How Can I Learn to be a Better Leader in The Workplace?
Leadership abilities are invaluable in the workplace when it comes to furthering your career. A good leader rises to the top of any occasion. They take the lead even among peers, not forcefully, but with a helping hand. Leaders stand out in the workplace. People with fantastic leadership skills are more efficient, get promoted faster, and get paid more on average when compared to weaker employees it’s science.
Unfortunately, not all of us are born-to-be leaders, but that doesn’t mean we can’t improve. Leadership may come naturally to some people, but thankfully, it’s also a skill that can be learned with practice and lots of team development exercises.
Tips to Improve Leadership Skills
Leadership skills aren’t hidden in some secret shroud of mystery. There are simple tips that, when followed diligently, will quickly help you improve your leadership and people management abilities.
Love What You Do
If you aren’t passionate about your work, how can you really encourage your team? Team members, like people everywhere, can see through false excitement. People are influenced by their leaders. If the leader really loves what they do, and they do it well, it will be passed on to the rest of the team.
The more excited and passionate you are about your work, the easier it will be to convey that passion to the rest of your team. If you actually hate what you do, it might be time to find a new career, because taking a lead role in a job you hate is going to be pretty difficult.
Be Humble
This tip might not help you out in the short term, but I promise that in the long-run it will be invaluable. It might seem that the people who boast about their own accomplishments and put others down about their faults get more glory, but as time goes on, this will get annoying real fast.
If a prideful boaster is in a lead position, he will annoy his team members and actually discourage them from working harder. If this same person is a team member who is supposed to be following a leader, the leader will eventually see past his boasting and will come to appreciate your humility.
As a leader, humility will earn respect from your team. It humanizes you. It means you can understand when a mistake is made because you’ve made mistakes too. You should be emotionally aware and understand the feelings your team has and react accordingly in a kind manner.
Have Good Communication
A team is nothing without excellent communication. Even a team that is lacking in the skills department can make up for it with clear and quick communication. A team is led in the aspect of communication by their leader. If the leader doesn’t initiate good communication skills, frankly, it will never happen; the team will be a wreck.
Become a Better Leader
Hopefully, some of these tips will help you in your endeavor to become an effective leader. Like I said earlier, it’s not impossible to develop this skill. Follow these three really simple steps, and you will see your team effectiveness improve drastically.
James is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.