A great leader isn’t a great leader because they run their own company or department, nor are they great because they excelled in their industry early on in their career or employed a team that fulfills all the needs of the business. One needs to imbibe few habits of effective leadership to be successful and effective people leaders.
Effective leadership is the difference between a mediocre leader and a great one. Not only that, but strong leadership creates a strong workforce. John Quincy Adams, the sixth U.S. President, said, “When your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a true leader.”
Habits of effective leadership
Many habits distinguish average leaders from great ones; here are five of the most common habits of effective leadership.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) in leadership is essential as it is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others. People then use this to manage their behavior and communication.
In today’s world, leadership requires development through intentional practice and awareness, and the best leaders among us take time to invest in their own emotions and others. It also means they’ll follow the motto of “respond, don’t react” when it comes to business decisions.
Admit mistakes
Mistakes happen to all of us, and making one isn’t a sign of poor leadership.
A great leader will assess and analyze why the mistake happened. They’ll admit any errors or blunders, and their main focus will be working out what happened, what there is to learn from the experience and how it can be avoided in the future.
When you have a workplace full of strong relationships, even if mistakes are made, it leads to high employee engagement.
In fact, through learning from mistakes, leaders have the opportunity to build a more robust workforce.
Communication is the key
A big part of effective communication is active listening. If a leader can’t communicate well, their employees’ performance and understanding of the company will falter. When someone is talking to them, a great leader will be actively listening in communication and focus on what’s being said. They’ll follow up with questions and take on board the other person’s point of view. Just because they’re a leader, it doesn’t mean they’re always right.
Mindfulness techniques
Things inevitably go wrong at work, and many times, it’s unavoidable. A good leader creates their own self-care tools to deal with these situations calmly. This will vary from leader to leader, depending on their preferences.
When issues arise, they’ll reach for this dedicated “toolkit” to bring them back to what truly matters and decide how to move forward constructively. Mindfulness techniques will often occupy this toolkit when focusing on the present, rather than worrying about the past or the inevitable future.
But self-care techniques to stay calm can involve much more than that: frequent exercising, specific breathing techniques, making time for a work-life balance, a hobby that eases their mind, spending time with people they love, a yoga class or a dog walk to clear their head. Doing this is likely to put them in the right headspace to move forward effectively with a decision at work.
Planning
As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Great leaders know this well and would never risk their chances of success by ignoring the need to plan. This means they proactively plan and organize strategies before making and implementing decisions.
As well as planning for milestone events, they’re also able to take a step back from the day-to-day tasks to make sure that overall, the business is heading in the right direction to achieve growth and success.
