Leaders and those working toward leadership roles are always working on skills that help them grow, personally, and also support a high performance workplace.
According to Gallup research, these are the 7 behaviours you need to adopt, to become a great leader.
1. Build Relationships
Creating meaningful connections results in outcomes such as better engagement, a desire to learn and grow, creative ideas and solutions. The relationships open the minds and hearts of everyone involved, and create a feeling of safety and acceptance.
2. Develop People
Ongoing self-development, coupled with using the right skills to encourage the desired behaviours from employees lead to positive employee experiences and better collaboration all around. Ongoing coaching of the team yields ever-increasing results financially as well as mentally and emotionally. Employees feel valued and their efforts contribute to the big picture.
3. Lead Change
It’s been said the only constant in this world … is change. Leading change requires clear communication of the vision, values, and behaviours everyone in the organization needs to emulate to get them through challenges. Leaders who set the example of what they want to see from their teams is the key.
4. Inspire Others
As with Leading Change, inspiring others takes the communication a step further. Take the words and actions that apply to your vision then add purpose, it becomes even more powerful. Purpose answers the “why” and become the “because”. Then employees clearly understand the contribution and meaning they bring to the table.
5. Think Critically
To think critically, leaders must commit to ongoing learning … coaching and learning resources increase their self-awareness and social awareness. Learning from their mistakes (and the mistakes of others) sharpens their critical thinking skills.
6. Communicate Clearly
We looked at communicating clearly in an earlier paragraph (clearly communicating vision and values). But communication is not a one-way street. Leaders must also learn to listen to others, ask questions and understand different perspectives … and maybe learn from some feedback from others too. The key here is to learn how to connect with others (different behaviour styles, body language, words, phrases and more) so they understand how to communicate effectively to others, and how others want to communicate with them.
7. Create Accountability
Accountability starts with leaders who hold themselves responsible. Taking personal ownership that can be measured builds trust and sets the pace for employees to follow. They are far more likely to take on their own set of actions to be accountable for, when they see their leader “in the trenches” with them.
Which of these 7 behaviours are you a “natural” at? Did you notice some areas where you feel you need to sharpen your skills? If so, you may wish to consider working with a coach.
