Some would probably say Leadership and Management are the same, do you? I have learned over the years that they are different and for every person in a field that works with others have very different styles, some aggressive, some passive, some passive aggressive, some are team players, others are not. Which are you?
Do you inspire others to get where you are and beyond? Or do you hoard information, in the hopes that if you know more your job is secure? Are you seeking more knowledge about how to deal with people and not getting anywhere? For the last few years I have used many different styles of leadership and management, here are the top five that have worked for me, they apply to both leadership and management and hopefully help you get more out of your team and co-workers alike:
Take Time to Listen
Our days are filled with extreme work loads, headaches at home, and the hassles of everyday life-we all have bad days. If you see that one of you team members is having “issues” and it is reflecting in their work and disturbing others around them, take them aside (preferably in a private office or break room), ask them what the problem is and listen to what they say. Nine times out of ten it is not as bad as what they think it is, it could be as simple as having trouble with day care or as complicated as coming up with money to pay off bills. By simply listening to them and offering to help them find a solution will pay you back in dividends ten fold. Now they see you care about their personal well being and when you ask them to do something you can expect quicker results and more productivity from them.
Give Your Team a Vision
Let your team know what is expected of them, show them the big picture as a team how they contribute to your organization, then show them individually, if they know what they are doing has a purpose, a goal, or an objective to meet they will work harder to help you accomplish it.
Learn What Tools You Have
None of us are perfect and mistakes can happen, build a team concept of working smarter not harder. Many companies do not use all their tools to their full extent. For example a company may deal with a lot of different excel spreadsheets, but do not know that access can make them easier to maintain, build better reports, graphs, and have one area for a large amount of data just to name a few. Learn what tools you have available to you. As you learn them pass on what you learn to your team or co-workers. This will make the work place more fun and they will want to come to work.
Deal With Conflict Quickly
As soon as you know there is a problem deal with it. Don't wait and put it off, the sooner the conflict is resolved the better for the team or others working around them. Not everyone is going to get a long, solving the problem may be as easy as moving the person to another team or work area, the idea is deal with conflict immediately and to take appropriate action, if your team sees that you have low tolerance for conflict but work fairly to resolve them they will trust you and let you know before a conflict does a rise.
Recognize Individuals or Team
We all want to be acknowledged for the work we do, a simple thank you, gift card to Starbucks or healthy bonus (we all want more money don't we?) or a certificate, anything that says job well done. Make a big deal out of it; others will work harder in hopes of getting the same recognition. If you reward big, you get big results.
I wish you great success and a life of fulfillment.
