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When you take on the role of a leader, and put yourself forward to be in charge, not only do you achieve a position of influence.

But you also receive a position of great responsibility.

What do I mean by that? Well in addition to achieving the goals for the team or department you lead. You are also responsible for the development of the people under your charge. I know many leaders who dispute this, they think that is the responsibility of HR. But your team have far more interaction with you than with HR and your influence has a much greater impact on them.

This impact can either be positive or negative, and as a leader you should be focused on making it positive.

Leaders should be looking to put their teams into position where they can be successful. This requires you to give clear direction, set clear expectations and ensure the team has everything they need to be successful.

Once you have done that it’s just a question of being supportive on the journey.

This is how you have a positive impact, and meet your responsibility to your team.

I have to say though that I have personally worked for several manager who didn’t meet this minimum requirement.

The didn’t provide clear direction or ensure the team had wanted they needed. They just set some ambiguous objective and then left the team to fend for themselves.

The worst of them would then come back and criticize the teams, or myself, for the lack of progress. Blaming them from a lack of progress even when it was clearly their job.

Great leaders not only live up to these responsibilities, but they also achieve great results. Which is usually because they have taken care of their team, set them up for success.

As leaders, we also have to create a safe environment, one where teams can speak up, challenge the approach, ask questions or make suggestions without fear of reproach or ridicule.

When a leader fails with this responsibility it impacts trust and self confidence of teams, it makes them question themselves. It can make them hold back because they are afraid of being criticized. This is not a growth mentality and can impact the teams development.

The best leader I ever worked for allowed for everyone to input without fear of criticism. and if the idea or question wasn’t the best, it wasn’t ridiculed and neither was the person.

As I mentioned right at the start, with leadership comes great authority and influence, but also great responsibility. If you are not prepared to live up to that responsibility then question why you would want to be a leader.

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True leadership is about serving others, not about being served. But too often we see leaders involved in self interest much to the detriment to the people they are hired or selected to serve.

There are two great example of this going on right now both in the US and in the UK.

In the UK as the Government and Parliament look to negotiate Brexit, you can see how self-interest is getting in the way of making progress on agreeing and implementing a deal. Jeremy Corbyn is looking to bring down the government so that he can become Prime Minister and be the one to lead Brexit, which he supports. Why not work with the Government to try and create a deal that majority in both his party and the conservatives can support and implement.

But no, that’s against his self-interest and as a result, the people of the country suffer uncertainty. Businesses losing out as the indecision makes people look elsewhere for safety and security.

Boris Johnson who seems more fired by his desire to be Prime Minister than to actually work towards creating a workable Brexit. He knows his “No Deal” scenario is unpalatable and does not have a majority, but he is using it to push for a change in leadership so that he can become PM.

In the US Trumps Government shutdown is all about him keeping an election promise. There is no majority in government to support his wall. It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny against the things he is trying to stop. Drugs come into the country through Ports of Entry in vehicles, or through tunnels under the existing walls. So a new Wall is not going to fix that.

But this is not about building a Wall, this is about Trump being able to say he delivered on an election promise in order to bolster his bid for 2020.

Yet to him that’s worth shutting down the Government, having 800,000 people go without pay, and in some cases their work not getting done. Work that is essential to the security and safety of the population.

In Star Trek the Wrath of Kahn, Spock says “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” and Captain Kirk answers, “Or the one.”

I completely agree with this and to me it is one of they key tenets of Leadership.

Leadership is about serving the many not the few, and when leadership becomes about serving the one, or few, then it’s the many that usually suffer.

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So, how then can we ensure that we retain our staff and inspire them to push themselves to perform their best? What is the one crucial leadership trait that allows top CEOs of the world like Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk and Salil Parekh to retain the workforce behind their giant empire?

Well. It is one (simple, yet not so simple) skill – Empathy.

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This seemingly simple skill is indeed very difficult, and very few have mastered the same.

Empathy is one crucial leadership trait that top CEOs have.

“Empathy is the imaginative act of stepping into the shoes of another person and viewing the world from their perspective.” – Roman Krznaric

Before we discuss in detail why empathy is important, let’s first understand what it really means to be an empathetic leader?

Who are Empathetic leaders?

