I always say that I was born a natural leader…no literally, I am the oldest sibling and have 15 younger cousins.
From the time I was young, I was leading my little brother and setting a good example for my younger cousins. Not only that, but I got my first big leadership role when I was 13- being the co-lead of an organization at my school.
This launched me into various roles I would hold throughout my lifetime, whether it was president of organizations in high school and college or by demonstrating my leadership at my workplace and being promoted to manager at 17 years young. I have held and still hold titles of ‘Big Sister,’ ‘Oldest Cousin,’ ‘President,’ ‘Co-Lead,’ ‘Manager,’ ‘Shift Lead,’ and more.
I’ve had plenty of opportunities to excel but also to mess up. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
5 Tips to Be a Great Leader for Others
#1 Help Those You Are Leading Discover Their Strengths
One of the greatest things you can do for someone is to join them alongside their journey as they discover who they are, what their strengths and talents are, and what they are passionate about.
Being a great leader often means being a great mentor. Providing opportunities for those you lead to grow as individuals enriches their experience working with you.
Recognizing where someone has a high interest, is especially good at something, or is incredibly passionate allows them to excel on an individual basis, which then promotes cohesivity and excellence within the entire group or team.
It’s also important to create the option for those you lead to explore unique opportunities or learn a new skill if the occasion presents itself. Being open to the roles that people play, the shifting or changing of roles, and even creating a brand new role to fit the skills, talents, and passions of your team is a sign of your ability as a leader to deeply recognize and promote the strengths of the individuals on your team.
#2 Recognize Those You Lead, Both Publicly and Privately
Showing your appreciation as a leader is huge. It’s important to understand that this needs to be practiced at both the individual and group levels.
Practicing this at the individual level looks like sending an email to someone on your team that highlights the way they went above and beyond on a recent project or shows your gratitude for having their expertise on the team. Money is also a great indicator of your appreciation for someone and their work in the form of a raise or bonus.
On the level of the group, practicing gratitude could be treating everyone to lunch one day or doing some sort of team bonding event. Perhaps it means giving a small gift to everyone during the holidays or making a post on LinkedIn expressing your gratitude.
You know what they say: “Monkey see, monkey do.” If you ground your leadership in gratitude and appreciation, your team will start to do the same. Cultivating this sort of environment, where everyone is genuinely grateful for the work of their peers and leaders, leads to a happier, more productive team.
#3 Have Open Lines of Communication
As a leader, providing open lines of communication is critical to your team being well-connected.
Ensuring that your team knows how to contact you as an individual is important, but also setting the norm for how the group communicates can make or break your success as a team.
Establishing when you communicate is equally as important as how you communicate. If you know you are slow to respond on Sundays, then let your team know that. If you have an upcoming vacation or appointment, let your team know when and how you will still be available. Or if you’ll even be available at all.
Set expectations for what communication should look like at critical points. For example, decide as a team that there will be no communication on holidays, allowing everyone to completely disconnect. Or establish that upon a deadline for an important project, communication may be more frequent via messaging rather than emails.
Communication is often a big hurdle to overcome, especially when individuals have different expectations for how or when things should be communicated. If you start off by establishing certain standards that everyone can agree to, lack of communication doesn’t have to be a barrier to your team’s success.
#4 Don’t Make Empty Promises
Building trust within a team is vital to its success. Trust among leaders and peers builds a healthy environment that allows everyone to be their authentic selves, give everything they have, and push themselves to be better.
Part of fostering trust as a leader is not making empty promises to those you lead. If you, as a leader, say you are going to do something…you have to do it! Verbally expressing that your word is important to you, but also demonstrating it through your actions, builds a deep trust between you and your team.
When there is trust, you are able to foster the type of environment and team you believe is what it takes to achieve something. When there is trust, people are more willing to take risks and challenge themselves. When there is trust collaboration, creativity, and care can flow within a team.
Trust within a team is something that can set your team apart from another. It is something that distinguishes a good team from a great team.
#5 Take Responsibility- Admit to Your Downfalls
Nothing is worse than a leader who passes the blame. It not only encourages others to do the same and demonstrates that it's ‘okay’ to do so, but is a characteristic of a weak leader.
Admitting your downfalls as a leader is important because the trust between you and your team depends on it.
Taking responsibility is hard to do. But it must be done. To maintain trust with yourself and others, it must be done. To maintain unity and avoid separation between you as a leader and the team, it must be done.
There’s no need to write sentence after sentence about why taking responsibility as a leader is so important. The weight of this character trait in a leader is heavy…do you feel it?
Real Talk
Take a note or two from my leadership experience thus far and avoid the mistakes I’ve made in the past.
It’s important to be aware of how you are as a leader, taking stock of the things you do exceedingly well and the things that you could improve upon. Being a self-aware leader is what allows a team to grow.
Part of being a great leader is meticulously crafting the environment and guiding the individuals. Enhancing your leadership skills with the tips above will allow you to do just that.
Despite the fact that a team is often composed of several different talents and personality types, everyone must come together with cohesivity and all understand the overall vision, in order to excel.
A strong leader is the foundation of a strong team. What can you do better to be a great leader for others?