Leaders Lead by Example
Are you new to management?
Do you have the skills to guide a team that will follow your lead and stand behind you and your decisions?
Do you know the difference between effective leaders and managers?
Managers demand that the team follow them. Effective leaders, on the other hand, don’t demand but through personal examples give their team a reason to follow them.
Leaders want to help everyone on the team improve their results so one day they can also become effective leaders, role models and coaches. They use many of the same principals other great coaches in history have used.
As a leader, you may be doing all the right things but you may not be getting the results for you or your team.
It may be time to take a deeper look at what you have done. What has been working and what has not. What needs to change and what can you continue to do so everyone on the team experience growth, in some way.
You may need to look at how you manage yourself before you can figure out how to best manager your team.
To many times management becomes comfortable and loses focus on what needs to be done, to not only have personal development but also team development.
Many times, the team become comfortable with your leadership style and when you try to change it is seen as a negative thing.
The following 15 steps can help you become a better leader. They will improve upon your current skills, refresh what you already know and help you build a team which respects you and wants to perform for you.
The Leadership Formula
Applying these steps can take some time and seeing the results can also take some time. If you start applying these tips today, you can become a stronger leader, coach and mentor, in no time.
Want to become a strong leaders, coach and mentor? Check out this Monday Morning Leadership article.
What to become a stronger leader? Click this article and ready about the 5 Pillars of Leadership.
In my opinion, a boss is only a position at a company, while a leader is someone people want to follow. In history, leaders have had millions of people stand behind them, fight for them and die for their cause.
One quality a leader has is, he/she helps other people see their potential. Leaders help employees raise above their own believes in themselves. They practice the tips that are given in Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Great leaders should hire a team of people who are the best at what they do. They should look to raise the bar for the next batch of leaders who want to lead at the company.
Great leadership requires a leader’s trust in his or her staff and own abilities. Leaders know when they communicate something, that will be completed as required. To do this, leaders must give the proper training to all employees. They must listen to and offer the tools employees need to do their jobs more effectively.
Great leaders sit with employees and look for ways to help them improve. They help build the foundation of a successful mindset in each person. They do not sit in their corner, glass windowed office and hide. Instead, they make themselves visible so people want to interact with them.
Leaders learn the names of their employees and take interest in their personal lives. They thank staff publicly for the great work they do. And all great leaders know that if you need to have a high-level talk about performance, do it in private.
Effective Leaders Do…
Be the Example of Leadership, the Coach, Leader and Mentor.
As the boss, do you think people should do what you say rather than what you do?
An effective leader sees things differently and lets their actions be the example people want to follow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, “What you do, speaks so loud, that I cannot hear what you say.”
Actions speak louder than words.
Effective managers understand their position. They work every day to succeed in their organization and look for ways others can also succeed.
Do things for people and they will appreciate what you do. They will want to work for you and help you achieve the level of success you wish to attain.
Will the Real Leader Please Stand up.
There are two leaders. One is your direct manager and the other your customer.
As an employee, you do not only work for your company but you work to satisfy the needs of all your customers. Without your customers, your business will not succeed for long.
Leaders help employees see and create an environment that will attract new customers. They help staff find new ways to attract new prospects if they are not meeting their sales goals.
When you teach people how to get new customers or satisfy your current customers, you are training employees to one day be in your position. They will apply the same knowledge and techniques to new staff when given the opportunity.
Lose Customers or Employees
With the change in the job market it is important to build business teams who will find success.
Companies have adapted to the new environment and so have employees. If leaders do not adapt, then the core values of the company come in to question.
As leaders of people, you prepare employees to do their job better and generate a return on the investment. After all you pay your employees an agreed upon wage and you expect to see value in their work.
As a leader, you should consider letting people go if they do not perform to their expected results. Before you let them go you also need to provide the necessary tools so they can do their job to the best of their ability.
Leaders help employees understand the principles in the book, The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino.
Do Not Accept Mediocrity
If you allow mediocrity to join the company’s values, you will find that it is hard to change people in the long run. People will accept and invite mediocrity to their work.
Once your staff has accepted this standard, a new leader will be needed to shake things ups. That means as the current leader you may not have a job tomorrow if you allow mediocrity.
A good leader will create a positive environment by engaging staff so everyone wants to work at their highest levels.
You have heard the saying, ‘Iron Sharpens Iron’. Well effective leaders raise effective employees.
Take Your Time in the Hiring Process
Sometimes this is a hard thing to do.
An example is, as a manager we need 100 people to start in two next weeks. Profit, market share and our responsibility to investors is at stake.
But, if you want a strong team of employees who will be good leaders, then you need to slow down the hiring process and look to right the right people. Not just bodies that will occupy a desk.
Every time you fire someone, soon after hiring them, it costs you time, money, resources, working hours, it creates havoc in the work environment and can damages employee morale.
Effective managers use their leadership skills and conduct as many interviews as they need to, to find the right people for the job.
