As I work with my business-coaching clients, I find more of them are looking for help to develop their leadership skills. Some may be a first time leader whose new leadership responsibilities are keeping them awake at night. Alternatively, others may have intuitively gravitated toward their leadership role over the years without any formal professional development to help hone their skills and now they confess to me that they are terrified of being revealed for what they do not know.
Our individual leadership style can show itself in many different ways. As a child, I was always the one organizing all of the other kids in the neighborhood. During my high school years, I served as the captain of just about every sports team I played on. By the age of thirteen, I was running three home based businesses and over my 25+ years in the financial services industry, I consistently moved up my leadership ladder.
As we begin this leadership skill development journey together with the launch of the WITH THE [STROKE] OF A PEN Leadership Series, I thought it would be a good starting point to delve into what good LEADERS look like and I wanted to do this a little differently. Rather than looking up a definition to share with you, I am going to break it down by what each of the letters in the word LEADERS mean to me.
L Good leaders listen with intent to what their people are sharing with them. They park their own thoughts and do not sit there waiting for their turn to talk or offer a rebuttal to what they think they may have heard. They ask additional questions to probe for clarity regarding what they thought they heard before they speak or offer their own personal thoughts.
E Good leaders help their people to develop their skill set by educating them either through their own firsthand experience or by provi
ding access to the right courses or development opportunities. They help their team members to develop a ‘success toolkit’ filled with multiple skills thereby creating opportunities for them to seek higher roles within their own company or to branch out and seek them elsewhere. Good leaders are not afraid of developing their people to spread their wings and fly.
A Good leaders accept other individuals’ point of view and create a safe space for them to express their views be they in alignment with their point of view or not. They encourage their team members to bring their ideas and opinions forward without fear of career repercussions.
D Good leaders do not have to be in control and are not afraid to delegate. They actively seek out opportunities to provide their team members with a project or task they can take on so they can in turn develop a new skill set. They provide mentoring and feedback to help their team develop the necessary strategic thinking required to be successful.
E Good leaders embrace change and actively invite input into how their team or organization can grow and compete in ever changing markets.
R Good leaders do not take others suggestions or ideas and claim them as their own. They give credit where credit is due and reward and encourage hard work, high performance and innovation.
S Good leaders help their teams to celebrate their collective successes and engage their people by inviting them to offer suggestions as to what might be the best way for them to come together to celebrate.
Whether it is leading ourselves, being a role model for our children, leading a team as a manager or boss, being a community leader or owning our own business, remember that a leader lies inside of all of us!
I would love to hear your thoughts as to what you believe makes a good leader and I invite you to share them here with all of us in the comments section below. Thank you.
To Your Success!