Empathetic leaders are self-aware, other-aware and us-aware. They observe themselves and seek to understand the feelings, perspectives and lives of others. They empathize into the future and beyond the human species.

How does Empathy allow leaders to reduce master staff management?

The need to be heard and belong is an innate human need. We feel the need to be valued by others, especially in a group setting.

Empathetic leaders are aware of the feelings of others, and our hence able to make sure the work dynamics is such that all feel heard and respected. An apathetic work dynamic tears down, discourages and pushes away employees who may just need a slight push. Whereas, an empathetic leader is able to create an environment where people feel ownership of their work, respected for their opinions and appreciated for their efforts.

The little (yet important) considerations and attention that an empathetic leader gives to his employees has a building effect.

In fact, it is biology. Small acts of kindness release the feel good hormone is the recipient. Therefore, consistently paying attention to the well-being of others, has a powerful reciprocal effect, thus boosting the loyalty and efficiency of employees.

Furthermore, as there is a growing demand for flat organisational hierarchy, empathy is crucial skill for CEOs to master in order for them to be a charismatic leader (and not an authoritarian one).

Apart from employee retention, does empathy have any other use?

Well. Many.

1 – An empathetic leader can truly understand one’s pain point, and hence provide an apt solution

Businesses try to find solutions to a paint point of customers. That is how money is made. When an organization solves a customer’s “pain,” the value addition generates capital gains.

An empathetic leader will be able to truly understand the needs, desires and pain points of the customers, and hence be well equipped to curate solutions that truly add value.

2 – An empathetic leader is great at negotiations.

Empathetic leaders know their target’s desires and risks they are or aren’t willing to take. They are able to recognize the other’s emotions and perspectives, and therefore can conduct the negotiation in a way that is beneficial to both parties (or at least make it seem so).

3 – An empathetic leader is a conscious global citizen

Since an empathetic leader’s efforts and care extends beyond their immediate organisation, they naturally tend to be environmentally conscious and aware of their impact on the society. This automatically enables them to win the hearts of all.

If this one single skill is so powerful, why do so few people seem to master it?

1. It takes time.
2. It may seem unimportant in the short-run as its rewards are only reaped in the long-run.
3. It takes patience.
4. It takes a true desire to master the skill of Empathy.

Therefore, if you are willing to exert the effort and time to master Empathy, you will already be ahead of several other leaders. Empathy is a 21st-century skill – start early and master it.

Guest Post by: Igor Smirnov. Igor is a Chess Grandmaster and founder of KeytoVictory

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Fear is not a sustainable motivator, yes it might give you a short term bump in productivity, but in the long term is kills performance.

Fear causes doubt, it makes people worry, it makes them think about what will happen if they fail, and where your thoughts go your efforts go.

Fear will end up causing procrastination and finally hampering productivity.

Motivation away from something, which is what fear is, is significantly less effect than motivation towards something better.

Creating a positive vision, and sharing the positive benefits of achieving that vision is more motivational. Focusing on building peoples self esteem with positive feedback will always achieve better results.  What gets recognized gets repeated, so recognition encourages your teams to do more, to achieve more.

Fear diminishes their willingness to be involved, there willingness to repeat the experience. People look to escape fear, not embrace it and use it as motivation.

Good leaders know this. Good leaders look to create positive environments, develop positive attitudes because they know this will generate positive results.

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Openness is key to building strong connections with your teams. The stronger the connections, the more engaged and committed your teams will be, to achieving the goals and objectives.

Openness make you approachable as a leader, which give people the feeling that they are working with you and not for you. 

When you demonstrate openness people will be more likely to bring you information, information which may allow you to avert problems, or at least prevent an issue becoming a crisis.

Openness builds trust and confidence in the leader, and help you appear more humble.

I’ve heard many leaders say I have an open door policy, but having a policy is not the same as being authentically open.

If you’re not open as a person, then people will not feel comfortable about walking through your open door, regardless of any policy you may say you have.

Be open, be approachable, be a better leader

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As Leaders one of the hardest tasks you have to deal with is underperforming employees. This is especially true for people new to leadership, and it can be quite a daunting prospect.  It can feel confrontational, especially if the person is older or has more experience than you.

But you have to deal with it. If you don’t it can impact your credibility as a leader, it can undermine you and make you seem which, which is not a good quality for a leader.