Need to Fire Staff
Not everyone you hire is going to work out. I have been hired at different jobs and I did not work out. It happens. Not everyone is going to be a fit for various reason.
As a leader, you job is to coach and mentor your team for success. If people are not performing or have a bad attitude then your goal is to turn that around.
A good leader understands a bad attitude may be a sign of work stress, harassment or other outside of the work factors. These factors can affect how the employee performs at work.
A people focused leader, will do their best to get employees help before you let them go.
When management cares for employees it can change their attitude, and turn around their work performance.
Letting anyone go is not easy at any level in the business. As leaders, we do develop close relationships with our staff. They become our extended family but letting them go needs to be done.
When letting people go, treat them with respect and dignity.
Contract Fulfilment
When you hire a qualified person, you are entering in to a contract. As the leader, you are saying you will guide the employee and show them how to be their best and reach their highest potential.
As the employee, you agree to complete specific jobs to the best of your ability for a specific amount of pay.
This is the contract in the simplest form.
As the leader, when you hire you need to make sure the new employee understands the compensation, benefits, product and services, hours, company culture, expected behavior, company value and community involvement.
Again, you should provide the new employee with all the tools he or she will need to be a success in their new position.
Give Responsibility
What makes a good leader?
Leaders delegate with trust, belief, confidence and a clear direction of what the expectations are when a job is fully completed.
Effective leaders give the right type of work to the people who can complete that task.
Managers should consider the employees attitude and then delegate work to people who they feel will grow and learn new skills.
It is important to not give work to people who do not have the skills to complete the job effectively, efficiently or in time. You will only set them up for failure and cause them to stress out. Give these people work that is within their skill set and watch them exceed your expectations.
If employees make mistakes, let them learn and fix what they did wrong. Do not belittle them in front of staff or take away the assignment. Help them, give them the tools and resources they need to succeed.
Help them understand and apply the laws of prosperity.
Meet with Employees Regularly
The character of a leaders is determined when they understand how to communicate with different personalities effectively. They become people smart and meet talk to people based on how they want to be communicated with.
Good leaders set aside time weekly or bi-weekly to meet with employees. They ask good questions and allow them to talk.
Leaders pay attention to what is being said and not being said by taking notes and asking questions to understand what their staff needs.
As an effective listener, you will learn about person. This conversation will give perspective on what is happening within your company.
Show Appreciation
Leader find ways to encourage their staff. They may bring in coffee, healthy snacks, allow people to go home early and say simply say thank you.
Many leaders ask staff what they would like as a bonus, other than money, for a job well done.
When leaders see staff doing the right things they should reward them. Like what Ivan Pavlov did in his dog experiments to get a desired action or reaction.
Yes, you can train your staff to become amazing, understanding, hard-working and any other quality you want to see in them.
Confronting Employees
When employees start to have a bad attitude, it is not exciting to have a conversation about their negative behavior. Sometimes the attitudes of others can affect other staff members. It can and will affect your companies your bottom line if action is not taken.
What happens when we do not deal with problems?
Generally, the problem gets worse and then we the only person left to blame.
Be Firm, Fair and Friendly with Everyone
Being firm means to set clear guidelines on goals, expectations, daily activity, deadlines and budgets.
Everyone needs to know what happens when they do not meet goals and deadlines. They need to understand how their job is affected and how the company is impacted also.
Being a fair leader is what people expect. Most will not follow you if you are not fair in your treatment of people.
Be friendly but recognize your position as the leaders, mentor and coach. This does not mean have a big ego, what it means is, you know your responsibility and carry them out because you have the right leadership traits and abilities.
Sales
As the leader, you should help your sales staff attain their monthly goals. Provide them with the book, courses, tools and resources to do an excellent job.
Your job as a leader is to make sure the staff understands how to make a great presentation to a potential client.
Your job is to ensure they have the right skills to convert clients from potential sales to actual sales. Help them develop the most effective sales scripts based on their personalities.
Networking
A good leader recognizes when staff is in a sales slump long before the numbers reflect it.
A good example of leadership is helping staff get back to the basics. Help them see potential in their current network of friends, family and acquaintances.
It is important to help everyone on the team understand the importance of networking their work position. No matter if you are an accountant, a sales rep, an HR rep or any number of important positions it that make up the company you need to network your business.
Health and Wellness
A great leader not only cares how the staff perform but they care about the overall health of each person they lead.
The trusted leaders who shows love and compassion for their fellow employees will sit and talk about important issues such as health.
If the employee says they need help the leader will help the employee by providing all the resources they can.
They may share articles such as:
How to successful meal plan to before starting to exercise.
How to lose weight without exercise.
9 easy tips to get lean.
and;
Why meditation can be effective to overall health.
Summary
Regardless if you’re a new manager, supervisor, employee or if you have been in a leadership role for many years, you can perform better today than you have in the past.
To be better you must first look at yourself and change what is not helping you be an effective leader. Only then can you expect your staff or peers to change and follow your example.
Take Action
Which step in the leadership process do you need the most help with? Which step will you take today to become an effective leader?
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