Supervisor, Manager, Director, Employer, Boss, President, Vice President… what it is your title? Let me give you your new title: LEADER! Regardless of the position you hold, you are a leader. You have a team that follows you, or tries to? Being an effective leader is a challenge, one that you have to work at on a consistent basis. I have read a lot of books on effective leadership. However it wasn’t until I realized that the key to effective leadership was found in the word LEADER itself, that my leadership style started to take a turn for the better. Let me break it down for you.
Listen, Educate, Assist, Direct, Encourage, Respect
Over the few issues, I will breakdown each one these and give a solid explanation of why it is important. Here are your first two: LISTEN, EDUCATE
Keys To Effective Leadership Part I (Listen, Educate)
LISTEN: The first step is always the hardest. Listening to your team is an essential part of communication and leadership. Give them the time to talk and take the time to listen to what they have to say. As Ron likes to say “That great company changing idea may be in the head of one of your employees”. Second, you cannot listen when you are the one doing the talking or when you are working on something else. Be sure to give them the attention they deserve. I am sure that when you are talking, they very attentive. An effective leader will show the team members that same respect.
EDUCATE: You are in a leadership position for reason. Often you will find your job related knowledge exceeds that of the team you are leading. I know that during “crunch time”, I had the habit of jumping and doing things myself so it gets done quicker. I found that when I stepped back and educated my team on how to effectively and efficiently work through things on their own that “crunch time went a lot easier. I was at a seminar for effective leadership. One of the speakers there was lecturing on educating and training. There is one particular thing that he said that has stuck with me to this very day. “If you fail to educate the team, then you are setting the team up to fail.”
I challenge you over the next month the LISTEN to and EDUCATE your team. Then I will give you the next 2 keys ASSIST and DIRECT.
-TR Parker, Senior Business Advisor, Phoenix, AZ