Think of owning an iPhone today without the success and failure of Steve Jobs with his own venture NeXT. It is in contrast to what we think of leaders, right? One person who leads Apple to what it is today by failing at what he was best for – creating new ventures and computers.
Leadership is often conceptualized as a measure of success and it is never attached to failure. But does the narrative truly justify the real deal with leadership? No! It is quite different from the narrative. We are taught in our schooling. We are always taught about Alexander the Great being a world conqueror and not about the near defeat he has to suffer at the banks of Jhelum.
When it comes to today’s dynamic workforce and human resources, leadership needs a dynamic approach and narrative too. So what should a leader be like?
Let us explore four leadership skills that can help anyone achieve successful workforce management.
1. Lead By Demonstration
Leadership begins at home. It is continuously replenished through self-discipline, dedication, and learning from others.
So when you want your workforce to know what they can do to maximize their productivity, you should be ready with your own productivity maximized.
Leaders lead by example and then compare their work with team members to show them how it’s done. But this often discourages them. So it is advisable to lead by demos instead of examples. Leading by example can often be seen as bragging or self-proclamation.
Here are some tricks that can help you cultivate the leading-by-demonstration habit:
- Use the Gamification theory for some tasks
- Be involved in those tasks as an active participant and demonstrate your productivity
- Encourage others by rewarding them
- Encourage more participation by providing certain incentives.
2. The Friendly Challenger
A leader can be a friendly challenger, pushing the team for more productivity through friendly competition. But it should not get too personal.
Invest your time in challenging yourself to achieve these four qualities:
Self-Discipline:
Nothing can be achieved without discipline. To keep your team around, or even be challenged, that is developed by you engaging in more self-discipline.
Purpose:
You should cultivate a purpose for which you want to improve in your life. Then you can build a vision on the basis of that purpose. Without purpose, there is no point in working hard.
Vision:
When you define your purpose, you should have a long-term vision: a destination or goal to target.
Values:
Once you have the vision to go forward, you should build this approach on core values to add meaning to your efforts.
This friendly challenge can have greater results, and the same qualities can be cultivated into your team’s DNA.
3. Cool Motivator
Lack of self-motivation is a common problem. To promote self-motivation, you need to be a motivator yourself. Being the cool motivator is not easy.
If you think of the future, most of the workforce by the end of 2030 will be millennials. Considering the workforce will be from different demographics and regions, they will clearly have different approaches to work.
The most common attributes of today’s and future workforce will be:
Flexibility:
With the gig economy on the rise, flexibility of work and time has become a priority. More people are working from home. And the concept of remote workstations needs acknowledgment from leaders.
Growth:
Everyone wants growth, so leaders should provide opportunities for their team members.
Trust:
Trust needs nurturing as it does not build easily. As a leader, you should be able to cultivate trust among your workforce and yourself.
Communication:
The most important attribute of workforce management is effective communication through several channels. But you should choose the channel they are most comfortable with and never force communication.
As today’s workforce is more connected, motivating them through the same channel can work like magic.
4. The Not-So-Boss Type
Today’s workforce doesn’t act positively in response to a bossy attitude. This is where most leaders can lose their leverage. Leaders are starting to understand this. But they are unable to decipher the exact way of communicating with their team.
There are some key tips to develop a not so bossy leadership:
- Establish a rapport with your workforce so they can give feedback and constructive criticism
- Never get too close to a team member, as that can cause a conflict of interest.
- To cultivate an open structure among the workforce, plan trips and outings
- Empathize with them on their failures and personal issues to make them more comfortable
- Promote their success to higher management and encourage them
- Show them their mistakes and faults in private discussions to allow their self-respect to be kept intact
Conclusion
The thing about leadership is that it is natural for some but takes years of practice for others. One thing that we can all agree on is a leader is not just who takes credit for success but is capable of taking responsibility for a fall.
Until and unless you don’t see a failure, you will never taste the true success of leadership – and that goes for life too.
Related Articles
What Factors into Successful Leaders?
If you have ideas about successful leaders that might be helpful to readers, share them in the comments section below. Thanks!
Would you like to contribute a post?
