At this point, you’re probably wondering how to become a great leader. And to be honest, being a leader is a bit like being a parent: there’s no step-by-step approach — no manual.
However, let’s talk about some tips that’ll help you start on solid ground.
Start on the inside
Great leaders always manage themselves. To manage yourself you first have to know yourself. Great leaders understand their own motivations and where they have the most room to learn and grow. A good place to start is knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
Start by performing a self-audit to discover how you perform best and where you could make your greatest contribution. How do you learn? How do you communicate? Are you a listener, a writer, or do you communicate through doing? Do you work best with small or large groups? Cohesion or tension?
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Then, ask some of your peers to help you out.
Some helpful questions include:
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What are my strengths? What can you count on me for?
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What am I the best at in the world?
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What are my weaknesses? What can you not count on me for?
The answer to these questions will help you find out a leadership style that suits your personality.
Show appreciation to your employees
Knowing yourself isn’t always enough.
To manage and lead people, you must know them too.
If you don’t know their motivations, values, beliefs, and even fears, you’ll struggle to get a commitment from them.
Now, this doesn’t mean you must be friends with all of your employees. That would not only be hard, but unproductive.
Sometimes listening carefully is just enough.
People want to feel essential to the organization, and a little gesture of employee appreciation can go a long way.
Research from Harvard Business Review reveals that 40% of employees would work harder if they were recognized more.
So, make your employees feel appreciated and recognized and they’ll return the favor.
Find a mentor
My grandma once told me that “to grow wise, you must learn from other people’s experiences.”
Remember that there’s always room to grow.
Look for someone who has already overcome the challenges you’re currently facing and who has way more experience in your field.
If there’s a “shortcut” to success, finding a mentor or coach is definitely it.
Besides, learning from a mentor will teach you how to mentor those you lead too.
Learn to be a team player
Michael Jordan once said that “talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
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He’s right.
No matter how good of a manager you are or how smart and talented you feel, if you try to do all the work yourself, you’ll get burned out — delegating work is one of the core skills of any great leader.
So, how do you become a team player in the workplace?
It all starts with the intention.
Celebrate your peers’ success, appreciate other people’s work, be reliable and open-minded, and you will build trust.
Once they trust you, it’ll be much easier to build a cohesive team that gets the work done efficiently.
Define a clear priority
People don’t necessarily follow a person. Many follow a mission.
As coach and BetterUp author, Sarah Greenberg, put it:
“To support a strong sense of purpose in your team, the best action is to make sure your actions as an organization truly do align with a larger, worthwhile mission. Second, provide opportunities for your team members to connect with a purpose beyond the self in a way that can be self-directed, and based on intrinsic motivation.”
To lead people, you must have a clear, tangible goal that’s worth pursuing.
So, the first step to becoming a successful leader is to understand what your main goal is — what’s your priority?
Keep in mind I didn’t say “priorities,” but “priority.”
The truth is we can’t have multiple priorities, especially if you’re in a leadership position.
For example, Southwest Airlines is known as “the low fare airline.”
One time, someone asked Herb Kelleher, co-founder, and CEO of Southwest Airlines, to share his secret to managing his business.
He answered: ”We are the low-fare airline. Once you understand this fact, you can make any decision about the company’s future as well as I can”.
He then added:
“Let’s say someone from the marketing department says to you that, based on research, passengers might like a chicken salad during their trip. How would you respond?”
Since the person didn’t have an answer, Kelleher replied:
“Will a chicken salad contribute to making us the low-fare airline? Because if it doesn’t, we aren’t serving any damn chicken salad.”
Southwest Airlines’ employees know how to make decisions because they understand the priority: be the low-fare airline, period.
To build an effective team, you must define and communicate a clear priority.
Get your hands dirty
Humility is the lubricant oil that minimizes friction within a team. And “getting your hands dirty” is one of the best ways of staying humble.
Lead by example.
Never ask an employee to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.
Serve people before asking for a favor, listen to other people’s ideas, be open-minded, and be willing to admit your mistakes.
People respect leaders who embrace humility.
Any leader will, eventually, face some challenges.
According to research from Gallup, the manager alone is accountable for 70% of the variance in team engagement.
Still, surveys reveal that roughly 58% of managers state they never received training on leadership before being promoted.
What does this mean for you?
Being a leader is a huge responsibility.
And people will expect you’re ready, even if you never receive training.
If you want to become great at leading people, you must acknowledge the fact that leadership and middle management are tough and prepare yourself for the challenges you’ll face beforehand.
Some of these challenges include:
Earning the trust of your employees
A study a few years ago claimed that employees trust strangers more than their own boss.
I’m not sure if that statement is true, but we can’t argue earning someone’s trust is hard — really hard — especially if that person has had bad experiences in the past.
And it requires time.
You need to share a couple of experiences with your employees before they start to trust you. And, often, losing that trust is easier than earning it.
As a leader, you must take building trust within your team seriously.
Dealing with pressure and stress
Making decisions is one of the core duties of any great leader.
And some of these decisions will be tough — firing people, choosing between two great candidates for a specific role, or moving an employee to a different department because they’re no longer performing well.
Sometimes, people will get mad at you.
Other times, you’ll have to make the decision under tons of pressure.
So, this is something you must embrace and learn to deal with. As a leader, dealing with your own stress management at work is important.
Make time for your own self-care, not just that our your team.
Managing difficult people
Being a leader doesn’t mean people will always like you, and vice versa. You’ll deal with employees who don’t share your values and who resist following directions. But great leaders don’t avoid conflict, they deal with this friction and learn to communicate clearly.
Your employee who is difficult or won’t follow directions is an important source of information, either about your own management style or about the customer or product. Don’t squander the opportunity to learn from someone who disagrees. They might be motivated by a passion for making a bigger impact. They might have a different perspective or hold the clue for a new approach that will drive value for the company.
These gifts don’t always come in pleasant packaging. That’s why developing solid interpersonal skills is crucial for an exceptional leader.
