Being a good leader isn’t about being a softy and it isn’t about being hard and inflexible either. Effective leadership is about the little things you can do that have a positive impact on your team. This blog post looks at how you can elevate the performance and wellbeing of your team by utilising essential these leadership qualities that I talk about with my clients all the time.
Be Your Authentic Self
Authenticity has become a bit of a buzz word of late, but how can authentically be authentic? By showing a little of your personality and not being afraid to be your true self (rather than adopting a textbook leader persona) goes a long way to building positive relationship with your team. It really is ok to be vulnerable around our team and you can do this by showing it’s OK to make mistakes and sharing difficulties or mistakes of your own.
Authenticity goes a long way toward trust, respect and opens the door to more honest communication between leaders and their teams.
Empowering Others
There is a big difference between being a boss and a leader. A boss issues orders, a leader empowers their people, champions them, helps them to overcome challenges and to be proud of what they achieve. Saying well done and thank you are the two most under-rated feedback tools and a Gallup survey found that 67% of employees whose managers give positive feedback were fully engaged in their work By surrounding yourself with a great team and proactively working to build them up you will notice a significant improvement in wellness, happiness, motivation and productivity. You will also witness a drop in stress-related absence, staff turnover and presenteeism.
Be The Leader Who Invests in Resilience
Investing in boosting the resilience of your team goes a long way towards dealing with work-related stress, depression and anxiety. It will also reduce high absence and staff turnover levels by pre-empting many of the issues which lead to them.
A resilient workforce has the personal and professional tools needed in order to succeed, to work and live in a positive way despite adversity at work or at home. Of course, your staff will not be able to avoid struggle altogether, that’s sadly not how the world works. By embracing a change in culture whereby there is a whole company approach to enhancing resilience, mental health and staff wellbeing is essential. This might mean investing in expertise and training for all levels from the Senior Team and management right down the employee chain so that everyone is on board.
Be a Compassionate Leader that People Look Up To
By being clear on what your vision for the team is and what your own personal and professional values and expectations are you build trust with your team. By demonstrating compassion and empathy you will be the leader that people look up to. This kind of mutually respectfully relationship is the foundation for exceptional working, innovation, increased productivity, a free-flow of positive and effective communications and more. Again, by walking the walk and being truly authentic and transparent about who you are you will be a very successful leader.
I want people to be leaders I’d want my children to work for
Tina McDonald
These leadership qualities and skills aren’t something you are born with. They are learnt over time and can be advanced through leadership coaching and training if necessary. Happy, productive, motivated and well teams are led by leaders committed to their own development, who champion their staff and who lead by example, utilising these essential qualities to enhance leadership.
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