Leadership often is described as a set of skills that can be enhanced and trained. You can work on developing your leadership skills at any time during your career.
Following are eight tips for being an effective leader from www.inc.com.
- Lead by example. If you have expectations for your team, you also need to meet those expectations. You will gain your team’s respect and loyalty, which will inspire them to follow your example.
- Be goal-oriented. An effective leader directs attention toward the solution rather than the problem. Focus your energy on the objectives and creating a plan and strategy to achieve those objectives.
- Take responsibility. A good leader does not point fingers and instead takes responsibility for the team’s actions and consequences, which earns trust and respect.
- Share the credit. An effective leader is happy to share the glory and credit for achievement with the team. The leader recognizes success is a result of the team’s combined efforts.
- Know how to develop a team. An effective leader develops team members through training, teaching or coaching, which is crucial for the team to achieve its goals. A leader builds people up and creates a stronger team, which benefits everyone.
- Master communication. An effective leader not only expresses his or her ideas clearly but also truly listens to feedback with an open mind.
- Be courageous. A leader often must venture into new territory, which means facing the unknown and taking risks. Therefore, a leader must be able to be assertive about what they need and want from their team and for their team.
- Be confident. Projecting confidence can be difficult to develop, but it involves feeling secure in yourself and being able to prove you have the competencies and skills to lead the team toward its common goal.
