In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous) business environment, every leader must work on developing, improving and elevating one’s leadership qualities. How would you work on the improvement of leadership qualities, so that you can lead and handle challenges and achieve goals?  As you work on leadership development there would be several benefits. Few of them include – improved employee morale, improved productivity, improved sales, higher customer satisfaction, and greater innovation. But the question is, how do elevate your leadership skills?

Here are three small things or changes, I call them small shifts, that you can make to get started:

Introspect

Begin by talking to yourself. Ask yourself about the way you work, about the way you lead and the way you motivate your team. Also ask – What is the vision (where are we headed), what is the purpose (why are we going there?), what is the strategy – how do we plan to reach the goal, what is the talent required (skill set required) to achieve the goal, how do we plan to grow and last but the most important do we plan to sustain that growth?

This can be weekly and for that matter daily practice. You will realize over a period that you are more connected and aware of everything happening around you.  This will help you to understand better what works and what does not work for you as well as the team. As a result, it becomes easier to play the strengths of both teams as well as themselves.

Make mistakes

If you want to elevate as a leader, keep making mistakes. Mistakes are the best way to learn. In today’s VUCA world mistakes are a part of learning. Mistakes lead to creativity and innovation. As we move in the business, mistakes, and failures are bound to happen. Leaders should always look at mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. Leaders should help their people to focus on work and not be judgemental about the results.

Open Mind

The difference of opinions is bound to happen, but a leader will never let a difference of opinion become a major barrier to success. When in a situation where a leader feels he/she is stuck, the leader steps back a few steps and chooses another option. The leader does not get stuck by the barrier.

There might be times when you face resistance from the team on a certain issue. Be open to understand the ideas put forth by the team. Do not think you are the only one who knows the right thing to address the issue. Listen to the team with an open mind and then take the decision.

Grow as a leader. Leadership skills is not about being liked by all, it is about doing best for your team and for your organization. Leadership is not an external quality. It has always been an internal quality. So, work on it and empower your teams and your organizations.