The difference between good managers and great leaders has very little to do with intellect or technical expertise. Once you realize that it will help you to take the next step on the journey to fulfilling your leadership potential.
Too often, too many focus on improving their technical expertise. While this can help you achieve some small gains, it’s not going to help you to take that next step.
So I want to share with you 7 things great leaders do more of that most, that helps them be better leaders.
Trust is reciprocal the more you trust people the more they will trust you. And as trust is a cornerstone of great leadership trusting people is a great way of boosting our influence and leadership brand. I know that this sounds counter intuitive, but it works. It also make you seem more connected and approachable.
Sometimes leaders tell me that they like people to earn their trust, they don’t just give it out willy-nilly. But when you do that people can withhold their trust of youasking the exact same thing which can undermine you influence and leadership.
Communication is key to making connections, building understanding, increasing motivation and creating confidence within your teams. I would go so far as to say if you’re not communicating enough you are not leading.
You also need to remember that communication is a two way street and it involves almost as much listening, if not more than it does talking.
Listening makes people feel valued, respected and connected and the more people you have like that the stronger your teams will be.
Being a great leader is about challenging the status quo and to do that you have to push. You have to be bold in the goals you set to inspire your teams and then you need to create the momentum to achieve them. Pushing can be done in many ways, you can try and entice them with recognition, or the feeling of achieving something special. Or you can create quick wins that help to motivate them and want to achieve more. Whilst this pushing right seem gentle it’s the persisitency and consistency that helps to build great momentum.
If you don’t push you’re not going to get very far.
As leaders it is our job to set our teams up for success, but the job donest end there. We also need to be available to support our teams in times of trouble. But more important than supporting them is letting them know that you are there to support them. When you do that you empower your teams and they will take action with confidence. I actually find that the more I tell me teams I am there to support them, the less I end up supporting them. It’s like being a safety net, that give them confidence. And the more confidence they have, the better they perform, and use the net less and less. But they need to know it is there.
Personal development is one of the key desire of every team member. They want to learn and improve and move up the hierarchy. As leaders we have skills that they can benefit from, and taking the time to coach helps not only your teams improve, but also increase retention and loyalty.
Coaching also increase the impact that you can have as a leader. You only have two hands but when you coach others you multiply the number of people who share your skills and increase their capability. Coaching your teams is a great win win activity.
Great leaders share many things with their teams. They share their time, their skills, their ideas, their authority and also their credit. The last one is critical, too many leaders want to hogg the credit and claim that all the success is theirs. But when you do that, or try to take more than your fair share of the credit it creates distrust, disengagement and frustrations. Of of my favourite quotes is A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit. And I would go further and say great leaders share all of the credit and take all of the blame.
You don’t need to take credit as a leader, some of it always given to you, so you can be free to share all with your teams.
Enegrgized teams deliver amazing results about that there is no doubt. Great leaders not only know this, but they take ownership of the energizing of their teams. they share their passion and enthusiasm, they build confidence and give great feedback on the efforts and results they see.
You cant light a fire with a damp matchand if you want your teams to be energized then you need to be the spark.
If you look to give more of these 7 things they will help to transform your leadership and help you make that step from a good manager to being a great leader. None of these require great expertise they just need you to be willing to try.
If you’re looking to improve your leadership and would like my help please click the link to arrange a time for us to talk and see what that would look like.
