Having been in the professional training industry for many years, I am often asked what type of leadership tips could augment our leadership classes. With that in mind, I have put together a number of tips to help you or someone you know become a better leader.
10 Tips To Help You Maximize Your Leadership Skills:
- Build Better Relationships - Great leaders know the value of relationships. Know who people are, what is important to them and what motivates them. Knowing this will help you understand their goals and how you can support them. When you help people, they will care about you and your goals in return.
- Get To Know People On A Personal Level - If you take the time to get to know someone you like, they will no doubt come to like you, too. Furthermore, it is always nice to ask people about their family and interests. You will also find that if people like you, they will be more open to helping you and taking the extra time to get things done.
- Develop A Mentoring Program - Great leaders know that mentoring someone will not only help develop that person's career, but also help them refine their skills.
- Be Upbeat And Stay Positive - In the business world, it is easy to criticize what everyone does and be negative . . . especially in this economy. As a leader, you need to find ways to stay positive and find ways to do things better, faster and more effectively. It is important to remember that people are not perfect, and while you do need to call someone on their poor performance, great leaders know the value of acknowledging when people are doing things right. Doing so builds a positive work environment that helps make people feel appreciated.
- Know Your Strengths - We are all better at some things than others are. That being said, you will find that it is better to spend time working on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. By working on your strengths, you will find you can rise to the expert level sooner than you would by working on your weaknesses. Bottom line: Know what you are good at and keep at it.
- Surround Yourself With People Who Complement You - As I mentioned above, we all have strengths and weaknesses. Great leaders know what their weaknesses are and find people who support their shortcomings. Not because they need to cover their weaknesses, but because they know the benefit of having a strong team -- and when the team wins everyone wins.
- Look At Your Career, Not So Much At The Company - Great leaders know that they are the ones who will create their own career path; therefore, they will work on making it happen. And once they become an expert in their selected career, they will find that they can go almost anywhere they want.
- Respect Your People - If you do not like to be around people, let alone lead people, then do not take a leadership position. Conversely, if you do want to be in a leadership position, start building relationships with people by respecting what they do. Additionally, it is important that a great leader never miss an opportunity to learn more about the people behind them. Great leaders never skip an employee's birthday gathering or a holiday party because they are too busy -- they know that work will always be there.
- Balance Your Work And Personal Life - Great leaders are often times driven people, but they know the key to success is to balance work and family. Life is too short for you to live at your job. One day, when work is winding down, you will think to yourself I wished I had changed things. Unfortunately, it will be too late to do so. Great leaders set career boundaries and know when to spend more time with family and friends. Doing this will make you a stronger leader.
- Evolve Into Someone You Want To Become - Great leaders know that they are individuals and that as an individual, they are not required to be like everyone else. They also know they can take the path less traveled, as the risk is sometimes greater than the reward. If you want to be a great leader, become a person of great interest who has great skills.
Executive Summary: Great leaders know the power of information when it comes time to leading people, information they gather from listening to people they respect. They also know what to say, how to say it and when to say it so that during tough times things get done.
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