One of the most valued traits a leader can possess is authenticity. While it can be hard to put yourself out there and be your true self, it will ultimately benefit you, your team, and your business. Authentic leadership creates greater trust which, in turn, leads to stronger teams. It may take time to fully implement the strategies below, but they will undoubtedly unlock and enhance your leadership potential while inspiring and motivating your teams.
Self Awareness
Leadership cannot happen at its best when the leader is not self-aware. You must have the ability to discover your strengths and weaknesses and make conscious efforts to improve. Once you’ve mastered looking at yourself objectively, it’s essential to see how your leadership style impacts your team as a whole, each individual, and the working environment. From there, you can make truly transformative decisions that take your team and leadership to the next level.
Transparency
Leading with transparency leaves no room for confusion and allows everyone involved in a project or goal to know exactly how their work plays a pivotal role. By being open and honest concerning every aspect of your daily work, you increase your credibility, develop a strong sense of trust, and develop deeper relationships. You’ll need the trust of your team, especially when working on complex projects, so it’s best to begin your leadership journey with them in an open, transparent manner.
Balanced Perspective
It might not seem like a major indicator of success, but learning to balance the left and right brain thinking of not only yourself but your team can lead to much better decision making. It allows you and your team to weigh different alternatives instead of getting bogged down with tunnel vision and only seeing one way forward. Staying in touch with both your rational and emotional perspectives leads to creative solutions and innovative leadership, not to mention more chances of outstanding results.
Lead By Example
If you want your team to be successful, look to you for guidance, and increase their productivity, you have to lead by example. If you put in half the work, fail to provide growth opportunities and lack ambition, your team will follow suit. Every time you step into the office you must choose to embody the traits you want to see in your team. Once you’ve established your expectation and shown your team you’re just as committed, if not more so, than they are, they will quickly adjust and show you just how well they can perform.