Ways to be a Successful Leader

Do you want to be a Boss or a Leader? The choice can lead to a huge impact on the organization and the success of your team. Also, your choice can either lead to a Functional Team or a Dysfunctional Team. Hopefully you choose to be a leader! Here are 6 ways you can become a Successful Leader.
 

• Inspiring Commitment—Motivate employees and recognize others’ achievements. When people are motivated they perform at a higher level. You can do this by offering a pleasant environment to work in; providing positive feedback; and being a respectful, honest, and supportive manager. Also, recognize other people’s achievements. No one wants to work for a boss that takes credit for their ideas and use the word “I” in the work performed by the team. The sincere “thank you” and “good job” can go along way with motivating employees.
   
• Lead Employees—Act with fairness and delegate effectively. Ever have the boss who had favorites? Did you hate it? Most likely you did unless you were their favorite. Playing favorites quickly ruins how a team operates and works together and is hard to repair once the damage is done. Treat all your employees fair and don’t play favorites. Hold each person accountable for their actions in a consistent manner. Also, delegate effectively. Check out the Delegators Dozen: A Preparation Checklist.
  

• Strategic Planning—Translate vision into reality and plan for the long-term. Don’t let the vision of the organization be words on a page. Lead by example by making choices that live by the vision. Also, you may think your employees know and understand the vision, however, that may not be true. Set up a meeting with your staff to share and discuss the vision. You may also be surprised that the current vision may not be in line with the goals of the organization and need to be updated. Secondly, have a long-term focus. Choices made today may have a large impact on the future of the organization. What happens when you leave the organization? Do you leave it in in disarray because planning wasn’t done for a change in leadership?

 

• Change Management—Facilitate Organizational Adaption and Manage resistance in change. Most people feel comfortable with a routine but is the old way the best for the organization? Know the goals of the organization and share with your employees so when things are changing they have knowledge on why, though we all have employees that hate change. This could be they are afraid their job may be impacted, they prefer the old way, or just want to complain about change. The latter you will not be able to change—they are happy complaining. Though explaining why things will be done differently can help with change management. Check out this article from Harvard Business Review.
  

 

• Employee Development—Coach to improve performance and provide guidance and encouragement. Become a mentor/coach to your employees. Have an open door policy for them to come ask question and rather than just provide an answer ask them “What would you do” or “What do you think” and when you provide an answer provide the why. Also, when you are making decisions ask for their input. In the end you are the Leader but they will feel as if they played a role in the decision even if it is different than what they said. There are going to be times you have to improve a person’s performance in the job. Sit down with them and provide the facts on how they currently stand in performance and provide the steps needed for improvement. This will require time on your part but will be worth the time. Don’t sit back and think things will change on their own because they won’t.

 

• Self-Awareness—Recognize personal limits and learn from mistakes. We all have our limits and make mistakes. The question is what we do about it. Maybe you have a weakness in writing letters but you have an excellent writer in your department. Use their strengths to benefit the organization. Also, we all make mistakes in our life but how we respond makes the difference. Learn from those mistakes and apply in the future.