Being thrust into a position of leadership can present numerous challenges and opportunities for the individual being promoted. On one hand, it can be quite difficult to navigate the labyrinthine process of planning, organising, and overseeing your team’s daily workloads, in addition to developing the sound judgement necessary to provide proper guidance to your subordinates. On the other hand, becoming a manager or a supervisor presents you with the chance to develop qualities that will allow you to make a positive impact on your team and organisation. These include your self-confidence, emotional intelligence, creativity, mentoring skills, problem-solving abilities, innovative thinking skills, and others.
If you are a newly minted leader in an Australian company or institution, you can expect to learn much of your leadership skills from actual on-the-job experiences. However, you would be well advised to likewise look into professional training to further develop the skills that you learn in real-world settings.
Business management courses in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and other major Australian cities are offered by Registered Training Organisations or RTOs. These institutions afford training and consultancy services that are in keeping with the stringent standards of the Australian Qualification Framework, ensuring that you are getting the return on investment that you deserve. By continuing to learn, you’ll be equipping yourself with the skills necessary to successfully manage high-impact projects, in addition to becoming a catalyst for transformative change within your organisation.
That being said, learning continues beyond the office and beyond professional training environments. This short guide will walk you through some great leadership tips that you can take into consideration as you try to develop your skills as a new manager.
Lead with empathy
The best leaders are emotionally intelligent individuals, leading with empathy and diplomacy, which allow them to become supremely attuned to their own feelings and the feelings of people around them. Whereas bad leaders tend to have proclivity for power-tripping, great leaders know how to positively influence, motivate, and manage their team. Empathy, however, should never translate to tolerance for poor performance. Instead, the best managers actively use their emotional energies to maneuver their people towards positive transformation.
Be assertive and self-confident
Not all newly minted leaders are assertive and self-confident right from the get go, but eventually those who become effective managers develop a level of self-assurance that enables them to defy challenges and lead their teams with conviction. Take note, however, that assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. Assertive leaders know how to voice their opinions and drive the point home while still being respectful to the people around them.
Know how to delegate instead of micromanaging
Poring over the details of every project unnecessarily can quickly drain a manager’s energy, as it is invested heavily towards ensuring that everyone is doing things the way they should be done. This not only erodes their own productivity but also their employee’s motivation and self-respect. Great managers do it differently by delegating tasks efficiently and trusting on their people to be responsible with the work assigned to them.
Develop the skills of your people
Scientific studies have consistently shown positive association between employee development and improvement in the performance of organizations. Effective leaders know this for a fact, and as such, they constantly strive to develop not just their own skills but also the strengths of their employees. Let the people around you feel that you care about their growth and are interested in developing their potential.
Think outside the box, and take risks
“Ships are safe in a port but that’s now what ships are built for,” so goes the popular adage. Great managers are like ships in that they are made to set sail. They feel confident in leading initiatives and in taking a chance on new ventures, even if the results may be uncertain. This doesn’t mean that they are not calculating of the risks involved, however, since effective leaders usually are. It simply means that they are receptive to new ideas and are perceptive about the rewards that lie ahead.
Be accountable for when things don’t work out
Seasoned managers know how to take risks, but more importantly, they know how to take responsibility for the results of their actions. If things don’t go according to plan, a good leader will take the blame for the team’s failure but will likewise chart out a plan of action to find an effective solution to the challenge that has emerged.
These are just some of the admirable things that effective leaders do when they are charged with the responsibility to lead a group of people. Hopefully, this guide will serve you well as you go on your own individual journey towards developing a leadership style that is uniquely yours.