Mr. Redouane Sammou
by Redouane Sammou
(Canada)
How good are your Leadership skills?
For an effective leader, it is mandatory to ensure a value management system and provide support to his team. A good leader can accomplish all this by leading effectively, planning well, monitoring and communicating. Among these mentioned factors, there are certain skills that are the keystone of successful leadership. Based on previous studies by many authors over the past decade, business leaders may want to consider important leadership skills and all the essential points they need to keep in mind. mind when communicating with their team and making leadership more effective. However, learning to become a more effective leader is within everyone's reach.
Top Leadership skills
1-Communication:
Communication is important everywhere, but its importance in good leaders stay uncontested. A good leader must understand how to get a point across, describe the company vision to their employees, make sure daily tasks are getting done, facilitate office conversations, sharing the vision of the future, motivating the team and the ability to disseminate information and listing actively. Effective communication does not equate to speaking well alone but also spans to active listening. A leader takes advantage of effective communication not just for clarity but also for connection, inspiration, persuasion, guidance and even assurance.
2-Commitment:
By proving your commitment to the company and especially your team, you will not only earn the respect of your team but will also instill that same hardworking drive among your staff. Showing your commitment sets the example for others to follow and leads to greater loyalty and respect for you as a leader. Set the tone of commitment, and others will follow suit. Remember that if you expect your team to work hard and produce quality work, you would need to lead by example. You also can’t expect to lead others if you aren’t committed to the project.
3-Delegation:
Leaders who try to take on too many tasks by themselves will struggle to get anything done. These leaders often fear that delegating tasks is a sign of weakness, when in fact it is a sign of a strong leader. Therefore, you need to identify the skills of each of your employees, and assign duties to each employee based on his or her skill set. By delegating tasks to staff members, you can focus on other important tasks as accepting feedback from employees, matching the task to the right employee, prioritizing tasks and teamwork.
4-Motivation:
Encourage members to work together as a team by stressing the importance of and the connection between teamwork and achieving group goals. You can further motivate your team by linking performance with team goals. Encouraging teamwork will help individual team members feel less isolated and separate from the workplace. Be optimistic and having a positive attitude. Remaining positive will show your team that it’s not the end of the world if things are going wrong and keep them focused on the greater picture. You can also help motivate your team by reacting positively to goal or project completion. Make them feel valued and appreciated.
5-Feedback:
Leaders should constantly look for opportunities to deliver useful information to team members about their performance. However, there is a fine line between offering employee’s advice and assistance, and micromanaging. By teaching employees how to improve their work and make their own decisions, you will feel more confident delegating tasks to your staff. Employees will also respect a leader who provides feedback in a clear but empathetic way. Some skills for giving clear feedback include: Being opening to receiving feedback, building confidence in employees, frequent feedback, listening to employees, respectful…etc.
6-Positivity:
Top leader maintains a positive attitude and is long-term thinker. Great leaders inspire other people, their friends, customer, associates… etc. They get up every morning and they see every effort they make as part of a great plan to accomplish something wonderful with their lives and push forward with a positive attitude. Leaders are optimistic. They see opportunities and possibilities in everything that happens, positive or negative. They look for the good in every situation and in every person. They seek the valuable lessons contained in every problem. Most of all, great leaders have a sense of meaning and purpose in each area of their lives. They have clear, written goals and plans they work on every day. Leaders are clear about where they are going and what they will have to do to get there.
7-Creativity:
As a leader, learning to try non-traditional solutions, or approaching problems in non-traditional ways, will help you to solve an otherwise unsolvable problem. Most employees will also be impressed and inspired by a leader who doesn't always choose the safe.
8-Trustworthiness:
People they aren’t going to listen to you if you don’t first install a sense of trust, when your team trusts you as a leader, it increases commitment to team goals. So, assign tasks and projects that reflect this trust. Socially, share personal stories, what is most important to your employees for building trust, ask how they prefer to be recognized, find out how they like to receive feedback and prefer to communicate. Allowing yourself to be a bit vulnerable is a great way to project warmth.
9-Responsibility:
Manager needs to be organisational champion. He or She needs to be on board with the direction of the organisation. Effective leaders encourage and support the company's decisions and directions; they don't undermine them. This is particularly important when an organisation is trying to implement change.
10-Flexibility:
Everyone has a different style of working. An essential skill for Leaders is the ability to adapt their management style to the diverse needs within their team. Moreover, the workplace of the future is flexible. Leaders need to be able to oversee an increasingly mobile team, with more and more people choosing to work remotely.
To make an impact as a lead, it starts with having the right mindset. Here are some ways you can be less afraid to make a difference and lead:
Motivation is what will drive you to make a difference and lead. You will add more value when you are working on something that excites you.
Ask yourself, “How does making a difference help to advance my career?” When you put others first, people will begin to see leadership qualities in you.
Stop worrying about being liked by others and start focusing on being respected. Leaders make decisions, and not all of them are well received. But they make decisions regardless because they believe it is the right thing to do
Sometimes you need to be startled to act. The time is now to make a difference and lead. Don’t wait. And don’t wait for permission. You will be waiting a long time. Act now and start creating the narrative that you want people to remember about you.
Making a difference requires leadership. Understand what motivates you and act. Develop the ability to lead yourself so you can lead others and make an impact. The time is now to make a difference and advance your career.
References:
Capowski, G., (1994), “Anatomy of a leader: where are the leader of tomorrow?”, Management
Review, Vol. 83
Collins, J., (2001), “Level 5 Leadership, The Triumph of humility and fierce resolve”, Harvard
Business Review, Vol. 79
Edgeman R.L., Rodgers T., (1999), “Leadership ESCAPE FROM Organizational Nihilism:
Leadership Core Values for Business Excellence”, International Journal of Applied Quality, Management, Vol. 2
PM-IT-003X: Leadership and Management for PL Practitioners in IT, University of Washington.
Article by Annie Grace Wilson is a Public Relations Specialist for Diversity Best Practices.
Article, by Amanda Smuin, CEO Magazine.
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