The top 4 essential skills to become a successful leader
Successful leaders are those who are able to manage a business diligently, make a positive impact within their team, inspire those around them, along with able to continually make others feel appreciated and valued within a company. In today’s article, we will be discussing the top 4 essential skills you need in order to become a successful leader and why these skills specifically are crucial to acquire.
1. Create personal relationships with your employees
Having the ability to create personal relationships with each of your employees, is by far, one of the most important things that you can do as a leader. It’s essential to know that as a leader, your main task should be ensuring that your team feels comfortable and heard within your business. In order to do so, it’s evident that you take the time to know and understand your employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall personality to commendably work side by side with each of them, and move forward, together towards success. As Tony Robbins states “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others”. So, with this being said, in order to create a strong personal relationship with your employees, it’s crucial that you, as a leader recognize that every individual has unique views and perceives certain tasks differently, so it’s up to you to go the extra mile and take the time to understand them, on a personal level.
2. Delegate clear goals and objectives
As a leader, delegating clear goals and objectives for your team is essential in order to ensure that you are all on the same page and working towards the same potential outcome. However, in order to effectively lead your team, it’s crucial that you clearly delegate what needs to be accomplished and show your team how to accomplish it. Successful Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky explains that “When you delegate work to a member of the team, your job is to clearly frame success and describe the objectives.” So, with this in mind, when you allocate specific tasks to your team, you as a leader should clearly identify what is expected of them and how they can efficiently achieve it.
3. Promote growth within your business
Being able to promote a healthy growing environment in your business is extremely important in order for you to be a successful leader. This here, however, can sometimes be seen as difficult because, as a leader, it is natural to feel as if your visions and ideas carry the most value to your team. But, as an effective leader its crucial to understand that your employee’s opinions hold just as much, or even more value to you and your business then you may know. Just as Samuel Richards says, “being able to attend to other lives, other visions, listen to other people, and enlighten ourselves, is the key to success”. With this being said, as an effective leader, it’s essential that you listen to and appreciate your employee’s visions and ideas, with open arms, because what they may have to offer, could be the reason why your business continues growing in the right direction.
4. Lead by example
Leading by example is one of the most difficult, yet crucial skills a true leader can acquire while managing a business. As a leader, a key part of your job is to motivate your team, inspire them and push them to excel to the best of their abilities. However, in order do to so, you as a leader must do the same, and show your team how to successfully accomplish goals through you, essentially implementing them into your business strategy. It’s important to know that “Nothing speaks like results. If you want to build the kind of credibility that connects with people, then deliver results before you deliver a message. Get out and do what you advise others to do. Communicate from experience” -John C. Maxwell. So, when you, as a leader take the initiative to deliver results before you deliver instructions to your employees, not only do you lead by example, but you also inspire those around you to do the same.
The final message
Being a successful leader does come with its many challenges, it is not something that can be accomplished overnight. Having the ability to motivate your employees and make a progressive change in your working environment does take time but, through understanding and implementing the 4 essential skills we discussed in today’s article, you are already on the right path to positively impacting the way you manage others as an effective leader.
