Leadership and all that jazz
3 ways to develop your leadership skills
- Keep learning!
- Keep listening!
- Keep looking!
Learning keeps you sharp and provides challenges that you won’t get any other way.
Deliberately seeking out learning opportunities that shift you out of your comfort zone or professional expertise, push you to achieve (and occasionally fail) and sometimes have you looking a little different (see the great photo below)….and can give you an enormous sense of achievement and help to build your strength as a leader.
Check out this leadership learning experience
Listening gives you the opportunity to hear others and to create a stronger coaching environment with your staff and your team.
When we work with people on their leadership development, listening often comes up through 360 feedback. Mostly the skill required is being able to listen without thinking about your response while the other person is still talking.
Listening as a skill takes practice and the ability to empty your mind of your own thoughts while you listen.
To be a better listener (and leader) try this:
In your next meeting with someone at work focus on listening. Prepare first by planning to practice listening. Ask questions. Reflect back their key points. Don’t comment unless asked. Thank them. When the meeting is over review what worked well, what could have worked better and how you thought they responded.
Then practice again. And again.
Looking means being open and observant to what is happening around you.
It’s easy for leaders to get wrapped in their own thinking and not see what’s happening for their staff, managers, families and friends.
This can be one reason that leaders get surprised by the “shock” resignation of a colleague or staff member. Or by feedback that they’re seen as arrogant, underperforming or not ready for promotion.
Spending time looking also provides you with the opportunity to identify how people are treating each other, your organisation’s cultural characteristics and how clients are treated. Which all help with your ability to be a successful leader.
One way of looking at what’s going on has been developed by Edgar Schein who provides a tool to identify the elements of culture.
What are your leadership development tips?
What else are you doing to build your leadership skills?
Amanda
