Mastering a skill can take years or as Malcolm Gladwell says, 10,000 hours. Leadership is a skill that can be taught and developed. Unfortunately, it is a difficult one to master and in many ways it really can’t be.
After years of research and personal experience, I have never been more convinced that leadership is a journey and not a destination.
Why is this so important?
Becoming a better leader is something that you are either improving upon or declining in. This is dependent on your current experiences and dedication to development. The natural question becomes, what are those things you can be doing to improve your leadership skills right now? Here are five ways to do just that:
Review the fundamentals of leadership
The best athletes in the world spend an uncomfortable amount of time rehearsing the fundamentals of their game. Take a professional golfer for example. If you walk down the driving range at any PGA Tour event, you will see the best players in the world working on the fundamentals of golf like grip, posture, and alignment.
Leadership is the same way, the fundamentals do not change and you have to constantly be reviewing and working on them to get better. Here are a few of my favorites:
- The quality of relationships matter
- People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision
- Trust is the ultimate human currency
- Standards set the tone
- Accountability is key
Create positive morning habits
A habit is something that is done so frequently it becomes a part of the very fabric of your being. Your morning routine is instrumental to how you approach each day. This can include exercising, praying, daily meditation, or prioritizing your day with a focus on shaping culture and improving your teams performance.
Too often people are letting their email, slack messages, text messages or their work environment shape the rest of their day. In turn, this affects how they lead their team. A leader is put on the defensive, reactive, and in problem solving mode causing them to act the opposite of how they should be.
Understand your strength and weaknesses
You may assume you know your strengths and weaknesses from a leadership perspective, but the reality is most people struggle with self-awareness. It’s also rare for you or anyone else to be in tune with the most important competencies required to be a great leader. These are things like empathy, coaching for performance, setting standards, positivity, trust, vulnerability, and delivering feedback . There are many leadership assessments out there such as our Welder Leader 360°, but find the one that you like the most and go to work.
Model the definition of leadership every day
The strongest leaders know at the core of leadership is serving and empowering other people. I have come to define leadership this way,
“Someone whose actions empower, inspire and serve others to produce an improved state over an extended period of time.”
In order to improve your leadership skills, knowing this definition is not enough. You must model it every single day. Last week on the Follow My Lead Podcast, Jason Lippert the CEO of LCI said it beautifully, “I am trying to encourage and inspire every leader in our company to serve their teams every day.”
With today’s busy and noisy world, what matters more than your words are your actions. Be intentional every single day and have a relentless focus on being a great example of leadership and modeling it for those on your team and for others.
Ask your team how you’re doing
In our research of over 23,000 leaders, the competency leaders struggle with most is asking their people for feedback about how they are doing. It constantly amazes me how many leaders simply do not ask their team for feedback about how they are doing as a leader. It is some of the lowest hanging fruit just waiting to be pulled from the tree. Why? Because a leader’s team thinks about and knows them well. What better people to ask how to improve?
Keep in mind, if you start to add these five things right now, that does not mean the results will show immediately. Leadership is a journey and not a destination so, be patient. Put in the work and I promise the results will come in due time.
A version of this article originally appeared on Inc.com.
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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a full-service organizational health company which exists to turn managers into leaders and create healthier places to work. John was named one of LinkedIn’s 2017 Top Voices in Management & Workplace and was awarded the 2017 Readership Award by Training Industry.com. John is also the host of the “Follow My Lead” Podcast, a show that transfers stories and best practices from today’s leaders to the leaders of tomorrow. He is also the author of FML: Standing Out and Being a Leader and the upcoming book “The Welder Leader.” You follow him on instagram @johngeades.
