Leadership Targets You Should Be Aiming At To Ensure Success

This is an article ‘Leadership Targets You Should Be Aiming At To Ensure Success’ by Marc Primo

They say a good leader pushes from behind instead of pulling from the front. While multiple leadership styles and abilities to push and pull your employees have their pros and cons, every leader's skill set is vital in delivering results and maintaining a cohesive relationship with his subordinates.

More than just a hierarchical position on the company roster or pay grades according to additional functions and accountabilities, being a leader is a never-ending process of learning and garnering experiences. Complacent leaders who have become stagnant and refuse to listen or grow can be a dangerous career trap that can get them demoted from their coveted positions or, worse, get fired.

True leaders always set goals towards progress for the companies they work for and their subordinates' professional development. Action plans and performance tracking are essential, but there are more intangible factors you have to consider to get the desired results.

To help you appreciate your skills set as a leader in your workplace, here are five tips that will work wonders for your journey up the ladder.

The magic of active listening

Successful leaders demonstrate active listening as one of their top qualities. Every good leader should foster an atmosphere and culture of open and transparent communication. Of course, this entails paying attention to what your colleagues say regardless of their company position. Remember, every dialogue should start with the goal of hearing your team's opinions, whether favorable or unfavorable, and processing your ideas based on what can help move things forward.

Active listening can also help you improve your leadership skills via skilfully planned strategies that encourage better cohesion and more assertive communication between you and your team members. Adopting therapeutic settings and critical factors in your interactions, such as encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback, will work best for you if you apply the appropriate parameters.

Know when to deliver honest feedback

Speaking of effective communication, how you handle feedback gracefully should also be one of your top priorities as a leader. This core value is not to say that the workplace should have no room for human emotions. However, it is crucial to display the proper etiquette and business acumen when stress levels rise, and some sensitive issues emerge.

Instead, look for ways in how you can encourage growth within your internal and external teams by using feedback as an opportunity.

As a leader, you can inspire your subordinates to pursue excellence through the constructive criticism you give them. Mention committed errors but refrain from rubbing them in and focus on how they can correct mistakes and grow from the challenges. Good leaders issue criticism that go beyond critiquing one's conduct but steer team members toward professional and personal development. With this insight, a good setting is always essential when delivering feedback as it builds your subordinate's trust in you as a leader.

Work to develop your professional communication skills and optimize them so you can be an encouraging driver for growth. Be aware of what you can learn from solving problems and how to handle workplace conversations so you won't get into hot water. Reaffirm your team member's value to the organization, and align his ideas to its shared mission of vision to reconcile whatever conflict is on the table.

Disruptions are your friend

Good leaders know that they are not experts on everything and that flexibility is the key to honing new and more efficient ideas. When sudden changes and disruptions happen in the workplace, try to be receptive to the latest information and opinions you encounter.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the best examples of significant disruptions in every industry. It triggered the Great Resignation of 2021, wherein an estimated 47 million Americans quit their jobs and temporarily closed 43% of small to medium businesses in the country.

Embracing disruptions like these can put you in a better position to manage your team and restructure accordingly. Shifting in the right direction is always crucial. The only way to do it is to consider your current resources and business activities and adapt to the necessary adjustments in the most productive approach. You'll soon see that, over time, new possibilities and business models will come out to the surface and can bring you back on your feet.

High EQ goes with high IQ

As mentioned, the workplace should not dismiss human emotion but instead pay close attention to how one should deal with them, considering the rules and values in place. Influential leaders apply best practices on developing their emotional quotient (EQ) and how it can complement their intelligence quotient (IQ).

Often, having both high EQ and IQ sets a leader apart from the rank and file, and contrary to what many think, higher EQ can be developed and is not exclusive or innate for a select few.

Developing your self-awareness on how you approach your management duties, applying self-regulation and control over the things you are responsible for, acquiring social awareness and its relevance to your organization, handling social regulation when challenges arise, and delivering motivation that can inspire your team are all part of your EQ and IQ skills. These factors will always support how you produce smarter decisions, set goals, and keep stress factors at bay.

Today's business needs more efficient leaders

Excellent and strong leadership during these trying times when we are currently shifting into a new normal twinned with economic challenges for the long-term can be the anchor that saves a boat from drifting away.

Be the key that defines your company culture by simply meeting your employees' expectations and encouraging them with your values that promote productive communication via active listening and feedback, seeing the silver lining in every change, and developing higher EQ. Remember that every worker seeks and looks up to people who can be their teachers or role models… and a true leader should always have a good grasp of both.