Leadership refers to a management quality that allows a manager to lead, guide and monitor the manpower assigned under him. Workforce or human resources management is not the only priority of a leader. A leader has to maintain the balance between workforce, production process, materialistic resources etc. That is why business organizations are always trying to hire a professional with great leadership skills or train one among them to be the ideal leader. But no matter which way a leader is assigned in a position, there is always room for improvement. And we will walk you through the best ways to improve leadership skills in the workplace.
Develop Situational Awareness
A leader can have all the skills in the world but in the practical world, in the workplace, the managers are always facing new sets of scenarios as the industry is unpredictable. Thus, developing situational awareness is the ultimate way to become the most effective leader. It is to make thyself aware that anything is possible and be prepared for every diverse and adverse situation. Great research and observation skills help develop these characteristics. This way the leader can anticipate the situation before it arrives and can give precise direction regarding it.
Practice Discipline in the Chain of Command
The chain of command in a business organization refers to the hierarchy of authority. The workforce layout is arranged according to the length of decision-making power. The chain starts with workers followed sequentially by the supervisor, then the head of the department, general manager, CEO, President, board of directors and the owners. And keeping the practice of the command chain discipline is a way to maintain the workplace environment peaceful and productive. To enforce the discipline, workshops, divisional motivation, strict rules and deadline control makes a very viable difference. The discipline helps keep the company on track. No worker would have the best to deny orders and the heads of the department would be able to know the capacity of their employees. Thus, an effective and more productive work environment will be formed to improve leadership skills in the workplace.
Developing a Clear and Effective Communication System
Communication can never be one-sided. And workers and employees should always feel the need to report their work and justify their actions to the leader. A good leader makes the workplace a safe place for the workers to express their work-related updates. Listening is a big part of this process. If the employees feel that they are being able to communicate with the authority they are free of insecurity and put out their best work and follow the orders. And the leader is able to be well aware of what is happening in their company precisely. But how does that make the leadership improve? Well, the leader who has better communication with every internal and external party of the company has a better grip of the organizational activity. It allows the leaders of the company to keep records on everything and everyone and keep the coordination accordingly.
Practice Positive Moral Traits
The moral traits a leader should practice is empathy, positivity, confidence and transparency. Empathy is what helps a leader to create a deeper bond with the employees. The loyalty created through spreading positivity and empathy is hard to break. A leader who can achieve that has the strongest team. And the confidence of the leader and transparency of production process and decision making and any other aspects gives the leader and the workers a sense of security. This is how workplace leadership is improved. It also includes delegation and humility. Delegation is the key aspect that helps to manage, monitor and control the activities of the employees. And humility is the showcase of modesty and generosity on their part. These are some qualities to be practiced in the workplace just to capture the essence of ideal leadership. The workforce looks up to a leader and is happy to follow the leader who has these skills. This makes the leadership not better, but the best.
Create a Motivating Environment
Motivation is like a magic trick for business organizations. If motivated properly, the organization can achieve the unbelievable goal. That is why a leader must develop the correct motivational policy in the workplace environment. Some work better under the influence of positive motivation, which offers moral support, encouragement and additional intensives and personal security. Whereas some only work their best under pressure and negative motivations, which comprises thorough monitoring, positive punishments and penalties. A leader can develop to understand this by observing everyone’s work and keeping records of who works how.
Be Open to Learning and Following
A leader is not omnipotent. They are just humans in the place of authority in a business organization and there is no limit or even end of learning. A leader must be open to learning new skills and business structures and processes. It will only enrich their skills and the organizational productivity and nothing else. Another thing that is most effective to improve leadership is to learn to follow the authority as well as the disciple. Taking suggestions from an employee working under them and letting them lead to their ideas is a very great way to improve leadership skills inside an organization. The employees think the leader is reliable and the process of production just gets better.
Create a Helpful Environment
The reason to make this a workplace practice is because the dependency and reliability needed to be top-notch inside the organizational components. Even between departments. Leaders themselves need create this environment where they provide assistance for and give helpful insights as well as practical work, also encourage workers to help each other and not just in the same department. A helpful environment also creates a sense of security created by the leader. When everyone feels like they have a system where everyone gets each other’s back in time of need, they work at their best selves and the resources are well used.
Learn to Resolve Conflicts like a Visionary
There are many ways to resolve a conflict and a leader who has a common idea of all of them Is what makes a leader efficient and effective. The best two ways to resolve conflict are making the involved parties work together in harmony or separate them in different divisions. And to know which way would be the most convenient a leader has to know every possible detail. Once the conflict is resolved, the workplace is optimized. This is how leaders can improve their leadership skills. Conflicts can be between internal and external components as well. Like between the company agent and customer or the factory agent and supplier. Even the conflict created between the board of directors and stakeholder is also a viable scenario that can often occur. A leader who has the patience and research tolerance for sitting down and coming up with solutions is set out for running a great business with great leadership. These conflicts are highly resolvable by getting to the root. Like getting a new supplier that is more susceptible to deal with. Satisfy customers through better customer service through another employee or thyself and of course sitting down with the board of directors and letting the stakeholders know their interest is kept by actual numeric details. These are the result of thorough research and determination what makes a leader improved version of themselves.
Bottom Line
So, these are some ways a leader can improve her/his activities in the workplace. The role of a leader is multitasking based. They have to make sure everything runs smoothly keeping the employees happy and the stakeholders satisfied as well as the customers. Thus the need of improving leadership skills in the organizational is not a luxury, it is a necessity. And the most effective ways like motivation, communication, discipline, empathy and transparency have been described promptly in this article.
This is Tabassum Nusrat Soti and she is a content writer from Bangladesh. She has been a professional writer for over 5 years now. and she has been working with The Strategy Watch for over 3 years now.
Writing is Tabassum’s passion. Let it be SEO-efficient blog posts, analytical articles, reviews, news articles, or ghostwriting stories, she has worked and thrived in all sorts of writing. She has always had a way with words and intends to write for a prolonged unforeseeable future.
Currently, she is doing her honors (BBA) at the University of Dhaka. Majoring in the background of Tourism & Hospitality Management, she is a skilled and proactive third-year student. Her business studies background helps her write business analytic articles for The Strategy Watch. She will always keep learning and achieving new levels of content writing because of her passion for writing and creating words.