Today we want to share with you a few tips and suggestions around how to be an effective leader.
Image Pixabay – Pixabay License
Accept your role
The first thing we would suggest is that you accept the role that you have to play. You might see yourself as a manager, as the boss or as a supervisor, but in any of these cases, you will need to be a leader.
Whether you are running JMC Sutton, a car dealership, or you are heading up the contemporary fiction section at a publishing firm, the following principles for team leadership will all hold true.
Set a clear direction
You are responsible for setting your team a clear direction, both over the longer term and on a daily basis.
Your team needs to understand what is expected of them and what they are striving to achieve.
Train and coach regularly
Every member of your team deserves to receive training and coaching regularly, This may well be within your remit or it might be up to you to use a training team to do this, but whatever the case, give them that development time that they need.
New team members need more support, of course, so check in with them regularly and if possible, set them up with a buddy in the workplace. Existing staff will need training whenever any new procedures or products come in, and then everyone will benefit from regular coaching.
Coaching is an opportunity for you to work closely with individuals and add real value to their skills.
Gather plenty of feedback
In order to support your team, it is worth gathering plenty of feedback to give to them. People thrive upon hearing positive feedback and they appreciate constructive feedback as it can make them more effective in their roles.
You can get feedback from carrying out your own observations, that of colleagues and of course do take into account customer feedback and testimonials. These can help you to build up a picture of your employee’s performance and they will appreciate you taking the time to notice their all-round performance when you come to have a one to one meeting with them.
Manage any under performance issues
If you want to lead and motivate everyone, then you need to ensure that you manage any under performance issues, This can be anything from a staff member consistently turning up late through to them performing in their role poorly.
he staff member in question will benefit from you tackling this with them and offering your advice and support to help them to improve. The rest of your team will also appreciate that you are handling the situation as leaving it to drift can affect staff morale.
Celebrate and praise
Look for opportunities to celebrate with your team and praise them for their efforts. Even on seemingly bad days, you should be able to find a redeeming feature or two to thank people for.
When you do achieve your goals and targets, ensure that everyone knows and that you celebrate the win together. This can really help to motivate everyone and keep everyone happy and buoyant at work.
