There are some people I’m this world who are just born with leadership skills, they know how to adapt to a leadership position and they have all of the raw makings of a great leader. There are others however, much like myself, who need to be taught and work on their leadership skills. I was very lucky to work under Mark Gilbert ATN boss and a true mentor, who is also one of those people who was born to lead. During my tenure with Mark he taught me a great many tips about being a true leader which have served me well in my career. If you would like to improve your leadership skills, here is how you can be a better leader.
Care
One of the most important attributes which a leader must have is being caring, they should care about the people they are leading, they should care about the purpose of what they are doing and they should care about the team as a whole. Without caring about what you are doing you cannot lead with efficiency.
Drive
Even on the days you are not feeling motivated you have to be the most driven person in your team. The energy which you give to the task or the project filters through the team and they will follow your example. If you are not passionate ad driven each and every day, you cannot expect those who you are leading to be either.
Presence
This who you are leading should be able to see you and the worst thing that you can do as a leader is to lock yourself away in an office and deal only with assistants or middle management. This is not to say that you must be an all-hands-on-deck type of figure, but you should be present and available to your team when they need you.
Consistent
As a leader there are times when you should punish and there is a time when you should praise and whichever one you are doing it is essential that you do so with consistency. If you punish two people differently for the same thing then the team will question your loyalty and it can divide the ranks, and the same thing goes for lauding praise on someone.
Inspire
One of the key features of any type of leader is that they know how to inspire their team and within that there is the tough to learn skill of understanding how to motivate different characters within the team. Some people need to have a goal to aim for in order to be inspired, some people may need a fire lit underneath them to get motivated. It is your role to identify how to inspire each of your team and do so in a way that gets them up for the challenge.
Be nice, be available, be strong and consistent and know your team so that you can be the best leader that you can be.