When you think about a strong or effective leader in your life or in the world in general, who comes to mind? To be a strong and effective leader, it’s important to have some key qualities including assertiveness, intelligence, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. The best leaders in the world today tend to be people who are positive, inspiring, and able to empower others rather than simply giving out instructions and telling people what to do. You might have seen lots of information on the differences between a boss and a leader, with one of the main ones being that good leaders are individuals who value their teams highly and spend a lot of time inspiring people to be at their best. Whether you are running your own business, working as a supervisor, or in management, leading other people is a large part of many job roles today. No matter where you want to go in your career, becoming a more effective leader can help you achieve many goals.

Understanding Your Leadership Style

To become a more effective leader no matter your role, it’s a good idea to start by getting a better understanding of yourself in a leadership position. Spend some time figuring out your strengths and weaknesses. While it’s good to know what you are good at, a good leader knows that there is always going to be some room for improvement somewhere and spends their time figuring out how to turn their weakness into a strength. If you have had some leadership experience in a management or supervisory role, consider what your main characteristics are as a leader, and whether these help you or get in your way of being effective and reaching your goals for the team. To become a better leader, these are some of the most important skills to work on.

Passion

A transformational and effective leader is somebody who is very passionate about what they do, and this is obvious in their work. If you were working for somebody who was indifferent about the goals, chances are that they are probably not going to inspire you to work any harder or any better towards meeting them. On the other hand, leaders are passionate about success and reaching the goals that have been set. They aren’t just focused on getting tasks finished but have an infectious and genuine passion and enthusiasm for their work. To become a more effective leader, it’s a good idea to consider any different ways that you can demonstrate your passion for what you do and share this with your team. Ensure that your team members are aware that you are proud of their progress and accomplishments. Share accomplishments with everybody and keep everybody up to date with progress reports and positive feedback.

Role Model

As a leader, you will be a role model to your team. A transformational leader is not just passionate and inspiring, but they also serve as an impeccable role model to the people that are working under them. One of the main differences between somebody who is a boss and an effective leader is that leaders aren’t taking a back seat while they tell people what to do; they’re getting involved and setting a great example to their team. They are a walking example of the characteristics and behaviours that they want to see from their team. As a result of working with an effective leader, teams tend to be more optimistic and positive regarding their work and often hold themselves to higher standards.

Communication

Excellent communication and listening skills are essential to become a more effective leader. To improve your leadership skills and the results that you achieve with your team, it is important to be focused on providing more effective one-to-one communication and ensuring that team members know that you are approachable and willing to listen to any concerns, questions, ideas, or opinions that they have. Good leaders do not shut any members of their team down and are willing to listen and communicate with anybody, even if they cannot act on ideas. They know how to communicate this effectively to the team member and make sure that they always know that they are heard and appreciated for their input. A good leader works hard to make sure that the lines of communication remain open, and that clear communication is encouraged between them and their team.

Creativity

Good leaders are often creative people who are able to think outside of the box and encourage their team members to do the same. Intellectual stimulation is often a defining part of transformational leadership. Rather than being focused solely on getting tasks finished, leaders who actively encourage their team members to express their ideas and be creative tend to get better results. Effective leaders encourage people to push their own limits, offer new challenges, and provide support to team members in order to help them achieve these goals.

Motivating

The best leaders aren’t just there to give instructions and tell team members which tasks they need to complete. They provide support and motivation to inspire them to get the best results. While being able to inspire others is not always easy, good leaders know which qualities they can demonstrate that will help them do just this. To motivate others as a leader, you don’t need to give long, motivational speeches daily. There are lots of things that you can do to motivate your team including making sure that team members are recognised and appreciated for their contributions, showing genuine passion for the ideas and goals you and your team are working towards, and involving your team in as much of the process as possible.

Willingness to Learn

To become a better leader, one of the first qualities to develop is a willingness to learn new things, often from surprising people and in surprising places. Many management and business professionals have gone on to learn that thinking they know more than everybody else will be their downfall. No matter how much experience you have or the qualifications you have earned, a good leader knows that there will always be something that they don’t know and can learn from others. Effective leaders tend to be humble people who are willing to learn new things from even the least senior member of the team. Along with this they are always looking for new ways to improve their knowledge and skills, such as getting an MBA online in Canada from Aston University.  

Emotional Intelligence

Good leaders today need to be emotionally intelligent. Teams are unlikely to respect you or be inspired by you if you cannot see the big picture from a human perspective. It’s long past the times where hard work and results were the only thing that companies cared about. Today, the best talent wants to work for managers and leaders who understand that work is just one part of life. Emotional intelligence includes qualities such as empathy, which will help you build better relationships with your team as people, find out more about what drives them, and offer tailored support and help when needed.

A good leader is somebody who understands that there’s more to leadership than just giving orders. To succeed in this role, it’s important to work on these key qualities and skills.