Research has shown that employees care a lot about their managers and that the most common reason that causes unhappiness in the workplace is poor management. A good leader is not someone who runs a company or that is responsible for a division or department. Also, it is not someone who managed to excel in his/her industry of interest at a young age or someone who has the ability to staff a company with the appropriate personnel.
The term “effective leadership” differentiates a great leader from an average one. In this kind of leadership, you can have happy employees working for you and bringing results that reach the company’s goals. But, great leadership can offer much more to an organization. Great leaders can inspire, motivate and set the example for the other employees. They have the ability to make other people want to learn more, do more, achieve more and, in general, bring the best out of them. But what are the habits that great leaders have?
Put emotional intelligence over IQ
High emotional intelligence is connected to strong leadership skills. People who have the privilege of a high EQ have better communication skills and a better understanding of their emotions, as well as others’. This skill can help you address messages in a way that is easily understood by your discussant, according to their behavior and needs. People’s emotions are very important for the well-being of a company and a great leader knows how to handle them.
Admit you were wrong sometimes
Mistakes are common for every person and a leader is no exception. The worst thing you can do when you realize you were mistaken about something is to hide it or pretend like nothing happened, as you don’t care about it. But, this reaction can send a totally wrong message to your employees who will probably react the same way in a similar situation. What you have to do is admit your mistake, find out what went wrong and use that particular incident as a chance to learn from it. If you practice that method, so will your team members.
Be a planning guru
Great leaders will never let themselves to run the chance of risking something, just because they did not make the appropriate planning. They organize and create strategies in advance and, then, they start implementing their decisions. Of course, they plan the overall business plan of a project and set milestones and they, also, make sure that the company is heading towards the right direction. If this isn’t happening, they will make the appropriate changes, to reach the desirable result.
Know how to remain calm
In business, things can easily go wrong and they will. But a good leader has adopted some techniques that will help him and his team, get over those situations calmly and serenely. Most of the times, mindfulness techniques are the ones that will help in difficult moments: exercising, having a balance between work and personal life, devoting time to friends or family, taking a walk etc. The aforementioned techniques can help them take their time to organize their thoughts and then come up with a solution to the problem they are facing.
Being a good leader is partly a charisma, but mostly it requires developing and caring to become better daily for yourself, as well as for your team and coworkers.
