3 Ways In Which You Can Stand Out as a Leader

Leadership is about inspiring, motivating and influencing others to be the best version of themselves that they can be. Here are three ways in which you can stand out as a leader.

Learn How Be A Good Listener  

A big part of being a great leader starts by being a good listener. This means learning first to listen to those you lead. You may have a vision or goal on what needs to achieved, but there may be obstacles that might make the achievement of these goals challenging.

As a leader, asking your team for their thoughts and views on how to achieve the goal might help give you a better insight to what the challenges are and help in coming with ways of overcoming any barriers.  As part of being a good listener, you should ensure any conversations are two way; the team put forward an idea, and you have a full conversation with them setting out next steps.

It might be that in some instances, you cannot take the suggested given forward for very valid reasons such as cost of lack of resources. If this is not communicated effectively, staff will get the impression that you have not listened or taken their views seriously.  

To be a leader to others, you have to create a connection with them. You have to show them that you care about who they are.

Be the best you can be

You cannot influence people if you are mediocre in what you do. Being great at what you do, does not mean that you need to be an expert in every aspect of those you lead.

It does however mean understanding and respecting the talent and albitites of those you manage. If they have a skillset, which you are not the expert, you need to decide to what extent  you need to upskill your knowledge in this area or allow the expert in your team to shine.

For you to be the best leader you can be, you need to bring others with you. This means knowing when to defer to the expert for their opinion or guidance in taking a particular course of action. In other words, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Many leader see asking for help as a sign of weakness when it is often a sign of strength    

Its important to remember that in enabling your team to look good, it makes you look good as well. If you are not a mentor to them, they will not see you as a leader.

Be a good communicator

One of the reasons often given by those who leave organizations is that they do not feel that the organization, and in particular their line manager does not share or communicate important information at all or in a timely manner.

Regular communication in writing and ideally in person is a great way of showing yourself as a leader within your team. Try to met with your team  at least monthly as this will give your team members the chance to meet wit you in person and ask questions. Even if you don’t always know the answer, you agree to find out. Once you do have an answer, you can share it with your team.

They may not always like you answer, but by cascading information to them it will respect and trust you as a leader

Yvonne Akinmodun is an Executive Career Coach. She is the founder and CEO of careercoachingmatters, a site dedicated to helping people solve their own career challenges. Do you have questions about your career? Click here to book a FREE consultation session