No matter which industry you work in, there are several performance measures that you need to get approved as you move up the ladder. There need to be leaders who can govern and guide their teams with direction and behavior—and not just at the managerial position, but also at the individual employee level. There needs to be trusted before there is honesty so your team can optimize the ways it can communicate and therefore, produce work.
However, achieving this criterion is easier said than done. While not an all-inclusive list, below are a few common lessons that leaders think they wish they had known before:
Correct decision v/s Safe decision
Leadership is about having the courage to make not known, difficult and distinct decisions because they are the right ones to make. Also, it is the job of leaders to communicate the reason behind that the decision, so people are aware of why the decision is taken.
Strong leaders are not scared of making tough decisions. They might not like it, but they know that avoiding it is also a decision in itself and delay only worsens the problem.
Be brave even with Emotions
Emotions are usually an uncomfortable topic for leaders. But the strongest leaders are those who are comfortable talking about emotions because they are confident about themselves. Think of it this way, leadership takes courage which is why it is a billion-dollar industry.
Performing tasks, you are good at or having a discussion about topics you are comfortable with is not what is leading, it is implementation. It takes an ample amount of courage to talk about uncomfortable topics like emotions in this case, and when you do that, you become not only more strong as a result but also a leader that people are willing to follow because of his courageous leadership.
Pay attention to each Complain
Meetings are not just a means for employees to get together and discuss issues and the solution to those issues. Apart from meetings, nowhere else are such opportunities to build communities, make decisions, connect and find solutions to the problems. However, such behaviors like coming late or having sidebar conversations, pose direct threats to such opportunities.
Even an outwardly gentle remark by an employee provides insight into that employee’s world. Instead of ignoring such remarks, ask the employee to help you understand his or her thought process behind that remark. Otherwise, the same problem will keep on happening and it will soon become worse.
Learning is an unstoppable thing. Irrespective of age, position, time one needs to keep learning to grow as an impactful leader. In this article, we talked about things that will help a leader become more stronger and knowledgeable.
