Easy Ways to Boost Your Leadership Skills
The privilege of leadership is getting to believe in people even before they believe in themselves. It’s a commitment to make a difference in the lives of the people around you - specifically, your employees.
As a leader, it’s not only your job to ensure your team meets goals and achieves success, but also to help the individuals on your team be the best they can be.
To lead your team to success, you have to set the standard high and focus on learning and developing the skills and traits of a great leader. Many of those skills fall into the category of ‘hard skills,’ such as: project and time management, verbal and written communication, public speaking, and industry specific expertise.
It’s important to continually work on these types of skills, but it’s equally important to focus on developing personal traits or ‘soft skills’ that all strong leaders possess:
Compassion and Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, while compassion is your willingness to go out of your way to help those in need. A strong leader has both traits.
Empathizing with your employees helps you better connect with them as people and shows that you’re a person too. Leading with compassion and focusing on the belief that every person has value, is capable, and is responsible ensures everyone is treated with fairness and kindness.
Leading with both compassion and empathy is one of the best ways to gain your team’s trust and loyalty, both of which are necessary to being a successful leader.
Authenticity and Honesty
Authenticity is being true to who you are, and honesty goes hand-in-hand with it. Failing to be authentic or honest is the fastest way to lose your team’s respect and trust – which are critical to have to lead your team to success.
It’s usually very easy to tell if someone isn’t being authentic, or isn’t comfortable with who they are. It may be harder to tell if someone isn’t being honest, but as soon as dishonesty is discovered, it’s nearly impossible to earn trust back.
Even when it isn’t easy, focus on discovering who you are and being authentic to yourself, and commit to being honest with your employees.
Positivity and Determination
As a leader, your energy sets the tone for your entire team. If you look at every situation as an opportunity to learn and grow, so will your employees.
If you believe failure is not an option, and are determined to make things happen and achieve results, your team will be too.
Your attitude reflects on everyone you engage with, and you can’t expect positivity and perseverance from your team unless you practice what you preach.
Selflessness
As a leader, you serve others before you serve yourself. This means considering the needs of your team, as individuals and as a group, and focusing on the best interests of the team as a whole.
The most successful leaders realize it’s not about their own success, but about the overall success of the employees on their team. Focusing on their needs and achieving success together is what makes you a successful leader.
Being a leader is a well-earned privilege… you get to work to better the people on your team, and assist them in achieving success, both as individuals and as a unit.
In order to do that and become a successful leader, you must work on developing the ‘hard skills’ specific to your position and your industry, but never forget to also focus on the characteristics all great leaders share.
Selflessly leading your team with compassion and empathy, encouraging positivity and determination, and remaining authentic and honest are traits that’ll help you earn and keep the trust and loyalty required to be a successful leader.