7 Ways To Be a More Effective Leader

Effective teams have effective leaders. No matter how good your employees are, poor leadership can drag them down, reduce morale or cause good employees to leave the company. Consider these seven ways you can be a more effective leader.

1. Communicate Effectively

Whether you are operating a fast-food restaurant or a Jackson crane service, your leaders need to be good at effectively communicating with employees. Communication with employees must be honest and transparent. It is better to deliver bad news honestly than to lose employee trust by trying to paint a rosy picture. Not only is honest communication a morale booster, but if leadership sets a good example, employees are more likely to be honest with their own communication.

2. Encourage Growth

Your employees need to feel like their leaders are rooting for them. Leadership should make an investment of time and money in providing employees with opportunities to learn new skills, receive job-related education, and to advance within the company. Whenever leaders do performance reviews, a portion of that review should include instructions about what employees can do to advance their careers.

3. Connect With Your Team

Team leaders need to build real and personal connections with employees. To do this they need to demonstrate empathy, purpose, positivity, compassion, love and humility. Leaders should take the time to get to know their team. It is important to find out what team members are interested in, what they think their strengths and weaknesses are, their hobbies and preferences. This can help leaders understand what motivates their team and what their goals are. The best leaders take advantage of their team's individual talents.

4. Stay Positive

When leaders have a negative attitude about the company or a situation, employees tend to adopt that attitude. The reverse is also true. Whenever negative situations arise, leaders should make an effort to stress the positives. When people focus on what they like about a bad situation, the things they do not like do not seem as bad. Conversely, if all the focus is on the bad things, people tend to forget about the things they do like. It is important to focus on solutions, rather than problems.

5. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Employees become extremely frustrated when they do not understand what is expected of them. It is important to carefully and clearly explain company, team and individual goals and what the employee is expected to do to achieve those goals. When choosing goals, it is important to include employee feedback. It is also important to make sure employees understand how achieving these goals impacts the company as a whole. When employees feel like goals are just arbitrary numbers, they are less likely to be engaged. Periodically revisit goals and adjust them as needed.

6. Educate Instead of Giving Orders

It is better to show employees what they need to do than to simply bark orders at them. Employees who have been coached to make good choices and take ownership of their work produce better results than employees who are micromanaged and told exactly what they should do and how they should do it. When you provide orders instead of education, employees never learn to do their jobs without a constant stream of new orders.

7. Provide Direct Feedback

Direct, honest, feedback is the best way to improve your team's performance. If you try to soften the blow by beating around the bush, your team will just be confused. Be sure to celebrate successes, but also be honest about failures. Keep criticism constructive and focused on how an employee can improve. Try to highlight what the employee did well while pointing out the areas that need improvement.

Leadership plays a vital role in the performance of employees. Good leaders make all of their team members better. Bad leaders can tank even the most promising team. These tips can help you improve the leadership at your organization.