What Makes You a Leader

We help to grow the leadership.    

It’s easy to be in charge of people, but being a leader is more difficult. There’s a huge difference between the two, and understanding how to change from simply being a boss to being a leader can be a confusing challenge. Very few people have the opportunity to be leaders when they’re growing up. When you get into a leader role, you’re expected to have this ability.

As a result, many don’t know how to be in leadership positions. The real key to being a good leader is how you think about leading people. There are plenty of different ways to go about that, but there are a couple of changes you can start to make now.

We vs. Me

The biggest change you can make to your mindset is to stop viewing your employees as separate from you. You should be their colleague, not their boss. You all work for the same company, and as such, you all have similar goals. The way you play out those goals may differ, but you are all on the same team. Therefore, their accomplishments are yours, as are their failures. As the leader, they come first, not you. Putting them ahead of you makes them put you first in their minds, giving back what you gave them.

Respect vs. Fear

How many times have you had a boss that just wanted to intimidate people? Unless this is your first job ever, you’ve probably run into that more than once. While using fear can be effective now, it does little to make people want to stay and work. Respect, as opposed to fear, is a long-term motivator, and causes people to want to work for you, instead of just getting through it.

For example, if children are afraid of you, their motto simply becomes “don’t get caught.” On the other hand, if they respect you and value your opinion of them, they will work harder simply because they want to. You have become important to them, and that is a much larger motivator than fear.

Develop vs. Use

Are you simply waiting to see what the next project is that trickles down the pipe, and then assigning it based on what’s been done before? That’s a great strategy for tools, but people aren’t tools. They can do anything, and they can learn new skills.

A boss leaves personal development to the employee. They don’t offer opportunities to learn or improve at work, which makes it difficult for people to feel fulfilled or like they’re making any progress. In turn, if they accidentally stumble onto a promotion, they may be less prepared to take on the additional responsibilities.

Today’s job force consists of millennials who are hungry for job development. They want to learn new skills and be prepared. Leaders will treat their employees as people who are always on the verge of a promotion. Offering classes, seminars and working to get people invested in other areas of the company are great ways to expand an employee’s range of skills. It helps make them feel more accomplished and like they’re moving forward at work, even without an actual promotion.

Empathy vs. Indifference

Sure, sometimes you have employees who are flakes. Sometimes they simply don’t want to work and put in the effort. However, more often than not, people actually want to work, but something is stopping them. Whether the reason is personal or professional, the key is to realize that people need to have their needs met in order to do their best. Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand how you can help. Making an effort, however small, can make the difference.

Now vs. Later

Long-term thinking can really set bosses and leaders apart. Leaders look at what kind of benefits could this person bring to the table. A boss might be more concerned with meeting this week’s sales quota or getting the budget balanced immediately. A leader, however, will understand that this week’s quota is low because someone is working to land a major client, or that the budget can’t be balanced this instant because a new system is still working to pay for itself.

Working to become a leader is hard, especially if you haven’t had the chance to work at it before. However, just like understanding that your employees can learn new skills, so can you. Treat yourself like you’d like to treat your employees, and the results will follow.

The real key to being a good leader is how you think about leading people.