How to Revolutionize Your Leadership Skills

As a leader, there’s a constant pressure to ensure your leadership approach stays up-to-date. Every year, the culture of the office deviates slightly from the year prior and the way that individuals want to learn and be led, shifts. Sometimes these changes are drastic, and other times they are slight. No matter the degree of change, it’s imperative that you are cognizant of the shift and are prepared to be a great resource to everyone who looks to you for guidance and mentorship. 

Below are three ways to help ensure you stay relevant and revolutionize your skills to be applicable to even the newest additions on your team. 

1. Don't Forget the Basics

All too often, when leaders encounter a new scenario, they believe it necessitates a new solution. In these situations, taking it back to the basics is always the best place to start. There are four essential skills of being an effective leader:

1. Inspiring and Motivating Others
2. Displaying High Integrity and Honesty
3. Problem Solving and Analysis
4. Driving for Results 

It may seem counterintuitive to incorporate what has worked in the past to revolutionize your leadership, but if you have strayed from the basics, you’re going to have a tough time connecting with your newest subordinates. Once a foundation of these skills has been established, you can begin to fine tune your new style and approach.

2. Understand Who You Are Leading

Take millennials for example. Chances are, for the past decade or so, your team has been adding members of the millennial generation. Endless research has been done on this group and you’ve probably heard or read about a lot of it. The first step to truly understanding them as a group, is understanding what’s true and what’s not. There are too many myths that circulate about millennials that can distort how they are perceived. Millennials are often thought to be lazy, unmotivated, and anti-authoritarian. These views aren’t necessarily true in every instance, but they are perceived when millennials are examined by those who haven’t taken the time to understand what excites and motivates this generation, and what leadership-style they best respond to.

3. Never Stop Learning and Spread the Desire for Knowledge

As you explore how to best lead your team, continue to train and develop your skills and approach. A great way to do this is by asking questions of yourself. These questions will hopefully lead to improvements of your shortcomings and explorations of your successes.

Just as you want your team to stay relevant and up-to-date on the latest industry trends, you should master your responsibilities. By reading research, learning emerging techniques, and attending appropriate seminars and conferences on leadership, you will begin to cultivate an environment that respects knowledge and intellectual advancement. These traits not only reflect well on you, but they will help your team to grow as a unit. 

We at Sandler understand the dynamic of a constantly morphing workplace. With the growth of the multigenerational environment we all work in, it’s important now more than ever to revolutionize your leadership skills. By taking it back to the basics, learning more about your team’s priorities and motivations, and continuing your quest for learning, you can make sure you don’t fall behind in this rapidly changing landscape.

Interested in Sandler Training? Contact us today.