28 Mar 4 ways to strengthen your leadership skills at work
Leadership skills are necessary for maneuvering today’s corporate landscape.
Are you ready to tap into your natural leadership abilities and focus on self-improvement? Are you looking to gain more fulfillment and success in your job by brushing up on your skills?
Start by implementing these four understated yet critically important areas of understanding.
Understand your Accountability Type
Are you the coerce and compel or the wait and see? The way you hold yourself accountable plays a big role in how you hold your people accountable as well.
For example, if you are the wait and see type, you put a lot of trust in others and are very supportive of others – but you expect their support in return.
This is different than the coerce and compel type, who tends to be more inclined to fly solo, take initiative and are hyper-focused on a task – sometimes to the extreme.
Each of these has a place in the work environment and in the leadership environment, but it is important for you to understand each and leverage the characteristics of each as you train your new leaders and take on leadership roles yourself.
Know your personality type
Researchers have recognized that there are four main personality types.
Each one has its own distinctive characteristics, and is defined by certain ways of acting and reacting; certain things that act as motivators, strengths and weaknesses; specific fears, and definitions surrounding how it allows us to show up best for ourselves, others and as part of a team.
For example, a dominant personality-type individual cares only about the end goal, not the steps to get there – they are results driven, not process focused.
This contrasts with an influential individual who cares about the steps of the process on the road to success.
Understanding your personality, allows you to better understand how to lead them, and how to improve yourself as a leader.
Leadership skills require knowing your strengths
Not so long ago, jobs focused on “strengths and weaknesses. Individuals were encouraged to spend their time fixing their weakness as opposed to building their strength.
This is no longer the case.
Furthermore, with access to technology, teamwork and a collaborative work culture are encouraged. Now there is no reason why you can’t continue to cultivate your strengths and leverage them from a leadership perspective.
Doing this can also lead to you to being able to help and mentor others.
When your employees and team members see that this, they will have a lot more regard for you as a leader, and your leadership skills will continue to reflect this as a result.
Understand the Strength of Others
It is important to understand our own strengths and have the ability to develop them. Similarly, being a great leader is having the ability to recognize the strengths that others possess as well.
This allows you to motivate and push people. It also enables you to include them with you on your development journey as you both are elevated to new levels of greatness.
Learn to sharpen your ability to recognize and capitalize on the strengths of others. (even when they don’t recognize the strength themselves)
As a leader, practice asking for help in areas you aren’t strong in.
The process of leadership development for you and your team is a constantly evolving practice. Being aware of how to take advantage of these opportunities are some of the best ways to foster your leadership skills. Once you do, you’ll be primed for a new job, and we would be happy to help in your search!
