Successful leaders encourage employees to submit new ideas and learn new skills. In today’s economy, hybrid-working and the rising trends towards entrepreneurship leadership will apply to more people than ever.
Whatever your job title, the ability to bring out the best in people will be a vital part of success.
Here are six skills that we at EAW Consulting think are essential for leaders:
Fostering potential
Great leaders look for potential, not experience.
Fostering potential takes time, but some key actions include letting people know it’s okay to fail. There is much to be learned from failure, and it inspires people to take risks, step outside their comfort zone and test new ideas.
Discourage complacency, and focus on constant development, improving skills and think about the next stage of their career
Learning to Delegate
Good leaders take on responsibility but know when to delegate to others.
Playing to the strengths of those within your team is a key skill; identify those skills and allocate responsibility accordingly. Support those team people and ensure they have the knowledge, resources, and tools they need to succeed. Avoid micromanaging – work with them to agree on how to monitor progress. E.g. Discuss what a successful outcome looks like, how and when to report back to you, and the best way for them to raise any questions.
Motivate others
Inspiring team members to be the best they can be successfully stems from the ability to motivate them. So how can you best motivate those around you?
Consider their contribution and ensure people know how their role contributes to the business; their work matters!
Communicate clearly what you need people to do, why, and when while giving people the autonomy to accomplish those tasks.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t forget to show appreciation and celebrate success.
Setting clear expectations
Goal setting is a great way to drive performance. However, instead of the traditional, top-down approach, work with your team on KPI’s, and ask them what the goals should be and how they will achieve them.
Forget annual goal-setting; set daily, monthly and quarterly goals, each of which should be simple and agile. This ties back into the previous point on motivating others by collaborating and asking for their involvement; success is far more likely.
Positive Mindset
A positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in all circumstances. Tackle all obstacles positively; this way, even when situations don’t afford a positive outcome.
Think carefully about the language you use. Consider words with positive connotations – turning a “problem” into an “opportunity” being a prime example.
Highlight and celebrate the little wins frequently. Celebrating successes, big and small, can be just as impactful as sporadically celebrating the big wins.
Thinking strategically
Strategic thinking requires leaders to take a broader view to solve business problems and make long-term plans for the future.
Use critical thinking to gather data and solve your most pressing strategic questions.
To enhance your strategic thinking skills, remind yourself of your priorities, and manage your time accordingly.
Remember the difference between urgent and important. Urgent fire-fighting tasks can suck up a lot of your time and energy, leaving very little bandwidth for important things from a big-picture perspective.
Which of the above skills will you focus on in the next quarter?
Remember, great leaders attract great talent – so take your time developing these skills and make the right decisions.
