7 Key Ways to Become a More Effective Leader

Your business is like a well-oiled machine or it would be if things were actually going smoothly. It feels like you and your employees haven’t been on the same radar lately. It’s putting a huge plug in your sales.

There are many ways that you could be disconnected from your employees. Perhaps your instructions aren’t clear enough. Have you sat down to ask them what the hold up is?

If your answer is no, then your leadership skills may need a little work. To help you become a boss that your employees can get behind, here are a few tips for unleashing your potential and becoming an effective leader.

1. Delegate

When you become a boss there are a couple of temptations that you’ll have to leave behind. One of them is to backseat work. Meaning that you loom over your employees and nitpick while they work.

The other is going in with the mindset that if you want anything done right you’ll have to do it yourself. Running a business is hard and you’ll already have a ton of responsibilities. It’s not wise or healthy for you to pile even more on yourself.

That’s why you have employees. Delegate the work. Give them assignments that they can do.

This not only will stop you from putting too much on yourself but also give your employees a confidence boost and allow them to develop their own leadership skills. It also shows them that you trust them.

2. Why So Serious?

You have a job that has to get done. Shipment has to go out, projects are due, it’s all serious business. While you have to put some weight behind it, that doesn’t mean that you have to become overbearing.

Employees don’t want to feel like going to work is a death sentence. They want to be able to have fun and enjoy the job that they do. Don’t be afraid to have music going while you’re putting up shipment or randomly ordering a pizza for you and your employees for lunch.

If you make time during all the serious business for play then you’ll have more loyal employees who show up on time and not call out.

3. Set Goals

One of the first rules of business is setting realistic goals that you and your employees can achieve. Goals are important because they act as your business map by giving your workers direction.

Set your goals, talk to your employees to make sure they understand your expectations and what needs to get done, and then monitor their progress while not hovering over them.

4. Recognize Achievements

Employees like feeling like they are doing a good job. That’s why you should set aside a little time to recognize employees that are working hard. It only takes a few minutes and costs little to no money.

You don’t have to throw a huge party because an employee did something impressive but just giving them a little good job or a gift card during the holidays is nice. When your employees feel appreciated they will work harder and better so they can keep receiving that praise.

5. Communicate

It’s hard for employees to know what your expectations are if you don’t communicate to them. It feels impossible with how busy you stay on a regular basis but there are many ways for you to set aside the time.

You could have meetings on Monday’s where you talk about the goals for the week. While face to face conversation is best, a quick email would be more effective than nothing at all.

If you find that you can’t find a good communication solution you should check out cloud technology. Services from New England Network Solutions will allow you to share information with everyone at once and its faster than an email.

6. Think of Things in the Long-Term

You never know when a problem is going to rear its ugly head in the office. While it’s easy to think of the simple solution and do that, quick fixes are usually just that. Quick fixes.

You could fix the source of the problem but in a month or so it may come back with a vengeance. Even so, the easy solution is usually the most attractive because it’s fast and cheaper.

At that moment you don’t see how much money or time you would save by treating the root of the problem rather than all the little symptoms that branch off of it. You should be going into an issue with the mindset of solving the problem for good.

Doing this will make it look like you had a handle on the situation the entire time even if you didn’t. It makes you look better as a leader.

7. Make Time for Your Employees

If an employee gathers the courage to step into your office to speak to you about a problem, you owe it to them to pay attention. Place your phone down, stop working on that email and put all your focus on the employee standing in front of you.

They could be coming to you with a serious problem and if you only pay half attention to them then you won’t be able to get the full story. Which in turn, means you won’t be able to help them come up with a solution.

How to Be a More Effective Leader and March Your Team into Greatness

If things aren’t as productive in your business as you would like it may be less of a problem with your employees and more of a problem with your leadership skills. If you don’t communicate, make your employees feel comfortable, and set realistic goals, your workers won’t know what direction to take. We hope that you are able to use these tips on how to become a more effective leader to get your business back on its feet.

Is your leadership skills on par but you still find yourself having problems with your company? Visit the business section of our blog for more advice like this.