6 Drivers for Better Leadership

No one tells you how to be a good leader. Sure, some of us are hard wired differently, but leadership is not something one is born with. It takes understanding and working on your skills consistently and learning from your mistakes. How does one become a leader? What is a leader? Robin Sharma’s book, You Don’t Need A Title To Lead, is a good place to start about effective leadership principals.

For now, here are 6 drivers for better leadership.

1. Be Authentic.

Understand your strengths, limitations and your emotions and do not act one way in private and another in public. Authentic leaders do not hide their mistakes or weaknesses out of fear of looking weak. They understand that being self-actualized is an endless journey. You will establish a culture where people understand it is ok to try and fail, rather than always playing it safe and never achieving anything.

2. Set The Culture.

A leader must set and drive the culture.  Whether you are a leader of a team or an organization, it is critical to define your culture, communicate that culture and live that culture each and every day.

3. Be Decisive.

A leader makes effective decisions and sticks with the decisions they have made, no matter how tough or unpleasant they are. As soon as you have enough information to make a sensible, informed decision, do it and move on to the next one. Equally as important is understanding the lessons learned from these decisions.

4. Be Committed.

To yourself, your colleagues, your suppliers, your vendors, your business, etc. If you are committed, show it by being authentic, positive and optimistic and present. 4. Allow employees to think for themselves and find their own way of doing things. Set the task, but then let them get on with it.

5. Praise Effort and Reward Achievement.

An important part of your job is to support your team, customers, vendors and show them their efforts are not going unnoticed, otherwise they will wonder why they are bothering.

6. Reverse Mentor.

Being a good leader is not just about training and developing your staff; it is about training and developing yourself too. Whatever age you are or experience you have, if you are concerned that your age or experience means you are in danger of getting out of touch with a younger or older generation of employees and customers, try reverse mentoring, in which a younger or older employee teaches you about stuff you don't know.

We would love to hear from you with questions or comments. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

In Latin, Aperio means to reveal, uncover, to make clear. Coaching is a powerful process that enables the client to reveal and illuminate their authentic style via a sharp focus on who they are at their core that includes their faith, fire and focus.