Anyone can be placed in a leadership position, but to be effective and prosper in that capacity, great leadership qualities are required. People that fill their most sought-after executive positions are often practitioners of recurrent habits. Here is the list of 25 skill building habits that successful leaders practice consistently to stay ahead of the curve:
Value Creation Planning
In this globalized business world where change is the only constant factor businesses have to constantly push their boundaries in order to come up with innovative ideas and solutions. It takes a special kind of leadership to maintain our bearings in these situations and to choose actions without knowing in advance if they will work. Leaders must schedule time on a regular basis to organize their thoughts and ideas. They should also draft out their new ideas in a more relaxed environment which can be altered from time to time.
2. Morale Building
Cohesion is essential for a successful organization. Only competent leaders with effective management skills can lead a company to success by putting all leadership skills training in people management to use. Bringing individuals together from various origins and ideologies can be difficult. Team building can assist you in identifying shared interests among your team members, resulting in better teamwork. When a group works well together, productivity increases, goals are met faster, better ideas are generated, and attrition is reduced, resulting in the retention of talent within the organization. Finally, when a company's executives have good team-building skills, the company saves money on acquiring and training new employees.
3. Fairness (Keeping your word)
To acquire their employees' trust, leaders must be trustworthy. It takes a regular practice of being aware of unconscious biases. When leaders practice the art of being unbiased about every little thing teams become more engaged as trust is built easily.
4. Creating a Collaborative Environment
Great Leaders are the foundation for a collaborative environment. Building good working relationships with the employees is by far the most important skill a leader must practice. Good working relationships increase employee engagement, productivity and make employees satisfied with their jobs. It also decreases absenteeism and encourages employees to be more effective while working.
5. Flexibility
Effective leadership must be able to adapt to change - even if it involves going outside of one's comfort zone - so that industry shifts do not leave leaders behind and their businesses remain competitive. Staying on the cutting edge gives leaders a better advantage over the rest.
6. Decision- Making
The process of decision making is a crucial habit for every leader. A leader is always required to make decisions. To be a great leader, you must have excellent decision-making abilities. Critical decisions that have a major impact on your organization must be sound, sensible, and solid. In truth, your leadership actions will decide your - and possibly your company's - success. To persuade others affected by the process, you must stick by your conclusions and be confident in them.
7. Understanding Organization's Values
Recognize and promote the ideals that your company promotes. It is critical that you adopt them since they should serve as the foundation for all of your company decisions. A leader must ensure that the values are reflected throughout the organization.
8. The power of Design Thinking - the process for customer / employee focus
Intelligent decision-makers, critical thinkers are extremely analytical and always rational. These qualities are necessary for the company to achieve its objectives. A leader must be able to hold steadfast in his convictions. Because he is a critical thinker, it is reasonable to expect that every decision he takes has been thoroughly researched, objectively analyzed, and all possible consequences have been considered, and that his final decision is the best course of action.
9. Effective Communication
Having good communication skills is an essential leadership competency. Good communication encourages cooperation, enhances negotiating outcomes, and promotes the development of strong internal connections.
10. Effective Planning and Time Analysis
Employers continue to strive for great time-management abilities due to the fast-paced, highly competitive nature of business. In today's businesses, time is becoming increasingly valuable. Workloads can quickly accumulate, and it can be intimidating to consider how much time you will need to complete your tasks. Without the proper time management skills, a leader can easily become overwhelmed and burn out.
11. Embracing Cultural Differences
Cultural intelligence is defined as "the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across cultures." Employers are becoming increasingly interested in cultural intelligence as the global economy grows. With the constant requirement to work with peers from all around the world, this managerial ability is essential.
12. Commit to your own Responsibility
The task that comes with your job is referred to as responsibility. If you accept responsibility for your actions, you demonstrate good and effective leadership qualities. The more senior you are in an organization, the more responsibility you have. You take responsibility for your subordinates' conduct.
13. Prompt Responsiveness
Giving timely and relevant feedback to your staff is an important part of having effective communication skills. The capacity to provide feedback to appreciate, recognize, correct, or even criticize staff is one of the most important leadership skills today.
