BE A BETTER LEADER – PART 1

To be successful as a leader, you need a combination of two ingredients: character and competence. You need to be a person of integrity.  Someone people trust and are willing to follow. motivational and effective leadership, a leader must:

1. Keep people in the know. Your goal is to become a transformational leader—the kind of person who motivates and inspires people to perform at levels far beyond anything that they had previously thought possible. Transformational leaders empower others by keeping them “in the know,” making sure they’re fully informed on everything that affects their jobs. People want and need to feel that they are “insiders,” that they are aware of everything that is going on. There is nothing so demoralizing to a staff member than to be kept in the dark about their work and what is going on in the company.

2. Give regular feedback. One empowering behaviour practiced by transformational leaders is regular feedback on performance and results. People need to know how they’re doing so they can improve if performance is below standards and so that they can be proud of their successes. The more feedback you give to people, the better, as long as the feedback is objective and not critical.

3. Listen to others. Great leaders understand that some of the best leadership qualities entail listening to others with undivided attention. When was the last time you actually listened single-mindedly to one of your staff members?

Can you remember when you last listened to someone without interruptions or distractions from either telephone calls or drop-in visitors, when you just focused intently on the person speaking with you, ignoring all else? When CEO Alan Mulally arrived at Ford, he used a technique he had refined at Boeing. He found a way to instantly shift the senior executives on his team from talkers to listeners by changing the way he evaluated his team’s performance.

“It always comes down to incentives. What’s the incentive for someone to behave differently`/. Is it recognition, time or more money? No, It’s usually visibility,” he said.

4. Integrity. Integrity is perhaps the most valued and respected quality of leadership and one of the most important management skills you need to attain. By saying what you’ll do and then doing what you say, you will build trust around your team.

5. Be calm and confident. What makes a good leader is the ability to stay calm and in control, especially when everyone around them is wondering whether it’s the right decision or if it was a mistake to commit to a particular course of action. When you exude confidence in yourself, in the decision, and in the people around you, you instill the same feelings and attitudes in others.

Source – www.briantracy.com