Leadership is an action, not a position. It’s what a leader does today that will make a great difference in their future.
Whether you’re coaching a basketball team, managing a start-up or moving up the ranks of a Fortune 500 company, successful habits are the key to great leadership.
Here are the 10 habits that I encourage all my clients to practice every day until they become daily discipline.
Promoting your vision. Keep a clear vision of where your organization is going in front of your people on a daily basis. When you do, they’re not only more motivated but also more effective since their work stays connected to your shared strategic goals.
Managing priorities. The better you can prioritize the things you have to do, the better you can focus your efforts on the things that matter most. Without clear priorities, you’ll end up spending significant time and energy on unimportant tasks.
Delegating tasks. Leaders by nature want to do things for themselves, but learning to delegate when necessary is important. It controls your workload, develops your employees, and enables your team to achieve its goals quicker, produce better results and accomplish more than you ever could on your own.
Motivating change. If your team is working on the premise If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, you have an organization that is stagnant and stuck. A key role of strong leadership involves constantly and consistently motivating change—for individuals, for teams, and for the entire organization.
Generating urgency. When you instill a sense of urgency within yourself, you motivate yourself to deliver on results. Without it, you may find yourself procrastinating, doing halfhearted work and struggling to get tasks and projects done on time. Urgency is your best weapon against daily distractions.
Communicating clearly. Good communication is a foundational element for successful leadership. Your followers look to you for vision and direction; if they can’t understand what you’re trying to communicate, they won’t know what to do and performance will suffer.
Listening actively. Good listening is among the best skills you can cultivate. It means intentionally focusing and listening to understand, then following up with open-ended questions that start with what, how, or why. It means moving beyond your own point of view and checking your own understanding for accuracy.
Managing risk. Successful leaders are always scanning the horizon for risks as well as opportunities—or for the two in combination, as they often are. Learn the art of constantly weighing costs and benefits, probabilities and prospective outcomes.
Acting decisively. Good leadership means controlling any impulse toward impatience and reactivity on the one hand, and overthinking and delay on the other. They work to ensure that their understanding of the problem is complete, then take strong action and never look back.
Empowering others. Part of your job as a leader is to help your people develop into a team of top players. People grow when they own their decisions, hold themselves accountable for outcomes, and directly experience the consequences of their actions. Successful leaders see and bring out greatness in others.
Lead from within: When you can do these things on a daily basis, you will be not only an effective leader but likely a successful one too.
N A T I O N A L B E S T S E L L E R
The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness
After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.
Additional Reading you might enjoy:
- 12 Successful Leadership Principles That Never Grow Old
- A Leadership Manifesto: A Guide To Greatness
- How to Succeed as A New Leader
- 12 of The Most Common Lies Leaders Tell Themselves
- 4 Proven Reasons Why Intuitive Leaders Make Great Leaders
- The One Quality Every Leader Needs To Succeed
- The Deception Trap of Leadership
Photo Credit: iStock Photo
Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.