Leaders and followers are linked – you cannot have one without the other. Becoming an effective leader requires figuring out how to create a following and motivate them to produce for you.
Related:How To Identify Who You Are As A Leader
To do that, you first need to understand what makes a great leader tick.
Attributes Of Great Leaders
Effective leadership is not the same as good management. In order to effectively run an organization, management must be able to plan a strategy, communicate a vision, inspire others to action and solve problems. Effective leadership is based on behaviors that bring about empowerment and change.
Great leaders develop loyal followings by developing these four interpersonal leadership techniques:
Listening: Followers want to be heard. They need feedback and support in order to succeed in their roles. Leaders who have their followers’ best interests at heart listen to them carefully. This means paying attention to body language and facial expressions, demonstrating empathy and asking for input.
Communicating: It’s not really possible to be a poor communicator and a great leader. Outstanding communicators tell the truth, encourage dialog, are clear and specific and remain open to others’ opinions.
Persuading: Persuasion is framing your ideas and solutions in a way that makes your followers believe in them. Convincing others to take action is an essential leadership skill, but before you can persuade you must establish credibility.
Collaborating: Collaborative leaders trust in their followers, allow them to take risks, and make mistakes and give them the tools they need to succeed. They use influence rather than authority to make things happen.
Leadership can be found at any level of an organization. You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader.
Addressing The Needs Of Your Followers
All great leaders were followers at some point. To strengthen your leadership, take time to remember what it was like to be a follower and recognize the needs you then had. Tap into these feelings to address the needs of your followers:
Trust – Trust is a huge factor that is built through authenticity, integrity, transparency, and respect. Trust is the basis of the relationship a leader has with his or her followers.
Significance – Followers want to feel like they matter and that their contributions are important to realizing the vision set by their leader.
Compassion – Demonstrating that you really care about your followers will give them the incentive to fully engage in their work.
Stability – Stability gives people confidence that the organization is headed in the right direction. It makes them feel that a year from now, they will be as well or better off than they currently are.
Hope – Leaders provide hope for a better future, which incentivizes followers to work towards it.
In addition to knowing what their followers need, leaders are in tune with their own needs and beliefs.
What Do Leaders Believe?
Great leaders believe that people want to excel. They create an environment in which success is not only possible, but also contagious. Great leaders believe that putting the right person in the right job is essential and that diverse teams are more innovative than homogeneous teams. Great leaders also believe in change; they push themselves to learn and grow and recognize that organizations often need to renew themselves.
The best leaders are also in touch with their personal values. They know that, in a perpetually changing world of business challenges, it’s essential to have a guiding force upon which to base decisions. Have you identified your personal values? Knowing what you believe is essential to strong, consistent leadership.
How Do Your Leadership Skills Measure Up?
Leadership techniques can be developed, but how do you know how well yours measure up? The essential elements of leadership, including giving feedback and support, changing behaviors and working toward common goals, can be measured in your followers’ outcomes.
By studying relevant data (sales volumes, costs, productivity, and profitability) and having teams utilize self-assessment tools, you can get both broad-based and specific insights into your leadership ability. Try providing your teams with questionnaires, conducting interviews and having group discussions to gauge their level of engagement, pride, and understanding of the team’s goals. You’ll gather valuable information that can lead to more effective leadership.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.