Leadership skills are the backbone of businesses because, without leaders, nothing gets done. These people inspire and lead people to perform better and with more efficiency. But leadership isn’t something we all know the moment we’re born.
Instead, leadership is a skill we need to nurture and practice through our employment lifecycles. And just like any other skill, it may come easier to some than others. But are there any shortcuts to becoming a better leader?
Not really. But the following handpicked tips can make a huge difference. Let’s look at them!
1. Become a Team Member
Being a leader doesn’t mean you only have to let people know what to do or keep an eye on them. As a leader, your responsibility is to guide your team members in whatever challenge they’re facing.
For instance, if a team member is struggling with using a check stub maker or accounting software, you could show them how to use it and explain the best practices. This will help your team members learn the basics of the software they’re using and ask for further advice if needed.
Plus, working with your team and helping them through issues can allow you to achieve more. For example, when you offer help to someone who’s struggling, you increase their efficiency and their willingness to do more.
2. Admit When You’re Wrong
Admitting your ignorance or mistakes helps build trust in your team. They recognize that you can make mistakes and that you try to ensure they never happen again.
For instance, if you convey incorrect information to a team member, you should apologize and let them know you’ll try your best not to let that happen again.
Plus, as leaders set a precedent in the office, your team members will adopt your skills themselves. So, if you want to lead your team to success, you should try to claim your mistakes or ignorance and strive to do better.
3. Help Others Grow
Helping others can allow you to become better at what you do. For instance, if a team member is struggling with creating tasks on project management software, you could let them know how to do it.
Once they learn, you could extend further knowledge if they wish for it. Similarly, you could give your team members access to resources that helped you free of cost. That way, you’ll help them grow in their profession, and in return, they’ll help you grow as well.
4. Praise Publicly; Criticize Privately
You should never reprimand a team member in front of others. Nobody likes being vulnerable or shamed publicly. Not only does this kind of attitude encourage disregard for leaders, but it also breeds resentment, which can destabilize teams and lead to inefficiencies.
So, if a team member has messed up somewhere, call them to your office and politely tell them what they did wrong, what the repercussions were, and how “we” could correct them.
Including yourself in the process can help your team members realize that you’re in the fight with them and won’t leave their side until they get out. That can increase motivation and encourage team members to do better.
5. Keep an Eye Out for Miscommunication
Miscommunication is the cause of many problems in the work environment. It can result from communicating ineffectively, conveying messages using uncertain phrasing, and barriers to communication, such as distance or politics.
If you think your team members aren’t communicating as effectively as they could, you should try to brainstorm ways you could do better. For instance, if a team member responds late to messages, you could establish a daily stand-up call to make them aware of deliverables and let them work on their own.
6. Stop Micromanaging, but Hold People Accountable
You shouldn’t manage people at every step of the business process. For instance, if you’ve assigned a project or task to a team member, wait for them to respond by the deadline. If they don’t, you should contact them and ask if they need more time.
Once you’ve determined the cause of the lapse in communication, you should let the team member work on the project until the next deadline. This doesn’t mean you should become completely hands-off. Instead, you should pay attention to your team members; just don’t interfere in their daily work. That’ll only annoy them. Let them be.
However, if they fail to account for their work or keep missing deadlines, you should sit them down and ask what’s wrong. Your employee is responsible for taking the work assignment and completing it once they’ve agreed to it.
7. Care for Your People
Your team is the machine that makes the wheels of your business run. If your team can’t run smoothly, then there’s no chance of your business operating that way as well. But how do you make sure your team is effective, efficient, and communicative?
It’s simple: care about them.
However, caring for your team doesn’t mean letting them work against the business or neglecting deliverables and tasks. Instead, it means caring for them as much as possible within the rules of the workplace.
For instance, if a team member is struggling with too much work, ask them if they need help and delegate the work to someone else. Similarly, if someone needs a break from work, you should make sure they get that break.