14. Conflict Resolution
Conflict can arise in a variety of business settings. A conflict is defined as any disagreement between two or more people that has the potential to impede productivity. Business conflict can extend outside the workplace, involving consumers, suppliers, and even competitors. A competent leader should be able to leap in and resolve or at least moderate a disagreement before it has a detrimental impact on the firm. When handled correctly, a conflict might even be beneficial to your organization.
15. Negotiation
In the business world, negotiation skills are important in both informal day-to-day interactions and formal transactions such as negotiating conditions of sale, lease, service delivery and other legal contracts. A professional business negotiator with effective negotiation skills contributes significantly to your business success.
16. Dedication
For goals to be fulfilled in an organization, both leaders and employees must be committed to their jobs. When an organization has a committed leader the employees feel like they have someone they can trust which in turn builds their engagement level. A committed leader exhibits stewardship which is the requirement for great leadership.
17. Emotional Intelligence
Self-awareness is a crucial skill, and emotional intelligence is intimately linked to it. A leader who lacks self-awareness as a management competence may also lack the emotional intelligence needed to effectively lead his team. To help move their production line personnel to supervisory roles, more technological organizations should invest in management skills training that focuses on emotional intelligence. Being emotionally intelligent includes the capacity to sympathize with and listen to your peers and team member.
18. Direct Investment on People's Development
Organizations should include how to train people in their leadership skills training programs. While online leadership trainings and formal leadership skills trainings given by the training department are common investments for organizations, successful organizations are full of managers who do on-the-job training and mentor their staff. Employees feel more connected to their managers in this set-up and collaboration is encouraged, resulting in increased engagement and higher productivity.
19. Equality
Every manager has their own management style, but regardless of which one you use, you must treat each team member equally. It's critical to be completely fair when rewarding actions you want to encourage and offering criticism on behaviors you want to discourage. Managers treat team members as if they were children. They'll want to work hard for your praise, but you should treat everyone equally and never show preference. To maintain your integrity as a leader, you must be consistent in applying your chosen management style and leadership beliefs.
20. Organization
Setting goals, planning the execution, seeing the implementation through, and analyzing the outcome to discover areas for improvement are all part of organizational leadership. It also entails going back to the drawing board and creating fresh objectives. Even with all of today's technological improvements, managers may find the workplace to be stressful if it is not organized. This is why organizing skills should be high on your list of leadership qualities to master if you want to be a successful leader.
21. Meaningful Delegation
Delegating tasks means that you trust your team members to do more than what is expected of them. Effective leadership relies heavily on delegation. Delegation does not imply delegating duties to relieve your burden as a leader. Delegating effectively implies developing the leadership skills of people who have the capacity to lead in the future.
22. Self-Awareness
Effective leadership requires an understanding of both your full potential and the areas where you need to improve. Complacency or arrogance are two common leadership pitfalls. A leader must acknowledge that he still has a lot to learn. It is therefore his obligation to study these things and further build his leadership skills so that he and his organization can benefit.
23. Link personal values with organizational goals
Examine your personal and organizational values together. What are the parallels and differences? What changes do you need to make to your personal values to bring them in line with those of your company? The more your values are matched with those of your organization, the more comfortable your work life will be.
24. Positivity
A positive attitude can go a long way in an office. You should be able to laugh at yourself when something doesn't go quite as planned; this helps create a happy and healthy work environment, even during busy, stressful periods. If employees feel that they work in a positive environment, they will be more likely to want to be at work, and will therefore be more willing to put in the long hours when needed.
25. Change Management Skills
A leader needs to understand change management in order to lead an organization through the process. For example, change management requires the creation and communication of a compelling vision. It also requires the change to be driven forward firmly, and the drive to make it ‘stick’ if the organization is not to revert within a very short period.
Conclusion
The true secret of great leaders practicing habits is that they don't wait for the right time to practice, but use day to day usual opportunities to create a natural process of practice. When you create consistent habits - you become 1% better in your skills and this adds up daily to make you successful.
Vipasha Balani.
Digital Communication Associate
Watch this video "How to stay relevant with your skills in times of uncertainty?"