Have your team members become stagnant or disengaged in their work lately? Are you hearing lots of sighs and grunts from the office every time you pass by? Well, now might be the time to reassess and reform your leadership strategy.
We know how challenging it can be to manage your employees while having other responsibilities to take on at the same time. Sure, it may be your role to delegate specific tasks to them, but that doesn’t mean that you’re completely off the hook. You have your own priorities too.
While we do agree that modern business leadership can get really demanding, it doesn’t have to be that way forever. There are several things you can do to balance those demands and make that task a little bit easier for yourself. Applying them helps not just you, but your company as a whole.
Whether you’re the head of an IT firm or you run a digital marketing for business, knowing these seven key leadership tips by heart and incorporating them in your day-to-day routine will keep you and your team on the right track.
Understand Your Own Motivation
Being an effective leader means having the right motivation. What is it that drives you? The prestige? Money? Or, are you simply passionate about helping others succeed?
If you view leadership as a calling, like you feel as if you were born to drive others to discover their full potential, then you’re definitely starting from the right place.
However, if you look at leadership as “just a job,” your employees will surely notice that, which in turn, could affect their performance. Nobody likes working for a boss who’s only there for the paycheck and recognition.
Apart from your motivation, it’s also important to know your strengths and weaknesses, as it gives you a better understanding of yourself and how you function as a leader.
Acknowledging your strengths keeps you ahead in a lot of things and it can help you grow. It’s critical for personal development, self-fulfillment, and of course, career success. On the other hand, determining your weaknesses calls for a better self-assessment – a way to work around them or simply avoid them.
Set Clear Goals and Expectations
Setting SMART goals and employee expectations is one of the main ingredients of success. Everyone needs goals to strive for.
Like a carefully planned organizational strategy, goal-setting is a vital activity that requires a decent amount of time and strategy for desired results. Although leaders are the ones responsible for setting goals, the entire organization is responsible for carrying them out.
By setting goals, you provide your employees a sense of purpose and direction. You keep them looking forward to new accomplishments and milestones, which pushes them to perform at their best. And, with productive and motivated employees, your business will certainly flourish.
When discussing these objectives, encourage each of your team members to ask and share their feedback. Including them in the process will not only increase engagement, but it will also give you an idea of where they stand. Plus, giving them the floor can lead to new ideas you’ve never thought of.
To inspire your workers, explain the company vision and let them know how they fit into that equation. This will help them understand the end result they’re working towards as a team.
Make sure to revisit goals every once in a while to rearrange or modify them as needed. This will show your team members that you’re present and aware of what they’re working on. Monitor their progress and identify achievements in a tangible manner.
Ask for Feedback on Your Leadership
Why only give honest feedback to your employees when you can also ask for them?
Self-assessment can be tough, which is why it’s always best to seek feedback from others in the workplace – your mentors, peers, and yes, even your own staff. That way, you’ll know which areas need improvement.
Alternatively, you can try leadership coaching to discover those things you need to work on. Motivational books or seminars aren’t enough to help you come up with a plan to achieve your goals anymore. Instead, what you’ll need is a one-on-one with a professional coach who has been helping leaders achieve success.
Focus on Continuous Learning
As a modern business leader, it’s imperative to be agile in your responses to the ever-progressing marketplace and business climate – and learning is a big part of this growth process.
Having the willingness to learn and grow is a key characteristic for leaders. Growth-focused learning can take various forms within an organization: Organic, personalized, on-demand, or formalized. Whatever the form is, learning should be part of your commitment to improve professionally and personally.
Failure is one big lesson of learning. As much as we don’t like the idea of failing, it’s just inevitable. It is through these mistakes that you encourage yourself to do better, Let’s face it, no matter how good of a leader you are, you don’t always have to do things perfectly.
Learning should never end. It should be a priority, not an option. It should be an investment that successful leaders embrace.
Don’t Take Everything Too Seriously
Running a company is serious business. You gotta sell products, deliver services, keep your customers satisfied, and keep your revenue flowing.
However, just because that’s the case, doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun at work. Despite such circumstances, good leaders know how to turn even the most stressful workplace into a positive, lighthearted atmosphere.
Rather than giving employees every reason to arrive late for work or call in sick, give them every reason to be excited to start the day with you and the rest of the team. Remember, organizations that work hard and play hard end up with a more loyal, energized, and productive workforce.
Come Up with Lasting Solutions
When you set up a business budget, help your team understand how a budget can help produce a lasting effect on the business.
No matter how big your problem is, there’s always a way or two to fix it. The only issue is, in our eagerness to remedy things as quickly as possible, we tend to overlook the solutions that provide long-term results.
Why? Because such solutions may take longer to develop.
If taking shortcuts to solve an organizational problem is something you’re guilty of, you should put an end to that habit. As much as you might enjoy devising quick solutions, you must start learning to deal with the root of the problem, instead of focusing on the symptoms.
Maintain a Positive Attitude even in Financial Hardship and/or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Let’s be honest, there’s no business that operates smoothly all the time. For example, let’s say you are experiencing a financial hardship and debt collection agencies are calling you even while you’re at your business. You are considering Chapter 13 bankruptcy or debt settlement, but how do you maintain that positive attitude at the office? What are your options?
Everyone’s bound to run into obstacles every now and then. You may be looking at Chapter 13 bankruptcy or Chapter 7 bankruptcy or even debt settlement, and these obstacles can be challenging. Whether it’s a small miscommunication or super late deadlines from a team member, how you handle a negative situation says a lot about your role as a leader.
Your attitude will directly impact your employees even if it’s a Chapter 13 bankruptcy – their productivity, their motivation, and eventually their success. They look up to you, and they trust you for guidance, which is why you should keep a positive attitude and mindset.
Bear in mind that no matter how impressive your skills are, having a negative attitude even when facing bankruptcy can bring you down. It can hinder your own success, as well as that of your team’s.
