Taking on a leadership role can be intimidating, particularly if you plan on being an actual leader, versus a manager.
You can be a leader in a technical sense when it comes to a company’s structure or hierarchy, but being an actual leader – a human being who inspires others to grow personally and professionally – is a more comprehensive, multifaceted role to step into.
As Tom Peters says “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders”
Developing a strong leadership team will streamline your business, instill confidence in your employees, and allow for more rapid growth. It will allow you to build a business by design, so you can live a life by design.
Leadership Characteristics
So, aside from a job title, what qualities do effective leaders share and why are they important? Everyone does leadership differently, but some of the most common successful leadership traits include:
- Authenticity: Being open and honest is imperative to building trust.
- Accountability: Stating expectations and keeping your word helps people feel safe.
- Inspiration: Motivating others to take ownership and pride in their actions leads to growth.
- Dedication: Showing commitment and a willingness to do the work encourages a healthy work ethic.
- Innovation: Being flexible and praising creativity inspires out-of-the-box thinking and problem-solving.
- Communication skills: Fostering an open dialogue and exchange of ideas instills confidence and appreciation.
All the above qualities are important, but communication is key. Purposeful communication skills allow leaders to demonstrate the other characteristics through their actions while making their team feel heard, valued, and supported.
Remember the five pillars of purposeful communication. You must uncover and communicate clearly your personal Purpose, Values, Mission, Vision and Story.
Character Development
Your leadership team is like the central nervous system of your business’s body. It’s responsible for sensing and sending information, inspiring ideas and thoughts, coordinating movement and crucial to the overall health of the company. This integral core system is worth investing time and effort into; never assume your leadership team is beyond training.
While some leadership qualities are innate characteristics, almost all can be developed with a combination of willingness and practice. While it’s difficult to provide on-the-job training for concepts like authenticity, it’s not impossible. Like all skills, good leadership traits can be developed through expectations and opportunities to practice.
The three core components of establishing a strong leadership team are:
- Open dialogue.
- Constant communication.
- Regular touch points.
There are many ways to instill the above concepts into your team’s everyday lives.
Clarity: Be clear, open, honest, and accountable with your leadership team — to the point that it should be a little scary for you to do. Make them aware of the big picture, down to your fears and financials. They should know your past failures, your current truth, your future goals and how it all works within the big picture. Expect the same honesty, integrity, and accountability from them and welcome any and all feedback.
Focus: Your company should have a core focus. If everyone shares the same value and works with intention towards a purpose, everything from interoffice communication to everyday decision-making will be simplified. Discuss your core values and brainstorm ideas for how to incorporate those values into your work and the company’s culture.
Space: Allow ample opportunity for the team to express opinions, share issues, or deliver feedback. Ask who, what, when, where, and why questions instead of providing answers. Instead of telling someone how a task should have been done, rephrase that into a question, like, “Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?”
Be quiet.
Sometimes, a prolonged silence inspires someone new to fill that space. As easy as that sounds, it can be difficult to practice. A good leader makes room for others to step up.
Community: Allow your leadership team to feel heard and supported by organizing regular meetings.
Meetings are essential for keeping everyone on the same page about progress and goals. Arrange annual planning sessions, quarterly sessions, weekly check-ins, and “Same Page” meetings (1-3 per quarter) for your leadership team.
Learn about Level-10 meetings, which are briefly described about halfway through this article, to maximize your time and manage impactful meetings.
Lead the Way
Give your team the skills and confidence necessary to step into their leadership roles in a powerful way. Also, continually work on improving your own – be the kind of leader who others want to emulate and make sure you are the embodiment of your expectations.
An effective EOS Implementer can help you assess your own skills and provide ideas and structure that will help add strength and scalability to your team and business.
Empower your Leadership Team and improve efficiency, increase value, and foster collaboration to get better results. A professional Facilitator can ensure that all of your members are on the same page, so you can kick your business up a notch. Connect with The Profit Recipe to Achieve Traction.