Being a great leader means to inspire your subordinates, to be kind, but firm, to be helpful in any given situation. It sounds very hard, and it actually is, but it is also extremely rewarding. Follow these advices on how to be better at leadership and make your life and your job easier. Become a leader on Jiji!
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- Be ready for challenges. Being a leader first of all means being responsible, and being responsible means being able to make tough choices and being ready to face consequences of said choices. These challenges are the ones you should be ready for, mainly psychologically. Be courageous, but wary of what you do.
- Be an example. Show, not tell. Your subordinates won’t listen to you complaining about them always being late if you’re not punctual yourself. Keep your desk clean, stay organized and your team will follow you.
- Communication. This is one of the most important parts. As a good leader, you need to be able to make sure, that everything they say is heard and understood. But maybe even a more important thing is to listen and observe. You need to understand people, their desires, passions, strength and weaknesses.
- Be honest and open. You need to make sure, that your coworkers know your positions, your expectations of them and they need to be sure, that you’ll inform them of both good and bad news. Honesty often is a first step to trust, and a team, that trusts, is a team, that wins.
- Be emotionally intelligent. You’re not a robot, so you do have feelings. Just be aware of when to show them and when not to. Be tolerant towards different points of view and just make your relationships with people last longer.
- Be a leader, not a boss. It doesn’t seem that obvious, but there is a huge difference between these concepts. Give credit, when credit is due, be humble and don’t put yourself above the others.
- Earn respect. Respect is the second thing after trust, that you definitely want your coworkers to have. Just stick to your ethical code, be fair and show the respect yourself.
- Know your boundaries. Everyone has their limits. Decide for yourself, which things you can let slip away, and which you will not tolerate. Be clear about them, so there is no confusion.
- Be a guide. You should be able to be helpful to any and every one of your team. As a leader, you should have the most information on a project and on all individual tasks.
- Constantly improve yourself. There is always something you can add to your skill list, that will be helpful for your work. Keep yourself open to new ideas.
Check out this awesome books on leadership:
James Kouzes, Barry Posner “The Truth About Leadership”
Jim Collins “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t”
Seth Godin “Tribes”
Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
Sun Tzu “The Art of War”
