How often have you met a good leader? Why are some leaders universally respected and others simply disliked or even hated? There are a number of secrets by which an ordinary department head can become a successful and universally respected leader.
“We are one.”
An effective manager is often described as someone who is able to show his subordinates the right goal and coordinate actions towards it. A wise saying goes: “A leader is someone who is able to lift us up, give us a goal, a dream and the strength to go towards it”. An intelligent leader helps people to feel like an important part of the whole team, necessary and indispensable as they move forward towards a common goal.
What to do: Be close to the team. Encourage, inspire, call out for yourself. Appeal to your subordinates’ sense of self-importance. But don’t be friendly to them. The leader must have authority.
“I am the speaker.
Managing a team requires setting goals and objectives and properly communicating them to subordinates. A leader must have well-developed communication skills to maintain constant communication and fruitful interaction with employees. Openness and directness are needed here. A leader must be adept at negotiation, public speaking and the ability to persuade. Through effective communication, he can support the whole team as well as the individual members of the team.
What to do: Communicate, communicate and communicate again. Learn to see and understand the person you are talking to. Take a communication skills training course.
“I accept responsibility.”
One of the most important things a leader must remember is his responsibility for the path he leads the team on. A wise leader is very conscious of morality and responsibility. As a leader, he is also a role model.
Therefore, he is fully aware of the responsibility for the moral and ethical standards he introduces to the team. Leadership based on integrity is a set of concepts and rules that gradually enter the collective and then determine the entire structure of the relationship between its members. If the leader pursues his or her own personal interests, however, this only worsens the interaction with subordinates, who will soon adopt the behavioural model of their boss as their own.
What to do: Imagine that your subordinates are your children. Always be guided by this notion.
“Enthusiasm is our strength.”
It’s plain and simple – we don’t like leaders who aren’t interested in what they do. We want leaders with enthusiasm and a pragmatic approach to the problems at hand. We want to feel like participants in an exciting journey, not clerks bogged down in office drudgery. An energetic leader achieves goals with his enthusiasm and optimism. He must carry his confidence with him and be able to energise his entire team. Enthusiasm is “contagious” and a smart leader knows this.
What to do: Show your subordinates that you put your heart and soul into your work. Infect them with a bright idea. Give them interesting tasks. And if the task doesn’t look interesting, think about how you can make it interesting.
“I see a person in you.”
How is empathy different from sympathy? Although the words are similar, they mean different things. Sympathy implies the presence of benevolent feelings towards an object, and has little to do with the experience and reality of a particular individual*.
Empathy, on the other hand, implies the existence of the object as a separate individual with its own reality, thoughts and emotional component. In other words, empathy is intelligent empathy. As one clerk put it: “It’s good when a manager realises that each of his subordinates also has a life outside the office.
What to do: Become kinder. If you’ve always believed that most people are mediocre and primitive creatures who only want to watch TV and have fun, you can’t be a leader. To become one, you have to change your mindset. Subordinates need to feel kindness and caring in your every word or action.
“Am I trusted?”
Subordinates need to trust the leader in what he or she does. It’s understandable that the team doesn’t go into the specifics of running a business and other subtleties, but they need to see their leader as someone who is realistically capable of overcoming challenges, setting goals and solving them as effectively as possible. The leader must have the ability to inspire, overcome, help and encourage. Without these qualities, he will not be able to lead his team. And only such a leader will have the competence to manage subordinates as effectively as possible.
What to do: Ask yourself how the team sees you? Are you feared or loved? If you’re confused by this question, call in a staff psychologist. He’ll do a team survey, and you can base your future interactions with your employees on the results.
“A good manager is always a little lazy.
Managers who are too individualistic and cannot trust people often lose credibility in a leadership position. Their lack of trust leads them to do all the work that could have been done by the team themselves, which cannot have a positive impact on the speed and success of tasks. As one office worker put it: ‘A good manager is always a little lazy’. Interesting point of view!
What to do: Give employees the right to make mistakes. Don’t deny your subordinates the chance to “sit in the puddle”. A child will never learn to walk without falling down. Stop supervising your employees every step of the way. This will only teach them responsibility for their work. Delegate tasks to them and encourage them.
“We’re stressed out.”
In an ideal environment it is easy to meet deadlines and turn in work on time. However, practice shows that unexpected difficulties often arise at a time when we are not expecting them. This is called a stressful situation. A good manager knows how to build a team during such a period. He also knows that a lot depends on his composure and self-control.
His subordinates need to see him as a confident, strong-willed leader capable of handling any problem. Of course, the manager can also worry and worry, nothing human is alien to him, but it would be better if his subordinates do not see it.
What to do: Don’t let work rule you, remember, all in good time. Make sure you eat lunch and allow yourself the luxury of a good night’s rest. Share your energy wisely and plan your work.
“We are a team.”
A good leader is a strong person, able to organise a team and lead them to their goals. But in order to turn a group of people into a team of like-minded people, a leader must know the mechanisms of bringing people together and be able to manage them properly. In addition, his or her leadership style must be flexible, suited to the specific stage of team development. Understanding, flexibility and professionalism are essential to successfully transforming a group of employees into a strong and cohesive team.
What to do: hold a company “get-together”, organise a team outing to a bowling or paintball game, or simply conduct team-building training. You won’t need to wait long to see the results.
“I know what to do and how to do it.”
Solutions need to be fresh, creative and effective. Practicality combined with flexibility will provide the necessary formula for solving any, even the most difficult tasks on the way to the team’s goal.
What to do: Work hard and work hard. Remember, your best adviser is your experience.
