Being a great leader is the best way to improve your business. After all:
- Only with great leadership can the employees working for you be spurred to greatness.
- Only with a singular leadership that goes above and beyond can the parts become a whole.
Don’t worry if this isn’t you yet, because leadership qualities can be learned and earned. You don’t have to be born a leader to be a great leader. It will take effort and a lot of ongoing practice, but by following this guide you can rally your underlings and become a great team that does more than achieve goals, but exceeds them:
Earn a Leadership Masters Degree
A Leadership Masters Degree is the best way to build on your existing skills and combine the best practices with contemporary leadership theory. You can complete it entirely online and at your own pace because it is designed to complement and work alongside your career. This Masters is ideal for senior professionals in a leadership role who wish to go beyond their current limitations and truly bring their team or teams together to greatness.
Use Your Skills to Improve Your Unique Leadership Style
We are all unique in our own way, which is why copying exactly what others are doing won’t work. Instead you will want to use your own skills to direct your leadership style.
1.To discover what your leadership style is, ask yourself these questions: How do you resolve conflict?
- Do you do by reminding your team of their goals?
- Do you work to bring everyone together to resolve their issues?
- Do you let them work it out themselves?
2. Do you trust your team?
3. How do you encourage creativity?
- Let them go wild
- Have creativity sessions to hash out the details
- Enforce your own ideas
4. How to you encourage your team to reach goals?
- Do it all yourself
- Encourage equal participation
- Delegate
5. How do you handle deadlines?
- Set out task deadlines yourself
- Work with your team to create deadlines
- Trust your employees to have it done
6. How do you handle a poorly performing employee?
- Punishment
- One-on-one review
- Don’t punish
Though there are many more nuances, you will likely fall into one of three leadership styles:
- Autocratic
- Democratic
- Delegation
Though it is up to you which style works best for your team, you will find that a democratic approach where you have final say, but actively work to encourage participation from everyone on your team, works best.
Work to Improve Everyone Individually
There are many ways that you can work to improve your team individually.
- Find out individual weaknesses and strengths
- Create notices for any events, workshops, or courses
This way you can help your employees better themselves on their own time. You can also delegate better as you assign tasks to the best suited individual.
Accept Suggestions and Critiques
Leadership is not a one-way street. If there is something that your employees think should change to your management style or efforts, then welcome them. Let your staff provide these critiques anonymously, but also remember to ask for what you are doing well so that you know what to focus more on and what to emulate.
