(source: Nassef Mohsen Ali)
Becoming a skilled leader is an art form that takes time and experience to cultivate. It’s not simply a box you can check off your to-do list. It’s a process that demands grit, tenacity, and consistency.
If you strive for perfection, you’re bound to fall short. It’s important to remember that leaders are meant to make mistakes, but great leaders know how to bounce back from them. Aiming for mastery instead of perfection can equip someone with the toolkit to overcome the moments when they inevitably fall short.
So, what’s the difference between mastery and perfection? Perfection is the highly coveted and wonderfully impossible goal everyone strives for. Meanwhile, mastery is striving for incremental improvement. It’s the act of gaining wisdom through experience, and as a consequence of that experience, achieving expertise.
In your journey toward unlocking your full leadership potential, here are three universal leadership traits you should strive to master.
Leading by Example
Inspiring words and motivational quotes can only take a team so far. Truly effective leaders understand the importance of leading by example. They set the tone early and often because their credibility depends on their actions. The greater and more consistent the actions, the greater the credibility.
The harsh reality is that it’s easier to maintain credibility than it is to rebuild it, and the fastest way to lose credibility is to set a double standard. Take the accounting industry for instance, which emphasizes the importance of maintaining the “tone at the top.” In a profession that deals routinely with sensitive information, maintaining ethical integrity is a guiding philosophy among accounting organizations. If upper management does not follow or respect the guidelines that they expect other staff members to adhere to, how can they expect these policies to be successful? While “tone at the top” refers to management philosophy, this concept can easily be applied to individual conduct in any setting.
Effective Communication
Clear and direct communication is necessary to build team harmony. In order to function, a team needs to know what is needed and when it is needed. But a team can truly thrive when it understands not only what and when but why it’s needed. If any of these three elements are missing from the equation, confusion is likely to ensue. While the first two components function as a requirement, the last one serves as the secret ingredient that can allow the team to flourish.
Providing vague directions causes dysfunction to fester, wasting time and resources in the process. To combat confusion, leaders should be transparent and periodically incorporate feedback to ensure everyone is on the same page. The right direction can allow team members to achieve a goal successfully, and the appropriate feedback can enable the team to develop into its potential.
Growth Opportunities
At a base level, a leader is expected to match their team’s ability to the appropriate position. Where A leader distinguishes themselves from the rest is by possessing the ability to place their team members in growth positions that will allow them to continue their own professional development. To do that, they must first be able to assess an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you’re a manager, you need to be able to determine where an employee excels and what areas need improvement. The latter is more important for targeting growth.
Second, leaders must assign challenging projects that will push their team outside of their comfort zone, but not to the extent of overwhelming them. It’s like selecting the difficulty in a new video game. When dealing with someone who still doesn’t know the controls, selecting the easy level might be a more appropriate fit. On the other hand, someone who averages 25 hours a week playing Call of Duty might be better suited for the extreme difficulty—or maybe stepping outside. Finding this balance can be tough, but it’s worth the investment and will reap dividends for a team’s overall performance.
Takeaways
Skilled leaders must lead with action, provide clear direction, and challenge their team to set them up for success and, more importantly, growth. Maintaining credibility is just as important as clear communication. Lastly, identifying growth opportunities for other team members will set a leader apart. These leadership skills can’t be executed overnight, but with experience, they can be developed over time.