You know when you are next to a great leader. You desire to be as influential and balanced as that person. But you might not know what exactly makes these exceptional leaders. So, pay close attention, for here are some secrets behind the enchantment these people cause, and you’ll see it’s no magic. In fact, according to Jeff Haden, the best leaders…
1. Forgive and forget mistakes
When an employee makes a mistake, especially a big one, it’s easy to punish. However, exceptional leaders are able to step back, set aside a mistake, and think about the whole employee. Because they know that viewing any employee through the lens of one incident may forever impact how they treat that employee. Therefore, the wisest strategy is to give the person another chance to surprise, until expectations are renewed.
2. Encourage employees to learn their own lessons
It’s a lot harder to let employees learn their own lessons, even though the lessons we learn on our own are the lessons we remember forever. Exceptional leaders don’t scold or dictate; they work together with an employee to figure out what happened and what to do to correct the mistake. Great employees don’t need to be scolded or reprimanded. They know what they did wrong. So exceptional leaders direct their employees to find out what happened and what to do to correct the error.
3. Find out what excites to people
Leaders investigate to understand why pseudobosses emerge. Sometimes they take over projects or roles without approval or justification. Sometimes they jockey for position, play political games, or ignore company objectives in pursuit of personal goals. When that happens, it’s easy to assume they don’t listen or don’t care. But almost always there’s a deeper reason: They feel stifled, they feel they have no control, they feel marginalized or frustrated — or maybe they are just trying to find a sense of meaning in their work
4. Transform company goals into personal goals
For whom will you work harder: a company or yourself? Therefore, Exceptional leaders make their employees feel that what they do will benefit them as much as it does the company. What intellectual and social skills can they develop and prove to the team they have? If the employee sees in the project an opportunity to grow and to be recognized, he/she will strive for a personal purpose, not for a “monthly goal.”
5. Don’t see control as a reward
Many desperate professionals want to become bosses to finally call the shots. Genuine leaders don’t have that priority and are designed to control because, first of all, they are a right arm. Whether for a customer who is disappointed, a salesman who feels cheated, a frustrated colleague. Whatever the problem is, the best leaders know to support their team because, otherwise, the confidence and the authority of the employees will certainly decrease.
6. Know which decisions are up to them
When a decision needs to be made, most of the time the best person to make that decision isn’t the boss, but the employee closest to the issue. One of the hidden virtues of exceptional leaders is the fact that they understand when they are not the right person to take certain decisions. Then, they indicate the right person, not because they want to avoid taking certain decisions, but for humility and prudence, assuming that others know better the context.
7. Allow professionals to give ideas
The collaboration creates a great potential on professional development. The greatest leaders know that, when the teams share their knowledge and doubts, for example, by the way of short talks, the rotation of roles and study groups, great ideas emerge. In addition, employees will not only get closer but will also be more aware of how important listening and questioning is, to learn to communicate and sell the product or service of the company.
8. Go home feeling they could have done better
This is a hidden virtue. You can’t see, but they wish they had treated employees with a little more empathy. Most importantly, they always go home feeling they could have done more to fulfill the trust their employees place in them. And that’s why, although you can’t see, when exceptional leaders pass the door every day, they seal a silent agreement with themselves to make tomorrow a more well-done work than yesterday. And when it comes the new day, it’s what they do.
Exceptional leaders are able to increase the productivity of their team. By simply recognizing the bureaucratic tasks, such as sending emails, making follow-up meetings and filling out timesheets, can be replaced by a management software. Try Runrun.it, the management software used by more than 100,000 companies in the world, for free: http://runrun.it
