The productivity of a workforce largely depends on the capability of its leaders. The war for leadership talent is real, and only organisations with the best leaders can emerge victorious. The following are the most effective traits that will inspire your team in 2019.
Integrity and accountability
No matter your level of experience, education or intelligence, without moral integrity and accountability you cannot be an effective leader. Stick to your words and never be caught cutting corners. You’ll inspire your employees to be people of integrity when you stick to your values and core beliefs.
For accountability, you must be able to recognise the effort of your team and give accolades for a job well done. Nobody likes to work for a person who takes credit for all their efforts and blames them when things go wrong. By sending a thoughtful mail or publicly acknowledging their efforts, you motivate them to do more.
Recognition is vital because it creates an emotional connection between the employer and his employees, and it also fosters a sense of belonging and boosts the confidence of team members.
Effective communication skills
Great communication skills outweigh any effective plan you can draw up. A good leader is one who knows how to communicate his expectations and motivations to others. Your inability to communicate effectively to others will only slow down the progress of the team. A leader who assumes that a team member/employee knows what he is doing will only end up being frustrated and resentful towards the employee all because there is no proper communication.
As a leader, you should create spaces where members of your team can easily communicate and share their ideas with you. You’ll be amazed at how a casual conversation in the breakroom can lead to the beginning of an effective business strategy.
Diplomatic
You may need to talk to team members who know what is expected of them but choose not to do their job on time or team members who are unprofessional and partially skilled. With such employees, you must be diplomatic in your approach. Let them know what they are doing wrong and how they can do better.
Focused
Every good business has a mission statement and a long-term or short-term goal. A good leader has the ability to set up goals and strategies for achieving them. Set up targets which can be achieved or broken down into tasks that can be achieved on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Avoid being like many leaders who find it hard to come up with strategies to sell their products to meet up with the company’s target. Having everyone on board, working towards a common goal like landing a public sector contract will help to get the business pulling in the right direction and will go a long way to boosting the profile of your business in a way that benefits everyone.
Delegation
An ‘I can do it all’ attitude will only stress you out and limit diversification. A good leader makes his team part of the big picture by assigning tasks where they can contribute significantly to the growth of the company and make a difference.
Respectful
Mutual respect is vital to the success of a team. You inspire your team when you value their opinions, show empathy when necessary, and tactfully provide honest feedback. You can’t be confrontational when members do not live up to their expectations especially in front of others. Rather, use constructive criticism rather than a destructive one.
Assertive and confident
As a leader, you cannot hide in the background when you are required to make big decisions for the company.
A business can crumble if a leader is indecisive or lacks the assertiveness to control members of his team.
A good leader inspires his team to develop a better work habit and be more responsible. Do not be afraid to let go of toxic employees because when you keep them around they jeopardise your effort and affect the outputs of other members of the team.
Interested in the teams’ development
A boss who is either constantly unavailable or nonchalant may sound like the dream boss, but an attitude like this only leads to a toxic work relationship. A 2015 survey has shown that employees are more concerned about what their bosses didn’t do. So, invest in your team, hire team experts and get involved in what they do. This might not be easily spotted but in the long run, an absentee boss reduces job satisfaction and adds to employees’ stress.
Passionate
Your team members will be motivated by your level of passion and commitment to the task at hand. When they see you relentlessly working on finding solutions and getting your hands dirty, they’ll be motivated to give the job all they’ve got. Similarly, when your team notices a lack of passion or zero commitment to a task, they’ll follow suit regardless of their initial level of zeal and commitment.
