Tuning Up Your Leadership Skills

In doing your job, often you have to be a leader in certain cases. Being a leader does not seem so easy since you have to work and guide a team. You are supposed to have certain skills to make you success as a team. These skills cannot be mastered at once, but you can start as soon as possible. So when you need it, you will be able to lead a team properly.

You are recommended to listen more. If you think that now you are a good listener, you should remember your daily activities especially when someone tells you certain case. Do you really listen to him? Or do you listen a co-worker with a Blackberry on your hand? No, that is not listening. Put all your mobile things down and make eye contact. Allow him to tell you everything and you have to avoid distractions, keep the room quiet, and minimize barriers. Then, it is better if you do not interrupt and keep focusing on the speaker. If you think you do not understand, there will be fine to ask him explain once more. By improving your listening skills, you are on the way to be more trusted by your co workers and increase your relationships at work.

After listening, you have to appreciate when a member of your team do the jobs well. Everyone likes to be appreciated even with a simple words "Thank you". As a leader, automatically you know that your team members competes each other. They need to be appreciated in every achievement because it will motivate the others to do the things better. Appreciating means you create better circumstance and harmony in a team. Saying “thank you” and “well done” will build confidence and motivate your team members.

In the office, you have to behave well and be the coach for them. Your performance at work also determines the way your team works. In case there is a problem arises, you are forbidden to blame someone. A blame culture creates mistrust and lack of cooperation, and affects the team motivation. So, if a member is under-performing, it will be wise to find out the reasons and help him to solve the problem.

Recent Post

Managing Your Anger

At work, problems always occur every day. If you are a team leader, the responsibility to overcome them is on your hand although you have a team. Sometimes you may be angry since the member cannot do the job well again and again although you have guided him several times. Being angry is human, but you should manage your anger properly to keep the balance of the team. Moreover, anger can lead to stress which affect your other daily activities.

The simple thing you can do to manage your anger is taking deep breaths with counting down from ten. Or you may stop your work for few minutes. This is the way to avoid the explosive outbursts which may lead to more serious problems. Sometimes, anger is the effect of frustration and tension. So it is better if you exercise regularly to reduce your anger and burn off any tension. The fresh air you take will relieve your anger significantly. But if you think deep breathing cannot work anymore, leave the environment as soon as possible. Take a walk in your surroundings to get fresher air. In case you are in a meeting, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. That will make our tension down, so you can use your brain to think rationally.

Making Decision Appropriately as the Key of Leadership Success

A leader has many responsibilities based on the job description. One of them is making the decision. Sometimes, you will have enough time to think the positive and negative side of your decision. But in certain cases, you have limited time to think properly. This can be a challenge and a pressure for you in the same time. As a leader, you have to improve your decision making skill.

At first, you have to analyze the problem appropriately. You should know the problem in detail and clearly. Often, the problems are not what appear in the surface level. By understanding the root of the problem, you will be easier to make decision without being trapped in unclear situation. Another thing you usually face is there are not enough options or ideas for addressing the problem. In this case, you should gather a lot of ideas and brainstorming. After doing that initial step, you can generate the options well. If your problems or challenges are bigger, it will be better if you get your brainstorming facilitated to produce valuable and wise decision.

Great Listening Equals to Effective Leadership

No matter what your position in your company, having great listening skill is a must. All your work activities need you to listen to other and good listeners have the chance to get ahead in your position. When you listen carefully, it minimizes errors, improves accuracy, and enhances working relationships. If you work in marketing field, you have to listen more on your customers. Many people think that listening is a passive activity. Actually, that is not relatively true since you have to concentrate, do some efforts, and give active attention. Your brain is supposed to work faster and sometimes you have to think hard to fully understand a person's feelings, position, and perspective.

While you are listening, you have to give your fully attention to the speaker. Sometimes, you should response with gestures to let the speaker know that you are listening and understand what the topic. You should not talk. It does not mean that you are only sit passively. This is the time for you to listen patiently without waiting the chance to speak or interrupt. There will be a time for you to speak later and just focus on the speaker. You are not allowed to offer solutions if the speaker is explaining the problem. You have o know that a good listener always looks interested in what the speaker is saying. Your gestures indicate your interest on certain problem. So, keep doing eye contact, sitting still, leaning slightly toward the speaker, and nod your head few times.

Correcting Others to Build Stronger Team

Being corrected is the things which you have experienced since your childhood. Often, you were reminded not to do something and if you keep insisting to do that, there would be any punishment. Basically, correcting aims to get something better than before and does not a mistake also. Everyone should be able to proactively and constructively correct others and accept any correction from other people. However, many people feel difficult in correcting others. Perhaps, they are afraid that it will hurt other people.

As a leader, you have to be able to correct your team members in order to build stronger team. No correction means you and your team will not improve the capacity and cannot win the competition. Often, culture in certain area does not let someone correct other directly. As a result, there will be more serious issues which affect the entire works. If the people in the company are open enough each other, the negative issues can be handled properly. You, the leader, should learn your members’ characteristic. Then, you will be able to tell something without hurting his or her feeling.