THE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS

SOURCE: Lead Teachers Association South Australia

Being a leader can help you in your career. Here are some tips for improving your leadership skills.

1. Recognize leadership is a skill.

The phrase “natural born leaders”leads many to believe that when it comes to leadership, either you have it or you don’t. That belief couldn’t be further from the truth. When you recognize that leadership is a skill and can be developed just like any other skill, things start to change for the better. Now belief alone won’t make you as a great leader, but practice will. Studying, application, and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone will all help you become the best leader you can be.

2. Know your leadership style.

Building off point number 1, the best way to become a better leader is to understand where you are today. Knowing your strengths and style is the key to become the leader that only you can be. Once you knows your strengths and style, becoming a great leader becomes more natural—more effortless—than before.

SOURCE: A New Way to Think About Leadership Development

3. Create a culture of leadership.

The ideal employee is engaged and passionate. So it stands to reason that you should be visibly engaged and passionate yourself. When people see someone at the top who cares deeply not just about the business, but its mission and its people, they feel they are a part of something special. So it's critical that you be as positive as possible when interacting with employees and anyone else you want to lead. Cultivate a consistently positive manner in your communications with those you seek to lead. The ideal leader is open to communication from others, and is able to listen and encourage contributions from people at all levels. People are more engaged when they feel listened to. And once you have an engaged workforce, you have a workforce of leaders. They will soon realize what you already know: Your title doesn’t make you a leader. Your willingness does.

4. Make time for leadership.

So much of an entrepreneur’s time is taken up with managing the day-to-day or simply surviving that it becomes easy to focus only on what is screaming the loudest. Leadership activities—those where you work on the business instead of in the business—can easily be relegated to the “when I get the time” to-do list. And as we all know, that to-do list only gets attention when continued neglect has turned something into an emergency. So what is the solution? You have to make time for leadership activities. These are dedicated appointments with yourself, where you tackle those strategic items that will establish your long-term vision.

5. Be humble.

Humility is probably the most important key to becoming a great leader. Leaders by their very nature need followers. Those who choose to follow you are putting their trust in you. The moment you betray their trust or don’t recognize their trust as a sacred gift, you’ll be on your way out the door.


Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-sure-fire-ways-improve-your-leadership-skills-manoj-padiyil