10 Ways to Beef up your Leadership Skills

Written by Megan Tough


Continued from page 1

5.Stop providing solutions Managers often achieve their positions after being technical specialists, and so will have an opinion or view on how to "fix" situations or problems. They believe that it's faster to tell someone what to do, or do it themselves, than give their employees an opportunity to figure it out. By always providingrepparttar answers, managers take away opportunity for their employees to learn and come up with alternative (and potentially better) ways of doing things.

6.Always be constructive – always Language and communication skills set great leaders apart from mediocre ones. Don't patronise or be critical of others - take complete responsibility for how you are heard. If you catch yourself about to make negative remarks, take a breath and rephrase your words to get your message across withoutrepparttar 119502 emotional attachment. Great leaders always find a way to say things calmly and constructively.

7.Judge your success byrepparttar 119503 success of your team The true success of a leader can be measured byrepparttar 119504 success ofrepparttar 119505 people that work for them. As a manager of others, your prime responsibility is to ensurerepparttar 119506 success and development of your team. If they are successful, you will automatically be successful. Focus on building their skills and removing obstacles in their way. If you can achieve this, you will seerepparttar 119507 results inrepparttar 119508 productivity, motivation and satisfaction of your employees. This in turn filters through to bottom-line results.

8.Don’t do things just because they will “look good”. Nothing is more transparent than managers who make decisions and behave in ways simply to look good to their superiors. If you want to improve as a leader, one ofrepparttar 119509 qualities you need is integrity. The integrity to make decisions because they are right, andrepparttar 119510 integrity to stand up when you truly believe something is not inrepparttar 119511 best interests ofrepparttar 119512 business. Whether or not it is in your personal best interests is much less of a consideration.

9.Include humour in your diet Nobody likes to work in an environment that is devoid of any fun. People are more productive when they are enjoying themselves. Creating a workplace where fun is permitted and encouraged can make a significant difference, and it’s even more effective whenrepparttar 119513 boss participates. It increases team spirit, and encourages people to see you as a person, not simply asrepparttar 119514 boss.

10.Let people get to knowrepparttar 119515 real you Being open about yourself helps to break downrepparttar 119516 barriers that hierarchy puts in place. When your employees knowrepparttar 119517 person behindrepparttar 119518 façade, that’s when you start to buildrepparttar 119519 foundations of good leadership - trust and respect.

Megan Tough, director of Action Plus, works with small business professionals who are ready to do more than ‘just get by’. Increase your income - decrease your stress! To learn more and to sign up for more FREE tips and articles like these, visit www.megantough.com


Be Careful Who You Condemn

Written by Scott Brown


Continued from page 1

This can be a very destructive culture for a business.

So as a manager, you can’t allow your employees to see you disrespect a customer in any way. As I have already mentioned customers can be wrong – and yes, sometimes even dumb. But that’s not our concern – at least not in this article. It’s your job as a manager to keep your employees focused on finding new ways to keep customers happy and to look for problem areas that upset customers so you can prevent problems inrepparttar future.

It’s no secret that you and your employees are going to have problem customers, but it’s your responsibility to keep your employees focused onrepparttar 119501 fact that they have a job for one and only one reason – to serverepparttar 119502 customer. Without customers, no one has a job.

Keep employees focused on what’s important. The good news is that YOU arerepparttar 119503 one who decides what’s important.



Scott Brown, is an insightful and entertaining speaker on management and customer service and creating a culture of service in organizations throughout the country. He is also the author of “Who Cares? Creating Service The Right Way – The Only Way.” You can subscribe to Scott’s FREE newsletter by visiting www.SBServicePro.com


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use