You’ve probably heard this already, but it’s well worth repeating:
Your leadership can put a ceiling on your community, company, or organization’s growth.
But what does this mean in a post-pandemic world? How are things changing, and what can you do to ensure you’re expanding as a leader?
Here are three things most leaders miss about leadership.
Leadership Begins With You
The best leadership experts the world over repeat this sentiment frequently:
Before you can lead others, you must learn to lead yourself.
Leadership isn’t about a position or a title. It’s not about grandstanding or exerting your authority over people. First and foremost, it’s about developing a deep understanding of yourself and how you communicate with others.
Are you held back in any area? Do you have trouble letting go of people that aren’t motivated to work for your company? Do you fear confrontation? Do you expect of others a work ethic you don’t already embody?
This is going to be reflected in your organization. Therefore, you must take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. You must ensure that your Personal Operating System is up to date. The organizational OS doesn’t work when there are issues with personal OSs.
Good leaders always take responsibility.
Understanding Your Team Leads to Better Engagement & Retention
How well do you know your team? Leaders should always have a clear understanding of how each member of their team is motivated, especially if they hope to keep said employees.
Some workers are motivated by greater income and benefits. Some by growth opportunities. Others by employee engagement initiatives.
Some of your employees respond well to micromanaging and constant course correction, while others favor autonomy and longer, uninterrupted blocks of time where they can focus on their work.
Without a clear understanding of how each member is differently motivated, you can easily and inadvertently cross lines that instantly put you in their bad books.
Recognize that this may not require a huge change on your part. The way you communicate with each team member, for example, can have a huge impact on outcomes.
Rewarding Your People for Value Generated Boosts Motivation
With the creator economy booming, the new workforce is more internet-, social media-, and tech-savvy than ever. And they know well that, even as they’re working day jobs, there are people out there making a killing on YouTube.
Traditional models of salary or commission-based income are quickly becoming outdated, are rarely fair, and don’t account for super employees who are doing 80% of the work (do you even know who they are in your company?).
Recognizing seniority isn’t without its benefits, but if you don’t recognize the people who are generating real results for your company, resentment is almost certainly building behind the scenes. It’s time to explore structures that encourage and empower increased efficiency, growth in revenue, and other factors that directly benefit the organization.
Final Thoughts
As a leader, you’re going to be put face to face with a lot of different people who are differently motivated. One of the greatest costs, and therefore greatest assets, in any organization is their team.
Will you care enough to put in the work to get to know your team and support them in the roles and tasks they’ve been assigned?