Whether you are in business for yourself or you manage a team of people for another company, you may eventually find yourself put into a leadership role. How you develop your mindset for leadership can make all the difference in succeeding as a leader.
There’s a reason people say it’s lonely at the top. When you become a leader you are faced with making decisions that affect the lives of others. You also may be responsible for an entire organization. This is no easy task. But you will be the one that is accountable for those decisions. So you need to develop the right frame of mind in order to be effective at the job.
One big attribute of a leader is to have a plan for success. This way, any decisions that are made can be compared against the plan to make sure they are in alignment. When you present your plan, you can defend your decisions by showing how they are matched up with the plan. This will make it easier to counter any arguments or concerns with your decisions.
Another attribute of a leader, one that is lost on many, is the ability to listen to the people that are following you. You need to know their concerns as well as their ideas. They are part of the process that can make your organization successful. By listening to what they have to say, it will make it much easier for them to want to follow you. This is not to say you have to do what they tell you. But you have to try to take what they say into consideration when you make decisions that affect them.
Do you want a subtle approach to leadership? Try doing what the former CEO of GE, Jack Welch did. He led by letting others in his organization lead. In other words, he gave them the authority and capital they needed to get their initiatives in place. During his tenure, the company expanded $265 billion and made over 600 acquisitions.
Everyone has their own style of leadership. Whatever style you adopt, it’s likely one that will evolve over time. You’ll try out some things that will work and adopt them. You will also try things that won’t work out and find it’s best to scrap them. Some leadership traits work with certain types of people and won’t be successful with others. The guidelines from this article can give you some starting points for your journey as a leader.