So what makes for strong leadership? When we think about what leadership is all about, often we consider personalities who are larger than life, strong opinions, loudly spoken and lots more. Many of us may feel that we would never either be capable of, or in some respects even wish to be like that. However, how many of us would think of strong leadership in the terms of the opposite personality types (e.g. considerate, thoughtful, quietly spoken). It may interest you to know that many strong leaders within business are successful because their approach, at least at times, falls into what others might perceive as being the total opposite of what being a strong effective leader is all about.
In part, being an effective leader is all about ensuring that your team and your business are performing at its highest level. And here is where some larger than life; never admit they are wrong; showing weakness is a weakness, leaders totally miss the point. They are more interested in maintaining their own stature of self-importance than they are in embracing the knowledge, the skills and the ideas they have within their team. The more you create an environment for open and free constructive thinking within your business, the more you and your business are likely to benefit going forward. There are lots of approaches you can take to support you in this respect and here I am going to touch upon one for you to consider.
As I was so often told in my early working life; you have two ears and one mouth – use them in that proportion. This is so true, and no matter who you are, or what level you are operating at, for goodness sake, speak less and listen more. Now some may think that they are already good listeners and I am sure that they are in some environments. But ask yourself truthfully – do you spend most of the day ordering people about or do you spend time asking the right questions, in the right way and listening to the answers? Open your mind to the thought that even the most junior, inexperienced person in your team can have the most brilliant of ideas. Give everyone the opportunity to have a positive impact on your business and speak their mind. In doing so, yes at times you might have to hear things that may not be comfortable, achievable or desirable. In these instances it is so important to have the skill to move on in such a way that your team still feels that the next time they have an idea they can put it forward without fear of being set upon or humiliated. People that feel that no one listens to their ideas just eventually shut up and stop contributing. The risks associated with this and the potential for missed opportunities are certainly not helpful towards having a successful business. In a business many of our best ideas may originate not from the leader, but from their team. As leaders, however, we need the ability to recognise when something proposed makes a huge amount of sense and is worth proceeding with. Then of course, the leader needs to drive the idea forward from conception through to reality. In doing so they use their experience and skills, and those of the whole team, in order to get it right and deliver the desired result.
Conversely just as everyone has the potential to come up with a good idea or a brilliant plan, everyone also has the ability to get things wrong or take a decision that could have a negative impact. That potential risk doesn’t just apply to those under our leadership, but it also very much applies to ourselves as leaders. It is therefore extremely important to have a team around you who aren’t afraid to tell you when they think you are wrong, or about to make a mistake, or indeed have already made an error and some backtracking is required. Don’t be so sure about your own abilities whereby you have a team around you who are afraid to give you constructive negative feedback. Many minds are far more powerful than one. Provided it is all for the benefit of the business such an approach could very well be a huge positive in terms of actual decisions made, in terms of team morale and also in developing the decision making ability of key members within your team (tomorrow’s leaders perhaps!).
