By LESLIE ROHONCZY, Executive Coach (PCC), Integral Master Coach (IMC); Author of Coaching Life: Navigating Life’s Most Common Coaching Topics
1. Become a leader for the right reasons
Make sure your main motivation is about developing others to be the best versions of themselves. Striving for a title is about you. Inspirational leadership is about serving your employees.
2. Speaking truth to power
The higher you rise in the leadership ranks; the less comfortable employees will be to tell you what they really think. Make it safe for them to tell you the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to hear.
3. Get to know your leadership ‘presence’
How you show up really matters. Look for the ‘shining eyes’ in your people, as evidence that they are inspired and engaged. If you don’t see their engagement, ask yourself who YOU are being as a leader, that your employees are not engaged.
4. It’s not all up to you
Don’t expect yourself to have all the answers, or to be right every single time. Be humble and understand that you don’t have to make all the decisions, it’s not your job to make everyone happy, and you don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. It’s not all up to you.
5. Be authentic
It’s a lot easier to be your authentic self than to keep track of multiple versions of yourself curated for different audiences. People are much better at sniffing out a phony than we may realize. Walk your talk; share your values; be transparent about what you think and how you feel.
6. Grow your people
Leaders get their work done through others, so build your people, not your empire. Delegate assignments with the intention to develop someone; to give them profile and recognition; to let them prove something to themselves; to help them build a new skill and experience. Don’t delegate just to get more shit done.
7. Grow your leadership EQ
It will serve you, your employees, and your bottom line much better than your IQ ever will. Accept that you’re never done learning. Invest in, grow, and regularly update your leadership toolbox. And make the time to get to know the humans who work for you. They will teach you the most valuable leadership EQ lessons.
8. Create a psychologically safe environment
If there’s lack of trust on your team, you may have a ‘nice problem’: people not willing to challenge each other or to share their questions, failures, or ideas (a.k.a. cordial hypocrisy). Make your team a judgment-free zone where employees (and leaders) can be vulnerable, fail and learn, experiment, share authentic results, and mentor each other.
9. Get out of the weeds
This is especially important at higher levels of leadership. If you love the weeds, then do the weeds work and accept that leadership is probably not for you. And don’t confuse management (planning, organizing, supervising, controlling) with leadership (inspiring your people to contribute their best).
10. Lead by example – always
Modelling behaviors can inspire employees to embrace change, innovate, and improve. Modelling accountability can increase clarity, transparency, and engagement. Modelling self-care can help with employee wellbeing and retention.