Being a great leader seems to be a straightforward task because there are no very secret strategies in it. But while great leadership often consists of simple things, many leaders forget to use them for some reason. Yes, the following tips to be a great leader are just the tip of the iceberg. Theory alone is not enough here practical practice is needed here, like everything else in life.
Following Tips to be a great Leader must read
1.Be kind
Never forget that you are dealing with real people, with their struggles and issues. For many leaders, people at work are just more than human hours that need to be managed and improved.
Your team always knows who they are about you, whether they are your people, friends or work hours. And a person’s hour will never help you if you have a problem.
2. Learn to manage
Guiding people is not something that comes naturally to most of us, and I have not yet found really important “leadership lessons”. Fortunately, we have the best we have.
As a leader, you will need to protect the interests of your company. And you will do much better if you know the theory of conversation and understand the psyche of the person you are talking to.
Therefore, a leader needs to read books. Leaders should learn not only about management, but also about psychology, thinking formation, recruitment, negotiation, marketing, project management and economics.
3. Understand what you are managing
Authority can only be gained technically. You have to understand what you are carrying, and this applies to leaders at any level.
For example, in order to lead a development team you need to know a little bit about tools, APIs, similar members, functions and algorithmic complexity. Ideally, you should be an engineer yourself, at least in the past. Not surprisingly, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg were as successful as they were at IT companies – they were able to communicate with people in their own language.
You may not know all the tricks of programming language, especially if you have a large multilingual team, but you should be able to read their codes and know that there are key elements.
Without understanding what you are carrying, you will not be able to properly assess time, risk or cost.
4. Acknowledge your mistakes and those of others
You will not deceive anyone by trying to avoid the bullet. And even more, you will soon lose your authority in the team. Or it may not appear at first.
Public recognition of your mistakes has a truly amazing effect. The team will gain a clear understanding that it is not surprising to make mistakes and that mistakes are common. Once they understand that making mistakes does not mean being ridiculed, they become more confident in their work, more committed and more risky – all of which, over time, provide strong competitive advantage for you and your company.
If people are constantly working out in fear of making a mistake, they will be more conservative, stop trying to establish their own path and will never find new and valuable information.
5. Let the person correct his mistake
There is no need to show “how smart” it is at the expense of exposing one of the worst employees. Instead, it is better to write to the person directly and tell him or her where he or she made a mistake. Discuss the solution, and let them fix it themselves.
There is no need to put people in an awkward position – let them rejuvenate themselves. This will make their work much better over time.
6. Protect your people
It has to be a shield that takes all the impact. No one in the world should have the right to influence your party in the past. If someone wants to criticize your employees, let them do it for you, and you will know what to do within your company.
7. Be honest and talk about the future
Say it as it is. If the project has stopped receiving funding and will soon die, tell them honestly about it. If there are plans to change something, and tell them in advance, and do not put people before the truth.
If the company has plans to reduce staff don’t keep quiet about it. It is better to say later that the plans are not successful than to put people first. If the company plans to increase everyone’s salary, tell them again. It builds trust and increases retention. Not to mention the culture in groups with obvious leadership is always better.
The team should be aware of what is happening in the company and it is best if they learn from you.
8. In a group, everyone should have a decent salary
Sometimes you can’t make the employee’s salary too high in the market. There will always be a high-paying company and a high-paying person. But people need to see that your company has a good salary, so they feel they have enough value for you and your company.
To understand whether a salary is right or wrong, I use this process: Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl. Will I be embarrassed in front of my teammate? If so, their income is not high enough and needs to be adjusted.
This goes the way for a much higher salary. If someone earns more than people in the group might think, is it really a good idea? What if the name comes out?
9. Take the whole case
As a leader, you are responsible for everything that happens. If there is a mistake, you should put the whole blame, and then you can decide what you need to do within the group.
For outsiders, it doesn’t matter who was in charge, but insiders need to feel secure and cared for. Even if you fire a job that you did wrong over time, the team needs to feel that you did not do that because of external pressure, but because of internal intelligence and after careful consideration.
10. Trust your employees
Your employees are highly paid professionals, who you hire because of their knowledge and skills – so trust them. There is no need to re-evaluate their work and there is no need to underestimate what they are doing. In line with that, there is no need to schedule random meetings. 1.5-hour daily meetings are a clear indication of low level of trust. One 10 minute Zoom call or Jira chat is enough.
11. The team must be able to work without you
Pretending to be irresponsible sounds good, but it doesn’t lead to good results. When something happens to you, everything falls apart. Procedures should be designed in such a way that the team can work without you and move smoothly. You know that you achieved this when you were not distracted during two weeks of vacation.
This does not make you a useless person. On the contrary – it shows that you have been able to build processes in such a way that they do not have failure points.
12. The team should not have replacements
This is not just about you, it is about everyone. Well, maybe someone is better at certain jobs, so there is a temptation to give him these jobs. But this is a dangerous approach. Anything can happen to people. For example, when my senior system manager was hit by a car. We had instructions and access, but suddenly we no longer had anyone who could do the job properly. It took our smartest boys for half a year to understand what to do and how to do it.
So, try to get around the tasks. Yes, one may go a little further and be worse off in this job, but now one employee will understand how we can complete that task and try something new a double profit.
In the same way, find someone with whom you can do your work: Assign them a portion of your duties and teach them. Your determination should always be right. It has saved me many times.
13. Respect boundaries
Do not seek out your own time and place for your employees. Do not actively campaign for any group structure. People will want to have fun outside of work anyway, and they will do that without us being “scared today”.
Holidays are a sacred time. If someone needs to constantly call someone on vacation – do something wrong.
14. Collect the answer
Ask the group from time to time what they like or dislike and what they would like to change. You can do it individually, you can do it collaboratively or you can do it anonymously. Better yet, all of the above: Maybe some people in your group are shy or cautious, but they still want to be listened to.
15. Keep in touch even after the employee has left
You can start a new company, or maybe a new place will open up. If they are no longer in your company, this is not a reason to stop communicating, sometimes even vice versa. Try to keep in touch, in the future you will probably need some of them as well.
Always ask about their stories and ask if they would like to return. One might be disappointed with his new employer and be embarrassed to ask you to try to get back.
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