If you have recently taken on a management position or own a business, you may be looking at methods that can increase your rapport with your team and help you to become a better leader. Excellent and genuine leadership is vital to the operations of most businesses, as effective communication and high levels of employee contentment can increase the efficiency of your business and the amount of growth that your company experiences.
To find out more about becoming a better manager or business owner, read on for some of the most beneficial steps that you can take towards becoming an admirable leader.
1. Take a Leadership Degree.
Leadership degrees are an excellent option for those who want to learn specific leadership skills, styles, and techniques in an academic setting, or who need a qualification to apply for leadership positions within your company or area. Leadership degrees can help you to build on your basic leadership skills and teach you how to overcome common workplace issues. They can also ensure that your leadership can make a continually positive impact on your business. One of the benefits of taking a postgraduate leadership degree is that you will be able to combine academic learning with workplace experience to be prepared for your future managerial job roles and positions, building on the skills that you obtained through securing your previous Bachelor’s degree.
2. Start Two-Way Communication.
Most effective leaders have two-way communication with their employees that can help both their employees and themselves to grow within their roles. To effectively communicate with your employees, you should consider hosting annual or bi-yearly one-on-one meetings where you can discuss your employee’s progress and the steps that they need to make to improve.
In your annual review, you should discuss:
- Promotion opportunities
- Goal setting
- Their wellbeing in the workplace
- Any issues or suggestions that they have
- Their progress within their job role
You should also offer regular feedback to your employees, especially if they have been successful, as this can help to boost morale and ensure that issues can be solved before they start to cause problems. You should make time within this feedback to set your employees’ goals, which they can aim towards, as this can help your employees to understand the right steps that they need to take to improve and can also make your intentions clear.
In return, these meetings and feedback sessions should be safe spaces in which your employees can discuss your leadership with you. You should ensure that they feel able to ask for meetings with you and to give you feedback. Not only this, but you should consider sending out surveys and questionnaires where you can get your employee’s thoughts and opinions anonymously.
Additionally, your instructions to employees should be communicated as effectively and as clearly as possible to prevent miscommunications, which could damage your business and the morale of your employees. You should consider holding daily or weekly meetings, as well as using leadership software applications, to ensure that your employees are all on the same page and that they understand what is expected of them.
3. Grow Your Employee’s Expertise.
To improve your leadership, you should not be focused solely on your own skills. Instead, good leaders can help their employees to grow their own expertise. This increase in technical skills can then enable your employees to become more successful in their job roles, which will ensure that your business remains efficient. Training employees may also allow you to open new services that you previously did not have the skills to staff.
Only 27% of employees say their company champion learning.
To grow your employee’s expertise, you should host regular training programs, either in-house or outsourced, that focus both on reaffirming previous training and honing specific skills that you believe your employees are lacking. You should also consider running schemes such as shadowing and mentoring campaigns, as these can help your employees to gain confidence, understand different job roles, and can even prepare them to take on leadership roles in your stead. You should also consider offering them paid leave to undergo training courses and learn new skills, such as providing employees one afternoon a week for learning and development activities.
4. Reward Your Employees.
However, effective leaders reward their employees often, as this can help to motivate them and ensure that they enjoy and participate fully in their job. There are many ways to reward your employees for hard work, from offering job perks in the shape of in-house facilities, like gyms and cinema rooms, to hosting summer and Christmas parties. These also have the double effect of increasing the bonding of your team and allowing you to show the caring side of your leadership style. You should also work on rewarding individual employees.
These rewards can include:
- Pay raises and bonuses
- Gifts or experience days
- Awards, like trophies and statues
- An office-based reward, such as the best desk or parking spot
- Extra vacation leave
5. Delegate Effectively to Your Employees.
Many leaders believe that they need to take on the responsibility of the whole company themselves, the best leaders know when to delegate tasks. Not only does this boost morale by showing that you trust your employees with responsibility, but it also allows you to manage your workload more efficiently. By doing so, you have the time to focus on your tasks and the welfare of your employees, rather than wasting your work hours on smaller, time-consuming tasks. In this way, the best leaders are part of their team, helping their employees to manage crises and issues that they may be having in return for support from them when you need it. Building up this positive rapport with your employees can help to create a beneficial work atmosphere and means that your employees will be more willing to trust and listen to your instructions.
Although many different leadership styles can all be equally as effective, it is essential to continually work to improve your leadership to ensure that you can get the best out of both your employees and your business.
