Tips on How to Become a Better Leader - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / Tips on How to Become a Better Leader - Introvert Whisperer Tips on How to Become a Better Leader Guest Author June 3, 2016 Leadership One response In this fast-paced day and age, leadership qualities are key to getting great jobs, earning promotions, and succeeding in school. Possessing leadership skills means you are able to communicate and work well with others, and most important of all, you have potential to lead and map out where you and your team need to go and what to achieve. These abilities are required if a person wants to grow in a career, or even to grow as an individual. That is why you certainly need to improve your leadership skills. Not only to be a great leader, but also to be a valuable member of the team. Here are steps to follow on how to become a better leader. Number 1: Evaluate Yourself An aspect of good leadership is constant self-evaluation. You need to know your leadership strengths and weaknesses. You can accomplish this in a number of ways. One of which is to keep a daily journal where you reflect on moments where you displayed great leadership, and on moments where you could have displayed better leadership. This will help you see what works and what does not work for you. Another tool to help you evaluate your leadership skills can be free online tests that evaluate your leadership styles, skills, and needs. You can find these at places like Mindtool. Use these tests to help you recognize and improve your existing good leadership qualities, and to recognize where you need to improve your leadership characteristics. Number 2: Determine and Plan Just like any worthy goal, you must make a plan to achieve it. In order to make your plan, you must first decide how you want to improve. Do not try to change everything about your team leader skills at once. Instead, focus on one aspect of yourself that needs to improve. Then make an action plan that has specific details of how you intend to change this characteristic. Put this plan in a place you can easily find it and refer to it often. Number 3: Prioritize One aspect of effective leadership skills is to prioritize your tasks. Practice doing this at home with chores and other responsibilities. Look at a list of things to do and decide what must be done first in order to achieve total success of the whole list. Do this with group projects and on tasks at work to impress your teachers, and you bosses. This will help you be viewed as a leader which will lead to more leadership responsibilities down the road. Number 4: Encourage Improvement Whenever you are working in a team setting make sure to encourage yourself and your team members to improve in every aspect of the task at hand. Encourage everyone to try harder, to study more diligently, and to reap the benefits of an online learning. Effective leadership skills are cultivated by constant improvement. Also, one of the main responsibilities of a leader is to encourage improvement so their teams are the highest achievers and rewarded with greater responsibilities, better grades, higher pay, and more respect from their superiors. Number 5: Admit Your Mistakes By admitting your mistakes, you show that you are humble, human, and honest. These are actually very important leadership characteristics. By being humble, human, and honest it signals everyone around you that you are not only a good person, but you are trustworthy. Use your mistakes as a learning tool. Your mistakes today may just be your strengths tomorrow if you take the time to reflect on them and make plans to avoid those mistakes in the future. Number 6: Be Confident Leaders put on brave faces, look people in the eye, and are vocal about their opinions. Leaders need to be confident and self-assured in their decisions in order to convince others to follow them. If you are shy, or have confidence issues, practice having confidence. There is something to be said for the old sage advice fake it til you make it. Number 7: Be Kind There are many leaders who use fear as a tactic to gain respect. Fear and respect are not the same thing. People who love their leaders will respect them and fight on their behalf whether or not their leaders are wrong. People who fear their leaders will obey them but, if given the chance they will turn against their leaders. Fear will get the job done in the short term, but in the long term, fear will only cause uprising. Leaders are always outnumbered. Number 8: Listen A good leader will listen to their team-members concerns and ideas no matter the quality of the idea. The simple act of listening will make your team feel heard and respected and, in turn, they will listen to you and respect your opinion. It is important to at least occasionally try to implement the ideas of team members in order to show that they are valued members of the team. Even if you only use the idea in part, taking the opinion of that team-member will encourage them to improve their ideas, and it will show them that they are wanted. Number 9: Be Honest As kindly as possible, tell your team the truth. If something did not work, tell them. If their work needs to improve, tell them. If the sky is literally falling down around your ankles, tell them. People follow leaders they can trust. It is better for your team to hear a hard truth told as kindly as possible than it is for them to be unaware of the truth and, never improve. Number 10: Respect Your Leaders You will likely always have someone who leads you and, they can decide whether or not you continue to be a leader. Therefore, part of having good leadership characteristics is that you always show your leaders their due respect. Also, by demonstrating that you respect your leaders, your team will further respect you. This is not to say that your leaders are always right, or that you even have to like their leadership style. No matter the quality of your leader, even when disagreeing with them, you must show them that you respect them as your leader. Guest Author Bio: Emily Stone, a blogger and freelance writer, with BA in Business Administration. She worked for businesses in Melbourne as a content marketer. Emily specialises in writing about business growth, career growth, and personal growth. She currently works for Real Estate Academy Australia, a specialised training centre for the real estate industry. Do you know what your next career step is?   Many people don’t. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my eBook on how to construct your Career SMART Goals â€" that will help you put together your actions and keep you accountable.   Get your copy now and start your action plan today: CLICK HERE Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleash your professional potential.