Start by being supportive

To make the situation easier, the approach I always suggest is to approach the matter from a position of support.

Ask what you can do to help them be more successful. Ask them if they have everything that they need to be successful. 

In my experience, nobody comes to work looking to fail, so you need to check if they have the right skills, the right tools, enough time to do the job and to check whether the job is achievable. 

If not, then they are not failing they are being failed, and you need to address that. 

This is not a weak approach, this actually requires more strength and courage, than just calling someone out or criticizing them. This approach will actually help build credibility and enhance your reputation, as everyone wants to work for a supportive boss.

If they have everything they need but are choosing to fail. Choosing to not put in the required effort, then you need to act. You need to address this, give them a clear warning, set clear expectations and set a point to review improvements.

Be fair, but also firm

If you have started off by being supportive, but have found this hasn’t worked, then it feels much less confrontational from your side, if you now need to take firmer action.

It might not feel comfortable, but you need to remember that you need to also look after the rest of the team too. If one person is underperforming it can increase the workload for everyone else. It can reduce the overall effectiveness, morale, and engagement of the team.

As leaders, you have a responsibility to everyone, and that means addressing low performers who are damaging the team.

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Culture is what defines how your teams will act in certain situations, especially when the going is tough or stressful. Those team with a winning culture will dig in, they we redouble their efforts and will continue to search for a solution. Those with a losing culture will fold and quit.

This is why culture is important.

Culture determines how people will act when no one from management is looking.

If you have a culture where the the organization puts the customer first, then that’s how your staff will act when unsupervised.

If you have a culture that doesn’t care too much about customers, then that is exactly how your teams will act.

Culture can be difficult to define, it can be difficult to influence, especially if you don’t take a proactive approach to defining it.

Culture will often take it’s lead from the leadership, if the leaders act without integrity, fiddle expenses, cheat in everything they do, then this will become the role model for the culture.

A good friend of mine, one of the top leadership coaches, tell the story about a time he was asked to help increase trust and accountability within an organization.  They brought him in to do a two day workshop, the boss kicked it off and then left. During the first morning the team lacked engagement in the workshop, they listened and participated in the exercises but it didn’t feel like they were committed.

At lunch my friend asked a few of the managers attending what was the problem. Here’s what they said. “The boss is having an affair with his secretary while his wife is 3 months pregnant, and he wants to talk to us about trust and integrity.”

Leaders cannot live one culture and expect their teams to live another, it doesn’t work like that.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, and you need to proactively work to build the right culture four your business.

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Reward yourself when you do well

No matter what you do for a job, the work is often hard. Maybe you enjoy your job or maybe you hate it. Either way it is important to reward yourself when you have done well or reached that deadline that you never thought you would. The reward doesn’t have to be something huge like a new car or a holiday, you can always just give yourself 10 minutes to relax. Why don’t you take a walk outside or treat yourself to lunch that day? Rewarding yourself will keep you motivated and hopefully keep the standard of your work high.

Get a career coach

Another way of reaching your full potential is to find an online career coach using websites like AskaCoach. These coaches can give you advice on any problems that you might be having in work. They can also show you how you can progress through your company or how your skills might be better suited for another role. Career coaches have helped a lot of successful people and you could be next!

Start the morning with positivity

This one sounds simple, but positivity not only helps motivate yourself, but it also motivates others around you. No one wants to work with someone who is always complaining about their workload or how they didn’t have time for breakfast. Start your day right, get up early enough to have a healthy breakfast, leave for work with enough time so you won’t be late because of traffic. These things will all help you to have a more positive attitude when it comes to your workload and it is more likely that you will have a productive day.

Make an effort with your colleagues

Not everyone gets on with their colleagues, we understand this. However, these are the people that you spend every day with and so it is important to build a good relationship with them. This will motivate both you and them into doing good work. You can also help each other if you have a problem and they could have the answer you need to help get that piece of work done on time.

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback

Feedback is so important for making sure that all of your pieces of work are to a high standard. Getting good feedback will motivate you and constructive feedback will make the next thing you do even better! Make sure to ask for feedback from people who are in the know.

Make sure you follow these easy steps to ensure that you reach your full potential at work.

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