6 Things to Do to Make Yourself a Better Leader

Being a leader can be a lot of pressure. Whether it is at work or in your personal life, having others look to you for guidance, inspiration, and direction is no small thing. Leadership can be weighty, but it also has its rewards. The greatest reward is helping others become better versions of themselves.

Life is a journey and no one is perfect. Even if you’re a good leader, there is always room for improvement. Consider the following ways that could help you become a better leader.

Mentor Others

Mentoring helps develop relationships and gives you as a leader an opportunity to help those you are mentoring improve. Fostering relationships is important, as it opens up others to accept constructive criticism and encouragement more readily.

Create a Team

Leading doesn’t have to be a solo gig. As a matter of fact, it shouldn’t be. Find others who can help contribute to your leadership style. They should have skills that complement your own, and they should be people you can trust. Their insight and feedback can prove to be invaluable.

Open Up

Letting others see who you are on a personal level will help them to see you as a person. Choose what you share carefully, but do share something on a regular basis. It’s okay if it’s just surface-level things. The whole point is to create a relationship.

Celebrate the Wins

Celebrating and acknowledging when something good happens is great for team-building and morale-boosting, especially in the workplace. If you’ve all worked for months on a project that is finally complete and successful, do something to celebrate. Order pizza or go out for lunch. Acknowledging the wins instead of taking them for granted can help others be willing to work longer and harder.

Model Desired Behavior

You can write handbooks and protocol as detailed as you want and post it in as many places as you want, but the bottom line is that if others don’t see you doing those things, they are less likely to do them. According to Bob Goldwater from Birth Injury Lawyers Group, whatever behavior you want to see in your employees should be directly reflected in your behavior. 

If you want your employees to be on time for work, be on time yourself. If you want them to dress a certain way, be sure you are dressing that way too. Forcing your employees to do things that you wouldn’t, or don’t, do yourself only causes hard feelings and rebellion when you aren’t around.

Accept Failure

Failure is never a pleasant thing to accept, however, chances are it is going to happen. Anyone who tries to do new things or test different projects will likely experience failure at one point or another. The key is to be willing to accept when things aren’t working well, and either make changes or move on to something else. Insisting on continuing with something that has no signs of success is bad for morale, and not to mention poor use of resources.

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