Becoming a great leader is a journey of continuous learning and growth. It’s a process — one that thrives on embracing challenges, seeking feedback, fostering connections, and cultivating understanding.
In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, strong leadership is more important than ever. But what makes a good leader? And how does strong leadership impact the workplace? Some of the answers—from avoiding popularity contests to advancing your education through a management degree program—may surprise you.
Encourage Creativity as a Better Leader
Intellectual stimulation is one of the leadership qualities that define transformational leadership. Followers need to be encouraged to express their creativity. Effective leaders should offer new challenges with ample support to achieve these goals.1
One way to foster creativity is to offer challenges to group members, making sure that the goals are within the grasp of their abilities. The purpose of this type of exercise is to get people to stretch their limits but not become discouraged by barriers to success.
Connect with Your Team Members
Leading a group of people requires a mutual sense of trust and understanding between the leader and their team members. To achieve this, leaders should learn to connect.
Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, a leadership writer and consultant, said that being a “more human” leader requires positivity, purpose, empathy, compassion, humility and love. These key traits will put you on the road to genuine connections with the members of your team.
“Building a real, personal connection with your teammates is vital to developing the shared trust necessary to build a strong culture of accountability and exceptional performance,” St. Marie said. “With that culture in place, the team can achieve a successful business, a happy team and a fulfilled leader.”
To build a connection with each of your team members, focus on getting to know their personalities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies and preferences. This can give you insight into their goals and motivations.
Patoliya said successful leaders allow their teams to develop autonomy and add value according to their own personal strengths. “Being able to recognize the strengths of individuals within their team, and allowing them to be responsible and accountable, not only increases employees’ confidence in themselves and their leader, but also increases their performance.”
Have Clearly Defined Goals
Clearly defined goals provide direction and purpose. They help a team understand what they are working towards and why it matters. Goals set the benchmark for success and enable both the leader and the team to measure progress and stay motivated. Without clear goals, efforts can become scattered, making it challenging to maintain focus and drive.
To effectively set and achieve clearly defined goals, consider the following steps: ensure goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), communicate the goals with your team so everyone understands and feels connected to them, periodically assess the progress towards goals and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track.
Have Confidence in Yourself
Many leaders find moments where they doubt their ability, it is important to maintain confidence in your leadership skills despite this.
Your team members will look toward you for assurance and direction. In order to become a successful leader, you will need to learn to stay calm in high-pressure situations and not lose sight of your goals.
Be a Good Listener
Who doesn’t want to be heard? Hand in hand with empathy, a good leader values the input of his or her team members, wants to know what makes them tick, and helps them set and achieve career goals.
Will you always agree? Of course not, but demonstrating you value them by truly listening and acting on what you hear will earn you a huge amount of respect and loyalty. Is there a conflict with another employee? Address it as quickly as possible.
Is there a family emergency? Offer a way to adjust their work schedule without worrying about their job security.
Don’t forget that listening to employee feedback can prove invaluable. When they have good ideas, then let them know! The more you are able to build that professional relationship with your staff members, then the easier it will be for them to be honest about the positive improvements that should be made.