Life has its many ironies. The more the world moved towards democracy and equality the more the need for good leaders increased, more so than they ever needed during autocratic rule of the yore. Developing leadership skills has therefore become even more imperative with teams looking for guidance and working with open-ended equilibrium at the same time. It takes courage to step out of the ordinary and guide fellow team members towards a goal which speaks of success and benefit of all.
And it takes a great leader to ensure that this journey towards the goal is enriched with creative freedom and flair, with intellectual and cognitive predominance and with equal and optimum motivation for success. Let’s take a look at some ways of developing leadership skills and enhancing the way one can strive towards success.
- Vision – The first step towards becoming a great leader is to envision the goal and share this vision with the team. It is the sign of a true leader when the entire team not only shares the same goal and vision, but works in unison towards achieving it.
- Listen – To guide and lead you need to speak. But before great speech should come deep understanding. And to understand what goes in the minds of fellow team members you have to be a good listener. It is this trait that will make you privy to their potential as well as their aspirations.
- Motivate – Once you know which path you want to proceed on and how to bring out the best in your team, you need to motivate and make them perform to their optimum potential. Motivation leads to respect while fear leads to submission. The latter will show performance without creativity and loyalty while the former will show the best results possible.
- Connect – It is your ability to connect – with the team, with the shareholders, with the clients and with the masses that makes a 360 degree leadership. The right communication, understanding and empathy are not only assets but also imperative for true success.
- Delegate – Only a leader who has complete confidence in the self can trust his team to perform without undue interference. Delegation is by far the most difficult trait to develop because it is not easy to let go when you know you can do the task better yourself. But once you can, you will realize that responsibility leads to better performance and potential leaders on whom you can rely for strategic actions.
The post 5 Leadership Skills Every CEO Should Possess appeared first on The CEO University.
