5 Essential Tips For Effective Leadership

Leading a company can sound like a dream job. After all, you have the freedom to follow your own

rules. But the truth is, it is difficult to be a strong leader. It is

hard to be effective while also inspiring your employees and

garnering respect. 

Here are a few tips to help you run a business in the best way

possible:

Don’t hide information from your employees

It always benefits to be transparent with your

employees. Your team will be able to tell if you’re hiding

information. Once your employees become uncertain or suspicious, they no longer trust

you, and the whole culture of work falls apart. 

Tony Scherba, President and Founder of Yeti, suggests letting your team know where they are

in terms of progress and creating a plan to move forward. It’s

important to keep individual employees aware of their status

as it relates to the group. 

This way, you will share your vision, which is at the center of

being a good leader.

Don’t forget to be human

It’s easy to fall into the trap of avoiding showing emotion in the workplace at all costs. The truth is, showing emotion humanizes you in a way that connects you with your employees. There is already a lot of emotion in the

workplace, and unfortunately a lot of it is negative.

Sandy Geroux, Chief Entertainment Officer of

WOWplace, International, suggests getting to know your

employees better so that there is more positive emotion in the

workplace. 

You should also allow them to get to know you as well. Instead of

just asking people how they are, ask them about their families, hobbies or pets and share this

kind of information about yourself as well. Remember your employees’ names as well as the

names of their significant others or children.

 If your employees know you care about them, they will care more

about you too.

Know the difference between skill and motivation

There are two main reasons for underperformance, a gap in skills, or a lack of motivation among your employees. If the

problem is skill-based, you can easy solve this with training,

coaching and support. It is more difficult to fix a lack of

motivation.

You need to take the time and effort necessary to figure out what makes your employees

inspired and excited to work. Make sure your employees

understand the way that their work fits into the big picture. 

If there is something preventing your employees from doing the

best job that they can, it’s your job as a leader to find a solution to

this.

Be humble

An effective leader is someone who shares the spotlight and has

no problem giving credit when credit is due. To be an inspiring

leader, you need to commend your employees on a job well

done, and mention the ways that your employees are making the

company a better place. 

Contrary to popular belief, it takes more confidence to be

humble than to bask in glory. Employees and clients alike will

appreciate your humilit

Surround yourself with smart people

When you’re choosing qualified people for your team you should

be looking for people who are experts in their respective fields.

For that reason, many of your employees will be smarter than

you. This is okay; in fact it’s aplus. 

If you want to be a good leader, make sure to give these people

room to grow and innovate. If you allow your insecurity to get the better of you, you may create a

team of people just like you.

While you may feel comfortable in this situation, it is not the best

setup for progress. Instead of doing what makes you

comfortable, do what challenges you to create the best work

possible.

Being a leader comes with its own unique set of challenges. To be an

effective leader, make sure you connect with your team and remain down to Earth. If you

follow these tips, you are likely to reach your company’s goals while

gaining the respect of your employees.