Being a leader in the workplace can be challenging at times. As a leader, it is your job to inspire, cultivate ideas, and create an environment that can maximize productivity. Doing all of that can be easier said than done unless you implement effective leadership strategies. The following are the top leadership strategies that you should be applying in your workplace.
Be a Role Model
Your employees will look at you as an example. The actions that you emit throughout the workplace should be actions that you want to see among your employees. If you want your employees to arrive on time, arrive at your workplace well before your scheduled time. If you want your employees to be respectful, treat all of your employees with the same courtesy. Showing that you are a team player and play by the same rules will show others that even you are part of a collective group rather than a dictatorship.
Celebrate Success
Employees want to be recognized for their work and what they have accomplished. Highlighting their achievements is essential. By recognizing employees achievements, it helps to instill a sense of value as well as the commitment to their line of work. The more encouragement or “rewards” they receive will help to motivate your employees to continue to excel with work. Whether you verbally acknowledge your employee’s achievements or give physical incentives, it helps to maintain the drive to work well.
Establish a Collective Identity
Distributing responsibility to your team helps to build a collective identity. By giving all of the work to one team member, the other members of your team will you favor one member over the other, or have a lack of faith in others. By spreading out the responsibility amongst all of the members, it helps to form a collective impact which according to Rajeev Bhardwaj of entrepreneur.com “is much more than increased productivity and employee satisfaction. The impact is on the overall personality of people who work for the organization”.
Know When to Challenge
As a leader, you have to help the members of your team from time to time. While being helpful is a great characteristic allow your members to figure out solutions for themselves. Holding their hand every step of the way will waste your time as well as prove to be unbeneficial in improving their skill set. Amanda Augustine, a career expert for TopResume explains, “If you continually coddle your employees, you’ll be forced to always provide the marching orders, hindering your team from developing further.”
Keeping these leadership strategies in mind will help you become an active leader and lead your team to greatness.