How to be a better leader
Being a good leader can be difficult, especially when you have limited face to face contact with your team. It’s important to keep your team involved and motivated during these tough times, when many of us are working at home. As in all roles, there are there are things that can hinder leadership ability, as well as opportunities you can take as a leader to improve your skills and lead a happier, more productive team. By recognising these improvement opportunities, we can implement strategies to become a more effective leader.
Potential leadership roadblocks include:
1. No formal leadership training
Many leaders fall into a role with no formal training. Leadership skills must be learned and practised.
2. Lack of clarity or alignment
A leader that’s not aligned with the company vision, or able to clearly articulate this, will create confusion for the team.
3. Purpose and values not lived into
Why do you exist for your customers? What values does your organisation use as
a framework for decision making and interaction? If you can’t articulate these,
your customers won’t understand the value you provide.
4. Poor communication
Failure to communicate expectations results in frustration and disengagement;
ultimately damaging company culture.
5. Us and them attitude.
Some leaders fail to ensure the team feel valued and included, resulting in
high team turnover, low job satisfaction, lack of innovation and poor results.
So, now we’ve identified potential roadblocks, what can we do to overcome them and become a better leader?
1. Undertake leadership training
This could be an online course, webinar/seminar, or coaching. The more you
learn, the more effective you’ll be as a leader.
2. Develop a clear plan
Ensure all leaders have the same vision for the business. Working with an
independent coach or advisor can ensure leaders are aligned.
3. Clearly communicate with the team
Update the team regularly with your plan and vision and how their roles and
tasks fit into the bigger picture. This goes both ways; ensure you create an
environment where your team is comfortable communicating with you.
4. Articulate your purpose and values
Ensure your team understands why you exist for your customers and lives into
your values. Develop a set of Core Values with your team and celebrate when
they’re being lived into.
5. Inspire the team
Work alongside the team to produce outcomes that individuals, and the team, can
be proud of. Celebrate wins as a team and schedule regular catch ups with
individuals to ensure everyone feels valued, engaged and loyal to the purpose.
Being a leader can be tough; from having courageous conversations to lift performance and culture, to trusting someone else to do as good a job of it than you can. But being a leader should also be rewarding, that team member you helped develop a new skill, who now does a better, more efficient job than you did – is ultimately a win for you and the business.
Join us for our Leadership Lessons webinar!
On Thursday 25th February at 10am we are hosting our next live webinar, Leadership Lessons!
You’ll learn powerful lessons and mindsets to help you inspire and engage your team, and we’ll provide a self-assessment tool to drive your improvement.
- Identify potential roadblocks to becoming an effective leader
- Discover the essentials for great leadership
- Learn the five most important leadership mindsets
- Identify effective processes and rhythms for better leadership
- Understand how to assess your leadership skills
The webinar will last around one hour, including a chance to ask questions.
We can help you
We all can, and should, continuously develop our leadership skills. If you’d like help identifying areas where you could improve your skills, get in touch for more information about our Leadership Self-assessment Worksheet and start working to overcome your roadblocks.
We also provide a number of services to help business owners develop successful businesses, including our Core Values Development service! To discover the ways you can improve your business, contact us to book a complimentary, one hour Proactive Accounting Meeting! We’ll discuss your business goals, explore how these business goals tie in to your personal lifestyle goals, look at the challenges you face in your business, and identify areas and strategies for improvement. Click here for more info and to book a call!
If you have any questions at all, send us an email to info@rosslynassociates,co.uk and one of the team will be happy to help!
“The courage of leadership is giving others the chance to succeed even though you bear the responsibility for getting things done.” – Simon Sinek
