Times are changing, and so is the way your team works. The Plato Project co-founder Omar de Silva looks at how to go about leading, and provides some activities to help you become better at it.
Everything is moving and changing far more quickly than it has before. The past decade has seen unimaginable shifts in the way industries, the workforce and technology work. As a result, we need to tailor our approach to business leadership. Task management and delegation are becoming tools of the past, while a more human approach is taking its place.
If in 2018 you’re looking to drive a happier, more productive team, here are three simple things to consider in your leadership approach.
No longer can you have a my-way-or-the-highway-type mentality. As a leader, you should look to understand how your emotions and behaviors are affecting those around you, and adapt accordingly.
To help improve this, challenge yourself to this daily journal exercise:
List three things you did particularly well today as a leader. Be specific and think about particular moments throughout the day.
List three things you’d like to improve on tomorrow, using specific examples of when things didn’t go quite as planned.
List three adjectives you’d like to describe your leadership tomorrow.
Try your best to practice these improvements going forward.
People get a sense of whether or not you mean what you say as a leader, so set out to achieve your goals in a way that is consistent with your own values. Your team will recognise, and appreciate, the authenticity.
Here are three things to consider:
Your values: what are the guiding principles of how you want to lead?
Your purpose: what bigger things would you like to achieve, and how can your day-to-day contribute to this?
Your relationships: Are you working to build genuine, connected relationships with your people?
After you’ve found some time to articulate these things, craft a personal leadership statement against which you can compare your performance on a regular basis.
We’ve all been told time and time again you should treat others the way you would like to be treated. However, when it comes to maximizing the performance of your team, showing empathy and treating them the way they want to be treated can be the game-changer. This is because people differ in their sense of purpose, the way they work and what motivates them.
If you’re struggling with a certain individual, here are some questions to ask yourself:
What is their underlying sense of purpose and ambition?
What is the context they’re operating in and how is that guiding their behaviour?
How do they like to work and how can you harness that?
What are their values and where do they align with yours?
When you say something, what do they hear? Does this need to change?
Read More: The New Business School Teaching Balanced Success
The Plato Project offers business education programs that enable individuals to achieve meaningful success in the modern economy.
