How to be a great Leader

Written by Tom Clegg on .

If you are a Manager, or have your own company, having engaged, empowered and enthusiastic employees is the key behind your success. The more you empower and value your employees, the more they will thrive and develop.

Trust

The best managers know how to bring out the best in their employees. Finding out what everyone is best at, will enable you to get the best out of everyone within the team, allowing everyone to play to their strengths. This will enable you to find ways to support and encourage each other. Facing challenges as a team rather, will make achieving goals a lot more rewarding. By trusting and understanding your employees you will be able to delegate wisely and understand who is best for the task. 

Grow

If you do not give your employees room or opportunity to grow, you will force them to grow stagnant. This will have a drastic effect on performance and motivation levels within the team. You must provide opportunities for your employees to grow and develop as individuals. Training programs, opportunity for promotions are ways to implement this.

Focus more on effort than talent. By praising effort, you will encourage people to grow and learn rather than to simply allow them to remain focused on the things that come easy to them.

Don’t focus so hard on your people that you forget about yourself. Identify the areas in which you are weak and improve them. The fact that you are reading this article shows you understand the concept. You need to put it into practice.

Communicate

Instead of making rash demands or telling employees what to do or how to do something, sometimes you just need to observe more. You will be able to understand what’s going on, express your opinion but also ask your employees for theirs. What they think could make a situation better or achieve something in a better way.
The better you get at managing time, your own and that of others, the more effective you will be as a manager.

Motivate

Find out what motivates your employees and try to implement this. Motivating a team is useless unless you provide direction. You need to turn that motivation towards a goal and lead the team to it. It is the ability to lead others that truly sets a manager apart. Leaders are found at all levels of the organization. You want to be one of them.

You are less effective as a manager if you are over-stressed. You are less tolerant. You snap at people. No one wants to be anywhere near you. Take a break. Give yourself a chance to relax and recharge your batteries. Your increased productivity when you return will more than make up for the time you take off.