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To be a good leader there are seven
leadership skills that you will need to posses. These seven
leadership skills are
1. Thinking strategically
2.
Creating passion for your vision
3. Being a good
manager
4. Performance managing when required
5. Be in
the business of employee service
6. Communication,
communication, communication
7. Feedback, Feedback,
Feedback
Thinking strategically
A good leader is strategic with their
thinking, they understand what result business is trying to
achieve and how the business to achieve these results. They
will ensure all of their decisions and actions are consistent
with the vision.
They don't react to the day-to-day
noise in their business, instead, they seek systematic and
strategic solutions that not only resolve today's problems but
also prevent future problems from
occurring.
Further, a good leader will
continually scan for things that are out of their control
including changes in their operating environments. When they
see a change in their environment that might stop them from
achieving their results, they will quickly develop contingency
plans to ensure that the things they cannot control do not
stop them from meeting or exceeding their targets.
Creating passion for your vision
A good leader, at any level in the
business will have a vision, this vision is like a fire that
burns inside them, it is the source of their passion. They
discuss their vision at every opportunity,
By reinforcing the vision they are
ensuring it becomes important in the minds of their people,
importance drives passion, the more a leader refers to their
vision the more employee passion will grow for the
vision.
Being a good manager
What makes a good leader? Well, you
need to start by being a good manager.
And, what is a good manager? Simply
put a good manager knows the numbers.
For example, they know how
-
how much work there is to
do
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how long it takes
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how many people are required to do
the work
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how much work the team completed
yesterday, and
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how productive their people
were
-
how much revenue came
in
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what it cost to generate the
revenue
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how their expenses stack up
against best practice
A good manager also has strong
discipline, they always follow up and they meet their
commitments.
Performance managing when
required
A good leader surrounds themselves
with good people, they do not accept inferior performance, and
while they coach and mentor to improve performance, they make
the required tough decisions to resolve performance issue.
Be in the business of employee
service
Whatmakesagoodleader.com has developed
the term "Employee
Service" to provide the required context
for leaders. What makes a good leader? ..... A good leader is
someone who is committed to providing their employees with the
service that their people deserve.
So, what is employee service?
Employee service is a commitment from
the leader to provide the employee with a high level of
service to satisfy the employee's needs, Employees have many
needs and by satisfying these needs the leader will engage the
employee's discretionary effort of their people.
Communication, communication,
communication
How much communication? A good leader
provides significantly more communication than is generally
required to complete the employee's job. This additional
communication can include
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changes that are
planned
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financial performance, cost and
revenue
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current productivity or service
levels
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expected future levels of
performance
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changes in other areas of the
business
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business plan highlights
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new customers
-
lost customers
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new competitors or changes with
competitors
They provide context with their
communications, and they repeat their key messages 100 times
in 100 different ways.
Feedback, Feedback, Feedback
A good leader will use feedback to
help reinforce their business priorities, this feedback is
consistent with the leaders
Their feedback is provided freely, and
it matches the contribution of the employee. The leader speaks
more about their people than they do about themselves.
Summary, what makes a good leader?
A good leader acts strategically, they
craft out a vision and refer constantly to their vision, in
their communications and when giving feedback. They are
firstly a good manager and they are focused on their people,
surrounding themselves with good people.
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