instead of trying to fill up space in a conversation or meeting, you should allow for pauses and breaks in your speech. Ask questions. Respond in a meaningful way to what people say by asking follow-up questions or commenting specifically. This shows the person that you have been listening closely, and in that way, you build trust and confidence in your employees and teams. When you spend time getting to know people, they will be more willing to share issues, which you can then address and tackle in a timely way before further problems arise.
Be present and strategic. The most important part of being a leader is to focus on relationships and not only on tasks. “Be aware of your current habits. Arrive early to meetings and don’t rush out at the end.” says Joni Swedlund, financial services principal and lead client service partner at Deloitte. She adds: “Approach meetings more strategically by asking yourself what success looks like for both the task (achieving goals) and the relationship (how you want your team to feel).” Swedlund says these actions will go a long way to helping you develop and maintain connections, which are important to your and your team’s success. In other words, adapt your style to how others want to receive information.
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Empower others. Once you know your people and their strengths as well as passions, you can effectively leverage their talent, which helps both the person and firm succeed — and in turn, you. Swedlund suggests looking for opportunities to enable staff to shine or create them if none exist. For example, she divided a group of 20 staff into groups of two to three people to research separate topics. Later, the group came back together to educate the team on those issues. The company was then able to take advantage of their newly acquired knowledge by placing them on projects where that expertise was considered vital.
Measure success. It is important for companies to recognize and reward both leadership and staff for soft skills in performance reviews. This is hard to do because it can be difficult to define with metrics. However, if a team is high performing, it’s likely that the business results will show. In addition to these quantitative metrics, qualitative results are also significant. For example, Swedlund recommends looking at how many new relationships a person has developed and whether they have brought innovative approaches to a project. Client relationships are also key, whether you are in a service-oriented business or you are working with customers inside your organization.
[See: 10 Job Resolutions to Revitalize Your Career in 2016.]
Being an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight, and for most of us, it takes time and a great deal of effort. Becoming more aware of your behaviors and how others view and react to them will help you communicate better with peers and team members. Listening to staff and observing their capabilities will allow you to learn about problems and identify solutions to conflicts more quickly and effectively. In addition, taking these approaches will help them grow and achieve personal and team success. Modeling emotional intelligence and soft skills will go a long way to creating a successful team. It is indeed the case that actions indeed speak louder than words, and leaders are not exempt as they are constantly in the limelight.
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4 Ways to Be a Better Leader originally appeared on usnews.com
