6 Essential Lessons for Better Leadership
There are countless leadership lessons to help you become a better leader. In this brief article, I’ve gathered some key insights from my leadership journey.
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| Photo by Jeehots.com on Unsplash |
Empathy
The key to team spirit is mutual empathy and trust. When these are present, team members support each other, leading to extraordinary results.
You as a manager, however, must start:
- Trust employees
- Show empathy
- Meet at eye-level
Self-determination
When employees feel in control of their tasks, their job satisfaction goes up and stress goes down. Allowing your team, the freedom to prioritize and make decisions themselves can be tough, especially if you’re new to leadership.
However, when you stop micromanaging and let your team shine, everyone thrives!
Create a safe environment
If employees feel psychologically safe, they are more motivated and also perform better. Your job as a leader, above everything else, should be to create a safe environment for your employees.
This also means occasionally you need to break (pointless) rules!
The next step is to create a culture of collaboration: People work better in teams and it’s up to leadership to create a culture where employees enjoy working together. If your team starts to improvise: jackpot, you are on the right track
Make decisions not just based on numbers
Don’t get me wrong: numbers are crucial when making decisions. However, you shouldn’t also listen to different opinions and make choices that benefit the whole team.
This is a component of building a safe working environment.
Take time
Building good relationships takes time. They aren’t built through a few minutes of small talk once a week at the coffee machine.
As a leader, your main task is to be there for your team. Help them solve their problems (don’t solve them) by removing obstacles in their way.
Be integer
To earn and keep your team’s trust, it’s important to stick to your decisions and values, even when it’s not beneficial or might put you at a disadvantage.
Thank you for reading! For this article, I’ve used “Leaders Eat Last” as a main resource. If you are interested in the book, check out my in-depth book summary.