In many ways, leadership ability comes with time. Experience helps people learn the qualities they need to become better managers. However, starting off on a good foot can make a big impact. It’s essential to learn some lessons early because poor leadership can impact your company culture, morale, employee retention and, ultimately, your bottom line, is high.
The impact of good leadership, however, is immeasurable. Fortunately, many lessons can come from proper guidance, which helps you pick up on them and leave room for the lessons that only come from experience. Here are the seven lessons new managers tend to learn too late:
Have Confidence in Your Abilities
That does not, of course, mean that you should be arrogant and "always right." But when somebody is first promoted into a leadership position, they naturally tend to be unsure of themselves. This lack of confidence can cause reduced morale, procrastination regarding vital decisions, and team members also starting to lose confidence.
Training helps new managers feel more as if they know what they are doing, but even more vital is proper mentoring. A good mentoring system not only helps people get used to a leadership role but prepares them before they take it on. One of the best ways to ensure a good culture and high retention is to promote mostly from within. Identifying future leaders and preparing them gives them the confidence they need.
Again, leaders should not think that they have all the answers, but they should not be timid either.
Listen Well; Speak Clearly
One of the most important soft skills for a leader is communication, and that starts with understanding communication goes both ways.
You need to be willing to listen to what your employees have to say. By no means should you take on every idea, of course. But you need to listen well and actively, giving your full attention during those vital one-on-ones. If they have a good idea, consider it. If they have an idea you do not plan to use, make them aware you listened, explain why it won’t work, or offer a compromised solution. Even if their original idea doesn’t work out, involving them in discussing alternative solutions shows you value their input.
The second half is speaking clearly and effectively. All supervisors should receive communication training to ensure that they deliver messages properly. If something you say is misunderstood, then it is on you to clarify and work on improving.
That starts with the basics of learning how to effectively word things, so your meaning is not misconstrued. It is also important never to speak to employees in anger and know when to step back. A good message will hit resentment and resistance if delivered in a way that implies anger, or which belittles the employee. When giving criticism, use the sandwich method of placing it between good things. If you can't think of something good to say, this might be a sign that you need to step back and give it a bit of time before continuing to address the matter.
Good communication means focused listening and clarity of speech. Ensuring your message is understood helps prevent conflict from developing by keeping everyone on the same page about what occurs.
Grow From Your Failures
One of the first things to do is set aside the idea that failure is a terrible, permanent thing to be avoided at all costs. Leaders who hold this attitude will only increase their own levels of stress and create a difficult work environment.
Instead, it’s vital to see failure as an opportunity to learn and do better. You should, of course, learn as much as you can from mistakes made by other people. But when you fail, you need to analyze it, grow from it, and move past it.
For example, if you fail to communicate clearly to an employee, somebody who has a bad attitude towards failure may blame the employee. Or they may decide this is a sign they will never be a good leader. A good leader will sit down with the employee to work out where and how the miscommunication happened, without blame, and learn how to prevent it from happening again.
You will fail sometimes. It's human and inevitable. But to grow personally and professionally, it’s crucial to learn how to pick yourself up quickly and progress to something better.
Have a Positive Attitude
Your attitude will be contagious. If you have a negative attitude and act as if things are going to be bad, then everyone else on your team will too and productivity will drop.
That does not mean you should be all sunshine and rainbows during serious situations, as that can cause conflict. However, you should strive to keep your glass half full. That helps when you need to criticize, because it makes it easier to come up with good things to say to lessen the sting of a reprimand.
When things are bad, you need to stay focused and not give up, so that you can bring everyone else through it and support the morale of your team.
Inspire People to Act
Disengaged employees will often go through the motions, doing no more than they need to do to avoid losing their jobs. Engaging employees can be challenging but learning how to inspire people is a key part of training leadership.
While some people are naturally more charismatic than others, anyone can learn to give inspiration. Poor leadership, like micro-managing employees and or motivating people with threats, only discourages people further. To properly inspire, you must empower your employees and give them the room to work on their terms.
It starts with setting a good example by working hard (but not too hard) yourself. Setting clear goals and expectations also helps ensure that your employees will be willing to act.
Make sure that you do not negatively impact proactive behavior or improvements with your language and reactions. If somebody takes initiative and is wrong, make sure that you are clear that they were not wrong to try even if it did not work. If somebody fixes a problem, do not react with negativity or snark, but only with reassurance and praise.
Stand Up for Your Employees
Loyalty must go both ways. If you want your team to go all the way for you, you need to go to bat for them as needed. A good leader stands up for their employees, both when the conflict is with customers, other teams, or even leaders higher up the chain.
That doesn’t mean you should be lax and let your employees get away with things. Instead, you must prioritize their needs, whether it's working on salary negotiations, negotiating time off, or supporting them if somebody gives them problems.
Part of your primary job is to provide employees with the support they need and sometimes that means taking their corner. It also means not undermining them in front of others and keeping disagreements more private.
If your employees feel that you are on their side in a tough spot, they are more likely to work hard and much more likely to stick around. In today's climate, employees seldom expect loyalty and thus seldom offer it. Most have been in a situation where it was demanded of them with no reciprocation. Standing up for your employees and staying loyal to them is thus one of the best ways to reduce turnover.
Embrace Decisiveness
It can often be hard to make decisions. We have already talked about having confidence in your ability to lead and your knowledge of what to do. More than that, though, you must embrace decisiveness and not be afraid to make the tough choices. All the other leadership traits help with this. For example, seeing failure as an opportunity reduces your fear of making a bad decision and makes it easier to take a risk. Listening to your employees helps you know what the right decision is likely to be.
When you must make a decision, make it well. While you should accept that you may need to change course, you should still make decisions quickly, in an agile way that helps your team adapt. A good leader has the confidence to make the decisions that need to be make.
You must also become accustomed to deciding with few resources available. Trust your intuition and judgment to make tough calls when you have little information at your disposal.
Furthermore, understand that decision fatigue is a serious concern. Learn how to delegate tasks or outsource important but mundane tasks. It may be beneficial to let others make the smaller, inconsequential decisions for you so that you can focus on the higher-level problems. Hiring an assistant, or outsourcing tasks through organizations like PEOs can remove a significant amount of burden and let you focus on what’s truly important.
Lean on Leadership to Grow Your Company
Quality leadership is how you hold a team together and help it grow. That means giving yourself and your leaders (and potential leaders) the proper training to develop these traits before they start working. Leadership skills will then improve over time, but the most important thing is the confidence that you can indeed inspire people, support your employees, speak clearly, and inspire others.
