Are You Shining as a Leader?

Are You Shining as a Leader?

  
Shining-star leaders have clear goals in life; they know what they want and are confident that if they work hard, they will get great results. A lot of professionals like the idea of getting into management, but leading others and gaining the desired results are not easy.  To be successful, one must have good intentions and not get into leadership positions solely for personal gain or status. Instead, managers need to actually want to work with others and help them to become better at their job. They need to lead by example so that others will want to follow them, not because they are in charge, but because they trust their abilities.
Below is a list of key traits a great leader must possess to be able to influence others in the organization:

• Have a vision and clear expectations
• Be willing to direct and listen to others’ points of view
• Be able to deal with more responsibilities and issues
• Be able to manage their own and other workers’ activities
• Delegate work to others
• Be able to motivate and coach others
• Meet deadlines and hold others accountable
• Acknowledge and reward efforts

    So, are you shining as a leader? To most, this is a hard question, but the easiest place to find the answer is to look at the people who actually work for you. Though leaders can’t always please everyone with their management style, there are a few traits for which each leader is recognized and those are the determining factors in employee satisfaction and productivity. According to a study by the Hay Group, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction, with trust and confidence in top leadership being the single most reliable predictor. The key to winning organizational trust is through effective communication in three critical areas:

1. Helping employees understand the company’s overall business strategy.

2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.

3. Sharing information with employees on how the company is doing, as well as their own division, relative to business objectives (Lamb, McKee, 2004)

Some tips to help you shine some more:
    Whether you are considering taking a leadership role or if you are already in one, you should continuously find ways to improve your skills and to better yourself inside and out. A few ways to do this would be to:

1. Learn from great leaders in your company and industry.

2. Consider self-study and formal classes

3. Start every plan with good intentions and treat others as you would want to be treated

4. Stay organized-create and implement yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals

5. Be more productive-do what matters the most first, keep track of your goals, show results

6. Balance life and work-try not to bring family issues with you to work and vice versa