Enablers for Success: Leading Your Team To Success: Leader Top Tips

Leading Your Team To Success: Leader Top Tips

Being a leader that people will want to follow can be tricky. You need to know what it takes to be a good leader and be focused enough to achieve it. You have to know what, and you have to know how, but you also need to know why.

If you are the leader of a group, you have to show the members that you appreciate them. It just takes a quick moment to jot a brief thank-you or congratulatory note, and that communication often means the world to people who are working hard. This tiny gesture goes a long way in improving morale, and it doesn’t cost you a dime.

Don’t shift the blame for mistakes to others. Subordinates, outside contractors, and plenty of other people within the organization can cause a business transaction to go wrong. If you try to shift the blame, you will lose the confidence of your customers and they won’t patronize your business any longer.

Honesty is critical to sound leadership. Work every day to build trust with your employees. As you start working towards being a better leader, you should always work towards showing people how trustworthy and honest you are. A person will have more respect for you if they feel like they can rely on and trust you.

Be A Great Leader

Being a good leader doesn’t just mean that you lead others. You also need the skills to lead yourself. Leading yourself by staying motivated and focused can also set a great example for others. Make an effort to become a working part of your organization and not just delegate tasks to others.

Always be ethical. Ethics is a part of any successful business. Customers will keep coming back if they can trust you. Develop a sense of moral responsibility in your team, and ensure that they follow the rules.

Stick with your goal. One way that leaders tend to fail is that they “switch sides” when things get tough. Try to stick with the goals you’ve established, and do what you can to stay on one path until completion. You may have to eventually change paths, but do so carefully and avoid doing it too much. Constantly changes paths can make you appear confused and undetermined to others.

Get to know the truly talented performers underneath you. Great employees are hard to come by, and harder to keep. Learn what their personal ambitions are in life. The more you are able to synergize their dreams with your business’ goals, the longer you can retain them and their productivity.

A good leader is able to help develop strong leadership skills in others. If you try to micro-manage every detail of your business, you won’t have time to look at the bigger picture. Having trustworthy employees who can lead others will give you the chance to delegate responsibilities as your company continues to grow.

Remember that no matter how much you care for a business you work for or own, many of your subordinates are just there for a paycheck. This means that their daily behavior will often just subconsciously mimic and even amplify your own. That means that your good mood and passion can be contagious. On the other hand, so can your malaise and stupidity.

Learn good delegation skills to master or compensate for your personal weaknesses. No one is perfect, so you know you have them. Leadership isn’t about being the running back that scores every touchdown. Rather, it’s about being the quarterback, who always knows who is right in each play to carry the ball.

Always keep communication open with your employees. Make sure they know what direction to take and that they are aware of any changes in plans. Failing to communicate is pretty counterproductive to the team goals. In addition to not being able to complete the task, it doesn’t look good on you.

Take responsibility for failures. If a customer complains about a delay, don’t shift the blame onto one of your employees. It looks unprofessional. As the boss, you shoulder all the responsibility of making sure your business is functioning as smoothly and as efficiently as it should. Any failures fall to you.

Be aware that there is always more to learn. Just because you are leading a team does not mean you know everything there is to know. Be willing to learn from others, including the rest of your team. They will appreciate the chance to show their own skills, and you will learn new things.

While it’s natural to gravitate toward a single leadership style, there are some environments in which certain styles are less effective. For example, an authoritarian style is not likely to be welcomed in an organization or group based on a collaborative culture. For this reason, it is in your best interest as a leader to become flexible and comfortable with more than one style.

As a follow up to reading this blog, you need to be sure that you’re practicing everything you’ve learned. It takes some heavy duty practice becoming an effective leader because there is so much to do. It can be an exciting time, and you will see the results start to unfold.