Leading Others by Leading Yourself

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Sylvana Rochet, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Decades ago, a great leader might have been described as someone who was revered,

obeyed, and who might have kept his (I use “his” because women leaders who

are recognized as such are mostly a thing of recent times) distance from the

people he oversaw.

Today, leadership manifests itself in entirely new ways. For starters, strong

leaders are now focused on creating good partnerships with their teams, as they

believe this is what will get the best results all around. Gone are the days of the

top-down approach where leaders would make all the important decisions; wise

leaders understand that their greatest strength comes from leveraging all of the

talent, ideas and energy of a team. Their job is to capture those elements and

use them intelligently to achieve the larger goals. Much has been debated when

it comes to elements of good leadership, so I will only share what has worked

well in my experience working with multi-cultural teams, even if these seem

unorthodox by the “old” standards of leadership. Here are some powerful ways to

develop your leadership skills on the job, and you can start right where you are

today.

Make yourself “dispensable”

This means regularly asking yourself questions such as: “If I were to disappear

tomorrow, does my team have all they need to continue moving toward our

objectives, or have I neglected to share information so that I am the only one with

the power? Have I provided them with the tools to grow and operate effectively?

Have I trained other colleagues to do my job? Have I given them a chance to be

accountable for projects, to lead meetings, and otherwise develop their skills and

confidence? In other words, have I been so empowering a force to my team that,

in a larger sense, my team could run without me?

Get “peer mentoring”

We know that great leaders have great mentors, usually people more

experienced, from who they get coaching and guidance. But another way to build

leadership skills is to get mentoring from peers who are roughly at your career

level, have encountered similar challenges recently, and thus will have fresh

experiences and leadership advice to share with you.

Delegate and trust

You might have worked with leaders who constantly complained about being

“overwhelmed”, or always being “buried by email”, yet not taking up the offers

from their team members to help them. This is counter productive and will likely

make you look like you do not know how to leverage a team’s talents well, and

are a poor time manager. Once you’ve gotten to know your team members’

strong points, why not let them take on new projects that they want to participate

in? Delegate, support and let them take responsibility for their mistakes along the

way. It will not only build their skills, but also build your capacity as a leader who

is capable of supporting and trusting others to do the job.

Be “real”

If your organization or department is going through a challenging time and

employees are anxious or demoralized, there is no sense in pretending that

“everything is okay”, or not talking about it with your team, or rolling your eyes

and telling them to “suck it up, because this is a hard time and we’re all

struggling”. That may actually increase the resentment among your team, and

cause your most qualified staff to start looking elsewhere. Instead, as a leader,

be honest and share about what the experience is like for you, convey that you

understand this is a less than ideal situation for all involved, and create space for

your team to fully air out their concerns. Once you have given them the chance to

vent, and shared your own feelings and empathy, they will be much more open

and receptive to get back to finding solutions together. At that point, you can

propose to work on one or two specific, immediate projects that will get the team

excited and committed again. You can also take the time to touch base with each

of them to discuss how you can continue supporting their individual growth during

the difficult period which, in some instances, may last a few months, or even over

a year. Nothing gains the respect of your team members more than showing that

you care about their individual goals, while reaching for excellence as a team.