Understanding why engagement, resilience and adapting your leadership style is essential and is something leaders should think about over the next 18 months.
Why 18 months? At this time of global business disruption, the majority of financial analysts believe an immediate focus on the next year and a half seems like a sensible strategy for your business.
It’s always worth reminding yourself that good leadership is a process, and your business will be stronger, and your people will be inspired by good leadership. The problem is that today’s leaders are under immense pressure to perform – often beyond their experience and capabilities.
The expectation is that you’ll have an innate, almost superhuman grasp of everything that’s going on in the organisation, be an inspiring catalyst for ideas and a creator of positive change – and possess a touch of clairvoyance for good measure.
Impossible, of course, but by focusing on say, three key leadership areas at a time, you can work on becoming the leader you and your teams want you to be.
| Just who are you engaging?
We’re currently awash with online articles about customer engagement and the desire to unearth new and creative ways to boost sales – as it should be. You know the sort of thing; offer real value, inspire customers, build a community, keep the conversation going.
Yet all these ideas also apply to your employees. We’ve mentioned before about the importance of engaging an enthused and highly-motivated workforce, and the hidden costs incurred if they’re not.
As a leader, do you inspire your team by demonstrating how their work ultimately contributes to the success of the business? Is there a genuine company culture in place, which rewards loyalty, hard work and commitment? Are the channels to communication open and transparent, so employees understand there’s a clear link between what they do and how it impacts the company’s wider goals?
| Resilience comes first, second and last
Is it even possible to drive success, manage and measure performance and at the same time build resilience as a leader? It’s a definite yes – you just might need a little advice and reassurance along the way.
What does all this mean? It means that you mustn’t be too hard on yourself as a leader of others. Help is out there. Great leaders are the ones who can deal with personal and professional setbacks in the most challenging times. Being adaptive to change, empathetic and developing a more level-headed approach to decision-making will also win the day. And it’s possible to learn these things.
| A style for every situation?
Superb leadership also comes from understanding how disciplined decision-making affects your business and utilising any learned knowledge so you and your organisation can achieve long-term goals.
Moreover, great leaders understand the type of leader they are and how their leadership style affects them and the people under them. Maybe you have more than one leadership style in you. As humans, we have many unique and shared characteristics, so your leadership style will probably be multi-dimensional.
‘Good leaders use different intuitions. They lead based on the situation, their personality and values. Some people need to be led more than others.’ (Business.govt.nz)
‘Different employees respond to different leadership styles, so it’s important to take time to understand your team. Your leadership style may change daily, weekly or monthly, depending on who you’re dealing with and what you’re trying to achieve.’
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