Simple Tips For Good Leadership (Part 2)

Modern philosophies of leadership favor the side that good leadership skills can be developed. Good leaders develop by practicing the right leadership behaviors. It is like sports, you can spend hours on the field but if you are not practicing the right fundamentals of the game, you will never be a good sportsperson. By practicing the core competencies of good leaders, you can improve your leadership skills. You will also be demonstrating the right actions for others, who are watching you closely. You may end up building an organization full of leaders with surprising success.

We have covered some points in the first part of this post. You can find the post HERE.

Leaders Are Effective Communicators And Good Listeners (Not Necessarily Orators)

Effective communication skill is a must-have for any leader. Of course, the leader must not necessarily be another orator like Martin Luther King Jr., Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto or Fidel Castro. The leader’s communication ability is not really about how well he speaks or what language he speaks, but how effective he is able to convey his messages in simple terms, and how well he handles his non-verbal outbursts even in the face of provocations. When a leader communicates anger (either verbally or non-verbally) against another group or party, he or she is likely to ignite an unfriendly reaction against that group by his followers.

Utilizing effective communication skills, a leader is able to accurately convey his or her ideas and thoughts, visions and plans, and desires to the group. If the followers have no idea what is on their leader’s mind – and they are typically not mind readers – they may act against it and the leader is going to falter.

Listening is also very important (in fact, even important) for a leader. Good leaders are open (and also listen attentively) to feedbacks from their groups. They seek reaction about their performance through direct conversations and other objectively interactive means with their followers. In this way, their followers are not afraid to relate with them and are willing to serve them better.

Leaders Are Good Motivators

The ability to motivate the ‘right way’ is an important element of good leadership. Yes, motivation can be accomplished through various means, and my emphasis here is not just about motivating the followers but doing it the appropriate way. Motivation can be done the old-fashioned way or the modern people-oriented manner. In the former case, leaders use fear to coerce their followers into doing what the leader wants; this fear-tactic only delivers short-term results and finally leads to resentment. But in the people-oriented manner, leaders motivate by exposing their followers to challenging and exciting tasks; for instance, a fresh challenge (for an employee) always adds excitement and spawns creativity and ultimately raises their motivation.

Leaders Are Team Builders

Teamwork is also very vital for good leadership. This means not only teaching your followers to work together but to become part of the team yourself. According to Michael Womack, COO and co-founder hovelstay.com, "Leadership is not about finding ways to lead better or to motivate your team. It's about being there from the beginning as equals and becoming a mentor when they need you to be one." A good manager, for instance, recognizes that his or her employees are more than just employees, they are people too, who make decisions on a daily basis, from how to deal with raising children, to house rents, car bills, and countless tasks in their everyday lives; and as such, their decision making abilities and judgments should be trusted enough to contribute to organization’s decision making processes. The point here is that leaders ought to work in a team with their followers, while trusting their followers to do more.

Leaders Strive For Continuous Self Development

Increasing your education is definitely a good thing when trying to improve your leadership style. The education mustn’t be the one that you get a degree for. Just take the time to learn as much about your position of being a leader as possible. Do some reading at the nearest bookstore. Talk to other leaders and see how they do things; trade notes. The more you repeatedly assess yourself and your leadership actions and explore more information on leadership as much as possible, the more you will be able to keep up with changing times and the better leader you will be for it.