So many things have been said about great leadership. There are tons of books and articles on leadership. There are also tons of workshops and seminars out there teaching you how to be a great leader.
Is Leadership so elusive that we need so many books, articles and workshops just to teach us how to be a good leader?
The truth is, great leadership boils down to just a few very fundamental truths. Practice these fundamental truths and you will not go wrong as a leader. Practice these fundamental truths and you will be seen and regarded as a good leader.
So what are these fundamental truths?
1. Appreciate
Show genuine appreciation for the work that your people do. Appreciation has to be genuine; otherwise you will come across as fake and condescending. One of the fastest ways to damage the working relationship with your people is to fake appreciation. Most of your people will be able to smell a rat from a mile away if you try to be patronizing towards them.
2. Encourage and Motivate
Your appreciation for their work needs to extend into encouragement and motivation. Encourage your people to do even better work. Encourage them to do more with less. Challenge them to achieve higher goals.
So how do you do it?
First ensure that you say something nice about the work that person has done. Now, this has to be 100% genuine. As mentioned above in point #1, your people will be able to smell a rat from a mile away if you are being patronizing.
Next, tell the person you would like to see him/her continue doing even better on the assignment. Set stretch goals. The stretch goals are meant to stretch that person – not break that person.
3. Listen more than you talk
Most leaders like to talk. And that’s a fact. Look around and you will notice leaders always like to talk. They want to get their points across; they want to impose their ideas on you; they want to get buy-in for their strategies and plans; they want to bulldoze their way; they just love talking.
However employees are happiest when they feel free to contribute their ideas and to take initiative. If your people hesitate in contributing ideas, then perhaps it is because you are talking too much and not listening enough. Perhaps you’re not giving your people a chance to voice their opinions, make comments and suggestions.
Shut-up and let your people do the talking. Because when your people start talking more, you will get to learn more about them, their difficulties, their challenges, their aspirations, their shortcomings, their strengths and their frustrations.
About the Author
STEVEN LOCK is a Speaker, Trainer, Author and a Leadership Coach. Steven brings with him two decades of corporate experience.
Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.
He is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. This model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach. Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.
Steven is the Author of two books:
• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach™ to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”
He is also the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report™ that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.
Steven has been featured on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital and other publications. His comments on Team Collaboration was quoted in the Spring 2014 Edition of the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.
Steven holds a Master of Business (Information Technology) from Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. He is a certified DISC & MBTI® (Step I & II) practitioner.
Recently Steven was invited as a guest speaker to share about his CAAP(R) High Performance Model with over 600 delegates at the Vietnam HR Summit 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City.
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