Developing Leadership Skills to build a winning team

No doubt you have been keenly following our blogs on building a dream team to help you create a successful business; one that functions WITHOUT you. Great. So by now you will have started the processes of recruiting team members who share your business vision, know their role and responsibilities and are working towards a common goal.

The next step is developing leadership skills. Specifically YOUR leadership skills! Why do you need to be really good at leading teams? Because teams look to their leaders and business owners for guidance, growth, decision-making and development.

No matter what your natural leadership style, always strive to teach people to think and act for themselves, rather than how to merely execute the same function over and over. Being a teacher will enable you to be truly involved in your organisation and increase the capabilities of the people you have recruited based on the right attitude. Also, communication skills are a must when it comes to improving leadership skills.

Strong leaders who have developed leadership skills love to seek out new ideas from everyone in their teams and championing them to fruition. Remember to hand out due praise for every new idea brought forward. Who knows? Maybe the next new idea will be the one that catapults your business success.

Movies and TV shows portray an image of a harsh dictatorship as a model of success, but calmness and caring for your teams, and even a simple hello each day will give you an opportunity to connect with your teams and learn about them. Similarly, listening is also a great leadership skill to develop and practice.

Teams will be inspired to come to work each day if they can see that you are having fun with the business. Perhaps remember back to why you started the business in the first place, and use that passion to bring fun to your leadership style.

When we talk about leadership in our programs we often talk about two elements. What is management and what is leadership?

While you are developing leadership skills, you need to make sure the fundamentals of management are in place. Without the foundation set up correctly it doesn’t matter how good a leader you are, things will just not work as they should.

Now that you have your management processes set up, how can you practice and develop leadership skills?

• TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE – Leaders think about the future and help others see the future. Involve all teams in discussing and shaping the future of your business.
• TEACH SOMEONE SOMETHING – Leaders are involved in their organisations and committed to growing organisational capacity. Teaching someone something sends a strong signal of trust and ensures people are learning your processes correctly, therefore future proofing your business.
• SEEK OUT A NEW IDEA – Actively looking for new ideas to help with your business and championing them shows a lot about your ability to accept change as a leader.
• SAY “YES” – Leaders aren’t afraid to make a commitment, to make a choice, to move on. Find something where you can say “yes.” Nothing says you trust your organisation more than the power of agreement.
• TELL SOMEONE THEY DID A GOOD JOB – Handing out praise when someone does a good job not only builds enthusiasm, it also develops trust in your management.
• GET MAD, THEN GET OVER IT – Great leaders are able to roll with bad news or tough times and quickly move on.
• MEET SOMEONE NEW – get out and meet the team, or the new team members. You will learn something new and it is visible proof that you care.
• ACTIVELY LISTEN – Many of us talk about being good listeners, but few of us are really good at it. The next time you are asked to listen to someone, use clarifying and confirming skills, but don’t offer a point of view until the presenter says, “What do you think?”
• DELEGATE – Before you delegate, ask yourself “What is the worst that could happen – and can I live with that?” Good leaders delegate because they value more personal time, they want to do more and achieve more and they trust the processes in place that help their teams operate the business with them. But beware; you can delegate but not abrogate….be sure to brief them clearly about what is required and to ensure they have the skills and resources to achieve that.
• BE ENTHUSIASTIC & HAVE FUN – Strong leaders have enthusiasm and energy and they transfer that to the business. If you enjoy what you are doing then others will too. People want to follow people who are enthusiastic and enjoy life and what they do.

P.S. Whenever you are ready…